What if it really is all about love? Like, when they simply asked Jesus in Matt 22 what’s the bottom line, and he plucked a love commandment from Deuteronomy 6 and another one from Leviticus 19 and then wrapped them up with saying ALL the Law and Prophets hangs on these two.
And what if when He followed that up with asking them who is Christ/Messiah (Matt 22:42-45), His point was actually that He is God? And what if it was just His gentleness and knowing our human minds that He didn’t overcomplicate or get bogged down in this idea? Other than to make the point that this previous thing about love really WAS a message from God, not just from some young misfit.
And what if that diatribe in the next chapter (Matt 23) really is about the end of religion? Not just a condemnation of Jewish traditions, but a general statement of the inevitable failure of any system of forms and rituals once they’re esteemed as a requirement; sometimes even put above love. And what if He was trying to explain that the old religious and ethnic kingdom must come down to make way for this wondrous new Kingdom of love, of which He was King?
And what if His comment as they’re walking away (Matt 24), about the temple coming down, is His confirmation of the end of religious structure, of the old religious kingdom ending? An exclamation point to all He’d just said.
And what if in His story in the next chapter (Matt 25) describing the new Kingdom, He meant that the oil is the Holy Spirit, manifested humanly as love, by KNOWING the bridegroom? Not just a precious (and empty) golden vessel labeled “love,” displayed on an open shelf in the kitchen for all to see. But ACTUAL love – the Holy Spirit manifested humanly in us as love, as the real thing.
And what if His simple explanation later in that chapter, the one about the sheep and the goats, and about just being nice to one another and especially to the ones needy in some way, is actually just a wrap-up of the simple commands of loving others He had started two chapters previous?
And what if the “righteous” He refers to at the end of that chapter (Matt 25), the ones that have eternal life, are simply the ones who have loved?
What if it’s THAT simple?
Tim Borys
September 1, 2024