The Pastor’s Page
July News Letter
As a pastor, people sometimes come to me with deep theological questions like, “Will my dog go to heaven?” A recent one that came up at a Bible study was, “When we die, do our souls go immediately to heaven, or are our bodies resurrected when Jesus returns?” I love to discuss such questions. One of my favorites is, “Where did God come from?” They don’t get any bigger than that!
Jesus once had a really big theological question thrown at him. A lawyer asked him, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” (Matthew 22:36). That’s a doozy! This question was put to Jesus by the Pharisees in order to test him, to denounce him as a false prophet if he answered wrongly.
The first thing you need to realize is that this was not just a question about the 10 Commandments. The Law of Moses—which Jews call the Torah—contains a total of 613 commandments that God gave to Moses on Mt. Sinai. Most Christians have enough trouble just remembering the first ten, let alone following them. Many Christian don’t realize there are 603 others!
The Pharisees prided themselves on their ability to obey all of the Torah. They were puffed up with self-righteousness. And it’s likely that pride was a big motive in their attempts to trip up Jesus on his knowledge of the Torah. It was a game of one-upmanship. But Jesus refused to be drawn into their game. “You already know the answer to your question,” is what he basically says in response. Jesus simply recites words that were known by heart by every Jew, words they repeated every day before they prayed: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matt. 22:37). Then Jesus adds a corollary, also well known by all: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” We know the latter as the “golden rule”— Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Jesus was not being original here. He was citing the very core of the Jewish religion. That is why he then adds: “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” The Bible of Jesus’ day consisted of two parts: the Law (or Torah) and the Prophets, which were all the other books. The Jews had a two-part Bible, just as we Christians have the Old Testament and New Testament. Jesus is basically saying that these two commandments sum up the entire Bible.
Jesus responded to a seemingly complicated question with a very simple answer. Sometimes our big religious questions have answers that are simpler than we want to admit! At a teachers’ conference, a question was put to a distinguished professor of education who was leading a seminar for classroom teachers: “What is the most important quality for a classroom teacher to possess?” The participants likely expected the professor to respond with an in-depth answer like, “There’s a whole host of characteristics that are essential for effective teachers—personality traits, intellectual skills, classroom management skills, a conscientious work ethic, etc.” But the professor simply responded, “Love your students,” and sat down. This is essentially what Jesus did. Jesus said: Love God. Love your neighbor. End of discussion.
To be fair to Jesus’ critics, note well that they didn’t ask, “What is the most important belief?” What they asked was, “What is the most important commandment?” The Pharisees were good Jews who knew that religion is more than just a matter of believing a set of dogmas. Religion is the way that we love God by living lives that God wants by doing what God loves. That’s what Jesus emphasizes in his response: Act. Do. Love. Love God; love neighbor.
Remember what Jesus said to his first disciples when he called them? “Follow me!” Jesus didn’t say, “Believe the following six things about me,” or “Follow these ten truths.” In the Gospels, Jesus calls people to go on a journey with him, not attend a seminar about him. Jesus was a prophet who was always on the move, constantly drawing people into his mission. He was not a professor lecturing a classroom full of passive spectators.
Even on the few occasions when Jesus does mention belief, he isn’t talking about a rigorous set of intellectual propositions. Rather, he is talking about an engaging and costly relationship. “Believe in me,” he says. Not, “Believe these assertions about me,” but rather “Walk with me, be engaged with me.” The New Testament portrays the disciples not as students of Jesus, but as pilgrims following Jesus on a long and arduous path, and often having a hard time keeping up. The first disciples were not those who had proper theological beliefs about Jesus, but rather those who had the guts to get into the boat and sail with him even when they didn’t completely understand him.
Today, Christians are often guilty of making Christianity overly complex when it’s really very simple. Both Christianity and Judaism (and Islam as well) answer the question, “What does God want from us?” with a very simple answer: To love God with everything we’ve got, and to love our neighbor as we would want to be loved.
