No. 08. “Isn’t This Impossible?”
Oct 26 2008 Bothwell and Clachan
Jesus Wants Me to Do What? - No. 08. “Isn’t This Impossible?”
Matthew 22:34-46
Introduction
As you know from listening today’s Bible reading we are dealing with Jesus’ impossible command found in Matthew 22:34-46 to first love God with everything we have and then to love our neighbours as we would wish to be loved. I am going to begin this message by sharing a story related by King Duncan in a sermon on the Internet. It is about Charles Colson. Like me, some of you may have read his books or seen him on Christian Television. My father and uncle heard him speak a number of years ago at a Baptist Church in downtown Regina and were very impressed with his compassions for prisoners.
Charles Colson
Many of you remember Colson from the 1970’s as the political hatchet man for U. S. President Richard Nixon. While he was serving as special counsel to the President, Colson seemed to be a despicable man, seemingly without a conscience. Then, quite remarkably, Chuck Colson had a thorough and complete conversion experience. It was in 1973 during the height of the Watergate proceedings. Please don’t be suspicious. This conversion experience was no ploy to keep Colson out of jail. In fact, he refused a plea bargain and pleaded guilty to a crime no one knew he had committed. Judge John Sirica subsequently sentenced Colson to the maximum prison term permitted under federal law.[1]
After his release from federal prison, Colson founded the Prison Fellowship Ministry, which reaches out to men and women in prisons throughout the world. For those of us who might continue to be suspicious of Colson’s commitment to Christ, we need to know that over the thirty plus years since his release, Colson has given the royalties from all his speeches, books and awards to the Prison Fellowship Ministry. This includes the prestigious $1 million Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion as well as the royalties from the sale of five million copies of his twenty-three books.[2]
In Colson’s books, he often tells about his experiences in prisons. Some of these stories tug strongly at the heart. For example, in his book, Being The Body, Colson tells about the time he and a close friend, businessman and philanthropist Jack Eckerd visited a women’s prison in Russia. All the inmates, says Colson, were dressed in threadbare babushkas and ragged long dresses. The cell‑blocks were freezing and full of mud. Colson and Eckerd were able to talk with many of the women, including several who spoke English.
When they arrived at the mess hall, however, with its long rows of wooden tables and its dirty floor, they noticed that none of the inmates looked up. They had been trained to keep their eyes down. It was a very controlled and intimidating atmosphere.
But Jack Eckerd did something the Russian handlers hadn’t planned on. Colson described Eckerd, who is now with Christ, as a tall, lanky, irrepressible lion of a man who loved Christ and was not intimidated by anybody. Eckerd walked over to where the cooks were ladling out the food. It was a grayish‑green stew dumped over a scoop of rice. It smelled dreadful.
Jack Eckerd, whose family owned the Eckerd Drug chain and could afford any pleasure he desired, leaned down, smiled broadly, and asked the server, “So! How’s the food in here?”
“Oh, no,” Colson thought, “She’s going to offer us some. And we’re going to have to eat it.”
Colson’s doctor had told him to avoid foods of unknown origins on that trip. And this prison gruel was definitely unknown. The chunks sticking out of it looked like no animal Colson was acquainted with.
Colson writes, “The next thing I knew, my fears came true. The woman heaped a huge serving onto a plate for Jack . . . and then smiled and ladled an even bigger portion for me. I did the only thing any of us would have done in those circumstances,” says Colson. “I thanked her. Then Jack and I walked over to one of the wooden tables and joined the inmates there. (The government officials all stood back, stunned. None of them touched the food.)” Eckerd and Colson bowed their heads and prayed. Colson said it was the most fervent grace he had ever uttered in his life. He asked God to sanctify that food and save him from every microbe lurking within it.
“The moment we started to eat,” Colson goes on to report, “the atmosphere in that dismal prison dining hall was transformed. Inmates got up from other tables and joined us. People laughed and spoke with us. Some of the women showed us the crosses that they wore around their necks. Even the ones who did not speak English knew that because we were eating their food, breaking bread with them, we were one with them.”[3]
Duncan concludes: Chuck Colson and Jack Eckerd gave the women in that prison a very special gift that day. They identified with them. They entered their experience and connected with them.
Jesus’ Quick Thinking - Matthew 22:34-46
It is probably obvious from our Bible reading that we are talking about love today, a costly love. The same type of love that helped give those two men the brave willingness to eat gruel served in the primitive conditions of a Russian prison.
