Matthew 22:34-46 (NRSV)
Read Matthew 22:34-46 on biblegateway.com
Verse 34When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, Verse 35and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. Verse 36"Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" Verse 37He said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' Verse 38This is the greatest and first commandment. Verse 39And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' Verse 40On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
Verse 41Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question: Verse 42"What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?" They said to him, "The son of David." Verse 43He said to them, "How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying, Verse 44'The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet"'? Verse 45If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?" Verse 46No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.
Devotion
In the movie "The Big Lebowski," Walter mangles the Dude's plan to exchange a suitcase full of money for the trophy wife of an aging paraplegic. The best line in the scene was Walter explaining just why the new plan was so good: "The beauty of this is its simplicity. If the plan gets too complex something always goes wrong. If there's one thing I learned in 'Nam ... "
If we look at the 613 Mitzvot (compiled laws in the Torah), we instinctively know it is too complex. And if we look at the Mishnah (Judaism oral tradition on the law writ down), we get the idea that our brains are just not big enough for this. Even if we hold up the 10 Commandments, it is still too much for us. We get lost in the living out part. So Jesus, in today's verse, lays it out in the simplest possible terms: love God with everything you've got, and love your neighbor as yourself.
We still find ways of mangling it, molding it to our own interest ... but God abides.
Prayer
Abba, the coming of your son, Jesus, into our lives, signaled your plan for us—a plan of redemption and grace. You laid it out well and we still mess it up. We thank you that our salvation rests on nothing less than Jesus' blood. Help us to believe and to follow. Amen.