| Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity, 2001
St. Matthew 22:34-40 The Great Commandment
Kids often think of Humpty Dumpty as a big fun guy who falls off the wall. In reality he was quite the cynic. His ridicule comes out in a conversation with Alice:
"I don't know what you mean by 'glory,'" Alice said.
Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. "of course you don't -- till I tell you. I meant 'there's a nice knock-down argument for you!'"
"But 'glory' doesn't mean a 'nice knock-down argument,'" Alice objected.
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less."
"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."
"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master -- that's all."
The question for us today, has to do with the meaning of the word love. Can we make it mean anything we want it to? Clearly we can't. When Jesus commands us to love God and our neighbor, the Bible defines the word. Love is defined by the example of Christ. The Christian idea of love is what we want to explore today. During stressful times like our country is facing now, it is helpful to focus on the basics. Reading now at Matthew 22:34.
(vv. 34-36) [Read them.] One of the features of Judaism during the time of Jesus is the intense rivalry between Pharisees and Sadducees. In the previous verses Jesus confounds the Sadducees over their rejection of the resurrection. This pleases the Pharisees who are sure of the resurrection. However one of the Pharisee lawyers decides to see if he can trip up the Lord with a hard question. So he approaches Jesus and asks, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" It doesn't sound like a hard question, but in Christ's day the answer was not at all obvious.
The rabbis at that time had 613 commandments, 248 of them were positive and 365 were negative. Of course, some commandments had to be more important than others, for there were cases in which different laws came into conflict. The Pharisees spent much time arguing over which were the major and minor laws. Some gave the greatest weight to the sacrificial laws, others thought the Sabbath regulations the most important, others extolled the precepts regarding circumcision. The Pharisees expected Jesus to pick from one of these three categories.
Jesus said to the lawyer: "You shall love the lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets" (Matthew 22:37-40).
What a surprise! No doubt the Pharisees were familiar with these two laws. Love is a common theme in the law and the prophets, but the Pharisees had never heard them grouped at the zenith of holiness. The first of Jesus' laws comes from Deuteronomy 6:4-5. The Jews repeated it frequently in a creed they called the Shema. The second law Jesus draws from Leviticus 19:18 where Moses commanded the people, "you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord." Consequently, Jesus was not inventing new laws, rather, He was taking average commandments from the Old Testament and elevating them to the highest rank. Like an umbrella, these two commandments comprehend and include "all the law and the prophets." The Savior thus gives a new prominence to the love mandates.
If Jesus, our King and Judge, is commanding us to love, we better know what kind of love He is talking about and how we can practice it. That is what we will delve into now.
An examination of Greek words can contribute to our study of Christian love. The New Testament uses at least four Greek words for it. Each word possesses a different shade of meaning, whereas English has just one word to express the entire gamut of senses.
A. The first word we need to know is eros. It is not found in the New Testament at all, but is nonetheless a conspicuous term in ancient Greek literature. Moreover, eros is what most people today have in mind when they think of love. Basically, eros is romantic love, sexual love. From eros we get the adjective "erotic." Eros is usually a drive for self-satisfaction. Though eros can degenerate into selfishness, it is not inherently bad. It can in fact be a beautiful thing. Romantic, sexual love within marriage is a joyful element, lofty and ennobling. When practiced in the context of marriage between a man and a woman it is excellent. However, eros love is not the unique Christian concept that Jesus establishes.
B. The second word for love is storge. This term means something like family love. It also is a superb idea. C.S. Lewis has some interesting comments on storge love. He says: "The image we must start with is that of a mother nursing a baby, a mother dog or cat with a basketful of puppies or kittens; all in a squeaking, muzzling heap together; purrings, lickings, baby-talk, milk, warmth, the smell of young life." This is the image of storge love. It is warm family affection.
Scripture reviles its opposite. The lack of family love, or astorge, the apostle Paul condemns twice (Romans 1:31; 2 Timothy 3:3). He tells us that one of the great sins of the ungodly is that they are "without natural affection." (King James Version) The New King James Version says they are "unloving." The Greek term is astorgas, a lack of love of parents for children, children for parents, husband for wife, and wife for husband. The apostle disapproves of this deficiency among family members.
