30 Sunday OT, year A
When Jesus is asked to identify the greatest commandment, he responds by connecting our love for God with our love for our neighbour. Drawing on the ancient Jewish prayer known as the Shema and the moving story of Artaban, the fourth wise man, we discover that serving others is one of the most important ways we encounter and love God. Jesus also reminds us of the importance of loving ourselves, revealing that the Christian life ultimately rests on one simple but demanding principle: love.
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I think we're all familiar with the expression, "Less is more." It's an expression that reminds us that simplicity is often something beautiful. If we can communicate something more briefly, that's often a good thing. In today's Gospel, however, Jesus is asked a question, and his answer doesn't seem to follow this principle that less is more. In fact, Jesus needs to expand his answer. He's approached by a lawyer who asks him, "Which commandment in the law is the greatest?" Notice that the question is singular. He's asking Jesus to identify just one commandment. Jesus, however, responds by giving two commandments. And as we'll see, we might even say that hidden within his answer is a third commandment. All three are connected by one central theme: love.
Jesus begins his answer by reaching back to the Old Testament, to the book of Deuteronomy. He responds that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This commandment comes from Deuteronomy chapter 6, from a passage that is often called the Shema. That name comes from the Hebrew word meaning "hear," the first word of this famous prayer: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one." This passage goes on to command the people of Israel to love God with all their heart, soul, and strength. Jesus is reaching back to something absolutely central to the faith of the Jewish people.
In our Christian tradition, we have the Lord's Prayer, which many of us pray every day, perhaps even several times a day. In the Jewish tradition, the Shema holds a similarly important place. It is a prayer that observant Jewish people recite every day, traditionally in the morning and in the evening. It reminds them of this central commandment to love God above all else. In fact, if you've ever visited a Jewish home, you might have noticed a small object attached to the doorpost. It's called a mezuzah. Inside this small case is a scroll containing passages from the Torah, including Deuteronomy chapter 6. Every time someone enters or leaves the home, it's a reminder of their relationship with God and the commandment to love him. Jewish people also use objects called tefillin, sometimes called phylacteries, during prayer. You may have seen photographs of Jewish people praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, with small black boxes attached to their arms and foreheads. Inside these boxes are also passages from Scripture, including this great commandment from Deuteronomy. We can see, then, how deeply this commandment is rooted in Jewish life and prayer. God is the one we are called to love. God is the one we are called to serve.
Now, whenever we read a biblical passage, knowing something about its historical background can often help us appreciate its meaning more deeply. And there's something particularly interesting about this commandment in Deuteronomy. Many biblical scholars believe that important parts of Deuteronomy took shape during the seventh century before Christ, when the kingdom of Judah was living under the shadow of the Assyrian Empire. At that time, Assyria was the dominant power in the ancient Near East. Judah was, for a period, what we call a vassal state of Assyria. That meant the people of Judah could carry on much of their ordinary life, but they were ultimately subject to the Assyrian emperor. They had to pay tribute, obey certain demands, and demonstrate their loyalty. And if they refused, the Assyrian army could come and destroy them.
What's particularly interesting is that archaeologists have discovered some of the treaties that the Assyrians made with their subject peoples. In these treaties, we sometimes find language remarkably similar to what we encounter in Deuteronomy. The people who were subject to the Assyrian emperor were commanded to show "love" to their ruler. Now, love in this context didn't mean affection or friendship. It meant loyalty, obedience, and service. To love the Assyrian emperor meant that you were expected to give him your allegiance and obey his commands. Some scholars suggest that Deuteronomy is deliberately responding to this kind of imperial language. It's as though the biblical writers are saying, "No. Our ultimate love and allegiance do not belong to some earthly emperor. The one we are called to love and serve with all that we have is the Lord our God." It's a powerful statement about where our ultimate loyalty belongs.
When Jesus reaches back to this commandment in Deuteronomy, then, he's reminding us that God must be at the centre of our lives. God is the one we are called to love above all else, with our entire being, our heart, our soul, our mind, and our will. But Jesus doesn't stop there. He goes on to identify a second commandment, this time reaching back to the book of Leviticus: "You shall love your neighbour as yourself." Jesus connects these two commandments because they cannot really be separated. If we truly love God, then that love needs to be expressed in the way we treat other people. Our love for God must lead us to love our neighbour.
There's a beautiful story that I think expresses this principle particularly well. Some of you may have heard of it. It's called The Story of the Other Wise Man, written by Henry Van Dyke in 1895. I actually first learned about this story a couple of years ago when I was visiting the Anglican cathedral for a meeting. I noticed some information on the wall about a summer camp called Camp Artaban. It's an Anglican camp located on Gambier Island. I remember looking at the name and wondering, "Who's Artaban?" So I asked the Anglican priest about it, and he explained that the camp was named after the main character in this beautiful story about a fourth wise man.
We're all familiar, of course, with the traditional story of the three wise men who journeyed to Bethlehem to visit the newborn Jesus. In Van Dyke's story, however, there is another wise man named Artaban. Like the other wise men, Artaban sets out on a long journey because he wants to encounter the newborn King. He brings with him three precious jewels, a sapphire, a ruby, and a pearl, which he hopes to offer as gifts to Jesus. But something keeps happening to Artaban along the way. He keeps getting distracted. As he travels, he encounters people who are poor, sick, or in desperate need of help. And whenever he encounters these individuals, he stops to help them. Sometimes this means that he falls behind on his journey. Sometimes it means giving away one of the precious treasures that he had intended to offer to Jesus. He keeps trying to reach the King, but he keeps encountering people who need his assistance.
