Watch this space

And now to go back and read all of this in one hit and see what it says to me after that...

Matthew 28

The resurrection and the great commission

It's not related to the two commandments concept, but I do love the fact that after the most outstanding thing that God has ever done, being the resurrection of his Son, Jesus fronts up to the women who came to the tomb with a simple "G'day"... You can almost feel Jesus being so cheeky, and enjoying himself immensely as he shocks his disciples...

But back on topic: As we (finally!) start to draw this book to a close we hear Jesus encouraging, indeed commanding, us to take what we have learnt from him in his life and teach others... And clearly a big part of that is showing and teaching people how to love God and love others... Although I reckon that's something best taught through demonstration than exhortation, which indeed, was how Jesus taught it.

Matthew 27

The crucifixion.

When we think of someone who dedicates their lives to 'loving others', I know I kind of get this image that's half Mother Theresa, half Care-Bear... Warm, fuzzy, dedicated, and nothing to really dislike... Someone you'd always want around.

But combine this with someone who also dedicates their lives to 'loving God' and you get this image of a man on the cross, surrounded by crowds gleefully watching him die, the same people whom he most likely had just shown love to.

These passages show me how loving God and others can be a very solitary exercise sometimes. Poor Judas (who I really feel for - he was given the toughest job of all the disciples - something that had to be done - and his remorse for what he did overwhelmed him to death...) turns down his payment and dies alone and cursed. Pilate (who shows more sense and compassion than the crowd) is howled down and basically says 'bugger it - it's on your heads!', and Joseph quietly goes after the show's over to ask for Jesus' body for burial... Now perhaps not all of these people might be considered ideal 'loving' role models, but their actions in this passage seem to have aspects of loving in them - and they all enacted them in relative isolation...

Perhaps I'm drawing too many threads together here - But the message that loving God and others won't always make you popular and liked is pretty clear...

Matthew 26

Now that we're approaching the end, a lot is happening in each chapter. A couple of things speak to me here:

Jesus anointed at Bethany

While I'm sure there's a lot of other meaning in this passage and I don't want to have a skewed interpretation, it's an interesting story as from what we've come to know of Jesus in the previous chapters we'd almost expect him to say "no, sit down! let me anoint you", etc. etc... But instead he sits there and indulges somewhat. Now much of this is probably to do with his upcoming death, as he says himself. But there's a bit in there which speaks to me and says that it's ok to rest for a while - we don't always have to be 'on duty' and doing the most right, most loving thing. At times we can let others love us and not have to feel compelled to 'do better' by loving them more. Love is no contest...

Peter's denial.

I guess a simple one for me here - That denying our God, our faith and love and commitment to that truth, is a pretty severe act of not loving God... Forgiveable of course - Peter went on to lead the church - but one worth avoiding at all costs...

Matthew 25

The last of these three parables makes it abundantly clear Jesus' emphasis on loving others, especially those in need... So much so that in this parable he makes it a criteria for acceptance into the Kingdom of Heaven. Strong stuff. Although we should probably be careful not to let this become a 'faith by works' kind of thing, but the way I read it it seems that Christ is making an explicit assumption that if you consider yourself a follower of Christ, then loving others will be a natural consequence that flows out of that.

How many people do you know that say they love God and follow Christ, but then clearly demonstrate an unlovingness to those in need? I can name more than a few - indeed, much of Christianity is hijacked by an individualistic "God helps those who help themselves" mentality... I wonder how they get around these strong, clear words...

Matthew 24

End of the age stuff...

I never liked these passages - it all sounded a little too icky and fearful, and also confused me as on one hand Jesus is giving all these signs, but follows up by saying that he'll come when least expected. Go figure...

But one line stands out in terms of the great commandments here for me: (v12-14) Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

To me that's a great message, saying that even if/when the world turns to crap and people more than ever take a selfish path, the most faithful thing we can do is to continue to love, and that through that the gospel of the kingdom will reach the whole world...

Matthew 23

Jesus goes off....

...at an awful lot of people in this one...

In reading this I'm sure we can all think of a lot of Christian leaders who look an awful lot like the Pharisees: Making themselves look important, taking places of honour, drawing attention themselves, professing faith while living a life that doesn't reflect justice, mercy and love...

Interesting hearing Jesus essentially say of our leaders "Do as they say, but not as they do"..

How many of us could if in a position of leadership say to our followers "Do as I do...", especially in regards to how we love God and our neighbours?

