“Obey Love!”

A Sermon Based Upon Mark 12:  28-34, CEB

By Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, DMin.  

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

Third Sunday of Lent, February 28th, 2016

It’s a question that never gets old.  If there was a fire in your home what would be the first things you'd grab?

Your children, of course, if they can't walk.  Your Pet(s)? Your wallet?  Your computer?  Your passport or other Documents?  What about a precious photograph or a watch or ring that belonged to a grandparent?

Our text from Mark, chapter 12 is about reducing all truth about God down to the most important of all.  As Biblical Christians, we don’t even have to think about this.  The apostle Paul already did our work for us when he wrote to the Corinthians, “Now these three remain; faith, hope, and love.  But the greatest of these is love (1 Cor. 13:13).  Where did Paul get such a worldview as this? 

IT'S ALL ABOUT LOVE

Paul’s understanding of the importance of love comes from Jesus’ encounter with a scribe who asked Jesus about which ‘commandment is first of all.’  This question came as a response to a ‘dispute’ Jesus caused among religious leaders by his teaching about the marriage and the resurrection.   Mark tells us that certain Sadducees had intended to challenge Jesus’ teachings with a question about ‘levirate’ marriage, where a brother would marry his brother’s widow.  They imagined how this could happen multiple times, so that the widow might end up having seven husbands.  "If this were to happen, which one would be her husband in heaven?", they asked.

This was intended as a ‘trick’ question to discredit Jesus, but when Jesus answered that in the resurrection people will be like different, like angels, they had no comeback.  Having their undivided attention, Jesus then gave them an even greater defense of ‘resurrection.’  He declared that those who die in faith, like Abraham, Issac, or Jacob, can’t remain dead, because, as Jesus implies, it’s just not logical.   Since “God is the God of the living, not the dead’ (Mark 12:27), there has to be a ‘Resurrection’.   Part of the power of Jesus argument may have been that this was a slogan of the Sadducees, trying to focus only on this ‘living’ of this life, but now, Jesus has turned their own slogan on its head as evidence for future life in God (see Joel Marcus, Mark, in Anchor Bible, Vol. 27A, , Yale University Press, 2009p. 833).

You might wonder what this question about resurrection has to do with the most important ‘commandment’.   The simple answer is everything!  Faith, because of its very nature, allows for questions, which may allow people to get bogged down with debating, discussions, or even divisions, which serve no real purpose.  While questioning, and seeking answers is a necessary part of finding truth, it’s never the main part.   This ‘scribe’ may have been watching all the ‘disputes’ (12:28) going on around Jesus, wondering what faith is really supposed to be about.

Jesus’ answer to this scribes question about ‘which commandment is the first of all’ begins with a quote from the central prayer of the Hebrew Scripture and Prayerbook; “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one (Deut. 6.4).  By beginning ‘the Shema’, (Literally, “Hear”) Jesus is taking this Scribe, and also us, back to the core of the Law, which was summarized in Deuteronomy, chapter, six.   If you recall, Deuteronomy means ‘second law’, but Moses is not so much ‘laying down the law’ again, as he is reminding the people why God’s law should be trusted and obeyed in the first place.  Moses’ very simple answer is that Israel is to obey God because God has ‘saved’ (Deut. 33:29) and has promised to ‘bless’ Israel (Deut. 1:11).   Since the continuing of this blessing depends upon a covenant relationship (Gen 15.18; Ex, 19:5; Deut. 5:2) with God, Israel must continue to ‘love the Lord’ with ‘all their heart, soul, and strength’ (Dt. 6.4).  The point is that this “law” covenant (Deut 4:13) that has been revealed is not just about word’s, commandments, or laws which God’s people must follow, but God’s word and his laws are about continuing an ongoing, covenantal relationship (Deut. 4: 23-24), a relationship that can only continue if it is based upon faithful, steadfast love (Deut 5: 7-10:  God’s love for Israel and Israel’s love for God. 

To put it another way: Everything in this covenant, both the Old covenant and the New Covenant, is about ‘love’.   To Moses and Israel God reveals himself as a ‘jealous God’ who “shows steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love (him) and keep (his) commandments (Deut. 9-10).”  Because God is true love, he also requires faithful love from his people.   True Love is what makes this ‘covenant’ relationship work.  In other words, ‘If you love, then you can a faith-relationship work.  But if you don’t love, then nothing about a faith-relationship works.  Nothing works because having faith is based upon an all-or-nothing proposition called ‘love’.   This all or nothing “proposition” means that you decide to hear, obey, and follow God because you love God.  You decide to trust God with all that you are because this is what you do when you ‘love’.  It’s all about love.

