Neighbour love (Mark 12:28-34)

I read this week that we need to love the “lost” as much as we love God!

This doesn’t mean of course that we love God less … to pull this love down to the level of our comfort of loving other people!

It must mean pulling up our level of love toward other people!!

We don’t want to use the term “lost” in a superior or arrogant or prideful way. It’s just that people can and do struggle without knowledge of and relationship with their Creator. A sense of “lost-ness” is bound to appear eventually.

This leads my thinking to the famous passage at Mark 12:28-34 (also in Matthew 22 & Luke 10).

Interesting points:

Ø  The question asked of Jesus by the seeker scribe seems to want to point to just one commandment or principle, but Jesus is quick to add the second ‘neighbour love’ commandment to the first, as though they are an inseparable double commandment – sharply Jesus says, “the second is this …” (v.31). Then we read Jesus saying, “There is no other commandment greater than these” – obviously meaning “these” taken together!

Ø  This particular scribe does not argue this point with Jesus, but rather, and maybe a bit unexpectedly, says, “You are right” (v.32)! So this gives me encouragement that when a point is made that makes so much sense as Jesus did here, and when it is so grounded in good ethical thinking, that it becomes really impressive and insightful and impacting, and even ultimately transforming. Oh to speak the truth so clearly and helpfully as Jesus does! Because this seeker scribe has come on board with this teaching, he is now viewed by Jesus in a very favourable light – “You are not far from the Kingdom of God” (v.34).

Ø  To add ‘neighbour love’ to one’s love toward God, gives significant understanding to the sort of love God requires (especially in the light of the coming of Jesus into the world). A focus on love of neighbour stands well and truly above any old religious “whole burnt offerings and sacrifices” (v.33). For these tended to be just external or outer pretences and attempted showings of holiness far in excess of what was truly happening inside of people in terms of their real level of love toward God. A person can easily maintain a deep selfishness on the inside while pretending to be so virtuous on the outside. These so-called “sacrifices” had become so regimented and trivial as to mean nothing! Offering certain “sacrifices” or an external show of holiness became comfortable habits rather than leading to a more faithful life. And often they were pointed to in an attempt to lift status, when really they were signs of hypocrisy. Jesus pointed to this in terms of prayer and fasting in Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18. Interesting that these verses are positioned right before and after the sharing of the ‘Lord’s Prayer’!

So where will the rubber hit the road?

‘Neighbour love’, defined through mercy and compassion, stands superior to any type of empty religious gesture. Some eight centuries before Jesus, the biblical prophet Hosea had already spoken about this, but maybe to largely deaf ears … “For I desire [i.e. God desires] steadfast love and not sacrifice; the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings” (Hosea 6:6).

And we know that while “love thy neighbour” was often interpreted and applied in a very limited or narrow way, in Luke’s Gospel Jesus broadened the definition of neighbour right out to include traditional ‘enemies’ (Luke 10:29-37).

What does it mean to love anyway?? Whether this is toward God or anyone else?

Ø    To appreciate, delight in, hold dear, be inclined towards; to be committed and devoted to; to honour and respect.

We know this ‘neighbour love’, and by connection, this love for God, has to be a tangible active love. The sort of desires for good outcomes that we have for ourselves are likewise hoped for and expressed towards others (whether or not we have yet experienced them for ourselves). This is what it means to “love your neighbour as yourself” (v.31). You want it to happen for yourself, so you likewise want it to happen for others. This determines our attitudes and motivations in prayer and in action. {If we happen to be in a place where we don’t think much of ourselves, that is when we need to remind ourselves of how much God loves and values us … look at the cross, and then see this as applying to everyone else as well.} Other people’s needs are no less than our own. “If we love our neighbours as we love ourselves, we shall want for them the treatment we should want for ourselves, were we in their place” (Mitton). This would then lead on to a consideration of how others are treated by certain government policies or indeed lack of policies (and what we may need to do about this on behalf of them).

The ‘Welcome to Australia’ prayer (from the ‘Welcome Centre’ based in Adelaide) captures all this beautifully –

May all that we have in common quiet the fear of our differences.

May our generosity overwhelm our greed; may selfish ambition give way to selfless service. 

May an addiction to compassion replace our commitment to cruelty. 

May all people know they are valued beyond measure through our words, our attitude, our actions and our legislation.

May Australia become all that it can be - welcoming, humanising and dignifying to all people without prejudice - and may each of us commit to living the change we'd like to see in the world this year.

Some brief thoughts about being a neighbour:

Ø  Not bemoaning lack of interest in our ‘agenda’, but showing greater interest in their lives, situations and needs. After all, many people have rejected what they have observed of Christianity rather than what Christianity actually should be. We have to offer some new living perspectives … not based on judgmental and critical attitudes, but rather on grace.

Ø  Not being exclusive or trying to do things in isolation, but finding ways of partnering or working with others on common interests – asking ourselves the questions … how can we help, and what can our unique contribution be. This includes an allowance for mutuality – allowing others to help us.

Ø  If the challenge seems too large, and the broadened definition of “neighbour” too big, then we may have to break this down to those we already know, and those that we naturally see and interact with, and the issues that concern them. There will still be enough of those that we find it hard to see eye-to-eye with, to place a test upon our sincerity of loving God!