Matthew 21-22

There's a few parables here (Two sons, tenants, wedding banquet) which primarily relate to Jesus' purpose and the audience for whom he came vs those that rejected him. But it also may have a point about who we focus our efforts to love on - Do we waste our time with those who scorn, ridicule or reject our offers or efforts? Perhaps so - Jesus' mission was too short to waste time on such people, perhaps our 70-odd years are too short as well, and our resources better spent elsewhere.

And then this passage brings us to Jesus talking about the great commandments, so here I might quote some commentary notes from biblegateway, which I think are quite apt:

Some Pharisees ask a question they had probably practiced before, since their own teachers debated among themselves which commandment was the greatest. Although all commandments were equally weighty in one sense, rabbis had to distinguish between "light" and "heavy" commandments in practice.

Jesus' view does not contrast dramatically with views held by his contemporaries. In the late first century Rabbi Akiba regarded love of neighbor in Leviticus 19:18 as the greatest commandment in the law; while this is not where Jesus ranks it, it is close. Other Jewish teachers also conjoined love of God with love of neighbor. Following the Jewish interpretive principle gezerah sawah, it was natural to link two commandments on the basis of the common opening Hebrew word we'ahabta ("you shall love").

Yet Jesus' combination of the two as the greatest commandments, which exercised an authoritative influence on subsequent Christian formulations (including Paul's frequent triad of virtues with love as the greatest-1 Cor 13:13), is distinctive. Amid the multiplicity of proposals concerning the greatest commandment in antiquity, only Jesus wielded the moral authority among his followers to focus their ethics so profoundly on a single theme. Thence comes the early Christian "law of love" (as in Rom 13:8-10; Gal 5:14; Jas 2:8; Jn 13:34-35).

The first passage Jesus cites in fact portrays the love of God as a summary of the law (Deut 6:1-7); one who loved God would fulfill the whole Torah (Deut 5:29). This passage about loving God was the central and best-known text of Judaism, the Shema (Sema`). Likewise, the command to love one's neighbor as oneself (Lev 19:18; compare Lev 19:34; Mt 5:43; Rom 13:9) expresses a general principle, though its original context applied it to a more specific situation. As in 7:12, Matthew reminds us that these commandments epitomize all the commandments in the Bible.

If left to ourselves, we tend to grasp for power rather than seeking to serve, and this can apply even to the ways we interpret the Bible. In contrast to some modern readings, Jesus here assumes rather than commands self-love. Thus he elsewhere emphasizes that true love for neighbor is demonstrated beyond one's own circle of favored people (5:43-47; Lk 10:29-37); some texts in Scripture even warn us against self-centered love (2 Tim 3:2; Paul here warns against selfishness, however, rather than advocating masochism or self-punishment, which is also self-centered). But while Scripture summons us to love that is other-directed, it also assumes that all of us-including Christians-need other people's love. Perhaps as we Christians learn to love and affirm one another better (for example, Prov 12:18; 16:24; Eph 4:29), especially the most wounded and vulnerable among us, we will not require as much talk about self-love. Until we learn to behave that biblically, however, it is difficult to blame broken people who desperately try to affirm themselves when no one else will.

I've bolded that bit because it reassures me on this whole exercise to read the gospels with this framework in mind....

Matthew 19

The Rich Young Man

I like this for a number of reasons... although as a relatively 'rich, young man' myself, it presents more than a few challenges...

For a start, Jesus' "choice pick" of the key commandments are all ones relating to our impact on others - in other words - commandments which if breached would demonstrate a lack of love towards our neighbour.

It's odd how the young man had kept these (kudos!) but still felt unworthy somehow, and asked what more he had to do... Maybe he thought loving others was too simple an answer...

So Jesus gives him a harder task, to sell everything and give it to the poor... That seems a bit harsh, but then Jesus does say to do so would be "...to be perfect... ". I'm not sure if Jesus expects us to be perfect - but perhaps the challenge is for us to try and be. He knows we won't make it, but as long as we're trying and grappling and struggling with trying to be, it won't matter... So we shouldn't be too hard on ourselves when we fail in loving God and others, but perservering nonetheless.

"trying to be"... I think I like that phrase...

Matthew 18

becoming like little children...

Jesus uses a child as an example of the greatest in the kingdom of heaven here - which makes me sit back and think (with the benefit now of watching our toddler on a daily basis) what, from my experience, young children teach me about loving...

