Let's just bow our heads in prayer.
Father, Jesus has said that we are to love you with all our soul, all our heart, all
our mind, and all our strength.
And Father, we acknowledge that we cannot do this in and of our own power.
So we ask, Father, that you would bring these words of Jesus deeply into who we are, that
they might rule in our hearts to the end, that we will love Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
three persons, one God, that we will love you with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength,
and that we will love our neighbors as ourselves.
So Father, we ask that you would gently but powerfully do this mighty work within us.
And we ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior.
Amen.
Please be seated.
So some of you who are familiar with Anglican worship, when you heard me read the text of
Scripture, you knew that it was something which, that most Sundays we say that text.
In fact, you might not have really known exactly where it came in the Bible, but now you know
it comes from Mark.
And it's a common place in Anglican worship to say it.
In fact, one of the problems with it is that because it's a common place, we might not really
sort of realize how, actually, how offensive it would be to many people in our culture if
they were to hear it.
And the other thing is not just how offensive it would be, but actually if you sort of just,
you know, take a moment to step back from people being bothered by it, it's actually very helpful
and wise because our culture is a bit, its understanding of love is complicated.
It seems simple, but it's complicated.
I'll give you two illustrations to help us think about the text, sort of ground our thinking
about the text.
A few years ago, I was involved in a discipline issue, not connected with this church, but
with another church.
And after the discipline issue and the ongoing consequences from it, I got different phone
calls and emails from leaders and family members to say that the person involved in the particular
issue had suffered enough that they'd had an active healing and they were sorry.
And what was now happening was not loving.
And I had to use, I should use my influence to show love and to help these people show love.
Now, what I've left out in the telling of this particular story is that the discipline issue involved the pedophile.
And I had a role in unmasking the pedophile and initially confronting him that his secret was known and that we knew that he had in fact been guilty of sexual touching and other types of things of young girls.
And what had happened was that the person involved, the man involved, had claimed that now he'd been healed, that he was very penitent, that he had been healed.
And four of the victims, four of his victims had pressed charges against him.
And so that's what led the pastor of the church and other Christian leaders and family members to ask me to use my influence to talk the four women out of pressing charges because they'd suffered enough.
And if I didn't do that, I was being unloving.
Now, this is a, this is actually a, this is a more relevant, I mean, I think it's a very relevant story to this text because in our culture, part of the thing which is a bit complicated in our culture is on one hand, we're told that love is love and that we are to love unconditionally.
But on the other hand, we also know that there's a large part of our culture that's involved, especially in matters to do with racism and other types of things, that if you say, no, no, no, love is love, or you need to love unconditionally, then that's actually viewed as being a violation of justice.
That you're not supposed to, in a sense, love in this particular case.
And the people involved in trying to pressure me in this particular case, all of the, all of them, I mean, you might, as soon as I say that now, you all would say, George, you did, because in fact, I didn't back down.
I supported the, the women in pressing charges against the, the men, that I did the right thing.
But in our culture, and for them, I, that would have been viewed that I was, that I wasn't loving.
So there's a bit of a, a problem in how we think about love and justice.
I don't know if it's as much a case in compassion, I haven't heard about it, but it probably is a case because it's been a constant critique of Samaritan's Purse and the Christmas shoeboxes.
That to encourage things like compassion or shoeboxes is a violation of justice.
So we shouldn't just be pre-giving money to children like this, or Christian, you know, we shouldn't be giving money to children like this.
We should be instead combating the structural problems and injustices that lead to there being poverty.
So this is not a completely abstract issue, especially on a Sunday like this.
There's another sort of similar type of issue is that the, the slogan, love is love, and the demand of us to love unconditionally isn't really very easy at dealing with the problems of sentimentality, like mere emotion, and with, well, with self-centeredness and selfishness.
I'll give you a particular thing.
One of the things that I would be required to do is if there was a man who came to me and he wanted to be, he comes with his, his young, his fiancee, and he wants me to do the marriage.
And I would ask him a little bit about other marriages and stuff like that.
And if I found out that, in fact, he had, in fact, been married for some 15 years, that he was, had three children from that previous marriage, that he'd now come to an end,
and that he wants to marry this woman who's considerably younger.
