Page 1 of 8 LECTIO DIVINA Matthew 22:34-40 30 th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A Fr. Michael Brizio, IMC www.shareinhisloveministries.com 1) OPENING PRAYER: Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth. O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations. Through Christ Our Lord, Amen. 2) READING OF THE GOSPEL (What the Word says): Matthew 22:34-40 34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35 and one of them a scholar of the law tested him by asking, 36 Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest? 37 He said to him, You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the greatest and the first commandment. 39 The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments. 3) EXPLANATION (What the Word means): v.34a: When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, The chapters 21-22 of Matthew include one controversy after another. When Jesus cleansed the temple (21:12-17), the chief priests and elders responded by asking, By what authority do you do these things? Who gave you this authority? (21:23).
Page 2 of 8 Jesus did not answer this question directly, but responded with three parables that exposed the religious leadership s failure. The Pharisees then tried to entrap Jesus by asking if it was lawful to pay taxes to the emperor (22:15-22). The Sadducees tried to entrap Jesus with a trick question about the resurrection (22:23-33). Now the Pharisees, hearing that Jesus has silenced the Sadducees, decide to have one more go at him. Jesus victory over the Sadducees must have pleased the Pharisees, for the latter, as well as Jesus, believed in a bodily resurrection, the doctrine denied by the Sadducees. Yet, from another viewpoint many of the Pharisees cannot have been too pleased, for they did not want their enemy s influence with the general public to be strengthened. v.34b: they gathered together This is the exact wording of the Septuagint (Greek) version of Psalm 2:2: and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his Anointed - which gives the Pharisees gathering together a sinister tone. We can almost imagine them in a huddle; mapping out their next move against Jesus, the Lord s anointed. v.35: and one of them a scholar of the law tested him by asking, In Mark s account, the question about the greatest commandment is asked by a scribe with a favorable opinion of Jesus, and Jesus declares him to be not far from the kingdom (Mark 12:28-34).
Page 3 of 8 Matthew, however, is writing after the fall of Jerusalem, which essentially eliminated the influence of the Sadducees and Zealots, leaving the Pharisees firmly in charge. The Pharisees are actively persecuting Christians, and Matthew has little good to say about them. Instead of Mark s friendly scribe, Matthew has an unfriendly lawyer ask the question. Scribe and scholar of the law are roughly equivalent words - both refer to teachers of the Hebrew Scriptures. Most scribes/lawyers are Pharisees and are committed to the tradition of the elders - human interpretations of God s law. They are accorded great respect, and are often addressed as Rabbi (Myers, 917). Their commitment to the tradition of the elders brings them into conflict with Jesus (15:2), who says that they ignore God s laws in favor of their traditions (15:6). Matthew says that this lawyer s intent is to test Jesus (v. 35). The difference between an honest test and a temptation is that the tester hopes for the person being tested to succeed, but the tempter hopes for the person being tempted to fail. Here the lawyer clearly hopes for Jesus to fail. The problem is not the question but the spirit in which it is asked. v.36: Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest? The lawyer calls Jesus Teacher, which sounds like a term of respect, but is intended to disarm Jesus and onlookers with a respectful tone so that the lawyer can embarrass Jesus with questions that have treachery built into them. This is not an unusual question. Rabbis routinely ask such questions of each other and their disciples in an honest attempt to plumb the depths of the law. The Old Testament has 613 commandments, and there is no clear standard for judging which is greatest. Regardless of Jesus answer, the lawyer can respond with further questions designed to put Jesus on the defensive or to cause him to make a mistake. In one sense, because God gave the commandments, all are of equal importance. However, rabbis speak of some commandments as heavy and others as light, and there is an ongoing debate regarding the relative importance of various commandments and how to summarize them for ordinary people. One rabbi told how Moses gave 613 commandments, but David reduced them to eleven (Psalm 15:2-5), Isaiah to six (33:15), Micah to three (6:8), Amos to two (5:4), and Habakkuk to one (2:4) (Johnson, 523).