- That loving is obvious and unguarded - they wear their hearts on their sleeves very much... When she loves something or someone she shows it then and there, and without reservation. Be it a parent, her new brother, or her favourite toy...

- That forgiveness is unconditional and endless - Even when she's scolded and told off, or refused something which she sees as the most important thing in the world, within 2 minutes she's having a cuddle - she might still be sobbing, but she's not holding a grudge at all.

- Anybody is a potential friend...

- That loving others should be the default setting of the world - She acts in the belief that everybody in the world will show love to her, because that is all she's known - One day that will unfortunately be proved otherwise, but for now she believes it and sees the world operating in that way... which it should.

I'll have to watch her more tonight and see what else I can find...

Matthew 17

Mustard seed faith...

Not a lot that's speaking to me specifically to this theme in these couple of chapters - But what has stood out is the passage of the healing of a boy with a demon, and Jesus rebuking his disciples for not having enough faith. (Jesus seems a bit irritable here!)

I hadn't really sat backed and noticed before, but Jesus says that all you need is a tiny amount of faith to do miraculous things - and I think we can safely say no one has more faith than Jesus - yet instead of throwing mountains into the sea and making the world aware of his power and mission that way, he chooses to spend his few years of ministry before his death helping the poor, sick and marginalised...

Kinda miraculous in itself...

Matthew 15

Clean & unclean

Jesus certainly isn't afraid of offending people... He offends the Pharisees because of their refusal to let love precedent over tradition, and he offends a woman in need (well, calling someone a dog is hardly a compliment in any language!) to make a point and possibly test her faith...

Does that mean that we can love someone and maintain the possibility of offending them?

I find these passages interesting when Jesus is 'convinced' to do something by someone, despite his initial decision...

Matthew 14 (aka John 6)

Matthew 14: The feeding of the five thousand.

This one was part of a children's talk I heard at church the other week, and it was a remarkably different and refreshing reading of it... For in describing this story to the kids, the reader made lots of interesting points about how strange it was that the young boy had so much food for lunch, and how everybody else out there in the middle of nowhere appeared to have forgotten theirs... And then went on to talk about the culture at the time, which was one of sharing and hospitality.

And in doing this, while accepting that this story is one of a miracle of multiplication, also alluded that it might also be a miracle of sharing, as others shared what they had to feed those around them. (I loved the point he raised that if nobody else had brought food, where did all the spare baskets that the food was collected up in come from!?)

I've normally shyed away from less 'miraculous' interpretations of this story, but hearing it read this way showed me that sharing is in many ways no less miraculous, and more importantly, a way of us living out the great commandments...

If we want God to do miracles, then I guess it's our responsibility as well to us to create our own through determined acts of love our neighbours... The idea of sharing in the responsibility of creating a miracle with God is pretty nifty, I must admit... And it's good that it doesn't let us off the hook as we wait for God to provide for our neighbours, when we have the means and resources to do that ourselves.

Matthew 13

Lots of parables

I normally love parables and analogies, but I'm not sure what to take from all of these kingdom parables in regards to loving God/others...

The parable of the sower, if anything, says something - although I hesitate to interpret it this way given that Jesus does explain it differently - but I do perceive a message there that in loving others we can anticipate that not everybody will react positively... and that's no reason to stop, for there will still be plenty of seeds falling on fertile ground.

Matthew 11 & 12

Jesus and John the Baptist, etc.

I've put these together as they're saying similar things to me - the somewhat obvious yet surprisingly overlooked point that if you're going to call yourself a Christian, as in one who follows Christ and his commandments, you'd better be displaying those attributes in your daily behaviour, and the primary of these being the command to love God and others.

I like how in Matthew 11, when John's followers approach Jesus to ask him what he's on about, he simply directs them to report to John his actions and words. It's almost as if he's saying "Look at what I'm doing and saying, and that will tell you who I am" Great concept...

And in Matthew 12 he emphasises this point himself by talking about a tree and its fruit, and notably referring to both actions and words as the 'fruit' of a particular tree.

So if we're not speaking or acting in accordance with the commandment to love God and others, can we call ourselves followers of Christ?

If someone asked me/you what we believed, and we replied by saying "Just look at what I do and say", what would they go away with thinking about us? Well, for me, I just hope they'd catch me on a good day! Creeds and statements of faith and such all seem secondary.