Jesus wants this ‘scribe’, and perhaps us too, to realize that our own faith, religious belief, or relationship with God, is based upon ‘steadfast’, ‘faithful’ love.     We must not get confused about what religion means or about what faith is about.  It is all about the discovery of love and the capacity to love.  We must not reduce it down to anything else.  But we have, and we still do.

The story is told that when Friedrich Wilhelm ruled as King of Prussia in the early eighteenth century, he was known to be a short-tempered man.  He also detested ceremony, so it wasn’t unusual for him to walk the streets of Berlin unaccompanied. But if anyone happened to displease him — a not infrequent occurrence — he wouldn’t hesitate to use his walking stick on the hapless offender.  So, when people saw him at a distance, they quickly left the vicinity.

Once Friedrich came pounding down a street when a Berliner caught sight of him too late. His attempt to withdraw into a doorway was foiled.

     "You there!" said Friedrich. "Where are you going?"

The man began to shake. "Into this house, Your Majesty."

     "Is it your house?"

     "No, Your Majesty."

     "A friend’s house?"

     "No, Your Majesty."

     "Then why are you entering it?"

The man feared that he would be taken for a burglar, so he blurted out the truth. "To avoid your Majesty."

     "Why would you wish to avoid me?"

     "Because I am afraid of Your Majesty."

At this Friedrich Wilhelm became livid with rage. Seizing the poor man by the shoulders, he shook him violently, crying, "How dare you fear me! I am your ruler. You are supposed to love me! Love me, wretch! Love me!"  (From Rev. Lowell E. Grisham, in a sermon “The Great Commandment”  from www.goodpreacher.com, 2015 Luther Seminary.

There are many misguided expressions of the Christian Gospel that present a god, not unlike Friedrich Wilhelm.  A ruler of such holiness and purity he cannot bear to allow any sin or sinful person in his presence.  Therefore, since we are all sinners, this god who can’t ‘bear’ sin, condemns the entire human race to everlasting punishment in hell. "The wages of sin is death."  Since we all sin, we will all die, unless, that is, we do something about it.

But, the problem is, or so says the Gospel, we can’t do something about it.   But have no fear, Jesus is here, and he comes into this world and does not sin.  Since Jesus didn’t sin, he doesn’t have to die, but he does die.  He is willing to die and take all our sins upon himself, vicariously.   He cares for us, he suffers for us, and he dies for us.  Now, all we have to do is believe in Jesus and he’ll get you into heaven.  But if you don’t believe in Jesus, you and everyone else will be sure to get everlasting punishment in Hell.

The problem with this misunderstanding of the Christian gospel is not that it doesn’t have ‘truth’ in it, but that it reduces the gospel to a transaction, making it sound like Jesus, God the Son, came down to earth to save us from God the Father who sends people to Hell.  This is not only a false misunderstanding of the gospel, it misses the “main” point.   

It is this main “point” that Jesus is teaching here in Mark 12, namely that everything in the gospel is based on love—God’s love for us and our love for God.  And if this commandment to love is based upon God’s covenant of love, then how could we ever think a holy God can’t bear sin?  Doesn’t the gospel say that this is exactly what Jesus does, as he ‘bore our sins in his body on the cross’ (1 Peter 2.24)?   Of course, God can handle sin.  Of course, God can bear sin.  The problem is, however, that we can’t.  The problem is not what sin does to God, but the problem the gospel comes to bear, through Jesus Christ, is what sin does to us.  

Only by understanding that it’s all (the law and the gospel) about God’s love’ does faith stay on track.  The gospel doesn’t say, “Jesus so loved the world that he came to save us from God’s wrath against us”, but the gospel says, “God (the Father) so loved the world that he gave his only Son… (John 3:16).  The apostle Paul also would also have not agreed with a simple ‘transaction’ idea that suggests that the Son came to save us from the Father’s wrath toward us.  Paul would not agree with this because Paul wrote: “…In Christ God (the Father that is), was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them (2 Cor. 5:19 NRS).  While Paul would agree that ‘all have sinned’ (Rom. 3.23) or that ‘the wages of sin is death’ (Rom 6.23) or that “Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8) and that we can’t do anything to save our ourselves, since God’s love is ‘free gift’ (Rom. 5: 15-17), Paul would NOT AGREE that anyone suffering the ‘wrath’ or ‘destruction’ of sin is what God desires.  Here, we must be careful that our ‘belief’ does not separate us from the love of God more than our sin does.   Any faith, religion, or belief that misses that the main thing is ‘love’, misses what law and gospel are about.  If faith is not ‘all about love’, it can’t be about God, who is love.

