The Shema

You may have heard of something called the Jesus Creed. I call it “The Two Commandments.” The two commandments? “Jim, you’re wrong, there are ten”, you’re probably saying. Actually, there are many more. The Judaic law has over 600 commandments. And one day, a group of Jews asked Jesus which of these is the greatest. He told them, Love the lord with all your heart…and your neighbor like yourself. (This is called the “Shema” and is an ancient Hebrew creed.) There is another reference to these commandments, Luke 10:25-37.

We hear that “an expert in the law”, so a lawyer or a rabbi, asked Christ what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus asked him what the scripture said, and he said, “Love the lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and Love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus told him to do this and he would live… but he wasn’t satisfied. “Who is my neighbor?”

Remember the parable of the good Samaritan?

In short, a man falls prey to robbers on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, and while a few otherwise good people walk past him, it’s a Samaritan who stops to help him.

Jesus ends the parable, like so many, with a question. “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” Now, look at the wording of his answer, in Luke 10:37. He doesn’t say “The Samaritan”! He can’t even admit it out loud. He says, “The one who had mercy on him.”

What exactly is a Samaritan?

Samaritans were half-breeds. They were related to the Jews, and lived near them, but they worshipped a little differently, and had intermingled their blood with that of the gentiles. In other words, they were a different racial and religious group. Consider that the Samaritans were to the Jews as the Mexicans and the Muslims are to middle Americans.

Now, there’s more. Jesus said, what you do unto the least of these you do unto me! I have been seeing a horrible trend in Evangelical America. We like to care about those who are similar to us. We are neighbors to those who live near us. And maybe we even take care of our own within our local church family. But there are communities across this country (and especially around the world!) where people struggle just to get by. As Christians, it is our responsibility to reach out to those who need us, even (or especially) when it’s hard to reach.

Loving your neighbor is not usually easy. And sometimes it’s downright hard. One example is when you have to give to someone who is ungrateful. The natural human response is to stop giving. But just as we are asked to forgive our brother seventy times seven times, I’m convinced that we are to give seventy times seven times.

It’s not easy because it hurts. Giving is hard, partly because giving to requires giving up. When someone gives 10% of my income to my church, it means that they have 10% less income than they would have otherwise had. And I’m poor. I suppose its even harder for the rich, because 10% is that much more expensive for them. But tithing is not all of giving. Tithing was the dictate to the Jews. Why do you suppose, in the old testament, the cost was ten percent, but in the new testament that number isn’t given? I’m going to ask a question of our biblical scholars here. What percentage does Christ ask us to give?

Mark 10:21. “Go, sell some of what you have and give to a major evangelist, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come and follow me.”

What? I got it wrong? Oh, I’m sorry. I was reading that 21st century translation again. Let me read what it really says. “Go, sell all you have and give the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come and follow me.” The number is 100%. But just as Moses allowed divorce as a compromise for the hardhearted people who were truly blessed for free with a covenant from God, he settled for 10% from them. But we as Christians have a new covenant. You have heard it said that salvation is a free gift. This is true. But I read right here that its expensive. Which is true?


Now, I realize I’ve been pretty vague in some ways, so it’s time for me to say point blank what I’ve been trying to get at. The first is tithe. God has given you everything for free. And he commanded you to give everything to the poor. So there is no excuse not to give 10%.

The second is, some of you are struggling with your calling in life, and I’m going to call you to full time missions. Whatever you are doing, you should be doing it for God. To some people, that may mean quitting your comfortable job and taking a helping job. To others, that means finding the ways to serve God in what you do. And to some, it means leaving where you are altogether, to become a poor missionary.

I want to close with another quote from Luke 10. “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.”