Forget that he is dead. His voice lives on in syndication (kwave m-f 6:30-7am). He rises like the sweet crackling sound of leftover macaroni arcing in the microwave because I forgot to remove the aluminum foil. Though oddly burnt on one side, and now suspect because of the frightening arcs, you can not resist leftover macaroni, and I can not resist J Vernon McGee.
This morning J was working through a question that the Pharisees gave to Christ, "What is the greatest commandment?" They were hoping for Christ to pick one of the 600 or so Talmudic laws they had been itemizing, expanding upon, picking apart, completely ignoring, and enforcing mercilessly on the weak. Instead Christ's answer cuts to the heart of the law, the Spirit that supports the law, the rationale for the law:
"YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND." "The second is like it, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.'
Now every Pharisee who heard this probably thought, "Darn. That was a good answer. Now what do we do? Wait. Wait. Maybe if we just stand here dumbly and act like we already thought of that. 'Ho Humm, nothing new here.'"
As I drove and listened to J read the scripture I couldn't help thinking, "Yes J. I have heard that one 100 times before. Nothing new here. I have been loving my neighbor as myself for some time now. Why, I haven't oppressed anyone for months. What the heck? Did they guy just cut me off? No way his truck is faster than mine. Wait, it's not right to think like that. I should be humble...as I pass him doing 85. Oh, that was a woman. Anyhoo. Sucker." (waiver: to all officers of the law reading this, I wasn't really going 85. This is simply dramatic affect.)
Then something new struck me, how simple these commandments are to understand, but difficult to follow. Christ's commandments cut to the heart. They make complete sense when you hear them. If we obeyed the world would be more than better, it would be pretty much perfect. So why all the trouble? I mean, we've known about this "love" thing for nearly 2000 years.
I mean we try. At least I hope we try, but obviously we have been failing. Even though the commands are so simple and so clear, they are NOT easy. J said something at this point, as if reading my mind from his little radio booth 25 years ago, "Christ knew we could not fulfill these commandments. And at this moment, I dare say, Christ was casting himself in the shadow of the cross."
I had never thought of these verses in this Messianic sense before. Though we strive to fulfill the two greatest commandments, our stark naked lack of ability dooms us. At the moment Christ spoke these commands, He was offering himself up. He knew that we could not fulfill them and reconcile ourselves to God. Instead He set himself up as a sacrifice, and set us up to need Him. He became our forgiveness, our reason to try again, our reason to love, and the power that makes us lovable.
We are deperate for Him.