“The Law of Love”
You have heard it said that we are creatures of habit, but I have another one for you, we are also creatures of complexity. Oh sure, we like to think that we are simple people, but we know that we are not. We like to think that we live simple lives, but we know that we don’t. We are complex people. We have complex emotions, complex thoughts. We live complex lives. Work, health, home, family, relationships, and faith – all of these things are at times complex issues for us. All of these things are a constant reminder that as much as we want to be, we are not simple people. We are creatures of complexity.
The problem with being creatures
of complexity is that we often can feel like we are just going through the
motions, with no real control on life.
We juggle being a parent, a spouse, a student, and employee. We juggle work, school, homework, meetings,
and practices. Before we know it, our
desire for simplicity has once again turned into a life of complexity. From how we live our lives, to our
relationships with others, from who we are, to who we think we should be –
everything always has a way of becoming more complex for us.
For example, think about how
complex technology has become. Cars now
have computers and you need other computers to talk to your car to find out
what is wrong with it. Commerical and
military airplanes are now highly sophisticated, high performance feats of
engineering. And now you have to be a
rocket scientist to know how to program and set up your tv
and cell phone. Think about how much
more complex our world has become, with all the things we have to deal with as
human beings. We have to deal with
complex social and economic issues, just look at the ballot this Tuesday,
complex national security issues, complex
psychological and emotional issues.
Think about how much more complex our relationships have become. Single parent households,
multiple marriages, divorce, two working parents, and the ways in which are
children are influenced today.
The list goes on and on.
Even when we have the option of
keeping something simple, we end up making it more complex, sometimes more than
we can possibly manage or imagine. Can
it not be just a little simpler? Why
does everything have to be so complex?
Why do we have to be so complex?
Even when it comes to our own faith, we have the uncanny tendency to
make it complex. Like the Israelites
before us, we devise countless ways to understand it and live it out in our
lives. Our theological beliefs have
become complex issues of faith. Like the
Israelites before us, who could not be content with Ten Commandments but
instead needed 613 separate commandments to follow, we too sometimes make the
gospel be more complex than what it is.
For the scribe of the Pharisees
there was certainly a complex issue at stake.
The scribe certainly knew the scriptures and most importantly the laws
of God. He knew what was required of him
in order to remain faithful and obedient. He knew what was required of him to believe,
especially when it came to who God was.
But Jesus threw a monkey wrench
into the whole Jewish understanding of God and faith. Jesus proved that he was a student of
scripture, he knew them better than anyone else. He knew the laws and the commandments better
than any other religious leader. And
yet, there was something simple about him.
He seemed to be able to capture the essence and character of God and
faith and holiness without becoming mired in the complexity of a religious
system of beliefs and practices.
The scribe was intrigued. Maybe this Jesus is on to something,
something that the scribe seemed to be on to as well. Maybe the law is not as complex as Jewish
religious leaders had made it out to be.
Maybe behind the laws of God there is something that gets to the essence
and character of all of them combined.
Like the scribe, we too beg for an
answer. We, as much as the scribe, want
some kind of reassurance that we are doing the right thing, that we are
following God’s commandments, that we are faithful and obedient. We want to get to the heart of the gospel, to
the essence of what God desires and wills for our lives. We may be creatures of complexity, but we
long for simplicity. We want some
comfort and peace of mind that we are not just spinning our wheels trying to do
live up to everything we are supposed to do as Christians, and then not doing
any of it very well. So we stand with
the scribe waiting with eagerness for Jesus to give the answer that will free
us from living by the law to living in the law, the answer of the one greatest
commandment we are to follow, the one thing we can give our whole being
to.
But Jesus’ answer isn’t exactly
what we expected to hear. His answer is
no different than what we have already known.
Of course we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all
our soul, and with all our mind. Of course we are to love our neighbor as
ourself. This isn’t something new. It’s what we have heard over and over again
from the law and the prophets, from Jesus and the other New Testament
writers. “Come on now, Jesus, is there
something we have missed? It has to be
more complex than this. Can it really be
this simple? You know, Jesus, I’ve read
a lot in the Bible, from the Gospels, Paul’s letters, and the Old Testament,
and throughout all of it there are many commands and exhortations…
‘Do not make idols’, ‘repent’, ‘be
holy’,
‘sell all
your possessions’, ‘give to the poor’, ‘do not be afraid’,
‘feed the
people’, ‘live by faith’, ‘be humble’,
‘turn the
other check’, ‘do unto others’,
‘love
your enemies,’ ….
