Pentecost 22 – 2026
Matthew 22:34-35
Marian Free
In the name of God who loved the world so much that he sent his Son. Amen
I’m sure you all know the work of the Australian poet and illustrator Michael Leunig. His writing was able to capture complex and profound ideas in relatively few words and with poignant illustrations. One of his prayers/poems reads: “Love one another and you will be happy. It’s as simple and as difficult as that. There is no other way.” “Love one another. It’s as simple and as difficult as that.” I have at least three collections of Leunig’s works and it is those two lines that I simply cannot forget.
When many of us think of love we think of romantic love, or the love that a parent might have for their children or that best friends have for each other. For most of us this sentimental form of love comes unbidden. It might take some effort to maintain, but in general it is relatively easy. It is perhaps for this reason that it is difficult for us to get our heads around love that doesn’t involve affection or at least some sort of sentiment. We struggle to understand who is included in the command to love, and we sometimes resent the idea that we are supposed to love all our neighbours no matter how unattractive they are and no matter what sort of heinous offenses they have committed. It is relatively easy to make excuses for our antipathy towards those who have deeply hurt us, towards those who are corrupt and self-seeking and towards those who have committed, or who are guilty of crimes against humanity. It is possible in fact to delude ourselves into believing that even God excludes such people from the breadth and length of God’s love.
Jesus, however, leaves no room for particularity. When he is asked which are the two great commandments he responds: “Love God and love your neighbour.” This is not a novel idea. Each day a Jew was/is expected to say the Shema: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind”[1] and for centuries it was commonly held that love of neighbour had equal weight. Jesus’ wisdom was not revealed in his originality, but in his belief that love had no limits.
Unfortunately, Jesus didn’t spell out exactly what it means to love one’s neighbour, nor did he, except in the parable of the Good Samaritan spell out who is one’s neighbour. He probably didn’t think that he needed to spell it out. Jesus didn’t just know the law. He lived the law. Through his actions and his teaching, Jesus demonstrated that no one was outside God’s love and therefore no one was outside his love which, by extension ,means that no one is beyond the reach of or unworthy of our love.
In stark contrast with the leaders who had been challenging him, Jesus lived God’s love. The Chief Priests, elders, Pharisees and scribes had (like many of us) put boundaries on love – God’s love and their love. It appears (from the way that they behaved) that they thought that there were some people who were exceptions to the rule. Despite all evidence to the contrary, they had concluded that even though God had given the law to love, God had allowed for a number of exceptions. Among the exceptions, or at least as they saw it, were tax-collectors, sinners, prostitutes, Samaritans, lepers – anyone who didn’t fit their narrow description of a law-abiding Jew. According to their narrow point of view, even Jesus would have been included in the exceptions as a person who by breaking the law had put himself beyond God’s love.
To us it seems like a contradiction – Jesus’ being outside the bounds of God’s love – but one of the things that made the leaders uncomfortable, that led them to believe that Jesus was beyond the reach of God was the simple fact that Jesus radically extended God’s love to everyone. Jesus’ inclusiveness and his acceptance of the outsider exposed their narrow-mindedness. Jesus’ unwillingness to cast judgement left them no room to be judgmental, and Jesus’ condemnation of their propensity to be law-driven rather than love-driven served to increase their sense of self-righteousness rather than encourage them to acknowledge their own failings.
It was as impossible for the church leaders of the first century as it is for us to truly believe that God places no conditions on God’s love. Love without bounds, love without conditions can be difficult to accept – especially if we have been deeply hurt by the actions or neglects of another. It is human nature to want the person who has inflicted harm to be harmed in their turn. The problem is that hate leads to hate, revenge leads to revenge and anger leads to more anger. Love is the only tool that we have to break the cycle of negative actions towards one another. Love is the best medicine for the restoration and healing of a person whose own hurt leads them to hurt others. And love is the first step in reconciliation.
Love is the only way in which we can build a society based on mutual trust and respect, a society in which each person wishes the best for another, a society in which each person has the resources to grow into their full potential and a society which calls people to account, but which doesn’t hold their past over them forever.
“Love one another and you will be happy. It’s as simple and as difficult as that. There is no other way.”
[1] The full text of the prayer comes from Deuteronomy 11:13–21 and Numbers 15:37–41.
