Lent Day 33

Matthew 22:37-40

Passion Flower

Jesus could have included that His life, including His sacrifice, death, and resurrection also hang on those two commandments. I can't even imagine going through everything Jesus experienced and despising the people benefiting from it. Jesus chose His path out of His incredibly great love for you, and me, and each person throughout history. We cannot understand His Passion--His suffering and death--without recognizing His love. After seeing how very much God loves you, how will you respond? The majority of people choose to ignore or deny His love. The next largest group choose to accept it and give a little back in response: maybe an hour or so of their time each week and hardly any of their heart, soul and mind. Others give Him more of themselves but think He'd better not insist on the second commandment since they only love people they like. Giving everything to God is a struggle. It's not easy and it's not permanent: it's a commitment that has to be renewed each moment of every day. Our "neighbors" are just as sinful as we are, so they're often difficult to love and Jesus didn't give us an easy out by defining the "neighbors" as just the people we like. Yet as we struggle trying to obey both of these commandments I think it helps to remember how thoroughly Jesus obeyed them and remember that He is by our side helping us each step of the way. His love shines through all that He did and will continue to shine through our efforts to love Him and love our neighbor as He walks with us and helps us obey.