What are you looking for?

What are you looking for?

This is a question Jesus asks in the gospel of John (John 1:38). We're all looking for something.

During Jesus' last days in Jerusalem, Jesus is asked several questions by the religious leaders. They're looking for something -- looking to "catch" who he is, looking to confirm their own ideas and confirm their suspicions that Jesus isn't who people think he is, or who he says he is.

One of the questions, perhaps the most important one, gets at the heart of all human quests. And if Jesus is king, as the story says he is, then he should have the answer. The question is simple: "Teacher, what is the greatest commandment in the law?" (Matthew 22:36)

Let's put it in different words.

What's the essence of living? There. That's a good question.
____________________________________

Isn't that what we're looking for, too? We want to know what life's all about. We want to know that our days are not wasted, empty, fruitless. And many of us want to have life nailed down. Probably because so often it's not. It's more out of our control than not. We don't like that. Humanity through the ages has never liked that. And so we want some semblance of getting it "right." We want our lives to be meaningful and under some control, headed the right direction.

So what's it all about?

Jesus replies: "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." This, Jesus says, "is the first and greatest commandment."

But he's not done. "The second is like it: you must love your neighbor as you love yourself" (Matt. 22:39).

Wait. Didn't the quester ask about the greatest commandment -- singular? Why did Jesus give him two? Isn't one enough?

Jesus' isn't trying to pile on the work. He's making it clear what "it" is all about.

Jesus is making a connection between how we live toward God and how we live toward our neighbor. The point is this: you can't do one without the other. Jesus didn't rank the two commands. He said the second is "like" or "the same as" the first. Loving God comes first because, well, God is the source of it all anyway -- the source of you life, the source of all the good things we receive, the source of the lives of everyone around you.

But to love God, who is invisible, one must love what God loves. 
____________________________________

It's about image. 

Right before this questing moment, Jesus was asked about taxes (Matthew 22:15-22). Ugh. We all know about taxes. Taxes then were more a burden than not. And there wasn't much return for paying. It all went to fund the life of the one on top. It was part of the law of the land, though. In Caesar's land, taxes represented the way of things. It was a reminder of what people owed for the life they lived. And the money used to pay the tax had Caesar's image on the coins, just so you don't forget whose land you're in.

In that story, Jesus says, "Go ahead. Pay the taxes." It's just a copper coin. If that's what Caesar demands, give it to him. He might control your money and his image might be on these disposable copper coins. That's fine.

He doesn't own you.

Caesar's image is on the coin. God's image is on you. So give your money to Caesar. Give yourself to God, for the essence of life has to do with what's eternal, not what will be useless when we die. And give your life's meaning over to your father in heaven is a much more just, merciful, and compassionate ruler. It is his image that matters most.

Which is why the greatest commandment is not just about loving God, as if the point of faith, spirituality, or religion was about you, or just making sure you're right with God.

To rightly honor and love God, you must honor and love God's image.

And that's you. And me. And everyone in your house. And the people in the house next to yours. And across the street. And that person who you can't stand to be around? It's them, too.
____________________________________

It's about love. We can talk about love all day long -- what it means, how you show it, who deserves it... Remember, however, that these stories of Jesus' final days are stories about Jesus the king. And kings determined the law of the land. So, if love is the law, and Jesus is king, then what's he have to say about it?

Let's get one thing out of the way first. It's about more than what you might feel about someone or something. As the 1970s band Boston says, "It's more than a feeling'." It's also not really about how something makes me feel. Much of the "love" we see these days is someone's response to something they see on television or social media, and it evokes a certain feeling of happiness or some emotive connection. These are wonderful human feelings, don't misunderstand me. But these do not define love.

Love is Jesus in action. Love is not what Jesus feels for us or the world. Love is Jesus stepping into our shoes, walking our streets, joining our journey. Love is listening to our joy and our sorrow. Love is lifting our lives from despair, bringing us into the kingdom of God. You think the kingdom of Disney is "magical"? It just wants your money for a few moments of a smile.

Love Jesus-style is action. It is Jesus becoming a servant, literally going all-out, considering our lives greater than his, and lifting the lives of every human with the hope that God will one day redeem us. Love is Jesus making it his life mission to make it abundantly clear that every person's worth is not based on how well they stack up against the people who seem to "have it good." Love is Jesus forgiving us because he knows that there's more to us than our failure. Love is Jesus taking the road of suffering and the world's hate so that our worst days are not without hope.

And it doesn't cost you 100 bucks at the door.
____________________________________

It's about freedom. It's been said that death is the great equalizer. No matter who you are -- rich or poor, young or old -- it's coming for you and it does not care. It's an equal opportunity collector. As such, it equalizes us all -- no one is above or immune to death's call.

So also love, as Jesus' law defines it. The love Jesus the king commands is not given out according to status, how one is performing on a particular day, or according to whether or not you've made God "happy." God's love, like death, comes for everyone.

And it's an invitation to freedom. In this command to love we are truly free. Unlike the law of taxes, Jesus' law of love is not a burden. It doesn't serve the wealth of the world's greedy rulers, or put us in a place of poverty. This command of Jesus is a gift. It's not for God's benefit (as was the case for Caesar); it's for our flourishing. James, Jesus' brother calls it "the perfect law of freedom" (James 1:25). The Apostle Paul also connects the law of Jesus to freedom for truly living, not overburdened with our own worries and failings (Galatians 5:1-15).

As we live in love under Jesus' rule, we live more freely from the burdens and chains that aren't physical or visible. We are unchained from resentment, bitterness, from seeing ourselves or others through the cheap lenses of human standards of evaluation. We are free from seeing ourselves and others according to failures. It is a call to live freely as human family in God's house, under Jesus' generosity. When Jesus-style love is the law -- the essence of life -- our lives are lightened, our humanity is restored. It starts with how God loves us, and transforms our world because this love even reaches our enemies (Matthew 5:43-45).

What are you looking for in life? What's it all about? It's all about Jesus' law of love. He's king. It's his world, his law, his love. This Jesus-love is the action that stops the cycle of the world trying to take over, it breaks the chains, it opens our lives to see who we all truly are: people made in the image of God, being remade in the image of Jesus Christ, to live lives of fullness and joy (not mere "happiness") under the law of Jesus the loving king.