In Meditation 15 we saw that Jesus summarises the divine criteria for human life as follows: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets (i.e. the entire Old Testament) hang on these two commandments”
(Matthew 22:37-40).
Then we looked at the way Jesus lived up to the first and greatest commandment: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). In fulfilling this commandment unconditionally during his life on earth, Jesus showed us how we ought to relate to our Creator.
Today we want to see how Jesus observed the equally important, second commandment: "Love your neighbour as yourself" (Matthew 22:39). In the famous parable of the good Samaritan, Jesus indicates that our neighbour is “the one who is in need of our help”, be it friend or foe (see Luke 10:29-37).
During his three-years’ ministry on earth, he showed us what his love and compassion for friend and foe looked like: “The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor” (Matthew 11:5).
Jesus was filled with compassion for the untouchables, the grief-stricken and those with broken hearts and broken bodies. Matthew writes how “Jesus travelled throughout Galilee teaching in the synagogues, preaching everywhere the Good News about the Kingdom (of God). And he healed people who had every kind of sickness and disease. News about him spread far beyond the borders of Galilee so that the sick were soon coming to be healed from as far away as Syria. And whatever their illness and pain, or if they were possessed by demons, or were epileptics, or were paralysed-- he healed them all” (Matthew 4:23-24).
He was a defender of the rights of the downtrodden, ate with outcasts and associated with the scum of society. Therefore Jesus lectured the religious hypocrites of his days by saying, “And I, the Son of Man, feast and drink, and you say, 'He's a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of the worst sort of sinners!’” (Matthew 11:19).
The evangelist Luke summarises Jesus’ work on earth with the following words: “And no doubt you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the Devil, for God was with him” (Acts 10:38).
Jesus told us what love was all about when he said: “For even I, the Son of Man, came here not to be served but to serve others, and to give my life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).
He showed that true love even reaches out to foes. Therefore He instructed the crowds by saying: “Love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!” (Matthew 5:44). And he himself gave the example when he prayed to his heavenly Father for those who crucified him: “Father, forgive these people, because they don't know what they are doing" (Luke 23:34).
Finally, the apostle Paul encourages the followers of Jesus in Ephesus: “Live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:2).
As Jesus lived the true human life, we are left with the question: Can we live such a ‘Christlike life of love’ in our relationship to God and our fellow man? That will be the theme for the coming meditations.
All Bible verses are quoted from the ‘New Living Translation’, except Ephesians 5:2 (‘New International Version’).
