Matthew 22:34-38 says…34 When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had left the Sadducees speechless, they met together. 35 One of them, a legal expert, tested him. 36 “Teacher, what is the greatest commandment in the Law?”37 He replied, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being,[a] and with all your mind. 38 This is the first and greatest commandment.
One time I was volunteering at an elementary school as the students were arriving to school. One of the children got out of his mother’s car and as he was walking in his mother called out his name and said “Be sure when you get home today you do your homework.” The boy kind of rolled his eyes and said “I will Mom.” This has to be a reality that is setting in for a lot of students who are starting back to school this month. There is a lot of excitement as the school year begins, everything is so new and then usually within a couple of days the reality of the school year sets in as students bring home those first homework assignments. Homework is just a part of the reality of what it is to be a student, it is all a part of the learning process. Although students may not always like doing their homework, putting in the work and applying what has been taught is the primary way we really learn. It’s not always easy and sometimes it can be very difficult. But it is only in putting in those hours of practice and application that we really learn the lessons that have been taught. All students are on a journey, all students are taking part in a process in which they are learning the skills that is molding them into who they are going to be. This is an exciting month as students in schools all around us are beginning the journey of another school year. The word disciple when translated in Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic mean’s “student” and is related to the word “learning.” I’m sorry for those of us who thought maybe our homework days were behind us, but we are called to be students, we are called to be disciples.
This is the first and the greatest commandment. You know, Jesus didn’t leave us much room for debate with his response to this question that is posed by a legal expert. Often times Jesus will answer a question by asking another question, often times he will tell a parable or a story, but in this case he flat out answers the question. “You must love the Lord with all your heart, with all your being, and with all your mind.” In other words we are called to love God with everything we have. We are called to completely and fully love and devote ourselves to God. One part of this calling to love God with all that we have is to love God with all our mind.
There is a famous quote by Charles Wesley which states “Unite the pair so long disjoined, knowledge and vital piety. Learning and holiness combined and truth and love, let all men see.” Wesley was explaining that not only are we called to be holy and to be devout, but we are called to grow in our knowledge of God. We are called to learn and to study the meanings of the Christian life and theology. The book of Romans also confirms our calling to knowledge and study. Romans 12:2 states “Don’t be confronted to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you can figure out what God’s will is- what is good and pleasing and mature.” So what does it look like exactly for us to love God with all our mind? What does it look like for us to do our homework? I like the way the Rev. Mark Schaefer put it when he said “What we study, is how to be like Jesus. We model our behavior after Jesus.” Jesus is the teacher and we are the students. Unfortunately Jesus is not literally here leading our Bible studies and preaching sermons to us. There’s nothing I would love more than to hear a sermon from Christ. We may not be able to literally sit at Jesus feet and hear him preach his sermons, but we have an account of the Sermon on the Mount. We may not be able to ask Jesus questions but we can see all throughout scripture his response to a lot of different questions. It’s interesting, as far as we know, Jesus didn’t really physically write anything.
Jesus taught the first disciples, the first students, and they recorded Jesus teachings. Our homework is to study what the early Church recorded for us, our homework is of course to study the Bible. And when we study the Bible there is something that is very clear about those early Christians, they were busy doing homework. Acts chapter 2 tells us about the beginnings of the church and those first followers of Jesus. “The believers devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, to the community, to their shared meals, and to the prayers. These early Christians were doing their homework, they were devoting themselves to the apostle’s teachings. But that was not where their studying ended. They were studying and learning what it is to be in community. Knowing what it is to be in community with one another, leaning how to build community is a really big part of what church is all about. These early Christians were learning what it is to share meals together, to pray. They studied what it is to live with justice, they studied how to meet each other’s spiritual needs and each other’s physical needs. They ended up doing all of these things. Now it didn’t just happen overnight. I would imagine that this radical new life these people took on took some time. They had to do probably some difficult work to make these things happen. They were taught a lot of different lessons. They were taught by Jesus, they were taught by the Apostles. The early Christians were given some pretty serious homework.
We have been given some homework. Loving God with our minds also means applying what we have learned. This homework will completely alter people’s lives, this homework will change the world, and this homework will make God’s kingdom a present and a future reality. Loving God with all our minds requires study, and it requires application. It is not just enough to know the material, it is not just enough to know the Bible, we have to continue to make the Bible come alive in our world.