It's the Law! [Proper 25A - Matthew 22:34-46]
The Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson
Matthew 22:34-46
It’s the Law
All Saints, Hoosick
Jesus had 613 laws to choose from. That is a lot of options, more overwhelming
than even the cereal aisle. And he was
on the spot, once again, being tested and interrogated, once again, by folks
who were not friendly to his mission.
Those 613 laws are packed into just four books of the Bible,
books two through five: Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. 248 of those laws are positive commandments
(Thou shalts…) and 365 (one for each day of the year) are negative or
restrictive (Thou shalt nots…). The
Pharisees asked Jesus to choose just one; of the 613 laws which law is the
greatest?
Jesus could have chosen any, even one of the more peculiar
laws; that might have been entertaining; Deuteronomy has some interesting ones. There is the one about not wearing clothes
made of wool and linen woven together; there is the one about not plowing a
field with a donkey and ox yoked together; there is one that forbids boiling a
young goat in its mother’s milk. There
is a fun one about eating your fill of your neighbor’s grapes as long as you do
not put them in a container – well, maybe not so fun for your neighbor. Speaking of eating, do not even think about
enjoying shrimps, crabs, scallops, or whales. There are some building codes,
like the one that says you have to put a rail on your roof so no one falls off
your house and dies. And let’s just say,
you did not want your parents to think you were a bad son back then. Also, being a woman was pretty rough.
In addition to the quirkier laws, Jesus also had some
greatest hits to consider. The Ten
Commandments were all up for grabs. He
could have chosen one of them.
Ultimately Jesus did not choose a dietary restriction or a
ritual note. He did not choose Levirate
marriage or one of the fifteen laws that explicitly govern oxen. He did not choose something off the Top Ten
list. Also, he did not choose one; he
chose two and yoked them together – like two oxen, not like an ox and a donkey.
This creative response should not be entirely surprising at
this point. For weeks in the lectionary,
we have been eavesdropping on Jesus’ conversations with his religious
opponents. Folks are trying to trick and
test by asking Jesus some complex questions.
And Jesus never exactly answers the question – at least not in the form
or format his questioners expect. So,
they ask for one; Jesus gives them two greatests. 1+1=1.
Because in the mind and heart of Jesus, you cannot have one
without the other. And the other 611 do
not make sense without this one. Jesus
reminds his hearers that the entire Law and the complete canon of the prophets
hang on this one word. And that word is:
Love.
For Jesus love was the key.
It was the lens through which to view, not only the Law, not only the
Scriptures, but the entire world. When
love is the source of a word or at the root of an action or is the heart of a
life, then the result cannot be evil or sinful. Because God is love and love is
the greatest commandment.
St. Augustine once preached, "Once and for all, then, a
short command is given to you: Love, and do what you will. Whether you hold
your peace, through love hold your peace; whether you cry out, through love cry
out; whether you correct, through love correct; whether you spare, through love
spare: let the root of love be within, of this root can nothing spring but what
is good."[1]
In boiling down the law of God to this one word, Jesus makes
living life both simpler and harder. It
would be easier to avoid shellfish. If
that was the greatest commandment, the law on which all laws relied, folks
could eat chicken and salmon and call it a day.
If it was the grape thing, just don’t even bring a container to your
neighbor’s vineyard. No temptation; no
problem.
But love is far less clear.
Sometimes people go through the motions of love without loving. Sometimes people excuse their own abusive and
manipulative behaviors in the name of love.
Sometimes folks slap a heart on a card and call it love.
But throughout Matthew’s Gospel Jesus demonstrated the true
nature of love. And that love is costly;
that love is deep. Love is not an
emotion but an unwavering commitment – to God and to those made in God’s
image. True love is salvation.
In chapter five of this Gospel, Jesus commands his followers
to love not only their friends and family members, but also their enemies and
persecutors. In chapter nine, Jesus
prioritizes human relationships above religious rituals and social conventions
because love is the reason. In chapter
25, Jesus measures love in one’s willingness to love the least of these: the
hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the unclothed, the sick, and the imprisoned. And again equates love of others with love
for him.
For Jesus, love is not easy, but it is essential. Love is the shape of his coming kingdom. And that shape is a cross.
The love that Jesus models for us is costly, and sacrificial,
and limitless. And it is even
transgressive when it needs to be.
Because love is the point. Love
is the goal.
Former Presiding Bishop Michael Curry says it well: “If it is
not about love, it is not about God.”[2] Love is the greatest commandment. And Jesus said that. And so we must measure everything in our life
by the lens of love. Nothing matters
more. If our theologies are not teaching
us to love, then they are insufficient.
If our ideologies are not helping us love, then they are broken. If our allegiances are drawing us away from
the love of God, we need to realign. If
our attitudes are separating us from our neighbors, we need to remember what
God said in Genesis: “it is not good for a human to be alone.” God made us to love – to love God and to love
each other. Love is the greatest
commandment. Everything hangs on
it.
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