Day Three: The Greatest Commandment

 After arriving in Jerusalem, Jesus spent time each day teaching in the Temple courts. The Temple was built as a series of concentric spaces each one more holy than the next, beginning with the Outer Court and culminating in the Holy of Holies, the innermost sanctum of the Temple:

1) The Outer Court (i.e. the “Court of Gentiles), accessible to almost everyone.
2) The Court of Israelites, reserved for all Jewish males who were ritually pure.
3) The Court of Prayer, also known as the Court of Women, not because it was only reserved for women, but because women could proceed no farther. Both men and women could enter this court, talk to priests, pray, observe the proceedings, bring their sacrifices. Women had a balcony built for them to separate them from the men.
4) The “Court of the Priests”, where only the priests could enter.
5) And the “Holy of Holies”, accessible only once a year by the High Priest.
(This list accessed from http://dailyminyan.com/2012/05/30/court-of-the-gentiles-in-the-jewish-temple-clearing-up-misconceptions)

This illustration shows the lay out of the Temple and its environs during Jesus' time:

It was while he was teaching in the Temple courts that Jesus was tested by the Sadducees and Pharisees (Mark11:27-33) and taught about many things, including new parables and the signs of the end times. He also summed up the Christian’s moral obligation in two great commandments: to love God and to love others. Read about it in Matthew 22:34-40, and Mark 12:28-34.

The energizing core of every Christian life should be a radical love for God and a radical love for others. This is how we seek to express ourselves into the world. So we should ask ourselves: do our lives look this way to the world? When people see your life, will they be struck by how it reflects these central values of our faith?

But the teaching of Jesus goes even farther. Because the “greatest commandment” isn’t simply a duty, a requirement that we are bound to fulfill. It isn’t just pie in the sky. Where does our ability to love like this come from? It is a response to God’s great love. The greatest commandment arises not from the Law but from something else, something better. The Gospel of John tells us that during the Last Supper Jesus gave a “new” commandment: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another,” John 13:34. The key words here are: “as I have loved you.”

 

The love of God is displayed most powerfully and meaningfully during the Easter season when Jesus lays down his life for us.  It is because of this unmerited, unquenchable, sacrificial love of God for us that we in turn can respond with the deepest love of our soul for others. Because God first loved us and gave himself to us in Christ, we to can respond to the world out of a heart of love. When we realize the great love that God has for us, every other motivation is burned away:  the fear, greed, lust, hate, selfishness which used to motive our interaction with the world.  All that is left is the pure response of love. Because He first loved us, we can love God with our whole heart and love our neighbor as ourself.

At Easter, we are powerfully reminded of God’s love. What are three barriers that get in the way of you really loving God and others around you? Write them down. Pray about them. Ask God to help you creatively overcome any barrier that waters down your response to Christ. Let Christ’s love arise and live in your heart.