Which is the first of all the commandments?
In other words, what was the unifying theme behind all the various and varied commandments? Jesus replied with the words of the Shema:
Hear, O Israel!
The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul,
with all your mind,
and with all your strength.
And this commandment alone did contain all that was necessary to understand the principles behind the Law and to consider the other commandments in proportion to this one. But the trouble was that it could be misinterpreted and misunderstood. The scribes, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees claimed to be loving God, but at the expense of their neighbor, even devouring the houses of widows while making long prayers as a pretense (see Luke 20:47). If Jesus had let the commandment of strict monotheistic love for God to stand on its own it would have remained open to such errors. People could have thought that isolated and individual holiness without reference to others in the world was intended by God.
The second is this:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Jesus added the second commandment in order to clarify the first, as, in turn, the first clarified the second. It was impossible to truly love God and to not love those who were made in his image. Loving God implied learning to love what he loved. He didn't love them based on their merits. And so too should those who love God be ready to love others even if they did not seem to deserve that love. But although God was willing to begin anywhere with those who sought him, he was not indifferent to the goal. We were made to find our fulfillment, ultimately, in God alone. He would not sit and watch as he people made idols from temporary things, even very good things, that could not last forever, that could not bear the weight of divinity for which they were never intended. But this fulfillment in God was to be reciprocated precisely be love of neighbor, since God himself needed nothing from us. He needed nothing, but delighted to allow us to be used as agents of his love, as a way to express our love for him. Every gift we have to offer to him was something that he first gave us.
And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding,
he said to him,
"You are not far from the Kingdom of God."
And no one dared to ask him any more questions.
No one dared to ask him any more questions because with Jesus questions were not merely abstractions or pastimes. They had consequences. And the consequences always implied a greater need for love of God and love of neighbor on the part of those who listened. Asking for more in this context could feel overwhelming. But as his hearers put into practice what they had heard thus far they would come to desire still more as his word bore fruit in their lives.
Ephraim! What more has he to do with idols?
I have humbled him, but I will prosper him.
"I am like a verdant cypress tree"–
Because of me you bear fruit!
Claudia Hernaman - Lord, Who Throughout These Forty Days
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