Two Greatest Commandments
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Two Greatest Commandments
Herb Montgomery, November 1, 2024
If you’d like to listen to this week’s article in podcast version click on the image below:
Love and Social Justice
Our reading this week is from the gospel of Mark:
One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
“Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions. (Mark 12:28-34)
Our reading this week is the story of an exchange that takes place after a series of exchanges in Mark’s gospel that we covered in the past few weeks. This is a positive conversation between Jesus and one of the Temple State’s teachers of the law.
It’s important for us to understand Jesus’s answer to the question “Which is the most important commandment” was not unique. Any faithful follower of Hillel would have given that answer. Hillel was a generation or two previous to Jesus, and this was one of the central areas of agreement between the two teachers. Jesus differed from Hillel in his teachings on debt cancellation, but in regards to summing up the Torah in terms of love, Jesus shares Hillel’s interpretive lens. The summary is simple: There is no love of God without love of neighbor.
The second half of Jesus’ response quotes Leviticus:
“Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself.” (Leviticus 19:18)
We must note that the context of this passage in Leviticus defines love of neighbor as what we would call today social justice:
“When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the LORD your God.Do not steal. Do not lie. Do not deceive one another. Do not swear falsely by my name and so profane the name of your God. I am the LORD. Do not defraud or rob your neighbor. Do not hold back the wages of a hired worker overnight. Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but fear your God. I am the LORD. Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly. Do not go about spreading slander among your people. Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor’s life. I am the LORD.” (Leviticus 19:9-16)
In Mujerista Theology: A Theology for the Twenty-First Century, Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz quotes Jose Porfirio Miranda, who said: “One of the most disastrous errors in the history of Christianity is to have tried — under the influence of Greek definitions — to differentiate between love and justice.” (In Mujerista Theology: A Theology for the Twenty-First Century, p. 122)
As is often said, justice is what love looks like in public.
So closely is love connected to justice that even in the texts of the Johannine community, it is impossible to claim you even have love if you disregard social justice for one’s neighbor:
“If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?” (1 John 3:17)
Loving God is Loving One’s Neighbor
In 1 John, love of neighbor is synonymous with loving God.
“Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.” (1 John 4:20)
A popular ewish wisdom proverb says that before each person there walks an angel proclaiming, “Behold the image of God.” Every member of our human family bears the image of God. Think about that for just one moment. In this life, the closest encounter we will ever have with anything God-like is with our fellow members of the human family, or neighbor. This teaching prioritizes community over individualistic or isolated personal piety. It’s not about how holy one may be all alone but about how we all engage the world around us. How do we relate socially, economically, and politically to those we share a home with on our planet?
The Archbishop of Constantinople Saint John Chrysostom was born in Antioch around 347 C.E.,was one one of four great doctors of the Eastern Church. On this subject he stated:
”This is the rule of most perfect Christianity, its most exact definition, its highest point, namely, the seeking of the commonwealth; for nothing can so make a person an imitator of Christ as caring for neighbors.”
This idea was so central to the Jesus movement when the gospels were written that they equated loving one’s neighbor to loving Jesus himself.
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me . . . He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’” (Matthew 25:40, 45)
Loving One’s Neighbor and Voting
This week is election week here in the U.S. This week, many of us will be taking our civic (love of neighbor) responsibilities very seriously. You can’t say you love your neighbor and vote to put someone in office that will harm those you claim to love. So I’m thinking of my LGBTQ neighbors. I’m thinking all the women neighbors in my life and their rights to bodily autonomy and health care. I’m thinking of neighbors of a different race or culture than my own. I’m thinking of neighbors who have migrated here to survive and gain a better life for themselves. I can’t tell you how to vote. That’s not my place. But I can plead with you to engage your public life, your civic life, and not simply your private religious piety.
In the end, love of neighbor is what matters. To the degree that we love our neighbor, every other claim of piety is proven true or a lie (1 John 4:20). Love of neighbor is the single greatest practical demonstration of our faith that keeps following Jesus relevant in the 21st century. This year, if you can vote, vote in solidarity with your neighbors who are most vulnerable and disenfranchised.
And then, the day after Election Day, keep choosing to live in solidarity with your neighbors and seek our collective, common good. As our reading states this week, “The second [greatest commandment] is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
The Jesus we see in the gospels was leading a movement of renewal in the face of the disintegration he saw happening to his communities because of Roman oppression. He called his followers not to isolation or individualism but to community, to caring about how we collectively share our resources to ensure everyone is taken care of and has what they need, not simply to survive, but also to thrive.