And, well, I, I'd have to not love him.
I couldn't just accept that love is love, and I couldn't accept that I should just love him unconditionally.
I'd have to ask him some very, very hard questions.
They'd be questions that would leave me sleepless the couple of days leading up to it.
But I'd have to ask him, how does he plan to maintain his financial obligations to his first wife, and in particular to the three children?
And I'd have to ask him, how does he plan to maintain his family?
Why he left his wife?
Love is love.
Well, that's just, that doesn't really help at all with self-centeredness, and that's just a sentimental statement.
And if he was to say, well, you know, you're not loving me unconditionally if you ask those types of questions.
I'm offended.
Don't you all think I would have to press into that claim that I'm loving him, not loving him unconditionally?
In fact, I'm not loving him unconditionally.
He's correct.
If he wants to do what he wants to do, and I challenge him, I'm not loving him unconditionally.
So the question is, am I unloving?
Am I acting in an unloving way?
So in light of that, let's look at the text, hopefully briefly, and sort of listen to the words of Jesus.
It helps us to overcome something that at first glance, I mean, we don't really notice it maybe, but at first glance, it's something offensive to a lot of Canadians.
But the part that's offensive is actually deeply important and wise if we want to be able to love.
And here's how it goes.
So it's Mark chapter 12, verses 28 and following.
Mark 12, 28 and following.
And if you're using these little booklets, it's on page 76.
And the context of this is that Jesus has had a series of sort of gotcha types of aggressive questions by members of the elite.
And after a series of aggressive gotcha type questions, which don't work, this fellow has been listening.
And now we actually see somebody asking Jesus an honest question.
Like he's just curious.
He'd like to know the answer.
It's a non-aggressive, non-gotcha question.
And here's how it goes.
Verse 28.
And one of the scribes came up and heard them, that's the different arguments, and heard them disputing with one another.
And seeing that Jesus answered them well, asked them which commandment is the most important of all.
Now just to pause here for a second to remind you, a scribe, what on earth is that?
When you think of this, when you see the word scribe in the New Testament,
think of somebody who sort of is like in our culture would be a lawyer and a public intellectual,
and also someone, imagine somebody high up in the Privy Council, or just high up in the civil service,
maybe an assistant deputy minister or something like that, who has a basic sense about how the system works.
And so when you see the word scribe, think assistant deputy minister, public intellectual, and lawyer,
sort of all move together into one.
Somebody who knows how the system works, can speak into public matters, and is a bit of a legal expert.
So that's who's speaking to Jesus, and he asks them this question,
which commandment is the most important of all?
It's an honest question.
Verse 29.
How does Jesus answer the question?
Now actually, just before I read the answer, if you just pause for a second and think of it from a world perspective,
the answer is not obvious.
Like, if you were to ask people, if you were to do a bit of a survey,
and ask people, what do you think the most important moral command is?
I know one guy, not making this up.
He said, love many, trust few, always paddle your own canoe.
Love many, trust few, always paddle your own canoe.
Look out for number one.
I mean, many people wouldn't come right out and say it bluntly,
but that would in fact be the moral command by which they organize everything else.
Always look out for number one.
And by the way, when I look in a mirror, I'm scene number one.
For many people in the world, like our friend, we have friends here from other culture.
For many places in the world, the main moral command that people would say is,
do not shame your family.
That is the prime moral command.
Do not ever shame your family.
For others, the main command would be, don't let others have power over you.
If you think about it for a second, there's not an obvious answer to this question
as to which moral command is the most important moral command.
So how does Jesus answer it?
Well, he answers it in a way which, at first, is going to be offensive to us,
but actually, if we think about it more, is profoundly wise and helpful.
Verse 29.
Jesus answered,
The most important is,
Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul,
with all your mind, and with all your strength.
And the second is this,
You shall love your neighbors yourself.
There is no other commandment greater than these.
Now, what Jesus does here is he actually quotes from a text in the book of what we now know of as Deuteronomy
and a book that we now know of as Leviticus.
And it's a very small little side point,
but I think it's a really important one to notice.
He doesn't quote, in terms of what's the greatest moral command,
he doesn't quote something from the surrounding culture.
