This Is What Being A Christian Is All About

Yesterday's readings defined for us what Church is. Today's readings define how we are to treat one another as members of this Church.  In the first reading for this Sunday, we are told to treat everyone with kindness, not to abuse immigrants, not to take advantage of widows and orphans and not to take advantage of others with the example of usury being given as one thing not to do.  God also tells us that if we abuse widows and orphans that His wrath will rise up and make our relatives widows and orphans.  In the Gospel reading, Jesus is asked what the greatest commandment is.  He rightfully quotes the first commandment, we are commanded to love God and he quotes the second commandment, we are to love our neighbor not just a little bit, but as we love ourselves.  Jesus tells us that in these two commandments is the whole of the law of God. The eight remaining commandments tell us exactly how we are to execute the requirements that God has given us. 

It is not easy to perfectly follow the ten commandments.  The old testament Hebrews were always finding themselves at odds with one or another of the commands.  Their solution was to flesh out the commandments of God with more and more rules to follow.  They would split hairs and split them again. They had rules for everything.  For example, they had the rule that no one could walk further than two-thousand cubits on the Sabbath. That meant that you could walk about two-thirds of a mile.  The intent of this rule was two-fold.  First, it kept the Sabbath as a day of rest and secondly, it kept you close to the temple or synagogue so that you could spend your time wisely.  Even today in Israel the modern Jews can be very scrupulous when it comes to rest on the Sabbath.  Elevators stop on every floor of a high rise so they do not have to push a button for that is considered work.  Some families hire non-Jewish help for the Sabbath so that lights can be turned on or off for the act of making a spark would be considered work. 

Now that is how we humans are.  We have a tendency to take things that are simple and turn them into things that can be incredibly complex. That is okay, I guess, because some of the rules and regulations we have to follow, both religious and non-religious have to be fleshed out some so that what is expected at minimum is known to all.  But, if the truth is to be known, if we work on the first two commandments, if we truly set out sights on observing them as perfectly as we can, then the whole of the law of God will be observed because if we are doing all to love God and love our neighbor, we will not be doing the other things that the commandments forbid. Perhaps the law can be made even simpler as elsewhere in scripture it is written that we should do unto others what we would have them do unto us.   That is what being a follower of Jesus is all about.  What Jesus wants from us is to show the same love to others as He has shown to us.  He went to the cross as a victim, taking our place and paying our penalty.  We are to imitate Him and carry our cross and bear the burdens of others as best as we can. What we cannot carry on our own, He will help us carry.