A few weeks ago I shared a statement in James Robinson’s classic book The Gospel of Jesus: In Search of the Original Good News where he defines Jesus’ teachings in the synoptic gospels. I want to end this week with that statement for us to ponder again in the light of this Tuesday’s election.
“The human dilemma is, in large part, that we are each other’s fate.” (James M. Robinson, The Gospel of Jesus: In Search of the Original Good News, Kindle Edition Loc. 58)
This Tuesday, love your neighbor by getting out there and voting for love and justice. And no matter what the results turn out, that next morning when you wake, keep at it. Keep living love, keep taking action, keep choosing compassion as, together, we continue to follow Jesus in shaping our world into a safe, compassionate, just home for everyone.
Discussion Group Questions
1. Share something that spoke to you from this week’s Podcast episode with your discussion group.
2. What does loving your neighbor look like for you? Share and discuss with your group.
3. What can you do this week, big or small, to continue setting in motion the work of shaping our world into a safe, compassionate, just home for everyone?
Thanks for checking in with us, today.
I want to say a special thank you to all of our supporters out there. And if you would like to join them in supporting Renewed Heart Ministries’ work you can do so by going to renewedheartministries.com and clicking donate.
My latest book Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political and Economic Teachings of the Gospels is available now on Amazon in paperback, Kindle and also on Audible in audio book format.
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You can watch our YouTube show each week called “Just Talking”. Each week, Todd Leonard and I take a moment to talk about the gospel lectionary reading for the upcoming weekend. We’ll be talking about each reading in the context of love, inclusion, and social justice. Our hope is that our talking will be just talking (as in justice) and that during our brief conversations each week you’ll be inspired to also do more than just talking. If you teach from the lectionary each week, or if you’re just looking for some thoughts on the Jesus story from a more progressive perspective within the context of social justice, check it out, you might like it. You can find JustTalking each week on YouTube at youtube.com/@herbandtoddjusttalking. Please Like, Subscribe, hit the Notification button, and leave us a comment.
And if you’d like to reach us here at Renewed Heart Ministries through email, you can reach us at info@renewedheartministries.com.
Right where you are, keep living in love, choosing compassion, taking action, and working toward justice.
I love each of you dearly,
I’ll see you next week.
New Episode of “Just Talking” Now Online!
Season 2, Episode 34: Mark 12.28-34. Lectionary B, Proper 26
Each week, we’ll be talking about the gospel lectionary reading for the upcoming weekend in the context of love, inclusion, and social justice. Our hope is that our talking will be “just” talking (as in justice) and that during our brief conversations each week we’ll be inspired to do more than just talking.
If you teach from the lectionary each week, or if you’re just looking for some thoughts on the Jesus story from a more progressive perspective within the context of social justice, check it out at:
New Episode of The Social Jesus Podcast
A podcast where we talk about the intersection of faith and social justice and what a first century, prophet of the poor from Galilee might have to offer us today in our work of love, compassion and justice.
This week:
Season 1 Episode 29: Two Greatest Commandments and Social Justice
Mark 12:28-34
“Next week is election week here in the U.S. Next week, many of us will be taking our civic (love of neighbor) responsibilities very seriously. You can’t say you love your neighbor and vote to put someone in office that will harm those you claim to love. So I’m thinking of my LGBTQ neighbors. I’m thinking all the women neighbors in my life and their rights to bodily autonomy and health care. I’m thinking of neighbors of a different race or culture than my own. I’m thinking of neighbors who have migrated here to survive and gain a better life for themselves. I can’t tell you how to vote. That’s not my place. But I can plead with you to engage your public life, your civic life, and not simply your private religious piety. This Tuesday, love your neighbor by getting out there and voting for love and justice. And no matter what the results turn out, that next morning when you wake, keep at it. Keep living love, keep taking action, keep choosing compassion as, together, we continue to follow Jesus in shaping our world into a safe, compassionate, just home for everyone.”
Available on all major podcast carriers and at:
Now Available on Audible!
Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political & Economic Teachings of the Gospels.
by Herb Montgomery, Narrated by Jeff Moon
Available now on Audible!
After two successful decades of preaching a gospel of love within the Christian faith tradition Herb felt like something was missing. He went back to the gospels and began reading them through the interpretive lenses of various marginalized communities and what he found radically changed his life forever. The teachings of the Jesus in the gospel stories express a profound concern for justice, compassion, and the well-being of those in marginalized communities. This book navigates the intersections between faith and societal justice, and presents a compelling argument for a more socially compassionate and just expression of Christianity. Herb’s findings in his latest book are shared in the hopes that it will dramatically impact how you practice your Christianity, too.
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