Reflection: "The Greatest Commandment"In earlier verses of Matthew 22, Jesus was having a testing time in Jerusalem, just prior to his crucifixion.
The religious leaders had heard about Jesus and his popularity with the people, and they were worried that he might be trying to usurp their authority and that would put them out of a very lucrative business. They plotted various ways to get him out of their hair, including killing him, but they were afraid that he was too popular with the people, who, if they killed him, may revolt against them. Instead, they devised a plan to discredit him in front of the people, hoping that would be enough for him to leave Jerusalem and go back to his little town of Nazareth, with his tail between his legs - never to be heard of again. The Pharisees and Herodians had asked Jesus whether it was right to pay taxes to the Romans and then they went on to ask him about whether people could be raised from the dead. In that instance, they were talking about a specific Jewish belief that all people who died, just went to sleep until the time that the Messiah came, when they would be raised from that state of sleep and live forever in Heaven. But the answer Jesus gave, talked about his own resurrection by saying that God (ie. Jesus) was the God of the living, not of the dead. In the last part of today’s reading from Matthew 22, Jesus even turns the tables on the Pharisees, who were the ones who were supposed to know everything about the law and the scriptures, by asking them who they thought the Christ (the Messiah) was the son of? They answered “David”, because it was written that the Messiah would come from the house and line of David. He reminded them that even David had called the Christ “LORD”, so how could it be that the Messiah was his son? That stumped them and so they stropped asking him questions - and decided to go to plan B, which, as we all know, was to get the Romans to kill him for them – leaving no blood on their hands! During his discourse with the religious leaders and the people, Jesus cites Deuteronomy 6:5, part of one of the most important passages of the Old Testament, which demands that we love God with our whole being. He also cites Leviticus 19:18, which requires that we also love our neighbour. To Jesus, the whole of the Scriptures can be reduced to these two precepts. Jesus reminds his listeners – and that includes us – that of all the 10 commandments, the greatest and first one is: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” And the second-most important one is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” Can you actually recite all 10 commandments? I’m not sure I can, if put on the spot! In summary, they are: 1) you shall have no other gods before me 2) you shall not make idols 3) you shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God 4) observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy 5) honour your father and your mother 6) you shall not murder 7) neither shall you commit adultery 8) neither shall you steal 9) neither shall you bear false witness against your neighbour 10) neither shall you covet, or desire, your neighbour’s possessions Well, I think most of us can do the first part that Jesus talked about, pretty well. You know, the bit about loving God, but we usually slip a bit on the “with all your heart and with all your soul” part. However, I think most of us are trying to make a go of that bit, too. But it’s in the second one that we fall down on most of the time. You know, the “love your neighbour as yourself” part. I don’t know about you, but I find it pretty easy to love my family, both blood and church relations, and I can make allowances for their little foibles and, gracefully, say that I forgive them when they annoy me. After all, I probably annoy them a lot more! But what about for those outside of our closest relationships. What about the hungry, the thirsty, the strangers, those with no clothes to wear, the sick, the criminals. Do you remember reading about them in Matthew 25? Do we love them, or even think about them very often? When was the last time we went out of our way to help those less fortunate than ourselves. Let me give you a couple of small examples: At our home church in Turramurra, as opposed to our adopted families here in Lane Cove, or at Forbes, the congregation have signed up with UnitingWorld to partner with the church in North India, assisting them in educating the locals about the dangers of slave traders. What’s that you say - slave traders? Didn’t William Wilberforce and his cronies abolish slavery over 100 years ago? Well, they may have, but it’s now a bigger business than it ever was. It’s reported to have had over $30 BILLION US dollars in revenue last year. Their tactics these days are different to the ones used in African slavery in the 1800’s. Now, young children are lured away from their families by the promise of a job in a faraway city or country and the prospect of sending money home to those impoverished ones left behind. The victims are mostly from poor areas, where they are surviving on about $1 per day, usually earned by doing a long day of manual labour. When you consider that $2 per day is considered the poverty line, you can see that these people are desperate. People from far north India, neighbouring Nepal and similar areas, are in high demand because of their fair skin. The unscrupulous slave traders, who just see them as another commodity to buy and sell, give their parents some money and promise to find them a job, often as a domestic help, somewhere down south. They usually end up in a brothel, often in another country, without their passports and are told that they have to work to repay the debt. The church in North India knows that it’s almost impossible to police the slavers, because they have a lot of money and the officials are poor and can easily be can be corrupted. Instead, the church plans to put their efforts into schooling the young and educating their families about the dangers of accepting job offers from the slave traders. Turramurra is now assisting them in a number of ways, including prayer, the raising of funds and even sending teams of volunteers on short-term mission trips to work with the church in North India. It may seem like a drop in the ocean to some, but to a young child, who’s saved from a life of misery, it’s everything. We also need to educate western cultures, because they’re the ones who are often the customers. It comes down to simple Keynesian economics. If the demand dries up (meaning we don’t utilise slaves here), so does the business and the need to supply young people is, therefore, also reduced. I’d encourage you to think about what you, individually, or we, as a church community, can do to love our neighbours, fellow humans, more, thereby make God pleased with our understanding of his commandments to us. Peace and blessings…………Pastor Rick
1 Comment
LENA BERYL BLOK
31/10/2023 07:39:29 pm
Thank you, Rick for the very challenging message.
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