The whole reason for coming to church is to gain skills and insights, and the courage and conviction to follow Jesus by following God’s two great commandments: Love God; love your neighbor. That’s the entire teaching of the Bible summed up in five simple words. Christianity is nothing more than following Jesus by living according to God’s two great commandments.
Jesus once had a really big theological question thrown at him. A lawyer asked him, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” (Matthew 22:36). That’s a doozy! This question was put to Jesus by the Pharisees in order to test him, to denounce him as a false prophet if he answered wrongly.
The first thing you need to realize is that this was not just a question about the 10 Commandments. The Law of Moses—which Jews call the Torah—contains a total of 613 commandments that God gave to Moses on Mt. Sinai. Most Christians have enough trouble just remembering the first ten, let alone following them. Many Christian don’t realize there are 603 others!
The Pharisees prided themselves on their ability to obey all of the Torah. They were puffed up with self-righteousness. And it’s likely that pride was a big motive in their attempts to trip up Jesus on his knowledge of the Torah. It was a game of one-upmanship. But Jesus refused to be drawn into their game. “You already know the answer to your question,” is what he basically says in response. Jesus simply recites words that were known by heart by every Jew, words they repeated every day before they prayed: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matt. 22:37). Then Jesus adds a corollary, also well known by all: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” We know the latter as the “golden rule”— Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Jesus was not being original here. He was citing the very core of the Jewish religion. That is why he then adds: “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” The Bible of Jesus’ day consisted of two parts: the Law (or Torah) and the Prophets, which were all the other books. The Jews had a two-part Bible, just as we Christians have the Old Testament and New Testament. Jesus is basically saying that these two commandments sum up the entire Bible.
Jesus responded to a seemingly complicated question with a very simple answer. Sometimes our big religious questions have answers that are simpler than we want to admit! At a teachers’ conference, a question was put to a distinguished professor of education who was leading a seminar for classroom teachers: “What is the most important quality for a classroom teacher to possess?” The participants likely expected the professor to respond with an in-depth answer like, “There’s a whole host of characteristics that are essential for effective teachers—personality traits, intellectual skills, classroom management skills, a conscientious work ethic, etc.” But the professor simply responded, “Love your students,” and sat down. This is essentially what Jesus did. Jesus said: Love God. Love your neighbor. End of discussion.
To be fair to Jesus’ critics, note well that they didn’t ask, “What is the most important belief?” What they asked was, “What is the most important commandment?” The Pharisees were good Jews who knew that religion is more than just a matter of believing a set of dogmas. Religion is the way that we love God by living lives that God wants by doing what God loves. That’s what Jesus emphasizes in his response: Act. Do. Love. Love God; love neighbor.
Remember what Jesus said to his first disciples when he called them? “Follow me!” Jesus didn’t say, “Believe the following six things about me,” or “Follow these ten truths.” In the Gospels, Jesus calls people to go on a journey with him, not attend a seminar about him. Jesus was a prophet who was always on the move, constantly drawing people into his mission. He was not a professor lecturing a classroom full of passive spectators.
Even on the few occasions when Jesus does mention belief, he isn’t talking about a rigorous set of intellectual propositions. Rather, he is talking about an engaging and costly relationship. “Believe in me,” he says. Not, “Believe these assertions about me,” but rather “Walk with me, be engaged with me.” The New Testament portrays the disciples not as students of Jesus, but as pilgrims following Jesus on a long and arduous path, and often having a hard time keeping up. The first disciples were not those who had proper theological beliefs about Jesus, but rather those who had the guts to get into the boat and sail with him even when they didn’t completely understand him.
Today, Christians are often guilty of making Christianity overly complex when it’s really very simple. Both Christianity and Judaism (and Islam as well) answer the question, “What does God want from us?” with a very simple answer: To love God with everything we’ve got, and to love our neighbor as we would want to be loved.
The whole reason for coming to church is to gain skills and insights, and the courage and conviction to follow Jesus by following God’s two great commandments: Love God; love your neighbor. That’s the entire teaching of the Bible summed up in five simple words. Christianity is nothing more than following Jesus by living according to God’s two great commandments.