He doesn't quote Plato.
He doesn't quote Aristotle.
He doesn't quote the Stoics.
He quotes the Bible.
Believe it or not,
Augustine,
1600 years ago,
over 1600 years ago,
he wrote a book called On Christian Doctrine.
But it's actually not a book about Christian doctrine.
It's a book about how to interpret the Bible.
And there, he tells you something.
When he's telling you this,
over 1600 years ago,
he's not sharing anything new.
He's basically sharing what people have known for a long time,
how to interpret the Bible.
And one of the keys that has always been the case for Christians about how to interpret the Bible
is that the Bible interprets the Bible.
The Bible interprets the Bible.
That you don't go to Freud.
You don't go to Jung.
You don't go to Jordan Peterson.
You don't go to critical race theorists.
You go to the Bible to interpret the Bible.
And we see that's what Jesus does.
To interpret all of the moral commands,
he goes to the Bible.
And he says,
these two particular Bible texts,
these particular moral commands,
this is the way.
These are the greatest commands.
These are the organizing commands,
so to speak.
And the other thing about it is,
and it's not,
the reason it's not translated this way,
like the translation's fine,
but it misses something which is in the original language,
which can't really be translated grammatically well into English.
And if you see,
look at verse 30 again,
you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul,
with all your mind,
and with all your strength.
You can misinterpret it and think it's instrumental language,
but it's not instrumental language.
It's source language.
In other words,
what it's saying is that out of all of my heart,
flowing from my heart,
all of my heart,
I am to love the Lord my God.
Out of all of my strength,
flowing out of my strength,
I am to love the Lord my God.
Out of all of my mind,
out of all of my soul,
heart,
out of.
The very center,
and by using these four languages,
it's saying out of us.
And it's a very,
very hard thing for us in our culture
to even think about how you love with your mind.
Like it actually sounds like the lead up of a joke
in a comedy special
to talk about loving with our mind.
But that's what Jesus is saying here.
And so in a sense,
because it's trying to capture all of us,
it's also saying that out with all of my money,
with all of my looks,
with all of my job,
with all of my family,
with all of my possessions,
with all of my sexuality,
with all of my time,
with all that who I am,
that out of all of this,
I am to love the Lord my God,
that this is in fact
the first and great commandment.
Now,
do you see the controversial bit
about all of this?
If you don't,
I'm going to circle back to it.
Because the fellow's response to Jesus
helps us to be clearer
about what it is that Jesus has just said.
Look at verse 32.
And the scribe said to Jesus,
you are right, teacher.
Actually, that should be rabbi.
You are right, rabbi.
It's easy for us to forget
that Jesus was Jewish.
You are right, rabbi.
You have truly said
that he, that is God,
is one.
And there is no other besides him.
And to love him,
verse 33,
with all the heart
and with all the understanding,
with all the strength,
and to love one's neighbor
as oneself
is much more,
is much more
than all whole burnt offerings
and sacrifices.
And when Jesus saw
that he had answered wisely,
he said to the scribe,
you are not far
from the kingdom of God.
And after that,
no one dared to ask him
any more questions.
So what's the presenting problem
with how Jesus answered it?
I think if I was to be sharing
this text with a group
of non-Christians,
the thing that would jump out
at them,
which they notice,
but we don't notice it
because we just say it
all the time,
is,
George,
are you saying that only
Christians can be moral?
I mean,
that's what Jesus says,
isn't it?
Look at verse 29.
You know,
what of all the moral commands,
what's the most important
moral command?
Hear, O Israel,
the Lord our God,
the Lord is one.
You shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart,
with all your soul,
with all your mind,
with all your strength.
I mean,
that's offensive.
Like,
Muslims don't agree with that.
Hindus don't agree with that.
Buddhists don't agree with that.
In fact,
actually,
at the time that Jesus said that,
other than Jewish people,
no non-Jewish person
would have agreed with that.
The Romans and the Greeks,
the pagans,
they would have all said,
what do you mean?
To be moral,
I have to believe in this one God,
that he's the only God that exists,
to be moral?