If you have been here over the last few weeks we have been tracing Jesus’ last steps before he was crucified. Those last days were filled with one challenge after another. Last week we looked at the attempt by some of the religious and political leaders to get Jesus into trouble as they asked him about the payment of taxes. One story we didn’t deal with involved religious experts quizzing Jesus on the resurrection (which they didn’t even believe it). That was the sad story in which a lady marries seven times but each husband dies. So who will be her husband in heaven, they ask? One commentator has written that if this story was true the Jerusalem C.S.I. should have investigated her as a possible serial killer. After all, seven husbands dying in a row? It’s very suspicious![4]
But Jesus could obviously “think on his feet” and he goes on to win every one of these verbal contests.
On this third occasion writes J. Vernon McGee[5], the Pharisees have a huddle, they plan a strategy and put forth this very clever lawyer, that is, a scribe, an expert in the Mosaic Law, to propound a question: “What commandment is the greatest?”
Jack Hayford explains that the test behind this question (v. 36) is that of trying to get Jesus to repudiate some of the commandments through a careless answer, which would validate their claim that He was destroying the Law (see Matt. 5:17).[6]
Bible Background
Warren Wiersbe explains that they were not even asking Jesus a new question; the scribes had been debating this one for centuries. They had documented 613 commandments in the Law, 248 positive and 365 negative. No person could ever hope to know and fully obey all of these commandments. So, to make it easier, the experts divided the commandments into “heavy” (important) and “light” (unimportant). A person could major on the “heavy commandments” and not worry about the trivial ones.[7]
But Len Sweet writes that: The real question they wanted answered is better stated this way: “How can we stack the deck in our favor?” You can almost hear the sub-text: Jesus, tell us the biggest fish, the best bet, the most “bang for the buck” in terms of Torah law.
Oxymorons in the Bible
But Jesus’ reply, while taken from the Torah, was more than a trump card. It was more than a “bigger law.” Jesus changed the whole foundation of the question, from “law” to “love.” The “law of love” was one of Jesus’ greatest oxymorons, right up there with “suffering savior” and “crucified Christ.” Love can never be a law. It can only ever be love, the greatest, most powerful and most accessible divine force in the universe.[8]
Old Testament Backgrounder
Avoiding the trap, Jesus talked about the underlying principle behind the whole Law. He quotes Deuteronomy 6:5, which by then was part of a Jewish confession of faith that consists of three passages (Num. 15:37–41; Deut. 6:4–6; 11:13–21). It was prayed twice daily by pious Jews.
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” Heart, soul, and mind seem…to so overlap that we should not make too much of the distinctions. Jesus’ intent is to show that people are to love the Lord (their) God with the totality of their being.[9] Jesus then goes on to link this with love of neighbour found in Leviticus 19:18 where after warning against taking revenge Moses writes, “but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.” Many have noted that by joining these two together into one commandment Jesus has effectively summarized the intent of the entire Ten Commandments given by God to Moses; both the vertical relationship we are to have with God and the horizontal relationship we are to have with one another. Jesus appears to have been the first to have joined these two commandments together, and made them become one. He deliberately put God first however, and mankind second; the reason is this: people only become lovable when we love God.
Wiersbe concludes: The scribe who had asked the original question seemed to be an honest and sincere man. Not all of the Pharisees were hypocrites. In Mark’s account of this story, he publicly agreed with Jesus’ answer (Mark 12:32–33). This must have given his fellow Pharisees a fright. Jesus discerned that the man’s heart was sincere, and He commended him for his intelligence and honesty.[10]
Ralph Milton summarizes in his weekly eZine “Rumours,” The point is clear. Those religious leaders have all the right answers. Pay attention to them. But take it one step further and “walk the talk.” Because when all is said and done, a lot more is said than done.[11]
Compartments
Jon Courson, in his Application Commentary explains our challenge of trying to both love God and our neighbour by using the example of a TV dinner. He writes: The problem is, most of us separate the two (God and neighbour) because of our “TV dinner” spirituality. In a TV dinner, the Salisbury steak, peas, mashed potatoes, and cherry cobbler are all in separate compartments. And that’s just what we do spiritually. “Oh yes, I love God,” we say. “I’m going to worship Sunday night.” But on Monday we call our boss an idiot behind his back, and on Wednesday we complain about how our neighbor idles his car too early in the morning. Yet Sunday finds us worshiping the Lord once again. We compartmentalize our lives thinking that how we treat people has nothing to do with our relationship with God.[12]
Conclusions
As we wind down this morning we should keep in mind the context of Jesus answer. In reminding us that it was a part of a discussion on the greatest commandment, Michael Green writes: I think it is fair to conclude that no one has ever loved God with all his being, nor has anybody has ever totally loved her neighbour as herself. And based on that admission, nobody can possibly merit eternal life. Once again, it brings us back to grace, that over whelming gracious and forgiving love God has for us. If we are to have any place in the kingdom of God, it will be due to the unmerited grace of God for sinners who could never make it by themselves.
