The Greatest Commandment

Jesus was deeply knowledgeable of Jewish Scriptures, interpreted them like a scholar, and when they were being misunderstood, he was even willing to clarify their meaning. This alone made him dangerous to the religious leaders, as he did not ally himself with either the Sadducees or the Pharisees and often called out their scribes.

These seven verses are plucked out of the middle of a debate series between Jesus and the defenders of the Law. Jesus had just told the Sadducees, “You are mistaken, because you don’t know the Scriptures or the power of God” (Matt 22:29 CSB). Rousing words for any Biblical scholar to hear!

When the Pharisees heard that he (Jesus) had silenced the Sadducees, they came together. (Matt 22:35-36 CSB)

I bet they did! Having just seen Jesus silence the Sadducees, the Pharisees designed a trap and brought it to Jesus ready to spring. Clearly, they didn’t learn well from observation but needed their own moment of divine correction. No doubt, they thought there was nothing in the Law that could turn on them. They were the Law men, after all!

And one of them, an expert in the law, asked a question to test him: ³⁶ “Teacher, which command in the law is the greatest?” (Matt 22:35-36 CSB)

The Pharisees hope that Jesus will choose and lose. Whatever commandment he chooses, they think, Jesus will offend someone and give them reason to condemn him. Over the past 400 years of silence from God, the Rabbis have not been silent. Their pens have been scratching scroll after scroll of laws and bylaws to add to the law of God. 613 laws, to be precise. How could Jesus choose just one law? Some Rabbis held that even putting the 613 in a list was a sin, as they should not be ordered from least to greatest.[i] Which law would Jesus choose?

Jesus answers with a singular standout passage of Scripture known to the simple and the scholarly alike. The Shema. A daily recitation that rolled off the tongue of every Hebrew twice a day from childhood until old age, written on their gates, doorposts, and in little boxes on the heads and hands of those who could afford such luxuries.

³⁷ He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. ³⁸ This is the greatest and most important command. ³⁹ The second is like it: Love your neighbour as yourself.” (Matt 22:27-39 CSB)

Jesus intentionally deviates from their question. He gives two laws with one point. Two laws that embrace each other like the yin and the yang. Love God. Love People. Their core teaching – their daily cry to God – the Shema introduces the second greatest command in the Torah: “Love your neighbour as yourself; I am the Lord” (Leviticus 19:18b). Love begets love. Within Jesus’ answer is tucked a clear rebuke. Since you were children, God has called you to love Him and love your neighbour. How are you going with that?!

… one cannot love God without loving what God loves! One cannot love God and oppress or exclude any of God’s creatures—even one’s enemies. While the scribes and Pharisees used the law to place severe limits on those whom they were obliged to recognise as their neighbours, Jesus joins these texts in order to smash all the limits and boundaries of neighbourliness.[ii]

The trap has been reversed and sprung all at once. The Pharisees are now in the fishbowl gaze of the people. Every day they proudly hold up the Law and exert judgement and condemnation not just on the Romans or Samaritans but on their very own sons, daughters, mothers and fathers – their neighbours in Israel. Without saying it, Jesus said it. You can’t even show love, and you want to talk about the law?

⁴⁰ All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.” (Matt 22:40 CSB)

They wrote 600 more laws while the very foundation of love was missing from their lives. Now it’s the Pharisees’ turn to slink away in silence.

When Jesus does something interpretive with scripture, the rule he sets can be trusted and applied eternally without fear. In verse 40, Jesus declares that we only need two hangers on which to hang our entire spiritual wardrobe. Love God. Love People. All of the Law and the Prophets, the entirety of the scriptures, hang on these two commands.

Even when the religious leaders tried to trap Jesus, He gave them words to live by. The audience that day took Jesus’ words home with them. They saw Scripture with new eyes and examined their behaviour with new hearts.

But Jesus didn’t come to Earth merely to clean up our understanding of Scripture. He came to clear up our picture of God and to reconnect us to Him. God is Love. The Shema shows this. Unfortunately, human nature gets in the way of God’s pure love and turns it into 613 laws, shouting prophets and ranting rabbis. But not Jesus. He pulls back the curtain and lets God out of the box.

This scripture speaks today as it did then. With Jesus as our interpretive lens, we can ask ourselves, “How am I loving God today? How am I loving people?” And as we apply these questions to our lives, we further the reach of Jesus in the world. We become beacons of his love, changing the world one relationship at a time as he called us to all along. God is love. Love God. Love people.

[i] Keck, Leander E. New Interpreter’s Bible: Abingdon Press

[ii] Beach-Verhey, Tim. “Theological Perspective on Matthew 22:34–46.” In Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary: Year A, edited by David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, Vol. 4. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011.