Who is the Jesus we are witnessing now? As we read the passages here in the later portions of Matthew (Matthew 22:34-46 and 23:1-12), Jesus is in his last days on earth. What He is facing with full knowledge is remarkable and will be the cataclysmic moment in God's history of the creation. Jesus is becoming even more remarkable with each hour.
So often Jesus is portrayed as docile. I call him the 'Jello Jesus' that is offered up by a media-driven, secular-humanist culture (quite a mouthful). He is nice, soft, squishy and, of course, continually accepting. Those who usually interpret him in this way have not read the whole story or simply prefer not to read what we are seeing here. It was important in Gibson's "Passion of the Christ" that we saw Jesus as strong- a man's man. It was mentioned that Gibson wanted to awaken a public misconception that Jesus was some light weight. He could not have been effectual, if he was anything but a vibrant and powerful presence
In these last days before he is put to death, he is confrontational. Most important, He is confrontational with the most important religious leaders of that time. Jesus is headed right into them like a missile. As this portion of scripture states, He silences the Sadducees and so the Pharisees now have to make their run at him.
Jesus says something that I think we often overlook when He is asked, "what is the greatest commandment?" We all know what He answers, however, have we paid any attention to that last line: "All the law and Prophets hang on these two commandments." Wait—what did He say – everything hangs on these two commandments?
I can remember when I would mumble my way through these commandments wondering if I truly loved God. I knew what love was and what it felt like. I loved my children, my husband, and my dog. But how come I had only a smattering of emotion for God? I knew that I believed in God. Wasn't that enough all by itself? I have come to realize that this only meant that I had accepted that there was a God, and He had a Son who I was also happy to believe in. But the real "love" part was not there. I did not feel the emotion- the passion of love. Possibly my closest emotion was respect and fear.
Then I was changed when I left where I once worshipped. God guided me to a new thinking and a new place of worship after I prayed one day for Him to come into my life, because there was so much turmoil in the place I worked, which was also the place I worshipped. God's hand was powerful as He brought me into the Bible and into a place where I heard the 'word' as I had never heard it before. The Holy Spirit which used to be this hazy concept suddenly became a reality as I felt its presence in me and in my life and in a new place of worship. Something was vastly different.
One day I realized what was happening. I was being reborn. I could feel it. It was not a bunch of words that seemed mysterious. It was not just that obscure (I thought) passage in the Bible that Jimmy Carter had made all of us aware of in the late "70's. It was not hard to understand like I was so often told: "the Bible is confusing, it does not make sense in some places, we don't believe in rebirth- it's those evangelical types that believe in that." Amazingly hard to believe, but I was now one of those evangelical types. And I now loved the Lord with all my heart, all my soul and all my mind. The words had filled out from flat forms on a sheet of paper to a three dimensional object of light. It was there. It was real. I was connected to a real living God and a real living Christ. My heart was bursting.
So everything does hang on these two commandments. Why? Many say that they believe in God. That really is not enough. God does ask us to believe not just in Him, but to believe Him; who He is and what He says He can do (as Beth Moore so giftedly points out). If we cannot feel this in our worship, in our lives, in our concept of every moment in God's creation, in every word He has brought to us through scripture, Prophets and through His Son, then we are missing the plug that goes into the socket that connects us to God and electrifies our spirit, our lives and our purpose on this earth. Where does Joy come from? This is where it comes from. It comes from that powerful and electric moment when the word is alive in us; when the understanding is there. The lights have gone on. Whole new rooms are lit up in our heart and our head. This is what changes us. We cannot live the same as we did before. We are more alive now then we have ever been.
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