Page 4 of 8 v.37a: He said to him, You shall love, agapein, the Lord, your God, This is from Deuteronomy 6:4-5; 11:13. Jews call it the Shema. The Shema builds on the First Commandment, You shall have no other gods before me (Exodus 20:3), but adds the love requirement. In addition to requiring that we love God, the law further commands: These words, which I command you this day, shall be on your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for symbols between your eyes. You shall write them on the door posts of your house, and on your gates (Deuteronomy 6:6-9). To fulfill these requirements, Jewish children memorize these verses, and Jewish people wear them in phylacteries on their foreheads, post them in mezuzahs on their doorposts, and repeat them every day of their lives as part of their daily worship. The words of the Shema, recited in daily worship, are truly graven on Jewish hearts. No faithful Jew can argue with the primacy of this commandment. Note that the God whom we are to love is your God - adding a personal dimension to our religious duty. It is not some abstract higher power that we worship, but our God - a God to whom we belong and who belongs to us - a God who acted in the past to save us, and who continues to save us in the present - a God who created us in all our splendid complexity and who knows every hair of our heads (10:30). v.37b: with all your heart, kardia, with all your soul, psyche, and with all your mind, dianoia. The kardia, heart, is the hub of the wheel of a person s existence, the mainspring of all his thoughts, words, and deeds (Proverbs 4:23). The psyche, soul, is here probably the seat of a person s emotional activity; the dianoia, mind, is not only a person s purely intellectual life but also his disposition or attitude. In the Hebrew original (and also in the LXX) of Deuteronomy 6:5 the reading is heart, soul, and might (or: power). Both the Shema and Jesus simply ask us to love God without qualification - with all that we have and all that we are - with that which constitutes the core of our being. Our relationship with God is not a place for half-heartedness. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of my mouth (Revelation 3:16). The point is that God s whole-hearted love must not be answered in a half-hearted manner. When God loves, he loves the world; when he gives, he gives his Son, hence himself. He gives him up; he spares him not.
Page 5 of 8 Greater love is impossible (John 15:13; Romans 5:6-10; 2 Corinthians 8:9). The response to such love, therefore, must not be less (Romans 11:33-36; 1 Corinthians 6:20; 2 Corinthians 9:15; Ephesians 5:1-2; Philippians 2:1-18; Colossians 3:12-17). The slight change from might to mind is a happy one for those of us whose abilities are more mental than physical. It is, indeed, as possible to love God with the mind as it is to love God with the heart - but Jesus calls us to do both - and with the soul as well. v.38: This is the greatest and the first commandment. Jesus has answered the lawyer s question, and has not given the lawyer much of an opening for an attack. This commandment is called the greatest because it epitomizes the most excellent response to God, and is basic to all other genuine love. v.39: The second is like it: You shall love, agapein, your neighbor Jesus can stop now, because he is standing on safe ground, but he continues with the second commandment, You shall love your neighbor (Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14). The second commandment resembles the first, because it too requires love. This comes from Leviticus 19:18, a verse which is quoted three times in this Gospel (5:43; 19:19). When Jesus says that the second commandment is like the first, he means that they are related and have similar weight. Love of God naturally leads to love of neighbor, who is God s image-bearer; and love of neighbor is part of loving God. 1 John 4:20 makes the linkage explicit: Those who 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. Leviticus 19:9-18 spells out what is involved in loving one s neighbor. The person who loves his or her neighbor: Will not reap the fields bare, but will leave some for the poor (vv. 9-10); will not steal (v. 11); will not deal falsely (v. 11); will not lie (v. 11); will not swear falsely by God s name (v. 12); will not defraud a neighbor (v. 13); will not keep a laborer s wages overnight (v. 13); will not revile the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind (v. 14); will not render an unjust judgment (v. 15); will not be partial to the poor or defer to the great (v. 15); will judge the neighbor with justice (v. 15); will not engage in slander (v. 16); will not profit by the blood of the neighbor (v. 16); will not hate your neighbor (v. 17); will not take vengeance or bear a grudge (v. 18). Interestingly enough, it also says You shall surely rebuke your neighbor (v. 17), suggesting that love is tough where toughness is needed - confrontational so that wrongs might be righted and obstacles to relationships removed.
