An old rabbi was teaching two of his brightest students. The students ask, "How do we know that the night is over and the dawn is coming?' The rabbi replies, "What do you think?" The first student says, "When it is light enough to tell the difference between a dog and a sheep." The old rabbi shakes his head, 'No." The second student says, "When you can distinguish between a grape vine and a sycamore tree?” The old man shakes his head again. Finally, after they petition him again and again, he says, "It is when you can look into the face of a stranger and see a member of your own family. At that moment it is the dawn that is coming." In our text today Jesus reminds us that love of God and love of neighbor are intimately related. Jesus even goes so far as to command this love of God and love of neighbor.
The expert in the law comes to Jesus and asks, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus doesn’t even need time to think about it. He replies with the greatest commandment, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” But Jesus, does not stop there he continues, “The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” These commandments may seem familiar to us or they may not. However, they are also found in the Old Testament in Deuteronomy and Leviticus. The Old Testament includes 613 laws. Yet, Jesus picks these two commandments and pairs them together in order to form the greatest commandment.
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” So what does it mean to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind? It means that we love God with our entire being. It means making no division in our lives between what is sacred and what is secular. It means loving God everyday of the week, not just on Sunday mornings. In all that we do and with all that we have we are commanded to love God. Love God with all your heart, which is the center of your feelings. Love God with all your soul, which is your spirit. Love God with all your mind, which is your thought, understanding, and imagination. Love God with every ounce of your being.
We are also commanded to love our neighbor as ourselves. In first-century Jewish thought, “as yourself,” means “as though he or she were yourself” or as if you were in the same situation as your neighbor. This is a variation of Jesus’ Golden Rule, “Do to others as you would have them do to you,” which is similar to a saying of first century Rabbi Hillel, “What is hateful to yourself, do not do to your neighbor; this is the whole law, the rest is commentary.” In Leviticus the neighbor is primarily another Israelite, by the time of Jesus it included non-Jews. Today the neighbor may be as near as one’s spouse or family, or as distant as a homeless person huddled around a heating vent in the depth of winter, or someone on the other side of the world. Regardless of the other person’s location or situation in life we are commanded to love our neighbors. Love your neighbors as you would have them love you.
This makes me wonder who our neighbors are. I remember when I was growing up I never really thought I had any neighbors, except my Grandma, who lived next-door, literally steps away. She was the only person who lived really close to me, because I lived on a farm. My friends from school that lived in town had lots of neighbors, next-door neighbors on all sides of their houses. My next closest neighbors, the Ness family, lived about a quarter mile down the road, down one hill and up the other. They had three daughters, whom my brother and I often played with growing up, but that was about all I had for neighbors. Everyone else lived at least a mile away and to me that was not a neighbor. As I grew older I began to understand the concept of neighbors differently. Today I would like to introduce some of my neighbors to you.
I want you to meet my neighbor. His name is Gene. He lives in poverty near New Orleans. Before Hurricane Katrina he had very little and after the hurricane he had even less. He lost all his photos and personal mementos in the hurricane. When I along with some other college students helped him with his house (a house none of us would ever find livable), he gave us each a rose from his rose bush. It was the only thing he had to give. Gene is my neighbor. Who is your neighbor?
I want you to meet my neighbor. Her name is Sandra. She lives in a township in South Africa. She lives with her father, mother, and two brothers in a house that is the size of most master bedrooms in our country. She is in high school. Someday she would like to go to college and become a doctor so she could help others, but her family cannot afford a college education for her. Sandra is my neighbor. Who is your neighbor?
I want you to meet my neighbor. His name is Eduardo. He lives with his family at the bottom of a canyon in Guadalajara, Mexico. Everyday he walks up the canyon to go to school and then back down the canyon to go home. It is a very long walk. He speaks Spanish and I speak English, but we can still communicate. A smile is universal. Eduardo is my neighbor. Who is your neighbor?
I want you to meet my neighbor. Her name is Melinda. She is in her mid-thirties. She is a schoolteacher in Finland. Melinda visited the United States for three months as an exchange counselor. She and I spent a summer working together at a Bible Camp. I taught her about America and she taught me about Finland. Melinda is my neighbor. Who is your neighbor?
I have neighbors from all over the world, of every age, ethnicity, gender, economic class, and thought. Some of these neighbors I know well and others I do not know. When we, as Christians, reach out to such neighbors we become well-rounded people with a global mindset and a deeper understanding of the human condition. If we are always surrounded with people that look, speak, and think like us, when will we ever be challenged? So, Jesus challenges us with this text. Jesus commands us to love our neighbors. Not just the neighbors that live in our neighborhood. Not just the neighbors that we know. The point is that we love our neighbors, but the point is not that we choose our own neighborhood. The point that Jesus makes here is that we love our neighbors, regardless of what neighborhood they are in.
Jesus commands, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself.” Though this command is comprised of two commands, they cannot be separated. One commentary states, “Love of God cannot exist without love for all fellow human beings as its content. Love of humanity cannot exist without love of God as its basis.” If we really love God with our entire being we will love our neighbors. If we really love our neighbors we will love God.
Yet, this still seems like such a big task. It makes me wonder how we are supposed to love God and all of our neighbors. Unlike the English language, in the Greek language there is more than one word for love. The word that is used in this text is agape. One author explains agape love as “acting for the sake of the beloved, as doing good, as self-giving, and as selfless altruism.” Agape love does not involve a “personal fulfillment and a sense that the other has value worth appreciating.” Agape is the kind of love God has for humanity and all of creation. Agape is the love we are commanded to have for God and for our neighbors. This is a love that sees beyond the color of skin, the amount of money in the bank, and the neighborhood in which one lives. This is the love that Jesus commands: agape love of God and agape love of neighbor. Are we able to love God with all of our being and to love our neighbors—all of our neighbors, too? The ultimate test comes when we can look, with hearts and eyes of love, into the face of a stranger and see a member of our own family-God’s own family. Amen.
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