“Matthew 22:34-40 : The Greatest of These Is Love”
Pastor Deb Troester, STHPC, Oct. 22, 2023
We’ve all heard of the Ten Commandments. Think of the classic Cecil B. DeMille film starring Charlton Heston, in which Moses descends Mount Sinai carrying two great tablets of stone with the commandments engraved on them. Most of us could probably list them, or at least most of them - although maybe not in order. But there are actually many more than ten commandments written in the Bible. In fact, in the Torah alone – that’s the first five books of the Bible – there are some 613 commandments. According to Bible scholar John J. Pilch, 248 are positive (“Thou shalt” commandments) and 365 are negative (“Thou shalt not”). Pilch goes on to explain that “Some teachers distinguished between ‘heavy’ and ‘light’ commandments. The “Ten” are examples of heavy or serious commandments. An example of a light or less serious commandment is Deuteronomy 22:6-7, which stipulates that a person who finds a bird’s next with a mother sitting on eggs or with young may take the young [or the eggs] but must let the mother go.”
Matthew tells us that the person who asked Jesus which commandment is the greatest wanted to test him, that is, trap him or trip him up. Yet, it seems reasonable to ask a famous rabbi, such as Jesus, his opinion as to which of the commandments was the most important.
What would you have answered? Maybe you would choose the first one: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me,” or maybe “Thou shalt not kill.” Early Christians refused to belong to the Roman Army for that reason, but later Christians were allowed to kill if they were fighting in a “just war,” as defined by St. Augustine – that is fighting for a just cause, and as a last resort, after diplomacy has failed - a subject for another day, perhaps. Maybe some would choose, “Thou shalt not covet” as the most important commandment. After all, coveting another’s belongings or money can lead to stealing or even killing to get what you want. Plenty of armed robberies end in murder. So, which commandment is the most important?
Jesus reaches back to the Torah to the book of Deuteronomy 6:4-5: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” And he added a second commandment, from Leviticus 19:18: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Then he made an astounding statement: “On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” Or, as some other translations put it, all the laws of Moses and the writings of the prophets are based on these two commandments. Thus, he clarified the basis for all of God’s commandments and gave us a key for interpreting them: everything we do must be based on love: love of God and love of neighbor.
So, Jesus’ answer to the question “What is the greatest Commandment?” is “love” – the law of love. Love not as a feeling, but love as in doing good to others, respecting all people as made in the image of God, refusing to harm them, wishing them well, praying for them. Most of all, this kind of love means action. As it says in 1 John 3:17-18: “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother or sister in need but has no compassion on them, how can the love of God be in that person?
Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” And Jesus made it clear that when we love one another, we are also showing our love for God. As he said, “As you did it to one of the least of these, you did it unto me.”
In my recent travels in Cameroon, I saw a lot of love put into action. I visited the Maternity Clinic in Buea where our church, along with others, has donated equipment, baby quilts and clothing, as well as baby products and toiletries for the moms, so that women can give birth in a safe, clean environment, attended by midwives and doctors. The clinic we are helping happens to be a public clinic, but for over a century now Presbyterians have been building clinics, hospitals, and schools in Cameroon. I visited one of the larger hospitals, Bepanda Presbyterian Health Complex and Eye Clinic in Douala. They see about 400 patients a week in the hospital, and a similar number in the eye clinic, which also performs eye surgeries. In fact, it is one of the best places in Cameroon to have eye surgery. The Presbyterian Church in Cameroon runs six hospitals or health complexes and 19 clinics or dispensaries.
Presbyterians have a tradition of emphasizing education. In the early days of the church there, with the Basel mission, whenever a new congregation was built, a school was also built. By 1925, there were over 100 schools. Nowadays between preschools, elementary schools, and high schools, there are some 1300 Presbyterian schools in Cameroon. Some of you sitting here this morning attended Presbyterian schools when you were young. Building schools and hospitals is love in action, one way the church fulfills the two greatest commandments.