LOVING GOD MEANS LOVING OTHERS

It’s all about love, but of course, people can misunderstand “love” too.   Interestingly, in this text, Jesus doesn’t leave the definition of what it means to ‘love’ God to our own imagination without also giving us a relevant and practical description of what it means for us to ‘love God’.   Jesus doesn’t let this Scribe, or any of us, describe God’s love halfway or in just any way.   No, Jesus says, that if you really love God, because he ‘first loved you’,  you have to go ‘all the way’ by defining it not only as ‘loving ‘the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and strength’ (Deut. 6:5; Mark 12:30), but by also defining it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself’ (Mk. 12:31).

By pointing to ‘love’ in some very human terms, Jesus reminds this scribe and us that the only way to determine whether or not a person truly loves God is whether or not that person truly ‘loves’ their neighbor  (Leviticus 19: 13-19).   Going all the way back to the Law, Jesus reminds us that love for God will also mean loving others, as the book of Leviticus says:  'You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD.” (Lev. 19:18 NAS)

When you read Leviticus closely, you will also see that Leviticus defines ‘neighbor’ not only as ‘sons of your people’, but also the ‘needy’ and the ‘stranger’ (Lev. 19:10).  In a most radical, unexpected way, Jesus even enlarges the possibility of the ‘enemy’ as being a ‘neighbor’, when he challenges his disciples not only ‘love their neighbor’, but also to  ‘love their enemies’ and to ‘pray for those who persecute’ them.  While Jesus is not recommending his disciples to become doormats of abuse, he is calling them to gain power over their enemy with the greatest power of all---love.

When Jesus says that loving God means loving others, the most important thing to understand is that the love Jesus commands is exactly what was missing the established religion and in the national politics of his day.  It was the great failure of love in both religion and politics that caused Jesus to reach out to the outcasts, to sinners, to women, to the sick and to the poor.   Behind Jesus’ ministry to the ‘oppressed’ was ‘one’ message, not just for the Jewish faith or the Christian faith, but for all faiths:  When ‘love of God’ does not include ‘love of neighbor’ and even, the more radical ‘love for enemy’, then religion, faith, and politic loses its way.  This is exactly what we see happening with radical Islam today.  

But any faith, Christianity included, which tries to love God without also loving others, is a ‘failed’ faith and will lead to a flawed religious practice.  The early church came to understand this quickly, as was stressed in the Letters of John:  “….Whoever has the world’s goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? (1 Jn. 3:17).

….. Those who say, "I love God," and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.  The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also  (1 Jn. 4:20-21 NRS).

This last line from John, saying, “those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also” is the proper interpretation of what Jesus meant when he says the ‘first commandment of all’ is about ‘love of God’ which includes ‘love of neighbor.  You just can’t have one without the other.  Any expression of love for God that is ‘true’ must be displayed through how we ‘love’ those around us.  Anything else can’t be rightly called ‘loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.'  It is important that we get this right because, if we miss this, we miss everything faith and life are all about.

Don Ward tells about a young person who was trying to find a first job in a very tight economic market and wanted to get the right answers so he could succeed in business.  He managed to get an interview with a great business tycoon.  He asked him, "Sir, what can I do to succeed in business?" The tycoon said, "Two words." The young man whipped out his notebook and with pencil poised asked, "What are those two words?" The tycoon said, "Right decisions."  The young man's next question was obvious, "How do I learn how to make right decisions?" The tycoon said, "One word." The young man said eagerly, "And what is that one word?" The tycoon said, "Experience." The young man asked the next obvious question, "But how do I get experience?" me tycoon said, "Two words." "And what are those two words?" The tycoon said, "Wrong decisions."  (From Don Ward’s sermon, “Getting It All Together”, www.goodpreacher.com. Luther Seminary, 2015).

