A Lenten Reading of Matthew - Day Thirty-One

Scripture Reading: Matthew 22:23-46 (NRSVUE)

We see Jesus as a Rabbi, engaging Pharisees and Sadducees with his own interpretation of the scriptures.  This would have been normative for rabbis to converse about and was not as contentious as when they are trying to catch Jesus in a trap.

He explains the resurrection to Sadducees who deny it.  They seek to show the absurdity of the resurrection with regards to the Law where a woman is bound to bear a son for her deceased husband's line with the brother of her dead spouse. This is all about lineage and property rights and Jesus informs them that we won't have these kinds of concerns in heaven.

Then later, Jesus seeks to show that the Messiah could come from any line - not necessarily the line of David - and that the Messiah would be mightier than David.  Of course, we know about the coming resurrection that the Sadducees were trying to debunk.  By turning back death, Jesus will be mightier than David.

Maybe the Beatles were on to something

In the midst of this, we find the lens that Jesus uses to interpret scripture.  He names the greatest commandments as loving God with all our being and loving our neighbors as we love ourselves.  If there is any mistaking his importance for this, Jesus declares, "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."  The twin loves of God and neighbor are the ways in which we interpret the rest of scripture.  I saw a cartoon of David Hayward's that has Jesus stating to some of his modern followers, "The difference between you and me is you use scripture to determine what love means and I use love to determine what scripture means."

Mark contains this lens as well.  In his version, Jesus states, "There is no other commandment greater than these." (Mark 12:31b)

Luke also shares the greatest commandment with Jesus concluding, "Do this and you will live." (Luke 10:28b)

Luke follows this teaching with the parable of the Good Samaritan lest we seek to narrowly define our neighbors.

As we think about scripture, there are many times when some passages will trip us up.  How might you use these two commandments to interpret the tough passages?  How might they be a lens for decision-making for our own lives?  What if before we followed a course of action, we asked, "Does this increase my love of God or my love for my neighbor?"

Prayer for the Day:

God, help me to be more patient with you and with the people I encounter today.  May I be kind as an initial greeting and as a response to what I encounter.  Keep me from envy.  May I set boasting aside. Let arrogance and rudeness find little hold on how I present myself.  Help me to be open to the ideas of others and may I not find myself irritable when I follow their agenda.  Finally, lessen in me a need to keep score.  Let me rejoice in this truth of love today and always.  Amen.

Prayer based on 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 by Paul of Tarsus, 1st Century

Photo by Barb Watson via Flickr.com.  Used under the Creative Commons license.