Tasting the Gruel of Love

The Jesus Creed

Dr. Larry Thorson
February 21, 2010

Mark 12:28-33

28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"

29 "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' 31 The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."

32 "Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33 To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."

We Have Company Coming!

Welcome to the season of Lent. I liken Lent to receiving news that we’re going to have some really important company soon and we have to get ready. You know how it is; your house looks great until you start thinking about hosting a big party. Then those marks on the wall and spots on the carpet seem so much bigger than they were. Out come the paint cans, the scrub buckets and the window wash. We have to make sacrifices to get ready for the guests.

That’s how I think of Lent. Lent runs 40 days from Ash Wednesday, this past Wednesday, to Easter. It’s actually 46 days from Ash Wednesday to Easter but we don’t count the Sundays because Sunday is always a celebration day, kind of like a mini Easter. That’s why we stop the clean up work and celebrate on Sundays.

Imagine that in 40 days your best friend in the whole world, whom you haven’t seen for some time, will be coming to your house to spend time with you. You will want to clear out your calendar, clean up your house, and maybe even bake some goodies. Lent is just such a time as that. It’s a time to get ready to meet our risen Savior on Easter.

I grew up in a predominately Roman Catholic neighborhood and the Catholics always talked about giving up something for Lent. I never quite understood how giving up chocolate for Lent was supposed to help things. But what the Roman Catholics were getting at is that Lent was a time to get ready and it takes sacrifice to get ready.

When my 50^th birthday was approaching in 2006, I decided to run a 26 mile marathon to raise funds for Habitat for Humanity and to celebrate my half century of life. I determined that I would buckle down and start seriously training right on my very birthday, October 1 to get ready for a late January race. Having run many marathons as a teenager I knew what it took to get ready for such a grueling race but I had never had such a short period of time to do so.

One day I read an article in Runners World magazine entitled something like “Getting Ready for a Marathon in a Short Period of Time.” For four months I bought into that article’s beliefs. It told me to run my normal daily distances during the week and then once a week go on an exceptionally long distance run. Each week I was to make the long run a little bit longer. I followed that creed up to the week before the marathon.

Then I ran the marathon and somewhere around mile 10 of a 26 mile race I realized that the article I bought into didn’t work!

What is Spiritual Formation?

Each of us shapes our spiritual life around certain teachings and certain beliefs that we have read, observed or were taught. That’s called spiritual formation. When I first started following Jesus my sister recommended the Transferable Concepts Bible study from Campus Crusade for Christ. That basic faith course is what formed my initial spiritual beliefs. Campus Crusade came out of the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood, a church I later joined when I was in seminary. That same church also started Forest Home Christian Camp of which I have built our youth ministry here around. The main emphasis of that spiritual formation is that the world needs a savior and we need to get out and tell the world who that savior is. That was my a big part of my spiritual formation that is still with me today.

Scot McKnight, professor at North Park University in Chicago one day asked the question: what would have spiritually formed a young Jewish man in the days of Jesus? He was looking for the historical context of Jesus’ spiritual formation. Was it a creed like “always keep the commandments?” “Treat others fairly?” “Stay away from the ways of strangers?” How was a young Jewish man in Jesus’ day spiritually formed?

What McKnight discovered was that Jews in Jesus’ day and even today recite aloud a creed lifted from Deuteronomy 6:4-9 called the “shema”. “Hear (shema), O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”

This “shema” is “the first ‘prayer’ that (Jewish) children are taught to say”. [1] It expresses what is most important for spiritual formation. There is promise attached to living life according to the Shema; when Jews lived by the Shema they would be “blessed” beyond imagination.

As a good Jew, Jesus would have devotionally recited the shema daily. Later in his life, he encountered an expert in the law who asked him “Of all the commandments, which is the most important? For a Jew this man’s question is the ultimate question about spiritual formation. What is the most important thing to do as a spiritual person?

The Jesus Creed

Jesus answered the man by reciting the shema but added a verse from Leviticus 19:18: “The second is this: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” There is no commandment greater than these. That may be just a small, subtle addition to the shema to us but it was huge for the Jews of his day. That would be like adding to the end of the Apostles’ Creed where it says “I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic church; the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting” adding “and in supporting your local church by giving a tithe of income, before taxes!” If I tried that you would know the difference instantly.

Instead of a “Love-God Shema, it is a Love-God-and-Others Shema. Loving others is central to Judaism, but it wasn’t central to the basic creed of Judaism, the Shema. So, what Jesus says is Jewish. But the emphasis on loving others is not found in Judaism’s creed the way it is found in what McKnight calls the Jesus Creed. Jesus sees love of others as central to spiritual formation.

Bury the Dead or Follow Jesus?

Let me give us a quick example of how the Jesus lived out his own creed. In Luke 9:57-60 Jesus was walking with his disciples… 57 As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." 58 Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."

59 He said to another man, "Follow me." But he replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." 60 Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God."

The Jewish law would have said to the man wanting to bury his father that for seven days following the death he and his family needed to sit in mourning and not go anywhere. This particular man was clearly past those seven days because he was in public talking to Jesus and that wouldn’t have happened in the first seven days. But the Jewish law would have also said that after a year the man had to dig up his father’s bones and bury them in their final resting place. That was the law the man was saying he wanted to put off Jesus for.

