June 28th
13th Sunday in Ordinary Time
“More Than the Golden Rule”
Today’s Gospel sort of smacks us in the face, doesn’t it? (If you love your parents more than me, you are not worthy of me. If you love your kids more than me, you are not worthy of me. Fail to carry your cross and you are not worthy of me.) Launched me on a bit of a quest this past week… It is clear that Jesus demands MORE, but what exactly is this MORE he demands? To be worthy of Jesus something greater than our most “natural loves” for family is needed, but what exactly is it? What makes us worthy of Jesus? I started looking…
I noticed a YMCA banner that said something like, “At the YMCA we live by the Golden Rule,” and I thought to myself, “thanks nice.” I’m all for the Golden Rule, indeed if more folks lived by it our world would be a much better place. Jesus is for the Golden Rule too. Back in Matthew chapter 7 Jesus says, “Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. This is the law and the prophets.” Even further back in chapter 5 Jesus says, “Do not think I have come to abolish the law and the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” So, there is something about the Golden Rule that yet needs fulfilling. Jesus came to fulfill the Golden Rule. How?
Later in chapter 22 Jesus answers a scholar of the law who asks what the greatest commandment in the law is saying, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. (The Golden Rule)” Jesus was not against the law and the prophets; Jesus is not against the Golden Rule. Jesus just wants MORE from us. Apparently, the Golden Rule gets us close to where we need to be, but not quite all the way. Jesus’ encounter with the rich young man in chapter 19 shows us as much…
Asked what is needed for eternal life Jesus responds, “keep the commandments.” When pressed for which ones Jesus says, “You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness (lie); AND you shall love your neighbor as yourself (Golden Rule).” When the young man says, “I have kept all of these (lived by the Golden Rule), what more do I lack?” Jesus answers our question today. What more is needed?
“Make me the center of your life, not you!”
The Golden Rule (the Law and the Prophets) are good but contains a fundamental limitation it seems to me. “Do to others what I would have them do to me” has ME as the centerpiece! How I want to be treated is the measuring stick. I am still living for myself because how I want to be treated is my motivation for treating others better. Jesus wants MORE from us. Jesus wants our motivation to treat others to be based not on just how we want to be treated, but on how Jesus wants others treated. Jesus wants us to follow in his footsteps of selfless love and foot washing service… not because of any potential return from the other, but simply because it is what Jesus does.Love like you want to be loved, is good. But love like Jesus loves is better. This is the more Jesus calls us to. This love is Jesus’ great command. This love we share from our altar today.