Spirit of Compassion | Mark 12:28-34

This Sunday, we are going to encounter Jesus' answer to an important question. "Which commandment is the most important?"And in Scripture we receive Jesus' very Jewish answer: "Hear, O Isreal: 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." 

Now, what is worth noting is that Jesus answered the question the scribe asked him fully and could have stopped there. But instead, Jesus chose to continue answering, indicating that there is more to this "love God" commandment than quoting Deuteronomy:"The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as your self.' There is no other commandment greater than these."

Nothing else in scripture, according to Jesus, is more important than these. And I think that because Jesus insisted on adding a second commandment to the scribes request for the "first commandment," he is also saying, essentially, that we cannot have one without the other.

You cannot love God if you do not love your neighbor, and without the love of God--the kind of love that is agape: generous and self-giving--we will fail to love our neighbor to our fullest potential. 

What does that look like? Let's start with kindness. Maybe it's kindness to the person who isn't kind. We live in very reactive times where our ability to be in community with one another has severely regressed. For instance, disagreements over mask wearing and vaccination have resulted in images like the woman I saw on social media today standing before a school board meeting discussing mask and vaccine mandates wearing a shirt that read "Make hanging traitors great again." Perhaps we can have compassion for the fear, rage, and anxiety that prompts such extreme actions.

Kindness is also receiving refugees. The US Armed Forces are executing a herculean effort to evacuate tens of thousands of Afghan people from Afghanistan in the wake of the Taliban's take over of Kabul. I came across a Denver Post article with excellent ways in which you can directly help those who might be making Colorado their home for the foreseeable future. Perhaps our compassion can lead us to extend hospitality to refugees who will be among us.

Kindness, like love, should be active and bear fruit. Just like the love we share with our neighbor is the fruit of our love of God and a faithful following of the great commandment! See you all on Sunday.