Expounding on the Mission of Jesus through the Great Commandment
Some form of the dual love commandment can be found within every major religious tradition and this includes Islam. As we turn to the Christian articulation of the dual commandment we ask ourselves what it means to love our Muslim neighbors. However, before we do, let us consider first a teaching that is as central to Christianity. Following his summary of ethical teachings known in Luke as the Sermon on the Plain, Jesus concludes by extending the definition of neighborly love to include one’s enemies: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.”[1] Do not simply love those that love you or do good to those who do good to you, but “love your enemies” by doing them good. Here Jesus challenges believers to love their enemies, for in loving one’s enemy, both real and perceived, they will no longer be enemies. What is more, as Martin Accad rightly contends, “Jesus’ definition of ‘neighbor’ extends to one’s enemies because considering everyone a neighbor precludes anyone’s becoming an enemy!”[2]
Before Luke moves to extend the definition of neighbor to include the religious other, it would seem that the author assumes that, where this practice has not been established in his community, it is because the religious other is characterized as an enemy. Here Jesus insists that even if this is the case believers must, as Accad concludes, “practice love towards persons whom history and social conventions have identified as […] enemies”[3] In the case of Christian believers in Middle Tennessee, the contextual circumstances would have them identify their Muslim neighbors as their conventional enemy, and yet, Jesus calls for said believers to “do them good” in the spirit of Christian love.
Where this interpretation might fall short is that it could lend support to the notion that Islam is indeed an enemy of Christianity; though as I have mentioned above, I do not believe this to be the case. However, when challenging an ideology that assumes that this is a given reality, I believe that Jesus’ call to love them anyway effectively problemetizes the notion that Christian believers are permitted to do the Muslim community ill on the grounds that they are an enemy. It appropriately sidesteps the debate over whether or not Muslims are friend or foe and in so doing effectively undermines the ideology that perpetuates hostility towards the religious other.
With our definition of “neighbor” already taking definitive shape, we move now to the Great Commandment, wherein the Gospel of Mark’s account opens with a scribe asking Jesus which of God’s commandments is the most important. Jesus responds with the recital of the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4), a traditional prayer that was foundational to the upbringing of any devout first century Palestinian Jew, saying: “The first is, 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.'”[4] Jesus continues his response by providing another, seemingly distinct commandment, ‘“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these.” When the scribe hears this he concedes that Jesus has answered satisfactorily; indeed the love of neighbor is the greatest demonstration of love to God, even above the priestly duties of presenting “burnt offerings and sacrifices"[5] to God. Jesus replies, "You are not far from the Kingdom of God (read: Reign of Radical Kenotic Love)."[6] Prioritizing religious allegiance for the sake of religious allegiance is transcended when one is moved to love neighbor as a demonstration of one’s love for God.
It is my contention that “the Great Commandment” describes love of God, love of neighbor, and love of self to be equally important objectives; what is more, I deduce that love for God is profoundly and mystically connected to love for one’s neighbor as one’s self. Indeed, I maintain that these acts are one and the same. When I love my neighbor as myself, I am loving God. Love is God and “God is Love.” (see note >) [7] John Thatamanil adds something important to the way I understand this dynamic when he says, “We are made for the mystery of divinity and the truest thing we can say about that mystery is to name it love—all other words fall short.”[8] It is this sacred synergy (συνεργός) that I believe gets to the heart of both the Great Commandment and the Gospel message and Mission of Jesus.
In the case of both Matthew and Mark, Jesus responds to questioning with the Great Commandment. However, in Luke’s presentation Jesus responds to the religious authority’s question with a question and it is the religious authority (the lawyer) who delivers the Great Commandment. Indeed, when the layer asks Jesus, ‘“What must I do to inherit eternal life,’”[9] Jesus tests him by asking what the tradition teaches. It is inquirer now who answers with the recital of the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4). To this Jesus reacts affirmatively saying that the inquirer has “given the right answer” and he goes on to challenge him to follow through saying, “do this, and you will live.”[10] The inquirer already knows what he must do because it is so central to the practice of his faith tradition.
