Summary: Jesus' teaching here is simple -- perhaps deceptively so. "Love God. Love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." So true. And yet, learning to love takes a lifetime of study and practice.
A widely known story has it that, in ancient times, there were two rabbis: Shammai and Hillel. Shammai was conservative, Hillel, liberal. A Gentile approached Shammai and made an unreasonable request: "Teach me the whole Jewish law while I stand on one foot!" Shammai, known to be as short-tempered as he was conservative, picked up a stick and drove the man off.
Undaunted, the same Gentile approached the liberal Hillel and made the same request. Apparently, Hillel found the request to be not so unreasonable. Rather than driving the man off, he answered him straightforwardly: "'What is hateful to you, to your neighbor don't do.' That's the entirety of the law; everything else is commentary. Go and learn."1
It could be argued from today's passage that Jesus, in his historical, fleshly sojourn, could have been influenced by the Rabbi Hillel. Hillel died in AD 10,2 so his teachings could arguably have been in circulation during Jesus' formative years.
Whatever the case, Jesus' comeback to the vaguely hostile questioning in our passage for today could be said to reflect the sentiment expressed by Hillel. What's the greatest commandment out of the whole 600 plus? a scribe wants to know. Come on, give us the whole law in 25 words or less!
Jesus may have been tempted to pick up a stick, as Shammai is reputed to have done. But Jesus was as masterful at resisting temptation to violent behavior as he was at knowing, speaking and living out the law of God. "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself,'" Jesus says, quoting, respectively, Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets," he continues, arguably channeling Rabbi Hillel the Elder.
Love God. Love your neighbor as yourself. Everything else is commentary. The sentiment, it should be emphasized, was not unique to Jesus, or to the two of the four canonical gospels which quote Jesus as offering this argument.3 Rabbi Hillel said something similar, though his teaching paraphrases what we know as The Golden Rule, rather than Deuteronomy and Leviticus. And Rabbi Hillel's public ministry predated Jesus', as was noted.
The apostle Paul expresses the same sentiment straightforwardly in Romans 13: "... the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, 'You shall not commit adultery; you shall not murder; you shall not steal; you shall not covet,' and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law." Paul does so again in Galatians 5: "For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' Furthermore, the Letter of James defines, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" as the fulfillment of "...the royal law according to the scripture."4
Paul and James don't even mention the love God part -- though it should go without saying that it is implicit. Love your neighbor. That's the point of true religion; that's the fulfillment of the Law.
So is it really that simple?
A moment ago we were bragging on Jesus for resisting temptations to violence, but he does have his moments. "Get behind me, Satan!" he shouts to one of his most zealous followers, when that follower has the temerity to suggest that humiliation and disgrace must not happen to him.5 And then there is a certain synagogue leader, indignant because Jesus had cured a woman of crippling arthritis, in the synagogue, on the Sabbath, thus violating "laws" against working on the Sabbath. "You hypocrites!" Jesus says.6 In the 23rd chapter of Matthew, he calls scribes and Pharisees hypocrites, a brood of vipers, blind guides, blind fools, whitewashed tombs beautiful on the outside but full of rottenness and death inside, making people twice as fit for hell as they are themselves.
Violent in language only, perhaps -- but in the famous "cleansing of the temple" scene, attested to in all four of the Gospels, Jesus does indeed pick up an actual stick (a whip of cords in John's Gospel), and drives away people buying and selling in the temple, or even using the temple space as a shortcut for carrying a heavy load from one place to the next.7
"Just love; the rest is commentary" is all well and good -- but in places it might seem like the "commentary" is what we might call "the fine print."
Love God, love your neighbor as yourself -- is it really that simple? Yes -- but ...
The "commentary" that is alluded to in Rabbi Hillel's rejoinder is vitally important. "That which is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor, the rest is commentary, go and learn; Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself, everything hangs on those two commandments" -- yes, it's just that simple; no, it's not that simple.
Love God. Love your neighbor as yourself. Sure, it's a good start, but what if you're not that clear on who "God" is, and what it is that God requires of us in every instance? Who is my neighbor? Am I just to be my neighbors' doormat? Can I expect my neighbor to love me in return? What if I don't do such a bang-up job of loving myself in the first place?
These are all valid questions. We find their answers in the commentary -- in the "fine print," if you will. We have scripture, and traditions that attempt to line out for us who God is, what God expects of us -- and this does not always line up with our expectations. It is anything but easy or simple.
And who is my neighbor? There's an app for that! It's called the Parable of the Good Samaritan. No, being the kind of neighbor outlined in that parable is not "just that simple." For the average person, not blessed with a significant amount of courage (not to mention the disposable income required to put up a total stranger at a bed 'n' breakfast), it could be next to impossible. Where do we find the strength and the insight to be that kind of neighbor anyway? It's in the commentary, in the "fine print"! Not only that. It's in the regular, daily, lifelong practice of prayer, Bible study and worship attendance -- pursuits worthy of a lifetime of dedication.
"You shall not commit adultery; you shall not murder; you shall not steal; you shall not covet,' and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself;" Paul teaches -- so just refrain from these and you're loving your neighbor, and you're fine, right? Well ... okay -- but Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount offers understandings of adultery and murder that are anything but simple: "You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, 'You shall not murder,' and 'whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.' But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment, and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council, and if you say, 'You fool,' you will be liable to the hell of fire";8 "... I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away ...,"9 again, hardly simple.
And the clincher is what Jesus says about the law: "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven ...."10
Love is, indeed, the fulfillment of the law. Love God. Love your neighbor as yourself. Do this, as it is meant to be done, and Law and commandments will take care of themselves. Ultimately, there really is no "fine print" here. Love of God, love of neighbor -- these are the final and fulfilling purpose of all of it, the reams of instruction, the thousands of pages of scripture and sermons and writings, the centuries of tradition. It's all commentary. At its best, it shows us how to love. Go and learn! -- and do!