Love, part 1

 

In writing his Gospel, or presentation of the life of Jesus, Matthew wants us to know three things:

that Jesus is the Son of David, that is, the rightful heir to the kingdom established by God’s;

that Jesus is the new Moses, or law-giver, the one who instructs us in how to live, how to be fully human;

and that Jesus is the Messiah, the one sent by God to deliver his people from evil.

The first of these claims puts Jesus in conflict with the Sadducees, the keepers of the temple, built on the site chosen by David, built by his son Solomon; rebuilt and vastly expanded under the current ruling dynasty, Herod the Great and his heir Herod Antipas.

The second of these claims puts Jesus in conflict with the Pharisees, who considered themselves to be the guardians and interpreters of torah, of divine instruction.

The third of these claims puts Jesus in conflict with pretty much anybody—including his own disciples—whose vision of the Messiah, drawn from certain biblical texts, was of a warrior who would lead a victorious uprising against the Romans; because Jesus’ vision of Messiah, drawn from different biblical texts, was of a servant who would embrace the suffering of God’s people in his own body, and transform it.

Eventually an uneasy coalition will form around Jesus as common threat to various interests.

In Matthew 22.34-46, the Pharisees confront Jesus, and Jesus challenges the Pharisees.

One of them, an expert in torah, asks Jesus which commandment in the law is the greatest? It is a trap, coming from a party who hold the whole of the law as one. It echoes an account much earlier in the Gospel, where satan—the accuser, the legal prosecutor—tests Jesus’ understanding of torah, as proof of his identity as Son of David, who ate the bread that symbolised God’s presence; as new Moses, who confronted Pharaoh with dramatic signs and wonders; and as Messiah, exercising divine judgment over the surrounding nations who have oppressed Israel.

But rather than extract a commandment in such a way as to diminish the rest, Jesus summarises the whole divine instruction—both through torah and through the prophets as those repeatedly sent by God to call the people to return to covenant faithfulness—in one statement of faith:

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.”

Everything else is commentary on this.

Jesus is citing a statement of faith known as the shema, from ‘hear,’ or take note, be careful to observe. It opens, ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.’ It begins with the singularity of God; from which our life flows and to which our lives are rightly ordered towards, or returned.

It is interesting that Matthew begins with the Pharisees hearing, in relation to what Jesus has done—but not taking note rightly.

The shema itself, found in Deuteronomy (that is, the second telling of the Law, to a subsequent generation) calls the people to love God with all their heart, all their soul, and all their might. Jesus tweaks it, exchanging ‘might’—literally, a statement meaning ‘exceedingly,’ so not so much a third category as an intensification—for ‘mind.’ Why? By Jesus’ time, and in contrast to the time of Moses, Hebrew thought had long been in dialogue with Greek thought, with its particular understanding of the mind as the means by which we make a step-by-step process from the abstract to the concrete.

Jesus goes on to say that the second telling of this command—the ‘another way to put it is this’—is “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” This is actually quite funny, because here he is quoting Leviticus, which is part of the first telling of the Law...so, he summarises the Law from the second telling, and then tells it a second time from the first telling. I will grant you that isn’t laugh-so-hard-you-wet-your-pants funny, but it is the kind of clever funny Jesus employs a lot.

Anyway...

This three-fold love reflects the nature of God revealed in creation (Genesis 1-2)

which comes into being, according to God’s desire, or heart (‘Let there be...And it was so.’);

with God’s Spirit, or life-breath or soul, hovering over the deep, and, later, shared with human beings, transforming a scoop of moist earth rescued from the chaos of waters into a living creature;

and with God’s ongoing assessment (‘And God saw that it was good...And God saw that it was very good.’) and reassessment (‘It is not good for the human to be alone...’).

Matthew presents Jesus as Son of David, the one whom God identified as a man after his own heart (1 Samuel 13);

as the new Moses, to whom God gave divine spirit/breath, and from whom God took part of that spirit and gave it to seventy others to share the load with him (Numbers 11);

and as the Messiah, who lays aside immutability to take on flesh, and accepts the wounding of technology so that love may be revealed in weakness and suffering transformed into glory (Isaiah 53).

The audacious claim is that, as we gaze upon Jesus, as we hear him, we are transformed into the fully-human and one-with-God kind of person who loves God with all our heart and all our soul and all our mind, and loves our neighbour as ourself.

The casual glance or distracted ear will not suffice. We must behold him, who is all in all.

Matthew 22.34-46

‘When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. ‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ 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.” This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’

‘Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question: ‘What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?’ They said to him, ‘The son of David.’ He said to them, ‘How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying,

“The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet’”? If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?’ No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.