To some the shema would say that to love the Lord your God with all your strength, heart and mind was lived out by strictly following the law. That was never God’s intention. The Jesus Creed clarifies that by saying that to love the Lord your God means to follow Jesus and have a personal relationship with him. We give up what we’re doing and follow him. When you follow Jesus that will be displayed by how we go about loving our neighbor.

An Irish Legend

There is an Irish legend about a king, who had no children to succeed him on the throne. So, he had his messengers post signs in every town and village of his kingdom inviting qualified young men to apply for an interview with the king. This way the king hoped to be able to choose a successor before he died.

Two qualifications, especially, were stressed. The person must have a deep love for God and a deep love for his neighbor.

A young man saw one of the signs. He indeed had a deep love for God and neighbor. He felt a kind of inner voice telling him to apply for an interview.

But the young man was so poor that he didn't have decent clothes to wear to an interview. He also didn't have any money to buy provisions for the long journey to the king's castle.

So the young man prayed over the matter. He finally decided to beg for the clothes and the provisions he needed. When everything was ready, he set out. After a month of travel, one day the young man caught sight of the king's castle. It sat high on a hill in the distance.

At about the same time, he also caught sight of a poor old beggar sitting by the side of the road. The beggar held out his hands and pleaded for help. "I'm hungry and cold," he said in a weak voice. "Could you give me something warm to wear and something nourishing to eat?"

The sight of the beggar moved the young man. He stripped off his warm outer clothes and exchanged them for the tattered old coat of the beggar. He also gave the beggar most of the provisions he had been carrying in his backpack for the return journey. Then, somewhat uncertainly, he walked on to the castle in tattered clothes and without enough food for his return trip.

When the young man arrived at the castle, guards met him at the gate. They took him to the visitors' area. After a long wait, the young man was led into see the king. He bowed low before the throne. When he straightened up, the young man could hardly believe his eyes. He said to the king. "You were the beggar beside the road." "That's right," said the king.

"Why did you do this to me?" asked the young man.

The king said, "I had to find out if you really did love God and neighbor." And then the king told him he had proved himself and was the new heir. What a surprise. [2]

Summary and Conclusion

Let’s recap. What creed did Jesus live by? God is one and love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and strength and your neighbor as yourself. As a Jew of his day he would recite his creed in the morning and in the evening. Eventually by reciting these words actions started to come from the thoughts. In the weeks to come we’re going to see how the Jesus Creed comes out in the Lord’s Prayer, in his eating habits and in his relationships with others.

In our small groups this week we will look at how one disciple struggled reforming his thoughts around the Jesus Creed but ultimately prevailed. When you apply the Jesus Creed it will run counter to some of the ways you have been taught to function. We’ll talk about those struggles through the eyes of Jesus’ own disciples. I hope you’ll join one of our small groups and start to experience a reforming of your spiritual life around the Jesus Creed. Amen.

Jesus Creed Small Group Discussion

Prepared by James Nuoffer based on the book, The Jesus Creed by Scot McKnight

Scripture Readings

Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Leviticus 19:18

Mark 12:28-33

Luke 9:57-62

Objectives

To know the origin and meaning of the Jesus Creed

To make the Jesus Creed a part of your daily devotions

To incorporate the Jesus Creed into the fabric of your life

Opening Devotion

Read together the hymn Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove.

Come, Holy Sirit, heav’nly Dove,

With all thy quick’ning pow’rs,

Kindle a flame of sacred love,

In these cold hearts of ours

Come, Holy Spirit, heav’nly Dove,

With all thy quick’ning pow’rs,

Come, shed abroad the Savior’s love,

And that shall kindle ours.

Narrative

In Mark’s gospel, Jesus is asked by an expert in the Torah (law) which is the first commandment, and Jesus replies,

“The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one;

you shall love the Lord your God

with all your heart,

and with all your soul,

and with all your mind,

and with all your strength.’

The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

There is no other commandment greater than these.”

The key word in the passage is love. What does it mean to love in this context? According to Strong’s Greek-Hebrew Dictionary, it means “embracing especially the judgment and the deliberate assent of the will as a matter of principle, duty and propriety.”[3] In other words, take active ownership of loving, in a moral sense, God and others. That’s what this course is about, and that is where we are headed today and the weeks to come.

Mark 12:28-33 is the Jesus Creed. It is the same today as it was 2000 years ago, and it will not change. Read it, memorize it and recite it in the morning and in the evening. Put it into practice by first communicating and communing with God and then loving others as you love yourself. You can start by volunteering to feed the hungry, teaching Sunday school, or any number of activities that will help to make a difference in the lives of others, and in your life. Now read again the Jesus Creed, commit it to memory, and begin living it by inviting Jesus into your heart, soul and mind.

Discussion Questions

1. Describe what is meant by Spiritual Formation.

2. Paraphrase the Jesus Creed written in Mark 12:28-33, and explain how it differs from the shema of Deuteronomy 6:4-9

3. Love of God and love of others is key to spiritual formation. What does love mean in the context of the Jesus Creed?

4. Describe whether John, the Apostle Jesus loved, demonstrates the Jesus Creed in Luke 9:51-54. What would you have done?

Action Plan

Say the Jesus Creed at least twice each day and see if it makes a difference in your life.