Being Right or Being Human?

“… one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Matthew 22:34-37

Being right is easy. We have a lot of lawyers in our church, so some of you probably live with people whose job is to be right. For a Lawyer in Jesus day, Jesus probably appeared to be an easy opponent. He flouted the rules quite often, eating with outcasts, touching the unclean, healing on the sabbath and being friends with all kinds of outsiders.

His conversation partners in this scene were sure they were going to get him when they asked him, “Which law is the greatest?” If he came down on one side of some issues, he would anger their opponents (who would come after him). If the angered them, well, they could take care of getting him thrown in jail or executed.

What a surprise, then, that his answer defeats them by actually quoting the same scriptures they are claiming to live by. In fact, in Leviticus it actually appears right after the 10 commandments- “You must not take revenge or hold a grudge against any of your people; instead, you must love your neighbor as yourself…” (19:18). In their move to show Jesus just how unlawful he  was, they are convicted by their own laws. They forget to be human beings in their desire to be right.  

When I hear people  say that  we are a “nation of laws," I think of this scene. We are  a nation  governed and kept in order and in (mostly) good standing by laws, for sure, but we are much more. We are a nation of people striving to become fully- human beings . Our laws, when they are at their best, empower and enable us to love other people more fully and (as a result) be more fully human ourselves. Anything else is counter to God’s ultimate purposes for us, if we pay any attention to what Jesus (and Leviticus 19:18) says.

What would it look like if we, as a community and nation, sought to obey the law upon which Jesus says hang “all the law and the prophets?” Whatever your politics, I am sure you will agree that our world would be radically different (and probably better) wouldn’t it? Open room in your imagination to think about this world, rather than one in which we are always “right.” Jesus reminds us that being “right” often has little to do with loving God and other people or being the fully human, blessed creations God made us to be. 

Tim