`These last Sundays, we have been following Jesus on the way to Jerusalem. Now we, and he, are in Jerusalem. And still there are always conversations, Jesus in dialogue. But this time with a difference. Scribes usually have a bad press, but not this one. He’s a good man. He’s truly seeking God. He wants to get to the heart of the Jewish law he studies and loves. “Which is the first commandment?”, he asks. A key question. The Lord answers, quoting Moses from Deuteronomy. It is to love the Lord our God with our whole self. Then he adds, quoting Leviticus, And to love your neighbour as yourself. And the scribe says, that’s a great answer. Loving is more important than animal sacrifices. And as he praises Jesus, so Jesus admires him, and tells him, You are not far from the kingdom of God.
Here’s something that strikes me in today’s readings. In the 1st, we hear Moses. We hear the Shema, as it’s called, the sacred words: “Hear, O Israel!” There is one God and you shall love him with all you’ve got. Words that are meant to be written in the heart of every Jew. And after that first reading, after Moses, came the Psalm, a Psalm of David, and David singing, “I love you Lord my strength.” Moses intones the commandment, David lives it. David was a complex character, we know, but here’s the man after God’s own heart. He’s the complete Israelite, the obedient Jew, a lover of the one true God – “my strength, my rock, my fortress, my saviour, my shield, my mighty help, my stronghold”. This God has rescued David from his enemies. He has established him as the king, and David is awash with love. So, in that first reading and Psalm, we have first the commandment and then someone who fulfils it: David. And David, of course, prefigures Christ, the Son of David, the true King.
Then in the Gospel, we hear Jesus proclaiming the two great commandments. And where’s the fulfilment? Who, if you like, is the perfect Jew? Well, that’s a no-brainer, really. It’s the Lord himself. He is in Jerusalem. As the 2nd reading says, he will offer himself once and for all, the true holocaust, the true sacrifice, bringing ancient Jewish worship to its goal. On the Cross, he is about to fulfil his Father’s will and give his life as a ransom for many, to show the utmost love of God and his fellow human beings. As the Holy Father says in his recent Encyclical, Dilexit Nos: “The cross is Jesus’ most eloquent word of love. A word that is not shallow, sentimental or merely edifying. It is love, sheer love. That is why Saint Paul, struggling to find the right words to describe his relationship with Christ, could speak of “the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20).” This the divine and human love of Jesus Christ. It’s greater than all the world’s unlove, all the rejection of God and all our inhumanity to one another. And so, the kingdom of God can come and we needn’t be far from it. Surely, after the death and resurrection of Christ, after the coming of the Holy Spirit, that scribe became a disciple. And we, after hearing the Liturgy of the Word pass to the Liturgy of the Eucharist, where we can join ourselves to the love of Christ, and even eat it and drink it, ingest and imbibe it. And so become lovers too. Jesus did not just repeat the two great commandments in words. He lived them, and through the Holy Spirit they are poured into our hearts as a living power. To be written in our hearts, to live there and be alive in the world.
Some of you may have heard of a recent event from northern Nigeria. Some terrorists seized two boys from a Junior Seminary and made off with them. The Rector followed. He stopped the kidnappers and said, “Send the boys back. Take me instead.” And they did. May the commandments be as alive in us as in that good priest. Amen.
St Mary’s Cathedral, Aberdeen, 3 November 2024