See,
in our day and age,
of course,
we think that these things
are very separate,
that you have your views
of whether God exists,
and then you have your views
on morality,
and you have your views
on justice,
and you have your views
on love,
and these are all
very,
very separate things.
And yet,
Jesus says
that this is the most important
of the commandments,
and the second is like it,
that you love your neighbor
as yourself.
So,
is Jesus saying
that only Christians
can be moral?
Well,
quickly,
no.
He's not saying that.
He's not saying that at all.
Any Christian
who knows their heart,
and any Christian
who knows other Christians,
will know that it's
definitely not the case
that only Christians
are loving or moral,
or that we are more moral
or more loving
than people
who are Muslims
or Buddhists
or Hindus
or atheists
or agnostics.
There's all sorts of reasons
why we do moral acts
and why we fail
to do them,
and the Bible,
Jesus here isn't saying
that unless you believe in God,
you're going to be immoral.
He's not saying this at all.
But,
what he is saying,
if you just take a step back
from it for a second,
is actually something
which we all agree with,
we just don't necessarily
think of it
in terms of
how it connects to God.
So,
just think of it
in terms of this.
Imagine for a moment
that you were in Las Vegas
on a holiday
or for work
or something like that,
and,
you know,
during your,
every time you went down
to the hotel buffet
or whatever
for your meal,
you always notice
these two young guys,
and you notice
these two young guys,
you notice how they talked,
you notice how much
they were drinking,
you notice how they
dealt with other young women
and stuff like that,
and you might roll your eyes
thinking,
yeah,
that's why they say
what goes on in Vegas
stays in Vegas.
And then if afterwards
he discovered
that one of the two of them
was single,
you'd say,
well,
he's probably going
to stay single
if that's how he sort
of lives his life
and deals with,
treats women.
Or if he doesn't stay single,
he should stay single
if that's how he treats women.
But then if you discovered
that the other fellow
was married,
you'd have a very,
very different,
you'd have a very different
set of moral evaluation
of him.
The existence
of the marriage relationship
that you,
that how one person
acts who's single
and how another person
acts who's married,
you're going to have
a very different type
of moral assessment
of them.
So you see,
what you've just established
is you understand
that if there's
a relationship involved,
it changes the moral universe.
And the fundamental claim
that Jesus makes
and that Christian makes
and Christians make
is not that I happen
to like the idea
of the Christian God
more than other ones,
just like I happen
to really like
French vanilla ice cream
more than any other
ice cream flavor.
It's not that,
yeah, you know,
French vanilla ice cream
is the best ice cream flavor.
Barbecue potato chips
are the best type
of barbecue chips
and the triune God
is my favorite type of God.
No, it's not like that at all.
We are making,
Jesus is making a claim
that God the Father,
God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit,
three persons,
one God,
that that God
actually truly exists.
That he exists
just as much
as any one of us exists.
In fact,
not only just as much
but vastly more.
And that therefore,
every human being
has some type of relationship
with that God
whether they realize it or not.
And just as being
in a relationship
changes how you should be
living your moral life,
if there is in fact
a God that does exist,
it should change
how you live your moral life.
We've already accepted
the principle.
To give you
a different example,
imagine that you go off
on a camping trip
or a hiking trip
with some people
from some inveterate
hiker types.
I won't start mentioning names
but you sort of know
who you are.
And you think you're out
on Crown Land
or you believe
you're in Crown Land
and you get a little bit lost.
Maybe more than a little bit lost
but you don't want
to get worried.
And as you're a little bit lost
and you now didn't come back
to your cars
at the right time
but you find
an abandoned building
on Crown Land.
And so you believe
it's an abandoned building.
It looks a little bit run down.
It definitely doesn't look
as well kept up
as your house
and there's nobody around.
And the fact is
you're cold
and et cetera, et cetera
and there's some stuff
in there
so you make yourself
at home in the building
and you maybe even
rip up some of the things
in the house
to make a fire
so you can be warm.
And that's one way
of living
and we would all view
how you live
in that house
in light of the fact
that it's an abandoned
unowned property
on Crown Land.
But if in fact
it turned out
that you had left
Crown Land
you're now
on private property
and this isn't
an abandoned property
but it actually
belongs to somebody.