No doubt, storge is an essential part of the world. Life would end without family love. The image of the family was picked up as a metaphor for the church, but the term storge was neglected by Christ. Why? Probably because kinfolk of the same bloodline can take one another for granted. There are good and bad aspects of storge. Family members can be taken advantage of, and treated hurtfully. Then there is a comfort zone in storge. Family love is so natural for most people, that it can become almost too easy, or too comfortable. Consequently, storge love never became the Christian ideal.
C. The third word for love is philia. It is similar to storge love. It means the love of friendship. It is the love of the walking partner, the friendship of the fishing buddy, the fellowship of motorcyclists. From philia we get the words philanthropy (love of humankind) and Philadelphia (a city of brotherly love). Philia friendship "is built on common insight or shared interest, something that friends have in common but that other people do not share" (C.S. Lewis). I think we all know what philia love is. It is the feeling between kids who play hide and seek, between women who enjoy knitting, it can be the camaraderie of men on a basketball team, or the clubbiness of the golf course. True, it is possible to live without any philia friends, but that would be a poor existence. Philia friendship is one of the spices of life.
So why didn't Jesus choose philia to express the idea of love? Perhaps philia can become prideful. If a group of friends regard themselves as the inner circle, they can come to despise those not admitted to the intimacy of their society. Just as surfers tend to look down on all the non-surfers at the beach, so philia love may lead to an us-verses-them snobbery.
There must be a higher kind of love among Christians than any we have studied so far, a love to cement us together when eros, storge, and philia don't apply. Not every relationship can be built on self-gratification or blood relationship or shared interests. In fact, any relationship in the Church constructed primarily on these kinds of love is doomed to failure. There has to be a better way.
D. Jesus says, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." The Greek word that He uses for love is agapeo, or agape. It is the word that He and the New Testament writers use over and again. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son." That is agape love. St. Paul writes, "God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). That is also agape love. "The Heavenly Father has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love." Agape love. "[God the Father] chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love" (Eph. 1:4). Agape love once more. And our passage for today: "You shall love the Lord, you shall love your neighbor" -- Clearly, agape is ubiquitous in the New Testament. It is the core of almost all biblical events!
From where did Christ borrow this term? Before Jesus used it, the noun form of the term was hardly known in the Greek world. In fact, it was so rare that we may say that Jesus coined a new expression. Why? Because the Lord wanted to introduce the world to a new kind of love, a love that He would embody as He shed His blood on the cross. None of the existing phrases would do.
Eros love emphasized lust and self-gratification. Storge love stressed the natural love of family members. Philia love brought out the good times that take place among people with a common interest. But God's love is of a higher kind. It is based on God's grace. God loved and saved us even while we were hopeless sinners. St. Paul says: "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). And as the Apostle reflected on the love and grace of God working in his own life, he could say: "This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief" (1 Tim. 1:15).
Jesus commands us to love God, but this command rests on the fact that God loved us first, and graciously saved us from Hell.
My son Malachi and I were picking up garbage around our neighborhood the other day. The employees of a nearby restaurant had thrown piles of trash bags in the back alley. It looked terrible. Nobody was cleaning it up. So we went with some gloves and bags to see what we could do. I picked up the top layer of trash and below emanated a putrid odor and maggots that almost made me wretch. I couldn't bring myself to touch it. It was too noxious.
To the holiness of the Triune God, sin is a vile stench. Yet God's love overcomes our dreadfulness. He sent His Son to earth to save us from it. God in Christ redeemed us "miserable sinners, who lay in darkness and the shadow of death." Our Holy Father sent His Son to die on the cross on behalf of those He loved; those He loved out of pure undeserving grace. What does this have to do with love? Plenty! This is our model. We would not know what agape is, were it not for the cross. But the cross shows us what love means. At Calvary, the sinless Son of God laid down His righteous life for sinners; there He died for people who did not merit it.
The command to love the Lord with our entire heart, mind, soul and strength is based on the reality that God loves first. We love second. The love we give to God is a response to His love. We receive His love and then return it.
How should you return God's love? Jesus says, "with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." Heart, soul and mind; the point is that God requires a love that involves the totality of our personality. Let's examine them one at a time.
A. What does it mean to love God with our hearts? Loving God with all our hearts means to love Him with all our passions; to love Him in the most intense degree. On the one hand we need to avoid shallow emotionalism, and on the other hand we turn away from sterile intellectualism. Our hearts should from time to time be deeply stirred by the workings of the Holy Spirit. Our hearts should burn within us as we study God's Word. In the Eucharist and liturgy our participation ought to be intense. Who doesn't want the moving of the Holy Spirit? In prayer and the arts, may the mystery and glory, beauty and praise of Christ move our passions.