Individuals also show God’s love through caring actions. I met someone who has taken in a child, a girl named Esther, whose family fled the violence in Northwestern Cameroon. They had become IDP’s – internally displaced persons, refugees inside their own country. Even though she was ten years old, Esther had never attended a day of school in her life. The fighting and unrest had caused all the schools in her area to be closed the past several years. The family who took her in are going to pay for her schooling and make sure she has enough to eat. Even though she was ten, she looked more like seven or eight.
She was thin and a bit scrawny due to lack of nourishment. I think soon she will be looking a lot healthier.
On the other side of the country, while visiting the Lutheran Church in Cameroon to celebrate their 100th anniversary, I heard the amazing story of a young boy, an epileptic, who was shunned by the whole community because of his illness. One day he had a seizure while crossing the road. He fell to the ground and was unable to move. No one came to help him. A car hit him and broke his leg. Fortunately the man driving the car was a missionary, who picked him up and took him to the hospital. That missionary also suffered epilepsy, but it was controlled by medication. He helped the boy to get proper treatment and the child’s life improved. Yet his community still did not accept him.
But God was not done with him. About ten years later, Bible translators came to his village. One of them was an acquaintance of mine, Bob Ulfers. Bob remembers this young man approaching him and his wife Jazmin. This was a godsend. Bob needed someone to help him with the Karang language translation of the Bible. The boy, by now a young man, offered to help.
Because of his epilepsy, he had not been able to work, so he had time to sit with Bob and Jazmin as they worked on the Karang Bible. He helped them with difficult phrases and passages, making sure that the language sounded natural and not stilted. In 2021 the Karang New Testament was finished and distributed to the Karang people amid great rejoicing. Because of one man’s kindness to a young boy, that boy was later able to help his entire tribe to receive God’s word. More love in action.
I met many people in Cameroon who had given much of their lives to helping others – from the moderator of the Presbyterian Church, Rev. Dr. Samuel Fonki and his wife, Rev. Dr. Perpetua Fonki, to the young woman who heads up the Presbyterian Church’s HIV-AIDS project, Rita Mbabane. That program reaches 6000 patients every year, providing anti-retroviral treatment and other medical support as they struggle to live normal lives. The program has also reached some 150,000 young people with HIV-AIDS educational information. Love in action.
I reconnected with an old friend, Pastor Jackie from South Dakota. She is now working as a volunteer nurse in a Baptist hospital in Mbingo, in Northwest Cameroon.
She told me of an experience she had had some years before in Goma, in the Congo. Some fifteen years ago, rebels attacked the city. 200,000 people fled, and Jackie was to leave in her Land Cruiser with the rest of the aid workers and missionaries. She was last in line. Suddenly out of the corner of her eye she saw a Catholic nun running toward her down the street, waving her down. She made the split-second decision to turn around and pick her up. More nuns were behind her, fleeing the rebels. She took them to the bishop’s house, where they hid for several terror-filled days, hoping not to be discovered. When the fighting was over, she drove the nuns to safety across the border then returned for a second carload of people. They all made it safely out. I told her I didn't know what I would have done if that had been me. She literally risked her life to save her Catholic sisters.
Thankfully, most of us will not be called upon to risk our lives to show our love for our neighbors. But most of us will have many opportunities to reach out and share the love of Christ with others. As Saint Francis of Assisi said, “Preach the gospel at all times and if necessary, use words.”
Of course, the good news is that God loves us no matter what. We don’t have to follow 613 laws to gain God’s approval, or even ten, or two, for that matter. But God so loved the world, that he sent his only Son, so that all who believe in him might not perish, but have eternal life. The problem is, a lot of people don’t believe in this God of love because those who claim to follow Him don’t act in loving ways.
There is so much suffering in the world. We are heartbroken by the loss of life among innocent civilians in both Israel and Palestine. We are discouraged by the continuing war in Ukraine, and saddened by the continuing violence in Cameroon, although maybe things are getting a bit better there. Even here in our own country, there are over 100 gun-related deaths each day, and nearly 300 people a day die from preventable drug overdoses. There is enough pain to go around. But doing something gives us hope. Loving God and loving our neighbors is what Jesus told us to do. People will not always thank us or respond in kind, or be transformed by our love, but following Jesus means loving others – with our actions, not just our words. What will you do today – what will we do as a church – to show God’s love to someone? Amen.
© Deborah Troester, 2023