I believe that this feature is essential to Luke’s presentation of Jesus’ message of love for neighbor, which is only brought to completion when it includes the religious other (see note >).[11] What is more, according to the Gospel of Luke, just after Jesus delivers the dual commandment, the text says that the individual, “wanting to justify himself [asks] Jesus, ‘[…] who is my neighbor?’”[12] Assuming to already know the answer, this inquirer seeks to demonstrate his righteousness; however, Jesus provides an unexpected response when he offers a parable wherein the morel exemplar, the one who is justified, turns out to be a Samaritan. As such, I contend that this parable seeks to challenge the cultural stereotypes of Jesus’ day and to provoke the hearer to think twice about her/his own criteria for judging others. Not unlike Jesus’ other parables, we have a scenario that plays out contrary to the way the hearer would expect; complete with actors that refuse to be pigeonholed to fit their social profile.
Thus, in this story the Samaritan (the religious “other”) is cast as the “good neighbor,” whereas one would expect Jesus to have cast the wounded Jew on the side of the road as a wounded Samaritan, and the “good neighbor” as a merciful Jew who understood what it meant to ‘love one’s neighbor as one’s self.’ Instead Jesus seems to be challenging the members of his faith tradition to look beyond the boundaries of Judaism; not just to signal that the neighbor that one should ‘love as one’s self’ is the religious “other,” or to demonstrate that one doesn’t have to be Jewish (or Christian!) to be a “good neighbor,” but most importantly, Jesus insists that there are examples of individuals demonstrating incredible acts of love for God and neighbor outside of one’s religious tradition, which are worthy of our recognition and emulation. Indeed, I have something to learn from those who inhabit other faith traditions that can and will help me practice my own tradition more faithfully!!!
[1] Luke 6:27
[2] Mirsolav Volf, Ghazi bin Muhammad, Melissa Yarrington, (editors), A Common Word; Muslims and Christians on Loving God and Neighbor, (Michigan/Cambridge: Eerdmans, 2010), 158.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Mark 12:28-34
[5] Mark 12.33
[6] Mark 12.34
[7] The following passage from 1John conveys this dynamic as well: “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love…No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them…Those that say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also” (1John 4.7-8, 12, 16, 20-21).
[8] Anonymous.
[9] Luke 10:26
[10] Luke 10:28
[11] Though I have offered believers an interpretation of Luke’s Parable of the Good Samaritan, which warns them not to be like the lawyer who asks Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29), I would like to lift up a positive narrative figure that believers should be encouraged to imitate. Through the story of the blessing of the Faithful Centurion, Luke offers an example of mutual interreligious understanding and hospitality that demonstrates the kind of love for one’s neighbor that the Parable of the Good Samaritan strives to teach. As the story goes, there is a Centurion officer with a sick servant living in Capernaum. When he hears that Jesus has come to Capernaum the Centurion sends some of the local Jewish elders to ask Jesus to come to his home and heal his servant. In their appeal to Jesus, the elders relay two key details about the Centurion that believers need to pay close attention to: He is described as worthy of Jesus’ attention because, in the words of the elders, “[1] he loves our people, and [2] it is he who built our synagogue for us” (Luke 7:5).
Before Jesus arrives to heal the servant Luke tells us that the Centurion sends friends to stop Jesus from coming into his home because he believes that he is unworthy to receive him there. What is more, he believes Jesus has the power to heal his servant from a distance. This takes a tremendous amount of faith on the part of the Centurion, which is why Jesus declares ‘“I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith’” (Luke 7:9). Ironically, because of Jesus’ praises of the Faithful Centurion’s unparalleled faith in God, it may be the case that the believers in my context already seek to emulate this figure. In addition to his faith in the power of God to work through Jesus, however, the Centurion would have known that because Jesus was a Jew he would have been rendered ceremonially unclean had he been allowed to enter his household—the home of a Gentile. As such, in addition to faith, I would like to lift up for emulation the Centurion’s willingness to acquire knowledge about the beliefs and practices of the religious other, a knowledge that he deploys with respect and admiration for Jesus and the members of his tradition. Indeed, this demonstrates why he is considered a lover of the Jewish people, and most shockingly, further demonstrates this love by paying for the construction of their place of worship. The Faithful Centurion is a model co-inter-religionist, one who has not made an idol of his own tradition and thus is free to love, value, learn from, and support the religious other.
[12] Luke 10.29
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