What would bring Jesus joy during this time? 

The question was posed in a prayer time I was a part of recently. With everything that is going on in the world right now, what is it that would bring Jesus joy?

As we were given a few minutes to reflect, scripture from Matthew 22 kept coming to mind:

But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees with his reply, they met together to question him again. One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”

Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the law and prophets hang on these two commandments.” 

This. This is what would bring Jesus joy. If we loved the Lord with all of our heart, soul, and mind, and if we loved our neighbor as ourselves. 

One of the things that has been particularly exhausting during this time is seeing what appears to be a complete lack of compassion for other humans from so many people from every end of every opinion, religion, political spectrum, everywhere. It exhausts me, even more, when I find myself falling into Satan’s trap and doing the same. 

Jesus came to flip religious piety on its head. What seemed moments after he had silenced the Sadducees, he was being questioned by the Pharisees whose vendetta against Jesus had more to do with their fear of losing their power and societal standing than it did about what was right and wrong. Had they truly searched themselves and the scriptures, they would have found that Jesus came not to take their power, but to restore them to the One who would give them power that raises dead to life.

And now Jesus adds this piece: “All the law and prophets hang on these two commandments”. 

This is what matters. 

Can you imagine what it would be like if Christians everywhere began thinking, not of themselves, and their own comforts first, but about God’s love and loving others above all else? 

It doesn’t start with who is in office now, or who will be in office in 2021. It doesn’t begin with our constitutional rights to do this or not have to do that. It doesn’t even start with what the scientists say or what you think is the most logical argument for what our nation’s next steps should be.

It starts with love. And love starts with us, my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. 

Imagine if every person that confessed Jesus Christ as their Savior were to hang everything on these two commandments instead of anything else. Don’t you think we’d change the world? 

The work begins in us as we learn to love God more deeply and then pours out into each and every person that we come in contact with each and every day – our neighbors. 

Will you join me this week in bringing Jesus joy by loving God and loving your neighbor? Because my friend, everything hangs on us doing this.