"I am what I do/say"... that's a bit scary that...

Matthew 10

Jesus sends out the twelve

When I talk/think to myself about trying above all else to love God and my neighbours, it's hard to shake this image of a naive, gullible, easily stepped on bunny who wanders around doing nice things but getting abused and ridiculed by all... Just think of Ned Flanders...

That's why this passage is kind of refreshing, as in sending out the twelve to live out the great commandments, he gives some remarkably pragmatic, savvy advice... "be as shrewd as snakes and innocent as doves"... "be on your guard against men"... and so on. So in saying that we live our lives with an aim to love, we shouldn't need to feel that that is an invitation that says "I'm stupid - make use of me..." but more about being discerning about where our efforts to love will make a difference, and not wasting our time and resources with people who reject it.

On the flipside, and towards the end of this passage specifically, that raises questions for me which I'm thinking over today about what it means to love when (1) we will have to 'shake the dust off of our feet' from some people, which may be seen as 'unloving', and (2) especially when Jesus says that he has come to bring a sword, not peace. I guess a message of love will, ironically, always be rejected by some and cause division amongst others, so we need to be pragmatic in working out how to handle that in a loving way, so that our message and our means don't contravene each other... Jesus sure has made it tricky though!

Matthew 9

Jesus Heals a Paralytic, etc...

Very similar sorts of stories to Matthew 8 here... so the same sorts of things apply. But an interesting distinction is that we're hearing a lot more about 'sin' here, with Jesus forgiving sins and dining with sinners...

This raises the question of what loving others who might be 'sinners' is all about.. Some might say that calling them sinners and demanding they repent of the sins we see in them to be an act of love. Strangely, Jesus doesn't do that. The only person he calls a sinner here, the paralytic, is a bit odd - as today we know that being paralysed has nothing to do with sin - I remember somewhere someone saying that Jesus probably said that for the sake of those around him, and to build the esteem of this individual who had probably felt the burden of some unknown sin all his life... That kind of makes sense.

Jesus hung out with sinners and didn't spend all the time demanding they change - I guess he knew that by loving them, and through loving God and in doing so showing them how, would allow God to make that judgement and those changes. An act of faith that probably a lot of us don't have... Jesus takes care of the physical afflictions, and lets his Father deal with the sin side of things. Neat delegation!

Matthew 8

As I think about trying to live a life with a focus on loving God and loving others, one of the barriers in our culture, which the early part of this passage brings to my mind, is that in many ways it’s hard to know exactly what people need… We live very private lives, don't ask for help, and don't want to show our weaknesses to others.

In this passage we see lots of people approaching Jesus and asking for his help with their sufferings. But in our culture so often suffering is a hidden thing, or at least knowing the best way to help someone. I guess in the small town of his time and with his reputation, Jesus had a big ‘help me’ bullseye painted on his chest… Which makes me wonder what the modern, big-town equivalent of that would be.. Do we need to walk around with a badge that says "Ask me!"?

And while I’m not expecting us all to be performing supernatural miracles in helping people, I think these passages doclearly indicate, with the connection between the loving of others and the miracles performed, that it is impossible to love others fully, without loving Godfirst… It’s almost as if the degree to which we love God directly impacts on how much we are able to love others (at least, that’s what the centurion’s story says to me this time).

But of course it’s a wake up call to see that in doing all of this, even with loving God 100%, it’s not guaranteed smooth sailing – but it’s about rough seas and hard pillows sometimes.

Matthew 5-8

Sermon on the Mount.

I’ve bundled the next three chapters together since they’re pretty much covering the same thing.

I’d never really noticed before just how odd these few chapters are. I really do hope that the writer of Matthew has pulled together a whole bunch of sporadic teachings into this one passage, otherwise Jesus is really all over the place! From murder, to divorce, to fasting, to prayer, to judging, and so on… It’s really a bit too much to take in, and hardly what you'd call a 'focussed' sermon!

You can see why Jesus wanted to bring the commandments down to the two – Otherwise we could spend an awful amount of time and energy trying to keep track of and obey these ‘micro-commandments’. And when you go through all of these, you can see how all of these can be tracked back to the two great commandments to love God and love others…

And if you think of these passages as most likely separate sporadic sayings then you can see how that would work, as Jesus applied those basic commandments to the different situations and contexts he found himself in throughout his ministry.