And then not only
does it belong
to somebody
but that as you
go into the house
and start to make
yourself at home
and start to break up
the furniture
and start to make up
the fire
you hadn't realized
that the owner
of the house
had just been in a bush
a couple hundred yards away
and they come into the house
while you're doing
all of that.
Well you'd understand
that that's a radically
different way of living.
You're not in an abandoned house
you're in a house
that's owned by somebody
and that the owner
is present.
Well it's the exact
same type of thing
with what Jesus is saying.
Once again
if God doesn't exist
then it's
God doesn't exist
we are so wasting
our time here.
Like if he doesn't exist
we should just leave
and go do something fun.
Right?
But if in fact
there is a God
that does exist
and therefore
in a sense
every human being
is called to have
some type of relationship
with him
if the triune God exists
and if this isn't
if the world
that we find ourselves in
isn't abandoned
and with no owner
but there actually
isn't an owner
and he's present
then that has to change
how we live in it.
And to know the owner
or to know the one
that we're in a relationship
with
and what they're like
becomes unbelievably important
if you want to try
to figure out
what it means
to live a good
and moral life
a just life
a life that flourishes
a life of beauty
it matters deeply.
And the second thing though
in fact
if you think about it
for a second
especially
I don't have time
to develop it
but it
you know
as I've said
many times before
only the Christian God
really provides
a proper basis
for love
that from all eternity
the Father
has loved the Son
and the Son
has loved the Father
and the Holy Spirit
has loved the Father
and the Holy Spirit
has loved the Son
and on and on
and on
and only
the Christian God
only the Christian God
is truly a God of love.
And then
doesn't it make sense
that what Jesus said
I'm sort of changing
how he says it
but getting the sense
love
if you want to love
your neighbor
if God is love
then doesn't it make sense
that if God is love
that to love
with all of who you are
love himself
that that will help you
to love your neighbor.
In fact actually
to go even further
because
Jesus is
Emmanuel
he's God with us
he's speaking these words
and it's very interesting
he's speaking these words
not the day
two days before
he closes a business deal
that will make him
the modern equivalent
of a billion dollars.
He's not making
these comments
two days before
he goes to war
and is going to lead
troops in a battle
that will end up
conquering
half of the known world.
He says these things
a day or two
before he dies
on the cross
which is a day or two
before he rises
from the dead.
So if you think about it
doesn't it make sense
that if you want to love
your neighbor as yourself
you need to love
love himself
if you want love's help
to love your neighbor well.
Like that's just wisdom.
Another part of it
that's very very wise
is how it changes
your mental
and spiritual
and emotional
universe
to understand
that God is big
and you are small.
The fact of the matter
is is we live
day by day
assessing
who's big
and who's small
and if our problems
are big
and we feel small
we'll feel
very very anxious
and that big problem
or that big person
ends up dominating
our imagination
and dominating
how we make decisions
and we feel
very very very small
but if God is big
and we are small
that means
that everybody
everything that we're
dealing with
is going to be small
compared to the big God.
