If you love me, keep my commandments.
Seven little words.
Packed with so much.
By the time Jesus spoke them he’d journeyed for three years with the twelve. Their time together, here on earth, would soon be done.
Jesus had talked about it.
Judas had left to betray.
Peter was about to deny.
The disciples wondered what would come next.
Pondered if perhaps the party was over.
Worried over what it all could possibly mean.
If you love me.
The first four words seem simple enough. Christ’s time spent with the twelve had brought them all close.
They were –
A band of brothers,
Partners in ministry,
Compadres on a mission from God.
Yet the way Christ phrased it left some room to ponder.
Did they love Christ?
Looking back we know many did.
It’s these next three words that may have given the group more pause.
Keep my commandments.
Commandments, at first blush seems like such heavy language.
A have to.
A required action.
An obligation to comply.
The Israelites of scripture knew plenty about commandments. With over 600 of them initially imagine the challenge of staying on top of each. Recognizing this God whittled the list down to 10.
That list was straightforward, easy to understand.
Don’t kill.
Don’t steal.
Don’t cheat.
Yet God’s people struggled to keep up with these too.
More synthesis, a refining of what it’s all about, was in order.
Enter Christ.
His presence among us moved the concept of honoring God from written word to lived reality. Every prayer, sermon, shared meal, every miracle, conversation, temptation, all of it modeled, in the flesh, what it is to be aligned with the divine.
Yet with a large body of work to draw from – yeah gospels – sometimes still, a good summary resonates best.
So when Christ was asked what the greatest commandment was, the list was refined once again, down to two.
#1 Love the Lord your God – and
#2 Love your neighbor as yourself
For on these two commands hang all the others.
If you love me, keep my commandments.
Said differently, marrying today’s text with the greatest commandment, we could say this:
If you love me, love your neighbor.
Perhaps that strikes the ear a little differently.
Loving your neighbor, at first blush has a certain lightness to it.
A doing for others.
A way to show care.
A matter of heart.
Created by love, we believe we should imitate the Creator’s love.
Commands
Our country – really our world – has had an awful lot of command language of late, doesn’t it, coming from various halls of power.
Declarations from the governor.
Press conferences from the White House.
Guidance from the CDC.
Each command, urging you, one way or another, to comply.
Reopen business.
Get kids back to school.
Worship in person, once again.
Or not.
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Or not.
We’re being asked –
To trust our politicians;
To heed the wisdom of science;
To get our economy churning, once again.
We’re being asked to be part of all this –
At varying speeds, varying priorities, varying processes.
So many voices.
So many commands.
So many differing perspectives.
To be honest, it’s really, really, REALLY hard to know what to make of it all.
Should we social distance?
Wear masks in public?
Wait for widespread testing?
Consider contact tracing?
Wait, ultimately, for vaccine?
From a secular viewpoint it seems that no one can really quite agree.
So many commands.
And now, so very much time.
Neighbor
In the midst of all these commands, let us not forget the greatest one of all.
Love your neighbor.
Love your –
Immigrant neighbor
Minority neighbor
Gay neighbor
Medical-care provider neighbor
Grocery store clerk neighbor
Meat plant worker neighbor
Unemployed neighbor
Small business neighbor
Vulnerable populations neighbor
Immune compromised neighbor
Healthy neighbor
Sick neighbor
Your neighbor that has lost so much they don’t know where to begin.
Love them all.
Just as much, or perhaps more, than you love yourself.
This is the way.
For if we love Christ there’s some follow-up in order.
Christ asks we love our neighbor, as the central, unifying way we go about living into the world around. Christ asks this love of neighbor to be the lens through which we view all else. Christ asks that the love of neighbor shine through through every fragment of our being.
From our beliefs to our politics to how we treat everyone around.
This is Christ’s command.
Love your neighbor.
Paradox
In Martin Luther’s work, the Freedom of a Christian, Luther concludes this:
A Christian is perfectly free lord of all, subject to none.
The red-blooded meat eater in me loves that. We’re perfectly free, thanks to the life, death and resurrection of Christ. Sounds downright American. Go out and do your thing. Yeah freedom!
Luther then continues:
A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.
Which means, as Christians, we are also called to a life of service. To serve our neighbor. To love our neighbor. To cause them no harm. Every single one.
Close
As the pandemic continues, we too –
Wonder what will come next;
Ponder if perhaps the party is over;
Worry over what it all could possibly mean.
As the pandemic evolves, there is much to learn, much to do, likely much to wait for. And there will continue to be an awful lot of commandments vying for our attention.
Commandments from –
governments,
organizations,
groups,
schools,
businesses,
and more.
As you sift through, and consider, and try to make sense of it all, and how best to respond, first, remember Christ’s seven little words:
If you love me, love your neighbor.
For all other commands, both secular and divine, are best lived out through the lens of this one. Amen.
