Holy Week - Tuesday
HOLY TUESDAY
The Greatest Commandments
Love as the fulfillment of all the law
MATTHEW 22:34–40 / MARK 12:28–34
Matthew 22: 34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees with his reply, they met together to question him again. 35 One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question:36 “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”
37 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”
REFLECTION
Tuesday was Jesus' great day of teaching in the Temple. The Pharisees, Sadducees, and scribes came one after another to trap Him on some of His teachings on taxes, resurrection, and the law. In each case, Jesus answered with such wisdom that finally no one dared ask any more questions. Honestly, that’s why Peter tells us to always be ready to give an answer (1 Peter 3:15). Because he witnesses Jesus’ answers continually quiet the critics. If we are going to have those types of answers, though today’s critics are so unlearned and bias that I’m not sure being quiet is possible, we are going to have to know the Word of God so well that it is the first thing that comes to mind! And with the oppositions attitude in Jesus’ time and in ours, the words of Jesus echo even louder.
The greatest of these exchanges was the question about the greatest commandment. Jesus' answer? “Love God with everything you are and love your neighbor as yourself.” This teaching was not new, but His framing was radical: these two commands are not two things among many. They are the axis around which all Scripture turns, the hinge that all things swing. Every law, every prophet, every ethic hangs on love.
This is the heartbeat of good theology. John Wesley argued passionately that Christianity was not primarily about correct doctrine, though doctrine matters. It was about the transformation of the heart from self-love to God-love and neighbor-love. The Olivet Discourse, also delivered on Tuesday, extends this: eschatology in Jesus' teaching is not about escape from the world but about faithful, loving presence until the end.
VOICES FROM CHURCH HISTORY
John Wesley
"The very end of our religion, the whole design of the Gospel, is to restore us to the love of God and neighbour. This is the sum of Christian perfection."
Jacobus Arminius - Dutch theologian (1560–1609)
"The love of God, freely offered to all, is the foundation upon which the whole of salvation rests. No one is excluded from the reaching of divine love; it seeks every soul."
Augustine of Hippo - Early Church Father (354–430)
"Our heart is restless until it rests in Thee. All love that does not find its source in God eventually exhausts itself; only the love that begins in God and returns through neighbor is inexhaustible."
APPLICATION
Read Matthew 22:37–40 slowly three times today.
37 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”
Ask yourself: which commandment, loving God or loving neighbor, currently feels more natural? Which is more of a struggle? Where might the Holy Spirit be calling you to grow? I think if we are honest with ourselves, it is easy to love Jesus but it’s not easy to surrender all to Him. And if we have surrendered all to Him, then comes loving our neighbor. That’s the measure of our faith. Not that we love Jesus, but we love all the others… even Judas.
TODAY'S PRAYER
Jesus, You gave us the architecture of all holiness in two commands. Teach us to love — not with words only, but with our whole selves. Enlarge our hearts for God and for our neighbor. Where we have reduced love to sentiment, restore it as action. Where we have kept love safe and private, make it public and costly. Amen.