See that's why
I think
that
the words of Jesus
which at first
seem sort of offensive
to us
and to our culture
not to Christians
necessarily
are very very wise
because if God is big
and we are small
that begins
as the more we understand
that the more
we grasp
that we are to meditate
upon the fact
that if we want
to live well
justly
and love well
and to be generous
and to be kind
that we need to love
God himself
with all of whom we are
and to love him
properly means
to also understand
just how big he is
that he is the sovereign God
of the entire universe
and that starts
to help us
to be a non-anxious
presence to others
because God
is the biggest thing
the biggest one
not that problem
or not that
particular person
it becomes a guard
against our love
being self-centered
and narcissistic
to understand
that we
ultimately
are dealing
with a God
who is vastly
bigger than us
and bigger than
any problem
we are going to fix
to deal with
I have to
just about
I have to
sort of wrap this up
one of the things
about this text
which is very
very helpful
as well
is
and this also
is a protection
against narcissism
and being self-centered
that if
the more you
meditate upon
this text
you realize
this is really
hard
this is far
harder
than just
keeping some
moral rules
like
what human being
could say
that they have
perfectly loved
the true
and living God
love himself
with all their heart
with all their mind
with all their strength
with all their soul
that they have
done that
forever
that they have
loved their neighbor
as their selves
that this
these two words
of Jesus
they
they should
be heard
in a way
that humbles us
that makes us
realize
that we haven't
been able
to live up
to this standard
yeah yeah yeah
we have been
you know
maybe good at
you know
we have been
an attentive
son
and an attentive
husband
and maybe
an attentive
enough dad
and well liked
at work
and from these
other types
of moral rules
we can look
like we've
accomplished
a very very
high level
but if you hear
these searching
words of Jesus
you realize
that you
haven't
actually lived
by the most
important moral
rules
you haven't
met them
and that therefore
you need a savior
in that very
very first story
that I gave
about the pedophile
one of the
mistakes
that the people
made
when they were
dealing
with me
was that they
sort of tried
to play off
against
justice
the need
to love
unconditionally
I wasn't
to act
in a just
way towards
the victims
because I was
to love
unconditionally
and it's
one of the
things which
is very
confusing
in our
culture
how you
still have
justice
and how you
still have
love
and part
of the
problem
is that
that word
unconditional
love
unconditional
love
means
you don't
think about
justice
that's what
unconditional
means
and so
we're
sort of
caught
in our
culture
increasingly
about how
you combine
justice
with love
and it
seems as if
really you
have to
almost be
bipolar
that you
either have
to be
justice
or you
have to
be
love
but you'll
notice that
Jesus doesn't
say that
love replaces
the commandments
what he says
is that love
of God
and love
of neighbor
is what
all of the
commandments
hang on
these
doesn't mean
that because
of love
sometimes
because of
love you're
not just
or because
of love
you're not
generous
or because
of love
you don't
care for
the poor
no no no
no no
you have
all these
other moral
commandments
often if we
exercise justice
without love
the justice
can be very
very hard
and can be
very very
cruel
and can be
very very
unfeeling
and can forget
about the
real people
who are there
and so what
Jesus is saying
here is that
you remember
the existence
of the triune
God
and you desire
to love him
first and
foremost
he is big
and you are
small
and in light
of that
you love
your neighbor
as yourself
and in light
of that
that's then
how you
sort out
how you
be generous
and how you
be just
and how you
be merciful
and how you
be honest
and how you
be penitent
and how you
be prayerful
and how you
observe Sabbath
and how you
deal with your
wife and with
your children
and how you
deal with
singleness
and how you
deal with
everything
it's not
that love
removes all
the other
commandments
because that
puts us
as a culture
and us as
human beings
and this
crazy type
of thing
where we
either have
to throw
love away
to be just
or you
know
or like
that's just
crazy
but Jesus
says no
no
to the oppressed. Look at the issues of being compassionate towards the poor. Look at the
issues of being generous to the spread of the gospel. Look at all of these other issues,
all from the perspective of love. All from the perspective of love.
Let's bow our heads and... I invite you to stand for a moment. Let's stand and bow our heads in
prayer. Father, we acknowledge before you that when Jesus said these things, he was on his way
to the cross. And Father, we know from Jesus' own words that it was him dying on the cross which
most fully reveals who you are. And it not only most fully reveals, Father, who you are,
but it's also an act by which we are redeemed and made right with you.
Not weighing our merits, you pardon our offenses. Not thinking how wonderful and beautiful we are,
you bestow upon us a wonder and a beauty in the righteousness of Christ which clothes us.
We ask, Lord, that you might fan into flame within us a deep longing and yearning to love you with
all our mind and all our strength and all our soul and all our heart and love our neighbors as
ourselves. And we ask, Father, that you would bring this word home deeply to us as we think about how
to deal with the powerful, how to deal with the weak, how to deal with children, how to deal with the
aged, how to deal with the unborn, how to deal with those close to death, how to deal with those in
great need and those who have much, how to deal with generosity, how to deal with faith, how to deal
with forgiveness, how to deal with taking action when action is called. Father, we ask that these
great principles would be that with the help of your Holy Spirit in the presence of Christ,
that you would form us to be people of love, to live life well for the glory, your great glory,
for our true good, and for the good of our neighbor. And we ask this in the name of Jesus,
your Son and our Savior. Amen.
Amen.