Today we begin worship with:
To love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.
This is Christ’s answer to the question ‘Which commandment is the most important of all?’. This question was not like the other trick questions asked of Him that day. The Herodians and the Pharisees argued over paying taxes. The Sadducees and the Pharisees argued over the resurrection. They came to Jesus with questions that would, regardless of the answer, would put Him on the wrong side of some political aisle.
But this time a lone scribe, “seeing that he answered them well”, asked from his heart, after memorizing and attempting to keep hundreds of laws, what is the most important.
I imagine he hated the response.
Keeping the law is black and white. Love is not. Laws can be kept by doing nothing. Love cannot. Law is applied the same in all circumstances to be just. Love should not.
May wisdom go with us today as we apply this, this greatest commandment.
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