The Wondrous Challenge of Commandment 12

Dr. RB McFee

Email: drmcfee2020@gmail.com

The other day I was sleeping quite nicely, when the roar of a lawn mower broke into my reverie.  Though I pride myself as being a generally loving and kind person, I did offer up an instant rain prayer. I was hoping a downpour might quiet things a bit.

Obviously the Almighty has a sense of humor intermingled with Fatherly advice. Recognizing my current feelings about the 12th Commandment, shortly after my invocation for a rainstorm, the Holy Spirit whispered “when I said love thy neighbor, I meant even the noisy neighbor, the rude neighbor, the lawn fanatic neighbor, the nosy neighbor!” 

Blessed be the loving admonitions of the Lord!

That said, challenges – Jesus loves to grow us through them. And there are few challenges more important to the Lord for us to accomplish than the 12th Commandment. 

A word about the 12th Commandment – Moses brought down the first 10 to the Israelites. Then Jesus gave us 2 – what I refer to as “11”, and “12.” Not sure theologically Jesus 2 commandments are called 11 and 12, but that’s where I’m going with this….

#12….You may recognize it as the “love thy neighbor,” commandment.

Easier said than done!

But when Jesus invited us to share love, He knew these tasks come with a price. Anything worthwhile usually does; God’s work especially.

Mother Theresa gave up her wealth to love on people few others would encounter, let alone care about. And I’m sure we can all think of someone who sacrifices time, talent or treasure to make the world a bit better for others.

Jesus isn’t asking us to relinquish our inheritance, our income, or our former lives in the literal, the way Mother Theresa did. But Jesus is challenging us with the notion we are all capable of doing more. We are all capable of being a bit more loving and tolerant, forgiving, and understanding, even when it is a challenge, a sacrifice to do so.

Jesus knew two thousand years ago and long before what the lyricist penned in the 20th century song “What the world needs now is love, sweet love.”  But it has to be more than a transitory hug with a stranger at a concert, filled in the moment by a sense of musically inspired camaraderie.

What is love? Even the ancient Greeks wrestled with that; so much so that there are numerous words for the various types they came up with….erotic, brotherly, familial, sacrificial, and combinations thereof.

For really a basic concept “love,” and what it means to be our neighbor’s keeper, which is the crux of the 12th Commandment, we mere mortals certainly complicate it, or sometimes avoid doing it altogether.

Sadly as I have learned, especially when receiving pushback from trying to be loving and caring, sometimes we encounter people who have not truly felt loved, or accepted, or meant to feel as if they matter. They don’t really understand or trust love, or loving outreach.

Whether being loved or being loving, especially in a world of challenges, strife and hurt, through time immemorial – building God’s Kingdom is dependent upon it.

What I find fascinating is the fact that Jesus didn’t go for the big and fast gestures to change the world. He chose the slow, difficult, but ultimately sustainable way to make the world better, in God’s Image, one person, one neighbor at a time. It can be a slow, challenging slog through the muddy waters of life to accomplish this. But when it happens, it is truly life-changing; for the giver as well as recipient.

Perhaps that is why Jesus put so much emphasis on the “love thy neighbor”  Commandment, especially to audiences that ought to have recognized these have been part of the Law of Moses all along, and yet overlooked or undervalued. Or perhaps set aside because let’s be honest, it is easier to follow dietary laws than to love a cranky person.

According to Scripture here’s what transpired….

34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[b] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[c] 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Matthew 22: 34 – 40.

Interestingly this should not have been a major brain drain for the scholar, given the commandment to love God with all your soul, heart and might that Jesus said was a foundational tenet of Judaism, and based upon Deuteronomy 6:5.

 As an aside Jesus referred back to Deuteronomy multiple times throughout His ministry; it is a book worth reading.

But here’s where Jesus takes the early teachings of Judaism, restated in Matthew for a contemporary audience, and He really drives home His message for us how to live amongst each other….

In Luke 10, Jesus encounters a legal scholar who likely is a Jewish scholar…..

25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” 27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’[a]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b]” 28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” 29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?

Traditionally we think of our neighbor as the person next door or on your street. What makes that a limited definition for Jesus – people who live near each other tend share common characteristics; certainly that was true in first century Israel where neighbors were like Jews, and shared similar backgrounds, trades, and experiences.

Expecting that to be the answer, Jesus definitely schooled the scholar when He replied in the form of a parable – one that we all know….The Good Samaritan.

Back in the day, say two thousand years ago, Samaritans and Jews were not exactly BFFs. There were some theological and other rifts running between them. So much so that Jews would often take the long way from Galilee to Jerusalem, instead of traveling directly, which would involve Samaria.

So when Jesus was suggesting the good guy in the story – the one with the true spirit of being a good neighbor – was a Samaritan, it elicited a few reactions in the crowd.

The wondrous challenge of following Jesus is compounded by His expectation that we love those who are traditionally considered as “other,” whether from a different political party, ethnicity, religion, philosophy, or perhaps has been unkind, or even repellant to loving outreach.

Perhaps that is why Jesus used “the other,” the one who has been ignored or marginalized to reveal the Samaritan shares the same likes, fears, hurts, disappointments that you and I do.

Are we really all that different? Perhaps our perceptions would change if we just tried one more time to show the Love of Jesus, even when it isn’t comfortable, even when it isn’t fun, even when it is inconvenient, and even if there is no way of knowing if it will matter to that person.

But it will matter to God, and that is Who we are ultimately serving, regardless of the outcome of our best loving earthly efforts. And in the process we are changed into His likeness more and more.

The Good Samaritan had no way of knowing if the man he rescued would be appreciative of his efforts.

We don’t know the ending of the story. Was it a quick “thanks,” and off he went? Or was it the start of a lifelong friendship? Does it matter? Are our efforts predicated on others?

“Thank you,” remains a difficult phrase for many, and some don’t know to do it. I’ve given gifts, even recently, without apparent gratitude. But that doesn’t matter because giving from the heart relies on mine, not the recipients.

Jesus knew that. He knew many of the very people He loved on throughout His ministry would be the same ones shouting “crucify Him.”

Following Jesus, living as a forgiving, loving, generous person in a world that seems anything but representative of those characteristics, is really difficult. Being in but not of this world is not easy. But then if it was easy Jesus wouldn’t have asked us to do these things in His Name.

It is not easy to love people who don’t and probably never will love us back. It is not easy to love a neighbor who is anything but neighborly.

And yet it is this 12th Commandment that defines us as Christians. Loving the unloved, unloving, and unlovable! Helping those who if the situation was reversed probably would not help us, whether they could or not. Giving without expectation of reward. This is who we are as Jesus’ own, as Jesus’ ambassadors.

Conclusion

Has it ever been easy to love, which is to say be generous of heart, forgiving, caring, or spending time with those who are anything but lovable? Or perhaps is that the point when Jesus challenges us repeatedly in the Gospels to love the way He did– that everyone is lovable given the right perspective, effort, and a bit of a nudge from the Lord?

Jesus gives us wondrous love, wondrous opportunities to serve Him, and in the process experience wondrous transformation of becoming better than our former selves. And that’s the essence of the 12th Commandment. It’s the essence of any assignment Jesus gives us – Biblically or personally through the whispers of the Holy Spirit.

It is a wondrous challenge to follow the 12th Commandment because it is in loving others we feel, as well as show the world Christ’s Love. Through loving others we are transformed more and more into the likeness of Jesus. Our efforts are not defined by the world’s response to them. Our love is from Above, and designed to be shared as Jesus did.

May Jesus bless us with the willingness, courage and His assistance to meet the wondrous challenge of the 12th Commandment.