By Regina Shands Stoltzfus, assistant professor of peace, justice and conflict studies
Scripture: Exodus 20:1-17 (NRSV)
In the gospel of Matthew, a lawyer asks Jesus to name the greatest commandment. Jesus’ response comes from the law and the prophets: “Love the Lord your god with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” Jesus goes on to name the second greatest: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” In this accounting, Jesus, ever the teacher, simplifies what the lawyer surely knows – that is, the law. Indeed, the gospel writer says that the lawyer asked Jesus the question in order to test him. Rabbi Hillel frames Jesus’ response in this way: “What is hateful to you do not do to your neighbor; that is the whole Torah, the rest is commentary, go and learn it.”
In appealing to the law given to God’s people, Jesus reminds us of the expansiveness of the covenant relationship embedded in the law. Rather than a soulless list of dos and don’ts, the commandments in today’s text speak of a relationship initiated by God with all of the created order. The commandments orient life toward God and one another, and emerge in the context of God’s liberating action toward the Hebrew people.
As Jesus frames this list with two great commandments, he grounds all of the law in love. They are an invitation to look at our behaviors, to look about our choices and the things we prioritize and ask “Is this love? How does this action demonstrate my love for God and God’s creation? How does it demonstrate my love for God, who has shown love to me by calling me beloved, and worthy of love?”
Scripture: Exodus 20:1-17 (NRSV)
Then God spoke all these words: 2I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; 3you shall have no other gods before me. 4You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, 6but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments. 7You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name. 8Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. 9Six days you shall labor and do all your work. 10But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. 11For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.
12Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. 13You shall not murder. 14You shall not commit adultery. 15You shall not steal. 16You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. 17You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.