The school of “wrong decisions” or “hard knocks” is a great school, but too many flunk out before they ever graduate.   If you want to ‘graduate’ from the school of life,  your love for God does must also include love for neighbor, or vice versa, your love for neighbor must also include love for God, or you are making the ‘wrong decision’ about love.  

LOVING OTHERS BRINGS GOD NEAR

Why is all this so very important?  Why is it necessary that our love for God and love for neighbor go together like ‘hand in glove’?   It’s not just about making ‘good’ or ‘wrong’ decisions.  

After Jesus has just explained what loving God should mean,  this Scribe agrees with him and then adds his own commentary, enlarging on everything Jesus has just said.   He agrees with Jesus and now proves that he understands exactly what Jesus means by saying that ‘love’ is much more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.’   Here, the Scribe quotes Hosea and by this is quoting the Spirit of Jesus which was also in all the prophets, saying God desires ‘steadfast love and not sacrifice (6:6, 1 Sam. 15:22; Mic 6:6).’   Upon hearing such an affirmation, Jesus informs this Scribe that he is ‘not far from God’s kingdom’ (Mark 12:34). 

When you fully understand that ‘love’ is the way we ‘obey God’ you are as close as can be to God’s coming kingdom will mean.  When we love God by loving others, we already ‘serving’ and ‘living’ under God’s rule as we obey Jesus’ command to love: “I give you a new commandment,” Jesus says, “that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another" (Jn. 13:34-35 NRS).

Unfortunately, as beautiful as this ‘command’ to love is, we’ve heard it so much,  I fear it’s become hard to hear what it meant when Jesus.  Today,    words about love can seem so ‘washed out’ and so ‘watered down’ to any kind of real commandment.   But it didn’t seem this way to Jesus.  Jesus’ teachings, life, and death, would remind us that ‘love’ will always be the most demanding commandment of all.  It is ‘demanding’ because this “Jesus” who revealed God’s love, did not reveal it with nice platitudes or attitudes, but this Jesus revealed God’s love by word and deed, serving others, by ‘giving his life as a ransom for many’ (Mark 10:45).  When you live and die like this,  you are so close to God’s kingdom that it has, Jesus once said, is not ‘here’ or ‘there’, but “Behold, the kingdom of God is within you!” (Luke 17:21).  

A great German theologian, Jurgen Moltmann, once wrote that "Our capacity to love is always born out of the experience of being loved." What he means is two things: We can only love if we are confident that God loves us.  And also, it is love from someone else, such as a parent, a spouse, or a friend, or a spouse can also motivate us to love others and God.  Whatever love is, and whatever love can do, it can create a whole new world that begins within our own heart. 

A great example of the transforming power of God’s love is what happened to Darrell Porter, who was once a catcher for the Kansas City Royals.   At one time, Porter was an alcoholic and his problem would not change until he changed.  In the midst of his turmoil, Darrell Porter recommitted his life to Christ.  It is this decision that Porter gives credit to the revitalization of his baseball career.

Whitey Herzog, who managed Porter in Kansas City, later managed the St. Louis Cardinals. The Cardinals needed a catcher and Herzog arranged a trade for Porter.  In St. Louis, Porter was given a new start. His life had improved, except the typical batting slump that baseball players fall into.

Whitey Herzog was concerned about Porter’s batting slump when he spoke with him one day. "Darrell," said Herzog, "we’ve got to work on your hitting. I don’t want you to get down on yourself."

      "Whitey, don’t worry," said Porter. "The Lord is on my side."

     "Well," replied Herzog, "I’m sure the Lord is on your side, but you’d better listen to me because the Lord doesn’t know much about hitting a baseball."  (From a sermon by Dan L. Flanagan, www.goodpreacher.com, Luther Seminary, 2015).

Whitey Herzog over spoke, for he certainly doesn’t know what the Lord knows about Baseball.  But what Herzog was so right about is that “the Lord is on our side” as he was on Darrell Porter’s side.  His story is only one of many stories of how people have been able to deal life’s problems as they re-establish themselves spiritually in God’s love, mercy, and grace.  

Because this Scribe knew the need to follow the command to love, he came as close to the kingdom as you can get and still be alive.  He not only came so ‘close’ you could see God in him, he was so close that you could see that he was “in God’, and clearly he was in the one, true God, who has, through Jesus, revealed himself once and for all, as the God who is love  (1 John 4:16).   That’s how close you too can get when you obey the command to love.  Amen.