Matthew 22:34-46

 

God and Neighbor – What is intriguing in the Pharisees’ question about the greatest commandment and Jesus’ answer is that how Jesus answers is precisely how Matthew portrays Jesus—as a Messiah who is passionately related to God and yet also one who lives compassionately for people. Not only that, but Jesus has redefined the very content of "neighbor:" they are not only the friendly reciprocating types, of course, but also the "enemy" (5:21-48; esp. 23-48). [1]

Pedagogy – The tester this time is a Pharisee, a professional theologian of their ranks, a nomikos. This encounter is no collegial or honest encounter, but to "test" Jesus—thus, everything from the one side is duplicitous, beginning with the title of address, "teacher." That term stands in contrast to the believers' address, "Lord." Though Jesus has just defended the pharisaic view of resurrection, yet their response is to "test" him. The verb, peirazo, "to test" (as in 4:1, 3; 16:1; 19:3; and 22:18) always takes as its subject—the devil or the Pharisees; both are insincere and duplicitous.

NIB on Jesus’ Response:

It is striking that Jesus is asked for one command but responds with two. Matthew alone specifically adds that the second is "like" the first. This does not mean merely that it is similar, but that it is of equal importance and inseparable from the first. The great command to love God has as its inseparable counterpart the command to love neighbor. One cannot first love God and then, a second task, love one’s neighbor. To love God is to love one’s neighbor, and visa versa. [2]

How is loving God related to loving people?

• By Jesus’ definition, what kind of lover are you? In what way do you want to grow in your love toward God? Toward family members? Toward the needy? Toward yourself? What steps would you probably need to take?
  

This passage could speak on the healthy interplay of these two commandments: to love God and neighbor. You might explore how our inability to even love ourselves: some expressions of Christianity focus on our NOT OK-ness. Most of us do not love ourselves too much but too little. Low self-esteem, not high self-esteem plagues our psyches. Yet in the love of God that we sing about, pray for, believe and recite in worship is the source of Love. God loves us unilaterally, and God loves the world.

_______________________________________________________
[1] New Interpreter’s Bible VIII (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995), page 424.
[2] Ibid, 426.