A text – Matthew 22:34-46
34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35 and one of them, an expert in the law, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 37 He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
41 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question: 42 “What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” 43 He said to them, “How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying, 44 ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet” ’? 45 “If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?” 46 No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.
A reflection:
As I was preparing to write my reflection on this passage, especially concentrating on the first paragraph, I read a short piece by minister and public theologian Zina Jacque on the subject of this love Jesus says we are to have for God and for our neighbor. The Rev. Jacque writes, “Thomas Aquinas defined love as velle bonum alicui—to will the good of the other. Not to feel warmly toward the other. Not to tolerate the other. To actively, structurally, sacrificially orient your will toward the flourishing of another person. It is a definition that cuts through every sentimental misreading of the commandment. Love is not a feeling that comes and goes. It is a choice, made again and again, in the direction of someone else’s good.”
This love is love in action, no matter how we feel at the moment or fell about the person. To orient my stubborn will actively toward the flourishing of someone else – I can imagine that with regard to my daughter, my husband, my best friend maybe. It sounds like a description, however, of what the good Samaritan did for the helpless stranger on the road to Jericho.
I’m sure Jesus told many of his parables to illustrate the kind of love he was talking about – not the shallow but well-meant dropping of coins into a collection box or even writing a yearly check to the Salvation Army – really working intentionally to aid someone else’s flourishing. In agrarian places like North Dakota, actually plowing someone’s field for him, or cooking for a week to feed some woman’s family. In a way, such willful work toward someone’s flourishing is a living example of God’s bounty and overflowing love, love that comes not only from the heart but also the soul and mind and strength and is love for God showered upon other humans. These are the two great commandments.
Have you seen such love demonstrated? Might you take part in it? Not just haphazardly but with deep intention and even joy? How might we find a way to get even a taste of showing this love this week? I’m going to look for a way myself. And I invite you to do the same.
A prayer:
Lord God, thank you for loving us. Thank you for your bounty and abundance, showered upon us. Help us find a place in our circles to shower our energy and love toward the flourishing of a friend or neighbor or stranger this week and love you more as we do. Amen.