Surely there is just one law, one commandment that is the
greatest of all these.”
So what do we do now? Do we go away scratching our heads, wondering
what we have missed? Do we go from here
today, back out into the world, searching for the hidden meaning behind Jesus’
words, for the message between the lines?
Do we go back to our homes still trapped in our complexity, trapped by
the complexity of living by the laws and commandments, trapped by the
complexity of the requirements and prohibitions of God’s word? Or do we go from here today, not as creatures
of complexity, but as a new creation? Do
we take another look at what it means to live in God’s commandments, and see
them not as a hindrance to our freedom but as a source of our freedom?
Do we go from here today and live
in the good news of the gospel, that the law was given, not by a heavy handed
God, but by a loving and just God who calls us to love God with every ounce of
our being and to love our neighbor as ourselves? Do we go from here today with a new insight,
with a renewed and transformed understanding about what the law is really all
about, that the “whole law is about love, not rules, about really loving God
and one’s neighbor, not about figuring out how to avoid stepping on cracks in
the legal sidewalk?” (Long, Thomas. Matthew.
What a
remarkable and refreshing way to look at all the things we are to do as
Christians. Instead of being caught up
in the complexity of rules and regulations, making the law obligations and
requirements to follow, by the grace of Jesus Christ, we have been given a new
way to approach the law, as way of being, as a loving response to a loving God,
so that from this point on we might live not bound to regulations, but bound to
the law of love.
One of the most prominent reformed
theologians of the twentieth century was Karl Barth. Karl Barth was a man who dedicated his entire
working life to the pursuit of theological knowledge, a man on par with Martin
Luther and John Calvin, a man who wrote 10 volumes on theology called Church
Dogmatics, and let me tell you how complex that is. Yet, in spite of all that he knew and all
that he wrote about theology, when asked what was the most important truth he
had learned in his theological study, Karl Barth would answer, “Jesus loves me,
this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”
Brothers and sisters, it doesn’t get any simpler than that. Karl Barth knew one thing, the only thing he
needed to know, and the only thing we need to know, that Jesus loves us for the
Bible tells us so, and it is the love of God through Jesus Christ, which teaches
us what the law is really all about.
We all know that the word love has
been greatly misused and is a terribly complex issue for many of us in our
lives, therefore it is important to remember the Biblical understanding of what
love is. Love in the Bible is more than
just a sentimental, emotional feeling of affection and gratitude we may have,
when we consider all that God has done for us, love is a commitment, a
stubborn, unwavering commitment of us toward God.
Because God loves us with the same
stubborn, unwavering commitment, we too are to love God and love our neighbor
as ourselves. The love God has for us
teaches us how to love God in return, with our whole being, with all our heart,
soul, mind, and strength so that with everything we do and say, with everything
we are, we are committed to God fully and completely. The law of love is then the means by which we
demonstrate our love, our commitment, our stubborn, unwavering commitment to
God.
As Jesus says, this is the first
and greatest commandment, but lest we think that this is all we have to do,
Jesus reminds us of the second commandment which is rooted in the first, to
love our neighbor as ourselves, to love each other with the same stubborn,
unwavering commitment that we have toward God, and that God has toward them.
To love God is to love our neighbor, and to love our
neighbor is to love God. To follow God’s
law, then, is not an act of requirement; it is the act of
love. It is love which moves us toward
reconciliation and forgiveness. It is
love which allows us to confront the complex issues of our time. It is love which binds us together as a
people and as a family of faith. And it
is love which is to be the driving force behind our mission and ministry in the
world.
As you go through the doors of
this sanctuary, out into the world again, out into your complex lives, keep
this thought in your head at all times: the greatest commandment is to love, it is as simple as that. Let the law of love guide you in your lives
of faith, let it be the measure and standard by which you follow God’s
commandments in faithfulness and obedience, let it be the simple truth that you
know, and fruit of your faith. Amen.