So, 

Have you ever worn rose colored glasses? Or maybe sunglasses with green or brown lenses. Have you ever worn blu blocker lenses or amber lenses for hunting or driving?

Those lenses change the colors of what you see, so sometimes you can see more clearly. 

The suggestion today, is that the lens of love can do that for us, as well, enabling us to see the world perhaps more like God does!

Have you ever been in an argument with someone?

What was it about? How did it start? 

And was the argument one that was resolved or is it still an argument?

The story here in the Gospel according to Mark is that Jesus was arguing with the Sadducees when a teacher of the law, a Rabbi, came to Jesus and asked a question. 

Now for a bit of background. 

The Sadducees were a group of Jewish leaders often made up of both the priestly class in Israel and the economically well off. Their focus for the most part was the functioning of the Temple as the center of Israel’s religious life.

Unlike the Pharisees, who were focused primarily on an individual’s keeping of the Mosaic law, and used both the Torah and the Old Testament prophets to teach; the Sadducees held that the essential scriptures were the Torah alone, or the five books of Moses, Genesis through Deuteronomy, and didn’t put near as much weight on the prophetic writings in the Old Testament.

You can image what the argument was about, because Mark doesn’t tell us. We do know that the Sadducees didn’t believe in resurrection, something the Pharisees did, coming from the Old Testament’s prophetic literature. Perhaps it was that.

In any case, the Rabbi it seems was impressed by Jesus answer, and saw that Jesus was holding his own in the argument. So, he decided he wanted to know more about what Jesus understood to be the greatest of the Mosaic laws.

He didn’t seem to be interested in finding a “gottcha” question for Jesus so he could show somehow that Jesus was a bad teacher. 

Instead, he seemed to be genuinely curious about what Jesus’ taught, and perhaps more importantly, about what Jesus’ thought. And Jesus, it seems jumped at the chance to answer him. 

In doing so he revealed not only what we can call, “the lens of love”, but also just how savvy he was in both understanding the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and even the thinking of the Rabbi.

Because in his answer he not only uses material from the Torah, a nod to the Sadducees, but he also suggests going beyond them to use your “mind” to love God, a nod to the thinking of the Rabbi.

Jesus suggests that the greatest of the commandments is the one recited in the Shema or the Great Prayer of the people of Israel!

It’s from Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and says, “Listen, Israel! The Lord is God. The Lord is One. So, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and Jesus inserts here mind, and strength.” 

And then Jesus adds to it, again from the Torah from Leviticus 19:18, “The second most important commandment says: ‘Love others as much as you love yourself.’”

The Rabbi was really impressed, and said so!

Jesus’ teaching in his estimation was exactly spot on, and added that what Jesus had said “loving God and loving our neighbors” was even more important that all the possible sacrifices! Perhaps, a bit of an over the shoulder shot at the Sadducees, for whom sacrifice was the center of religious life.

Some of you may have been here two weeks ago when we talked about following Jesus. How some of John’s disciples went and asked Jesus where he lived, and Jesus replied, “come and see”!

Do you remember that I pointed out that following Jesus, especially going home with Jesus like some of the disciples did, would reveal not only what Jesus thought but what exactly Jesus did and then possibly what he wanted his disciples to do?

Well, here it is again! Jesus showing off not only what we are to think, but what we are to do as disciples. We are to love God! And we are to love our neighbors!

Loving God I think is the easy part, at least on the surface. Loving our neighbors can be really hard! And, even harder than that is that we are to love those neighbors in the same ways love ourselves.

Now Jesus many other teachings flesh out how to do that, I think

But just so we are clear now, what are some of the ways you can love God?

With your heart? With your soul? With your mind? And with your strength? 

And since we are to love our neighbors in the way we love ourselves, what are some of the ways we love ourselves?

Just some thoughts: We feed ourselves. We bath ourselves. We forgive ourselves. We give ourselves breaks. We take care of ourselves.

The lens of love is revealed here in Jesus’ teaching, when Jesus reminds us to see the world through God’s eyes. 

Amen.