Matthew 22: 34-40 Love All
Advent 4: Love All | Matthew 22:34-40
Over the last couple of weeks we have spoken about Worship Fully, where we talked about who and what Christmas is really about. Worshipping fully is understanding that this season starts and ends with Jesus. Then we looked at Spend Less, which encouraged us to look at how we are spending our time and money over this season, and encouraged us to free up our resources and support the things that really matter. Last week Jill spoke about Give More, which may sound strange when we have just looked at spending less, but this challenged us to give more, intentionally and relationally.
This week we are talking about Love All, and I really mean we are all going to be talking about it, so be prepared.
I think we can all agree that Loving All is a massive concept. All of us sitting here have different ideas of what love looks like, how it should be expressed. Some people take it a step further, they have ideas of how love should be experienced by the recipient.
But Jesus goes into extensive detail of what love really looks like. He gives us this idea, it’s called the great commandment. He does so in a room full of arguably some of the smartest people alive in his time. These guys question Jesus in order to trap him. They ask him what is the greatest commandment?
I think Jesus had this in mind with the whole conversation. I can imagine Jesus just waiting for them to ask their question. Have you ever researched something just so the next time you are having an argument with someone, you are ready to say: “NO, NO, that’s not right. This is how it goes.” Well, I have.
I think when the Pharisees asked him this question Jesus went, I am so glad you asked.
Then he says:
“Love God with all your heart, with all your mind and all your soul.” That’s a whole lot of love. You would think that loving God with all your mind would be good enough but Jesus continues to ask for more space.
It’s because we as humans just love filling the empty spaces of our love with idols. We are idol-making factories, at any given moment we could create an idol that Jesus needs to dethrone.
So when we talk about love it needs to be a Christocentric love, this means it’s going to inconvenience us. It’s going to ask something of us that might make us uncomfortable. This reminds me of Acts 16. Here we find Paul resting when he receives a vision from the Holy Spirt of a man saying: “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” Straight away I look up what the words “come over” means in Greek. We know this journey is going to be sacrificial for Paul. It’s about 240km outside of Paul’s comfort zone; a two day journey.
So I look up the words “come over,” and let me tell you something, the Greek is very profound. It literally means “step to the side.” You were all waiting for something much deeper, right?
But when we help someone in need, the least of these, we cross the street, WE COME TO THE SIDE THEY’RE ON and we say HOW CAN I LOVE YOU?
When Paul gets there he finds a woman by the name of Lydia and revival takes place. This all because Paul choose to be inconvenienced in his LOVE.
He decided that in LOVING ALL he was willing to take 2 days time to show the love of God to those who needed it.
I want to share with you all, when we decide to love all it’s not just us going 3000km to Vanuatu, it’s also about traveling 300m across the street to our neighbour. It’s about us seeing how our entire community can see and experience the Power of God.
Because when we truly experience the love of God there is a mandate on our life. We are supposed to reflect this love to the people around us. It’s easy for us to say: “Oh I have done all of this over there,” but what about the love that makes us uncomfortable. For example, when we don’t want to be part of a conversation with certain people, or we are scared of going to a certain group of people and reaching out.
That’s the type of love Jesus is calling us to. What if we, as the Body of Christ, really started to embody love like Jesus, who went to places where people said you really shouldn’t go there.
We need to be controversial with our love, this means we have to turn the normal upside down, or in our case the right side up. You see this is what love does, it corrects the errors in society. If there is ever a time to embody this love and for the body of Christ to rise to the occasion, now is that time. Christmas time, when the Saviour of the world came down, when God inconvenienced himself and sacrificed His Son, to show His love to the world.
But I am not finished with the story just yet. Jesus in the book of Luke is confronted by this man who tries to trap Jesus again with this question about love. Jesus says to him, what do you think?
And the man answers in Luke 10:26-28 NET:
“He said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you understand it?” The expert answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbour as yourself.” Jesus said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”
So the man tried to defend himself, he obviously felt foolish, and so he asks, “Who is your neighbour?”
So Jesus tells the story of the good Samaritan. Typical Jesus answering a question with a story. We all know this story…
A Samaritan walks by and shows mercy, he shows love (this was a big deal for a Samaritan to help a Jew as they hated each other). After telling the story Jesus asked the man so who is the neighbour and they answered, the one who showed mercy.
I believe when we start showing love in this manner, people who are not included in the story becomes a part of Jesus’ story.
Let’s share a couple of stories of what Loving All looks like for all of us.
I remember a time I was confronted with a story that challenged me about how I love people. It was about a Girl called Yusra Mardini.
Her Story
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/yusra-mardini-syrian-refugee-olympics-2016-rio
Lets hear from a couple of people I asked to share something about what it means to Love All.
Prayer
Oh, Father,
You are love itself and You have loved me with an everlasting love. There is nothing that can separate me from Your love when I am in Christ. You have called me Your beloved child and You have given me an example to follow as I walk in the way of Your love. Show me that way, Father. Teach me, Jesus, to walk in love – to be patient and kind. Keep me from envy, boasting, pride and selfishness. Make me slow to anger and quick to forgive. Remind me to protect, to trust, to hope, and to persevere. Forgive me when I fail at this, Lord, as I am an insufficient vessel on my own. Remind me often that the power to love like You comes only from Your Holy Spirit in me. I need You, Holy Spirit, to inspire, encourage and enable me to love in this counter-intuitive, refreshing, sacrificial way. Bring glory to Your name by helping me to love all– without hesitation, without qualifiers or requirements. Let me love the weak and the strong, the rich and the poor, my friends, my enemies and those who are far from You.
Make me merciful and kind, compassionate and attentive. Help me to be less consumed with my own agenda and more open to interruption so that I may love with presence- as You did for all of humanity and still do for me each day. Let me see Your Image in every human being with eyes that reflect only Your love. Let me be the embodiment of the love of Jesus to all those who cross my path so that in me they may see and be pointed to You.
Amen.