The people of God neglected the love of God and became a threat to the rest of the creation of God. This was the sad truth Jesus illuminates in one of his most prophetic sermons. Our Savior describes Israel’s religious leaders in these ways:
- filled with greed and wickedness (Lk. 11:39),
- coveting power in sacred and secular spaces (Lk. 11:43),
- weaponizing religion so it becomes unbearable (Lk. 11:46), and
- eliminating prophets who speak truth to their power (Lk. 11:48-51).
Jesus then reveals how this happened:
“But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. (Lk. 11:42 ESV)
Tithing was commanded in the Hebrew Bible (Lev. 27:30; Deut. 14:22). The Pharisees went beyond Scripture and tithed even the stalks of the most minute garden herbs–mint, rue and “every herb.” No one was more conservative and orthodox in theology and liturgy. Yet they neglected “justice and the love of God.” This phrase refers to the two great commands of the Hebrew and Christian Bibles: love of neighbor and love of God.
It’s not that the religious leaders had forgotten the importance of loving God or loving neighbor. In the chapter prior to this, an expert in Scripture comes to Jesus with a question:
25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 27 And he answered, “You shall 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 your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” (Lk. 10:25-28 ESV)
Every spiritual leader in Israel knew this answer. Loving God was the fundamental focus of religion, as was loving neighbor.
Yet while they could provide this answer on a test they would not live it out in their lives. The people of God neglected the love of God and became a threat to the rest of the creation of God. Greed, power and abuse characterized the way their faith formed their way of life in the world.
We see this again, not long after this exchange, in the temple. The sacred space is filled with Jewish worshipers. Yet the Court of the Gentiles, the only space where non-Jewish worshipers were welcomed, was crowded with Jewish businesses selling goods for Jewish worshipers. Even as they worshiped God, the ultimate act of love of God, they demonstrated discrimination and disdain toward those who didn’t share their ethnicity, making it impossible for minorities to meaningfully connect with God. Jesus could not stand it. So he drove them out (Lk. 19:45-46)
The word “neglect” which Jesus uses in Lk. 11 literally means “by pass.” In spite of knowing the prominence of loving God, religious leaders were passing over it to pursue other priorities. It’s the same word used in Lk 18 when a blind man in Jericho hears a commotion and asks what’s happening and he’s told “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by” (Lk. 18:37). That is, Jesus was on his way someplace else. He was just passing through Jericho to get to his real destination. Similarly, religious leaders were just passing through “loving God” on their way to their real destination. In their case, the destination was power, prominence and position.
It doesn’t take much imagination to picture Jesus preaching a version of this sermon to the people of God today. Even the most novice believer today knows that loving God is the fundamental focus of faith. Yet instead of being our true target, there are ways in which the love of God is still just a place we’re passing by on the way to our true terminus. And this neglect of the love of God has made the people of God a hazard rather than a haven for the rest of the creation of God.
In the next post, we’ll explore these alternative destinations.
