What A Bargain!
30th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)
2008-10-26
Matthew 22:34-40Everybody loves a bargain. In fact, whose ears haven’t perked up when the TV shouts, “If you call today, we’ll double your order absolutely free!”? Or, whose heart hasn’t skipped a beat when we hear at the market “This week only, 12 oz Lucky Lima beans, buy one get one free!”? Have you ever put your money in the vending machine and gotten two Twinkees instead of the one you were expecting? That’s right, everybody loves a bargain. Especially buy one, get one free.
But, I wonder if the Pharisees were happy when Jesus gave them more than they expected.
When Jesus was asked which commandment in the law was greatest, the Pharisees were expecting to hear just one thing. They weren’t expecting to hear two. But, Jesus gave them a bargain…two for the price of one.
First He said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”
OK. Simple enough. Moses had been saying that for years. But, then He added, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Why did He do this? Was Jesus just having a “buy one get one free” sale? Was He simply overstocked on commandments and trying to rid His inventory of them? Most assuredly not.
No, there was a very specific reason that Jesus gave them two laws when they had asked for only one. Because…they belong together. In fact, they are intrinsically related. You might even say that they are one in the same commandment. Jesus was telling the Pharisees, and anyone else listening, that if you love God – if you truly love God with all your heart, soul and mind – then you will love your neighbor as yourself. They can’t be separated. You can’t love God and hate your neighbor.
By adding the second commandment – loving your neighbor as yourself – Jesus was telling them how to love God. He was calling them to action. Not simply the feeling of emotional love, but an active love of total self-gift to our fellow human kind. No, the Pharisees weren’t expecting to hear two commandments. In fact, they probably found this call to love – this call to action – a bit troubling.
After all, they couldn’t be asked to take in the widows and orphans in their communities, or give food to the beggars on the street, or even to offer clean dressings for the leper’s wounds. No, they were much too busy “loving” God by keeping His laws. Jesus’ words cut a little too deep for them. And perhaps…many of us today might see this as a challenge as well.
We are gathered here in this Church today to worship God…to love God. And in Jesus’ words we hear precisely how God expects us to do just that. Yes, we sing Him praises, we offer Him prayers and we kneel before His Son in the Most Holy Eucharist…but is that enough? Are we not called to something greater? You can’t love God and hate your neighbor.
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”
Got it. No problem God. I’m right there with Ya’.
“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that last one. What was that? Something about loving others?
I mean, I “like” others. Well, most others. There are a few people, God, that even you would have trouble loving. Have you seen my boss lately? And, what about that those lazy street beggars? Most of them are perfectly capable of working. And what about telemarketers? Noisy kids? Foreigners?
What about Homosexuals? The mentally unstable?
Oh, and then there are the gang members, the abortionists, child molesters and rapists. And what about Osama Bin Laden and his followers? Now God, even You can’t love them…and you certainly can’t expect me to love them!
“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Ouch.
OK. So in order to love God, we have to love our neighbor. No matter who they are. But, what kind of love does He mean? Do we just need to say it? If we simply say, “I love my boss,” are we OK with God?
How do we love?
A little girl had a brother who was in need of a bone marrow transplant in order to survive. Now this brother was not always particularly nice to her…in fact, as big brothers sometimes do, he picked on her quite a bit. As she was the perfect match for her brother, her parents came to the little girl and asked if she would agree to donate her marrow to allow her brother to live. She thought about it quietly, then, said simply, “Yes.” On the morning of the procedure, as the little girl was being prepped for the transplant, she looked up at her mother and asked, “Mommy, will it hurt when I die?” She mistakenly thought that she would have to lose her life so that her brother might keep his.
She truly loved God.
And this is the kind of love to which we are called. A total self-gift. Holding nothing back. No, we don’t always have to die physically…but we do need to die to self – to put others first. Jesus said that we must love God with all our heart, all our soul and all our mind…not 50%, or 75% or even 95%. He wants it all.
That means, when we leave here, we have a job to do. We are each of us called to perform acts of kindness, acts of healing and acts of love to all those we encounter…especially those to whom it is most challenging to offer love. There are so many needs to be met. So many people broken and hurting. There are so many opportunities to “love your neighbor as yourself.”
But, some may say, ”This is too hard. I just can’t do it by myself. I haven’t got what it takes.”
Rest assured. We’re not on our own. We don’t have to do this alone. Jesus is right there beside us as we live and love in His name. In fact, He was the first and greatest example of a gift of love freely given.
On the night before He died, Jesus prayed in the Garden at Gethsemane, and He said “Father, not My will, but Your will be done.”
Like the little girl who gave her bone marrow, Jesus said simply, “Yes.” It was the ultimate gift of love, and it was freely given for our sakes. We got much more than we asked for…much more than we deserved.
You might say, “What a bargain.”
And, you know, everybody loves a bargain.