And the order Jesus puts them in is also very significant; first there is the opening of one’s life to God, followed by the opening of one’s life to his neighbor. Thus the two are like two hinges on a door, and so belong together as the New Law, the new commandment.[13] What a marvelous definition of true religion this is! If there is real love for God, there will inevitably be real love for neighbour; God’s overflowing love is infectious.[14] Nothing must be held back because God holds nothing back. [15]
Loving Others As We Would Be Loved
Last week we were all brought face to face with a very practical response that reflects this Biblical teaching by a young girl who is a part of our Church family. She seems to have made the difficult leap past the compartmentalization that Courson warns us about. Jessica Allen is about 8 years old and although she is not famous like Charles Colson, she has discovered something about loving her neighbours, on a very practical level. Like Colson and his friend, she too has identified with a group needing to experience practical love in action. The decision she made and the action she took was written up this week in our local Spirit of Bothwell newspaper, titled: Bothwell girl sees cancer’s impact in kids and adults. The article states that her beginning motivation came from seeing cancer’s impact on her grandmother. It inspired her to cut her long hair and donate the thick ponytails to the Angel Hair for Kids program. They use it to create and provide wigs for children who have lost their hair because of cancer or other medical conditions.
Jessica says she thought: ‘What would it be like if a kid has cancer and lost their hair?’”
Jessica says she figured she had “lots of hair that I could share with the kids who don’t, so I decided to cut my hair to give to them.”
She also has a challenge for the rest of us: “I think that if everybody helps out we can help those people who are sick and doesn’t have the money or feel good to do things for themselves,” Jessica said.
With great wisdom she concludes: “One day we might be sick and need help from other people.[16]
After saying that we are to love God with all that we have, Jesus says, “Love your neighbour as yourself,” that is “As you would wish to be loved.”
I think that Jessica “gets it,” don’t you? Do I hear someone commenting about “out of the mouth of babes…” As some of you are aware, she attends our Monday Night Kid’s Club. If she were here this morning I know that she could sing the words to our closing hymn and mean each one of them. It is “Take My Life and Let It Be” and can be found at #281.
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[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Colson.
[2] http://www.pfm.org/Bio.asp?ID=43.
[3] (Nashville, TN: W Publishing Group, 2003), pp. 342-343.
[4] Tasting the Gruel of Love, by King Duncan, eSermons
[5] J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible Commentary, Based on the Thru the Bible Radio Program., electronic ed. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1997, c1981), 4:118.
[6] Jack W. Hayford, His Name Is Jesus : Life and Power in the Master's Ministry. A Study of Matthew, Mark and Luke., c1995 by Jack W. Hayford., Spirit-Filled Life Bible Discovery Guides (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1997, c1995).
[7] Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, "An Exposition of the New Testament Comprising the Entire 'BE' Series"--Jkt. (Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books, 1996, c1989), Mt 22:34.
[8] The 2 Love Laws, by Leonard Sweet, Leonard Sweet Sermons, Leonard Sweet, ChristianGlobe Networks, Inc., 2008, 0-000-1415
[9] Jack W. Hayford, His Name Is Jesus : Life and Power in the Master's Ministry. A Study of Matthew, Mark and Luke., c1995 by Jack W. Hayford., Spirit-Filled Life Bible Discovery Guides (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1997, c1995).
[10] Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, "An Exposition of the New Testament Comprising the Entire 'BE' Series"--Jkt. (Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books, 1996, c1989), Mt 22:34.
[11] R U M O R S # 524, Ralph Milton’s E-zine for people of faith with a sense of humor 2008-10-19
[12]Jon Courson, Jon Courson's Application Commentary (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2003), 164.
[13]Myron S. Augsburger and Lloyd J. Ogilvie, vol. 24, The Preacher's Commentary Series, Volume 24 : Matthew, Formerly The Communicator's Commentary, The Preacher's Commentary series (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson Inc, 1982), 18.
[14]Michael Green, The Message of Matthew : The Kingdom of Heaven (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, Ill., U.S.A.: Inter-Varsity Press, 2000, c1988), 237.
[15]Bruce B. Barton, Matthew, Life application Bible commentary (Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers, 1996), 442.
[16] Posted By Jodi Robb/The Spirit, Bothwell girl sees cancer’s impact in kids and adults,
Article ID# 1259638, http://www.spiritofbothwell.com/