The Law

But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:34-40 ESV).

Published by the Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the Federal Register is the official daily publication for rules, proposed rules, and notices of Federal agencies and organizations, as well as executive orders and other presidential documents. In 1960, the CFR contained 22,877 pages. Since 1975, its total page count has grown from 71,224 to 85,434 at the end of 2018, including the index, which is a 160 percent increase. In the present administration about 400 pages are added weekly. The government is not known for its simplicity. Neither is the legal system that has been developed in order to determine how we must live. If you’ve ever visited a lawyer’s office and seen bookshelves filled with impressive bound volumes explaining laws and many years’ worth of legal ¬cases, the sight can be pretty overwhelming. I’ve often wondered if anyone is really able to understand it all. The same could be said of the religious laws developed through the years. In my study of the Levitical Law there are over 3,000 different statutes and regulations. It isn’t surprising that people would often simply give up trying to be “obedient” to such a mandate. Our reading today addresses that problem. Jesus was asked what the most important law was. His answer makes it crystal clear that the law of God that governs our relationships is not difficult to understand. He said, “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” And “these two commandments” are Love God and Love your neighbor. It’s a simple yet profound summary of the purpose of the whole law of God. Justice in society and harmony in all our relationships hang on these two basic commandments, summarizing the two tables of the law. Some folks think you don’t need some parts of the commandments, that you can get along with your neighbor, for example, without loving or even believing in God. But that kind of thinking just deepens the rift between classes, ethnicities, generations, and the sexes. Even a truce results only in a loveless standoff, characterized by tense and strained relations, lacking in mutual trust. Loving God, loving others. Like two sides of a coin, these go together and can’t be separated. Together they are the key to harmony. We don’t need more regulations or explanations of the explanations. We simply need to love God and love one another. It is hard to do, but simple in its admonition. Make it your goal today to do the “law.” It is the appropriate way to honor the gift of grace in God!