B. How do we love God with all our soul? Atheists and seculars don't even believe we have souls. For them, we're simply a collection of flesh and blood and neurons. This is foolish nonsense. Loving with all our souls has to do with a leaning and longing for God. Psalm 42 says: "As a deer longs for flowing water, so my soul longs for thee O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God?"
Loving with all one's soul is wanting to be in the heavenly kingdom, yearning to be with God at all times, feeling unsatisfied with our inability to be with Him completely while in this world with all its distractions.
C. Is it possible to love God with our minds? Yes. Loving God with all our minds means to set our intellects upon the things above. It suggests that we are to use our intellects for God's glory. What a tragedy that a large portion of American Evangelicalism in the last century has embraced some form of anti-intellectualism. This has severely weakened the Church. Because Christ commanded us to love the Lord with our minds we use our brains more, not less, when we become Christians. We read and study and meditate and acquire a biblical worldview to challenge the culture. That is partly how we utilize our minds to love God.
Then let us notice the next step of obedience. We have learned that we are to respond to God's love with all our hearts, souls, and minds. But it does not stop there. The love of God in Christ takes us, loveless and selfish as we are, and remakes us. Certainly we were created to love God and enjoy Him forever, but there is a consequence that flows out of loving God. We begin to love others. Jesus says: "Love your neighbor as yourself." The Lord demands that we become loving people to everyone near us, whether we encounter them at the store, on the freeway, in work or school.
How does that agape work in practice? Surely it is a life-long process that never ends. Loving our neighbor, or the person closest to us is part of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Here are a few guidelines.
Agape love means that we love not just our family members, or good-looking people, or friends who have the same interests, but all types of people. In other words, agape love loves even those who are unlovable, people who are unattractive, children and adults we find loathsome and undeserving of our love.
Moreover, we find that the people closest to us are not always easy to love. Christ calls us to love them even during those moments when they are not lovable. Grace means that we do not wait until people around us do something to earn our love. That is not how God loved us. He loved us first, even while we were odious. That is how we love others. We are patient with them; we sympathize with them in spite of their flaws.
There are a few qualifications to biblical love. Agape doesn't mean we lavish our love on everything. We need to be discriminating. The prophets condemned the people for loving evil and idols, loving shame and oppression. The prophets criticized the people for loving things like sleep and raisin cakes (Micah 3:2; Hos. 3:1; 4:18; Isaiah 56:10). A wrong love is a disaster. We must love what God commands us to love.
Besides that we must not think that the love of God rules out the wrath of God. The Bible teaches us that God is slow to anger; He does not lose His temper. His wrath is actually an expression of His love. But He does judge sin, and if He disciplines us, it is out of love.
Then we must get it out of our heads that love is a feeling. True love leads to action. That is probably the most important thing we can say about loving our neighbor. Most people think of love primarily as an emotion. When we see love as a feeling, or a sentiment of the heart, we find ourselves in a quandary. How can God command us to feel a certain way, or conjure up certain emotions? He didn't! Jesus never promised that agape love would spring out of us spontaneously. In the Garden of Gethsemane the Son of God sweat drops of blood begging the Father to remove the cup prepared for Him. He didn't feel like getting crucified and going down into Hell, but He did it anyway. We need to follow the Lord in such obedience. Don't be confused about Christian love. It is not hypocrisy to act loving to someone despite the absence of loving feelings. In reality, it is the most beautiful form of obedience. When Christ commands us to love God and neighbor he is not calling us to gush with emotion. He is calling us to gutsy, sacrificial action and service on behalf of others. What joy that is! What a beautiful congregation would result if we were all to put agape into action.
In the Church love is first a decision to treat people as God has treated us. We are not free to make Christian love anything we want it to be. We are not allowed to define it the way we want to define it. Jesus, through His example and by His teaching, calls us to a superior form of loving. Does Christian love sound too hard? Yes, it is difficult; without the Holy Spirit it is impossible. But love is not a human achievement. St John wrote: "We love, because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19). Left to ourselves, we do not know the kind of love of which the New Testament speaks. We know several kinds of erotic love, and we may love our mothers, and like the people who have identical interests to us, but only Calvary enables us to know what agape means. And it is only through Christ's transforming love, and through His strength that we are able to love with all our heart, soul, and mind. May God help us carry out the greatest commandments. Return to Sermons |
