There’s lots of really good commandments and laws in the bible that can help us live better lives. There’s also some okay, but useful ones and plenty that really, well, they just don’t make much sense in the 21st century. There’s also some, lots probably, that definitely fall into the category of “really? That’s how you interpret that?” But there’s only one Great Commandment in Christian scripture.
That’s the name we give to the story that appears in each of the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, when Jesus answers the question “what’s the greatest commandment?” It’s this, Jesus says: love God and love your neighbour as you love yourself. I’ve talked about this before, suggesting that the relationship revealed in that statement is kind of a trinity of love. Because God is in all things - including you and your neighbour - you can’t have one without the other.
Wait, hang on a minute. That’s not exactly accurate, though. I think the love part is, but I mean the bit before that: I said “Jesus says,” but he doesn’t in Luke’s version of the story. In Mark and Matthew, a lawyer (surprise) tries to trick Jesus with a question, the question being what’s the greatest commandment. We’ve come to know the answer well, but it wasn’t so obvious in those days. In any case, Jesus answers love God, love your neighbour as yourself. But in Luke’s account, Jesus turns the question back on the lawyer.
In Luke, Jesus answers by asking a question in return: you’re a lawyer, what does it say in the law? It’s the lawyer, quoting Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18 together, that says love God and love your neighbour as yourself. Right on, says Jesus, congratulating him. But it seems like the lawyer’s a little miffed at being tricked, so he asks a follow up question, the question we should all be asking ourselves: okay, but who’s my “neighbour?” (I picture him adding air quotes.)
Now, it seems pretty clear that the author of Luke tells the story this way in order to raise that question, one that’s not addressed by Mark and Matthew. And you know Jesus has an answer because it’s one of the most famous and oft quoted of the parables. Jesus answers with the parable of the Good Samaritan, a story that seems to simultaneously show us both who is a neighbour and how to be a good neighbour. And, since Jesus gave us the answer, with a really cool story even, now we know. Do we?
Sometimes I wish Jesus hadn’t told the parable, but simply turned it back on the lawyer again. “Who do you think is your neighbour?” And when he hears a comfortable answer, he might follow up with “well, what about this person or that person?” each being somebody poor or marginalized or someone of another ethnicity or faith tradition or culture or age or gender, someone different or someone we disagree with, someone we have something against. And with each person the lawyer might want to exclude, Jesus might ask “well, are you being a good neighbour then?”
The two things go together. To recognize your neighbour in everyone we meet is to be a good neighbour ourselves.
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