Page 6 of 8 These verses make it clear that the love of which Leviticus and Jesus speak is different from the warm emotion that we think of as love. Biblical love is, instead, a way of acting in relationship to our neighbor - more action than feelings. By calling us to love our neighbor, Jesus particularizes love. He does not call us to love the whole world, which we might prefer. It is easier to love the abstract rather than the particular - to love Asians or Africans whom we have never met instead of the neighbor who mows his lawn while we are trying to sleep. It is easier to drop a dollar in the offering for flood relief in a distant land than to tend to a sick neighbor s needs. Jesus offers no quarter at this point - the love to which he calls us has a face - the face is that of our neighbor - and the face is not necessarily pretty. v.38b: as yourself. Some have speculated that there is a third commandment here - to love ourselves. That resonates nicely with today s pop psychology, but less comfortably with Jesus call in this Gospel for cross bearing and self-denial (10:38-39; 16:24-26). Loving neighbor as self is like the Golden Rule: Therefore whatever you desire for men to do to you, you shall also do to them; for this is the law and the prophets (7:12). Jesus' commandment to love neighbor as self assumes that we look out for our own interests and calls us to look out also for our neighbor s interests. v.40: The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments. The Law (Genesis through Deuteronomy) is the most precious part of Hebrew scripture, and the prophets (Isaiah through Malachi) are next most important. They are precious, in part, because they spell out clearly the gift and demand of God s love. When Jesus says that the law and prophets hang on these two
Page 7 of 8 commandments (to love God and neighbor), he is saying that these commandments summarize the greatest wisdom to be found in scripture. He is also saying that these commandments are a sure guide to God s will - that, if we act in a loving way toward God by doing what God wants us to do - and if we act in a loving way toward our neighbor by doing that which benefits our neighbor - we can be sure that we will be in full compliance with God s law - in no danger of violating any jot or tittle. A good image here is a door hanging from a pair of hinges. Door hinges restrict the motion of the door to the arc in which it is intended to swing. As long as both hinges remain secure and the frame remains square, the door will function reliably, moving where its creator intended and closing securely. However, if either hinge comes loose, the door becomes an obstruction and will soon tear loose from its frame altogether. The loss of either hinge, therefore, is tantamount to the loss of both hinges - and therefore of the door itself. So also, obedience to the two commandments - to love God and to love neighbor - work together to restrict our activity to the straight and narrow path that God has created us to walk. As long as we observe both commandments, we can be confident that we are on that Godly path. However, if we choose to ignore either love, we will soon find ourselves in a spiritual ditch. Note that twice in this Gospel, Jesus provides a rule that summarizes the requirements of the Old Testament. In both, he emphasizes loving action toward the other person: He says that the Golden Rule is the law and the prophets (7:12). And he says, The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments (loving God and neighbor) (22:40). What Jesus claims is that the whole law is about love, not about figuring out how to avoid stepping on cracks in the legal sidewalk (Long, 255). It is obvious...that... you shall love does not mean the same thing in both places... Love for one s neighbor means acting toward others with their good, their well-being, their fulfillment, as the primary motivation... Love of God, on the other hand, is to be understood as a matter of reverence, commitment, and obedience (Hagner). At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus said, Don t think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn t come to destroy, but to fulfill (5:17). Jesus fulfills the law, by moving our understanding of the law into a new dimension beyond rote observance - to a place where we must bring our whole hearts and souls and minds - our whole selves - to the task of loving.
Page 8 of 8 4) MEDITATION (What the Word suggests to me): a) We read the Word again. b) Select the word or a brief phrase which touched you or impressed you. Repeat this word/phrase aloud and slowly 3 times. Between each repetition allow a moment of silence for the Word to penetrate into our hearts. c) We will remain silent for a few minutes, and let the Lord speak to us. d) We now share what the Lord has given us in this word. We avoid discussions or sermons or comments on what others have said. We share what the Lord has told us personally by using such expressions as, To me this word has said 5) QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: (What the Word asks me) a) Do I seek God and his glory with all my being? b) Do I try to grow in love and knowledge of God through prayer, meditation and instruction? c) In which way I do not love my neighbor as myself? d) Does loving others as oneself also include enemies, those who insult and oppose me? 6) WORD OF LIFE (What the Word reminds me): You shall love 7) ACTION (What the Word invites me to do): I will do some generous action to someone in need. 8) PRAYER (What the Word makes me pray): PSALM 18 I love you, Lord, my strength. I love you, O LORD, my strength, O LORD, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer. My God, my rock of refuge, my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold! Praised be the LORD, I exclaim, and I am safe from my enemies. The LORD lives and blessed be my rock! Extolled be God my savior. You who gave great victories to your king and showed kindness to your anointed. And may the blessing of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit descend upon us and with us remain forever and ever.