Eventually, Artaban arrives in Bethlehem, but it's too late. Jesus and his family have already departed. Artaban continues searching for Jesus, but the same thing keeps happening. Along the way, he finds people who are suffering, and he stops to help them. Years pass, and Artaban continues his search. In fact, thirty-three years go by. By now, Artaban is an old man. He has spent almost his entire life trying to find Jesus, but he has never managed to meet him. And he has only one precious gift remaining, the pearl that he had intended to give to the newborn King all those years before.
One day, Artaban finds himself in Jerusalem. It's the time of Jesus' Passion. Jesus has been arrested, condemned, and is being led away to be crucified. Artaban realizes that this may be his final opportunity to encounter the King he has spent his whole life searching for. He makes his way through the city, hoping that perhaps he might finally meet Jesus and offer him that last precious pearl. But once again, something happens. Artaban encounters a young woman in desperate need. She is being taken away to be sold into slavery because of her father's debts. She pleads with Artaban to help her. And Artaban faces a difficult decision. He can continue on his way, finally meet Jesus, and offer him his precious gift. Or he can stop and help this young woman. Once again, Artaban chooses to help. He gives away his last pearl to secure her freedom.
At that moment, Artaban feels that he has failed. He has spent thirty-three years trying to meet Jesus, and now he has given away his final gift. He believes that he has missed his opportunity. As Jesus dies upon the cross, an earthquake shakes Jerusalem. Artaban is struck by a falling stone and lies dying. But then something extraordinary happens. He hears the voice of the Lord, who helps him understand that his journey has not been wasted. Artaban realizes that throughout those thirty-three years, whenever he helped someone who was poor, suffering, or in need, he was actually serving Jesus himself. All those moments that he thought were distractions from his mission were, in fact, the moments when he was encountering the King he had been searching for.
It's a beautiful story, and of course, it's expressing something that Jesus teaches us explicitly in Matthew chapter 25. In that chapter, Jesus explains that whatever we do for those who are hungry, thirsty, sick, imprisoned, or in need, we do for him. This is the great discovery that Artaban makes at the end of his life. He thought that serving others was distracting him from his search for Jesus. But in reality, serving others was the very way that he was encountering Jesus. And this is precisely the connection that Jesus makes in today's Gospel. We are called to love God above all else. But one of the most important ways that we show our love for God is by loving and serving our neighbour, especially those who are most in need.
Now, there's something else hidden within Jesus' answer that I think is important for us to recognize. Jesus is asked for one commandment, and he gives two. But we might even say that there's a third commandment hidden within his response. Jesus says that we are to love our neighbour as ourselves. St. Thomas Aquinas reflects beautifully on the relationship between love of self and love of neighbour. We are called to see our neighbour as someone who shares in our own humanity, someone whose good matters to us as our own good matters to us. We are called to recognize other people as our brothers and sisters and to care for them as we would want to be cared for ourselves. But implicit in all of this is something that we can sometimes overlook: we are also called to love ourselves.
And I think this is something we shouldn't take for granted. Sometimes we can be overly hard on ourselves. We might be very aware of our mistakes, our weaknesses, and the things that we haven't done well. Of course, humility is an important Christian virtue, and humility calls us to recognize our limitations and failings. But humility doesn't mean thinking that we're worthless or that there is nothing good within us. Quite the opposite. Humility means seeing ourselves truthfully, and part of that truth is recognizing that God has created us good. God doesn't create junk. Every one of us has gifts, blessings, and goodness within us. Every one of us has been created in the image and likeness of God. And we're called to recognize and appreciate those gifts, not out of pride, but out of gratitude to the God who has given them to us.
This is important because if we are unable to recognize our own goodness and dignity, it can become difficult to recognize and appreciate the goodness and dignity of others. Loving ourselves in a healthy Christian way isn't selfishness. It's recognizing that we are loved by God, that our lives are gifts, and that we are called to care for those gifts. And from that foundation, we're better able to extend that same love and care to the people around us.
So Jesus begins with a question that seems quite simple. He's asked to identify the one greatest commandment. But instead of giving just one commandment, he offers two, and perhaps we can even see three within his answer. We are called to love God above all else. We are called to love our neighbour, because loving our neighbour is one of the most important ways we show our love for God. And we are also called to love ourselves, recognizing the goodness and dignity that God has placed within each of us.
In the end, I think the message is actually quite simple. The Christian life is ultimately about love. Of course, putting this into practice isn't always easy. Loving God with our entire being, loving those around us, especially those who are difficult to love, and learning to love ourselves in a healthy way can be challenging. But the central principle is simple. And I'd like to leave you with a beautiful saying from St. Augustine, one of the great teachers of our Christian tradition. Pope Leo XIV, of course, is an Augustinian, someone who follows the spiritual tradition of St. Augustine. And Augustine has a wonderful way of summarizing what Jesus is teaching us in today's Gospel.
St. Augustine puts it this way: "Love, and do what you will."
It's a very short statement, but there's tremendous wisdom within it. Augustine isn't saying that we can simply do whatever we want. He's saying that if genuine love is at the centre of our lives, then that love will guide everything else that we do. If our hearts are truly directed toward loving God and loving our neighbour, then our actions will increasingly reflect that love. This is what Jesus is calling us to in today's Gospel. To love God above all else, to recognize him in the people around us, and to allow that love to shape the way we live. Because ultimately, the Christian life is about love. Love, and do what you will.
