Whitney Mears

Luke 10:25-28 (The Voice translation)

25 Just then a scholar of the Hebrew Scriptures tried to trap Jesus.

Scholar: Teacher, what must I do to experience the eternal life?

Jesus (answering with a question): 26 What is written in the Hebrew Scriptures? How do you interpret their answer to your question?

Scholar: 27 You shall love — “love the Eternal One your God with everything you have: all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind” and “love your neighbor as yourself.”

Jesus: 28 Perfect. Your answer is correct. Follow these commands and you will live.

Reflection:
My four-year-old daughter’s classroom has a sign posted with all of the class rules. The teachers go over the rules with the class each morning during Circle Time and sometimes again later in the day if the class is acting especially rowdy (as best I can tell, a low-level of rowdiness is to be expected in a classroom full of four-year-olds). Even though none of the kids can read, the sign serves as a visual reminder of the rules. There are pretty specific rules about listening to the teachers, voice volume, not hitting or kicking, saying nice and encouraging things, playing safely, and cleaning up after themselves. If you were to ask Mary Holland to tell you all of the rules, she wouldn’t be able to do so, but she would be able to sum them up: be nice and help each other. 

There are 613 commandments – rules – in the Hebrew scriptures. They ranged from praying daily to caring for orphans and widows to rescuing an enemy when their animal has fallen upon them to leaving part of the harvest behind for the poor to honoring parents to observing Sabbath to not charging interest on loans. Scholars, like the man that questioned Jesus, would have known every single one of these rules by heart. So when Jesus asked him to answer his own question with the scriptures, he did a mental calculation of all of the rules and came up with two (Deuteronomy 6:4-6 and Leviticus 19:18) that were not only the most important, but were representative of all of the others.

If I truly love God with my whole heart, soul, strength and mind and love my neighbor as myself, then I won’t be tempted to charge them interest in a personal loan. I’ll see the person as more important than the profit. If I truly love God and neighbor, then I will help someone in a bind, even if that person is an enemy. I’ll swallow my pride and embrace humility. If I truly love God and neighbor, then I will care for strangers, orphans, widows, and the poor without a second thought. I’ll make sacrifices in my life so that I can be generous. 

In some translations, Jesus says that if we follow these commands, we will inherit eternal life. In The Voice translation, it says that if we truly love God and neighbor, then we will live. We aren’t earning credits toward some distant future. Our love means we get to experience abundant life right now.

Prayer:
God, thank you for the love you pour into me each day.  Help me to be a vessel of that love by truly loving every single person you put into my path just as I love myself and without a second thought. Amen.