THE LAST RIVER MILE

Few things divide people who call themselves Christians quite like how we view the Bible. Interpretations run a wide range. Some see the Bible as completely literal. Coming directly from God, it is all proscriptive, containing truth and commandment which are not limited to any particular era or context. Others see the Bible as containing both the literal and the allegoric. While some material is not true in an empirical sense, it all conveys God’s truth in some way. And its content cannot be fully understood apart from its original context. Whole church denominations have split over these differences, my own tribe included.

(Both sides seem to dismiss the fact that the Jesus-following movement existed and thrived for some three centuries before the Bible as we now have it existed. But that’s a topic for another blog…)

Regardless of where a Jesus-follower stands on all this, the main thing is fairly clear. When religious authorities asked Jesus of Nazareth what the greatest of commandments was, he answered with what Hebrew people know as “the Shema” – Love the LORD your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and love your neighbors as yourselves. (See Matthew 22:35-40.) But Jesus didn’t stop there. He followed up his answer by stating, “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” The Greek verb literally means, “to suspend from.” Think of a hanging plant, filled with a diverse floral arrangement. Beautiful as the flowers may be on their own, it ceases to be a hanging plant without the hook from which it is suspended. The hook is the main thing. Jesus is saying that this, the Great Commandment is the main thing, defining all else. It is the lens through which all scripture is seen and interpreted. It is the standard by which all of the Bible will now be assessed.

This is monumental. The Hebrew people had some 613 laws, statutes, and ordinances in what we now have as the Old Testament of the Bible. In my view, some of those laws were important, but temporary; for a particular time and situation in God’s history with the Hebrew people. For example, there are laws specifying treatment of slaves. We now discern that human beings owning other human beings as property is contrary to the heart of God. Some commandments are meant to be for all time, such as Deuteronomy 6:4-6, where the Shema is found. In either case, the crucified and risen Son of the Living God declares that the Great Commandment is the main thing, above all other.

This means that in some instances the Great Commandment will override other commandments themselves. As evidence of that, there are clear commandments about observing the Sabbath and doing no work on that designated day. (See Exodus 20:8-11.) However, Jesus overrode that by healing on the Sabbath. (Matthew 12:9-13.) Loving others as God loves us trumped doing no work on the Sabbath. The primary command superceded the letter of the law.

The Great Commandment as the main thing can complicate matters, regardless of where one stands on debates about the Bible. However, it sets the missional stage for followers of Jesus: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:35.) So, as an old friend named Larry Fagan frequently reminded me, the main thing is to keep the main thing as the main thing.

I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.