3rd in a series of four. About a 7-minute read. A bit longer but worth it!
Some things never change. Like, our second highest priority.
I was in a state park recently, sitting at a picnic table, immensely enjoying the fresh air, the sound of a bubbling stream, and the photo-perfect view of a fly-fisherman making long, whipping casts to a pool where the fish were dancing in and out of the water.
After a while a group of six or seven casually strolled up to a table just a ways downstream. My attention focused on a 20-something woman who had metallic red-orange hair. Or was she he? Perhaps she identified as they. Looking more closely, I wondered if some of the others may have been equally confused.
Some things never change. Like our (well, my) tendency to judgmentally focus on outward appearances. And it’s easy to do in a world that seems increasingly alien to the truth and values Jesus-followers hold as beyond compromise.
More on that in a minute. First . . .
Some background
The religious, political, cultural tenuousness of the times is tangible.
The ruling religious class seem more interested in self-promotion, lining their pockets, and maintaining the status quo than leading people back to the roots of their faith and their national heritage. Man-made traditions carry more weight than moral and spiritual values imparted to them by their forefathers.
The political system is based on the police-presence of an occupying force seeking to maintain peace between appointed, hierarchical royal family lines, squashing dissent, appeasing religious factions, and squeezing as much tax as possible from its subject-citizens.
In about 40 years, the tightrope tenuousness of the times will degenerate to a razor-sharp, cutting-edge tension that will compel the occupying forces to totally decimate the systems and infrastructures of society. It will be devastation from which Jewish society has not yet fully recovered.
Flashback
A young Teacher has risen in popularity whose teaching, in the minds of some, is threatening the status quo and the delicate balance of power and influence. A trap is being set by the religious establishment hoping to cause the Teacher to make some kind of incriminating, jeopardizing statement.
“An expert of the Law stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he asked, ‘What must I do to inherit eternal life?’” (Luke 10:25-37).
The Teacher responds with a question that establishes the authority source for the answer and keeps the response in the personal rather than simply theological and theoretical. “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?”
The expert religious lawyer replies, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind. . .” To the point, love God with all you’ve got.
And he adds our second highest priority: “. . . love your neighbor as yourself.”
The Teacher replies, “That’s correct. Do this and you will live.”
The lawyer was seeking to test and entrap. Now he seems to realize he is the one being tested. He comes to his own defense. Hoping to justify his own actions—or probably, his own shortcomings—he asks the Teacher, “Well, in that case, who is my neighbor?
The Teacher responds with a wonderful, culturally appropriate, confrontive story. We call it the Parable of the Good Samaritan. The point of the story seems to be that the most unlikely person was loving to a person he would be least likely to love, and in his mind, the least deserving of love. In contrast, the ones who should have been the most likely to love absolutely failed to love.
The Teacher’s story confronts all of us. And it reveals the broad embrace of God’s loving heart. And as Jesus-followers, we want to pursue God’s heart.
Still, I don’t know if you’re like me and the expert lawyer. Well, who is my neighbor? Really? I mean there are a lot of “unlovable” people out there.
The last two words
I wonder if part of the key to successful application to the commandment is in the last two words: “as yourself.”
I don’t know about you, but I can be pretty disappointed in myself. Preoccupation with substandard externals are the easiest things not to love. And then there are the internals, the parts no one sees but God . . . maybe a few extremely trusted friends, and maybe a high-paid counselor.
It makes sense that if I don’t love myself, it would be difficult to love my neighbor. And in a way, I am my closest neighbor.
Yet, God loves me, nonetheless. He loves us, nonetheless. He has adopted us into His family, unconditionally loved, loved with a love that flows from who He is within Himself as a community of love. (A lot to think about there.)
The more we love God with all we’ve got, the more likely we are going to be able to love ourselves . . . and others. When we see ourselves through God’s eyes, we find it easier to see others through God’s eyes. When we understand how much mercy and grace we are given, we find it easier to offer others mercy and grace. When we realize how much we have been forgiven, it is easier to forgive others.
What about justice and judgment?
Is there a place for justice and judgment? Certainly. There are times when the most loving thing we can offer is to say difficult things to difficult people.
But it is very easy to do that in our limited perspective when it should be something perhaps better left up to the Just Judge to do.
It can be a slippery slope when we have to say difficult things to difficult people. It may be slippery because it is hard to offer grace to others when we struggle with giving grace to our closest neighbor. . . ourselves. And this is the reason that when truth is spoken it should be spoken . . . in love. (Ephesian 5:14)
The same One who says love your neighbor as yourself also said, “Love your enemy . . . do good to those who spitefully use you (abuse you?) . . . turn the other cheek . . . go the extra mile. . . forgive as you have been forgiven.” It’s amazing how He turns things upside to help us face our own inadequacy and propel us toward His own sufficiency. It’s so important to the whole pursuing God’s heart concept. (Luke 6:27, 35; Matthew 5:44 NKJV, 5:38-48; 6:9-15; Ephesians 4:32)
I don’t know about you, but it is hard to trust myself with justice and judgment. Which is why preoccupation with loving God with all my heart first and foremost may be the key. When we love Him with all we’ve got, His love flows through us to those who need it the most.
I have a friend who seems compelled to seek out the most difficult to love, the least likely to love. I think it’s God’s love that compels him. “I just want to love on them.”
God’s broad, loving embrace is . . . inclusive.
Back to the present
The fish are still dancing in and out of the water.
Shortly, I am “prompted” (thank you, Holy Spirit) to consider what I would say if I were in a conversation with the metallic red-orange haired young woman/man/other and his/her/their friends.
I wonder if it would be good to consider first all that we have in common. There’s so much. Breath. Rhythmically beating hearts. Cognition. Freedom of will. Personal hopes and dreams. The objects of love beyond comprehension. A dark, eternal lostness without Christ.
The trickster lawyer had the same choices as you, me, and the metallic red-orange haired person who God loves immeasurably.
We can love God with everything we’ve got, or not. We can love our neighbors using the same standards with which we are loved by God, or not.
And who is that neighbor? The least likely one we would love.
Some things never change.
Let’s talk about it
If you were to place yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 on how you are doing with “love your neighbor as yourself”, what would it be? Please share why you gave yourself that number.
Share a time when God helped you love someone who was the least likely for you to love. Was your love shown by what you said, did, or felt? A combination of those? Please explain.
Reflect on God’s love as “a love that flows from who He is within Himself as a community of love.” What does that mean? How does that fit with Jesus’ whole response to the “expert in the law”?