Love and Sacrifice
28 One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, "Which commandment is the first of all?" 29 Jesus answered, "The first is, 'Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 30 you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' 31 The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." (Mark 12:28-31)
Love God, love neighbor. This seems easy enough. Except for the difficult people - we can't be expected to love them, so we leave them out and love everyone else. Except for the people who think, worship, and live differently - right, so we leave them out and love everyone else. Except for the people who don't love, or even like, us - ok, so we leave them out and love everyone else. Except for those we don't even know - clearly, we leave them out and love everyone else. Who's left? We can love those we know and get along with, who worship and believe the same things we do, who love us and don't make life difficult. But when those people fail at some of these easy-to-love qualities we are left alone to realize that we also fail at being easy to love. And even when people aren't difficult, circumstances can still make love seem impossible.
The book of Ruth tells of women who chose love when circumstances made love seem foolish. Due to famine in the Hebrew safe-haven of Bethlehem, Naomi, with her husband and sons, settled in what would have been enemy territory - Moab. Naomi's husband died, but eventually her sons found Moabite wives. Then tragedy struck again and both of her sons also died, leaving three women to grieve their loss and fear for their safety and future. In an effort to save her daughters-in-law from what seemed like a certain future as destitute outcasts, Naomi urged them to return to their own families. One young woman agreed, the other - Ruth - refused to leave her mother-in-law. She pledged love and loyalty when self-preservation would have seemed wiser, easier.
8 But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, "Go back each of you to your mother's house. May the LORD deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. 9 The LORD grant that you may find security, each of you in the house of your husband." Then she kissed them, and they wept aloud. 16 But Ruth said, "Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; Where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. 17 Where you die, I will die-- there will I be buried. May the LORD do thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you!" (Ruth 1:8-9, 16-17)
While Naomi left the security of Bethlehem out of need, there was no such demand for Ruth. Ruth sacrificed her security in an attempt to seek security for Naomi because she understood that her love for Naomi came with a responsibility to seek her wellbeing. There was no wide-eyed, rose-colored dream that the future would be better than their present. There was only a pledge to walk with, share the burden, to love up close even while it's hard. The truth is that we can't love God without loving (caring for, valuing, working for the good of) God's creation - people and otherwise. We can extend ourselves to one another in sacrificial love because while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
32 Then the scribe said to him, "You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that 'he is one, and besides him there is no other'; 33 and 'to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength,' and 'to love one's neighbor as oneself,' --this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices." 34 When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." After that no one dared to ask him any question. (Mark 12:32-34)
