The radical challenge of following Jesus

The old spiritual is simple. In the context of worship, I have probably sung it hundreds of times. “Lord, I want to be a Christian in my heart.” In truth, I have my doubts about my willingness to actually be a Christian in practice, which I suspect is true of almost every person who publicly confesses Jesus as their Lord.

I further suspect that the election of Pope Francis will raise this issue with many of the faithful. I am ever hopeful.

And what is the great issue involved with following Jesus as Lord? In an exchange with a lawyer, Jesus said that the whole will of God is bound up in two commandments: Love God. Love neighbor.

The lawyer asked the key question. “Who is my neighbor?” This question is a companion to the question that Cain asked when confronted with his murder of his brother Abel. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” They are one and the same and are the subjects of every serious debate found in the Israelite/Christian tradition.

In order to understand the issue, one must take a look at the history of the command to love neighbor. The roots of this Israelite behavior standard are ancient and deeply imbedded in their culture.

Abraham was a nomad. He had no territory that he could call his own. His domain was the clan that he developed.

The clan was not only his domain, it was his survival. He was not alone in this nomad life. The paths they covered were loaded with other clans who had their own identity and their own struggle for survival.

Tribes or clans competed for the best grazing grounds for their animals, the best watering holes, and the best hunting and fishing places. There were certainly concerns about behavior within the clan.

However, the greater issue was how to relate to the other wandering peoples. Fighting and warring were common practice.

This nomadic, competing lifestyle was the only lifestyle they knew, beginning with Abraham and continuing after being led out of slavery in Egypt by Moses. Through all this experience, the children of Abraham were steadfast in their devotion to their most powerful God, Jehovah.

Monotheism (one God) was in an early state of development and was not at issue. Most tribes, including Israel, were polytheist (many Gods).

However, Israel was unique among the tribes. They had chosen Jehovah to come first. No God could come before their most powerful God, Jehovah. At issue was not monotheism, but which God would come first.

This firm conviction became the center of Israelite life. They survived because they were good at killing members of competing tribes. However, if a competing tribe would enter into a covenant with the Israelites saying the Israelite God Jehovah would be first, the competing tribe would then be considered neighbors and were shown the same respect that was common within the Israelite clan.

The earliest form of the command to love neighbor was “You shall love your neighbor as your own” with the one condition that the competing clan put Jehovah first. If a competing clan refused to embrace Jehovah, Israelites did not hesitate to annihilate the competing tribe with killing force. Men, women and children were legitimate prey.

The Bible account of Israelite history is a report of this practice in real life. King David built the nation of Israel under these rules. King David was the greatest killer in Israelite history. He is revered as a man after the heart of God.

This standard of submission or annihilation was not unchallenged. Many of the prophets of Israel had differing opinions. Most of the prophets were poets and spoke and wrote in highly symbolic language. Their writings have a point of view. They insisted that Jehovah was a God of compassion and had a much more inclusive definition of the meaning of neighbor.

Jesus from Nazareth was the differing opinion of his own day. From stories he told and the aphorisms that he repeated, it is obvious that he challenged the prevailing definition of neighbor in his own time and place.

He lived in a hotbed of knife-carrying zealots who were being terrorized by the Romans and the dominating ruling class of Jews. They wanted to return to the killing way to establish the reign of God on Earth.

The encounter between Jesus and the attorney is profound. The standard of love of neighbor was not at issue. The great issue was the definition of neighbor.

Jesus and the attorney understood the issue very well. The attorney asked the crucial question. Who is my neighbor?

Jesus responded with a story. He told the story of the Good Samaritan. He chose cast members who were typically excluded from the prevailing definition of neighbor. Jesus is set apart not by a virgin birth or a bodily resurrection from the dead, but by a radical definition of neighbor.

The shame of Christians today is their excluding definitions of the meaning of neighbor.

If any significant number of Christians embraced and practiced Jesus’ teachings about neighbors, the reign of God on Earth would be close at hand.