It's funny how we as people seem to find be more comfortable, the 'smaller' the commandments get. Maybe because that means we have less thinking to do... But when you think of Jesus' ministry of bringing freedom to God's people, it's odd that we have a tendency to choose to put ourselves under the control of a myriad micro-commandments.

Matthew 4

The Temptation of Jesus, Jesus Begins to Preach, The Calling of the First Disciples, and Jesus Heals the Sick.

It’s the last few verses which speak to the two commandments for me…

“Jesus went…teaching…preaching…and healing… News about him spread all over…and people brought to him all who were ill…and he healed them.”

When we look at the main parts of Jesus’ ministry we see three main areas as described here: teaching, preaching, and healing. All good, important things to be involved in, as the life of Jesus demonstrates to us.

But when we see what people follow Jesus for, it’s for one thing only: healing. It doesn’t say that they came for his inspirational teaching or great sermons, but just for what they could do for him – Heal their physical and mental sufferings.

So while the teaching and preaching are important, the things that help us to understand and love God and equip us to love others, it’s the physical actions of loving our neighbours (especially in their sufferings) that will initially draw people to us and Jesus… Sorts of make you question evangelism which focuses on preaching the good news rather than just doing what it asks of us.

Matthew 3

John the Baptist prepares the Way, and the Baptism of Jesus.

I think this one says a lot more about loving God than loving your neighbour...

That loving God involves things such as repentance, as we can safely assume we haven't all loved our God or our neighbours fully, and the seeking of righteousness (whatever that means in the real world!)

"Produce fruit in keeping with repentance".. Is this saying something like if we repent our existing sins to God he will help us to produce fruit (ie. love our neighbours)? Encouraging if so...

Also encouraging is God's statement of love for his Son in the last verse... As I look at what it means to love our neighbours I know there's a real risk of slipping into a 'faith by works' mentality as we try to earn God's love through our love to others - But even before Jesus had started his perfect work God said he loved him and was pleased with him.

It's nice that God loves and is pleased with me...

Matthew 2

The Visit of the Magi, The Escape to Egypt, and the Return to Nazareth.

It's a bit difficult to see if this historical narrative says much about what it means to love God and love your neighbour, but a couple of tenuous threads perhaps:

One of the things I know I'm going to find hard to deal with is how the two commandments relate to conflict - war, politics, social justice, and so on... Until everyone embraces such a philosophy these things will continue. So it's interesting to see how Joseph and his family were told to deal with the conflict with Herod - They left and avoided it until Herod died! As a person who hates conflict myself, I like that approach! I know that probably won't work with all situations, but it's nice to see that avoiding a source of conflict is a good solution sometimes.

Herod's genocide also reminds me of one of the motivating factors for me in doing all of this, in that as a father for the last couple of years the suffering of children has become almost unbearable to witness when it's presented to me... All suffering is abhorrent, but children suffering just can't be allowed to continue...

Matthew 1

The Genealogy of Jesus and the Birth of Jesus Christ

"She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."

Save his people from their sins.. Sin which causes suffering of God's people.

That always immediately conjures up the image of the Cross as Christ is presented as a sacrifice for our sins. The Lamb that takes away the sin of the world... No doubt.

But do the two commandments present salvation in a different way, in that through loving God and loving others, if embraced fully, would save people from sinning... Especially if we lived in a world where we knew that all of our neighbors embraced that same philosophy, and so we would never be in need and never have to suffer, or cause suffering ourselves.

Is salvation from sins not only a passive acceptance of God's sacrifice, but an active life choice to no longer sin - Not an arduous approach of "these are all the things I must not do", but a positive embracement of a two commandment philosophy in all that we did and said...

Introduction

Over the past few weeks, events, observations, and words of others have come together and after a lot of thinking and talking out loud (which could also be called prayer!) I've been strongly impressed to seek out two things:

A faith which is simple and clear, and in being so provides an answer to chaos.

A faith which can put an end to suffering.

No small task... But the start of my task in this I believe is to go back to the source, and read the Gospels once more. But this time, coming at it with, at the front of my mind, the two greatest and clearest and undeniable commandments God has given us:

To love God

And to love your neighbour


This blog will basically be my journalling of this as I, chapter by chapter, read through the Gospels and see what this reading creates, and what sort of sense such an interpretation might make. I'm separating this out from my regular breathing-space website so as to avoid confusion or diversion.

I invite you to join me in this journey, and contribute along the way...