This coming Sunday is the 31st Sunday in Year B.  In yesterday’s post we discussed how Jesus’ reply moves from a singular eternal truth (the uniqueness of God) to a command for the continuous love response. Stoffergen offers an insight on love and its command. He writes: “Could you imagine a young couple on their first date? The woman thinks to herself, ‘I really like this guy. He’s so handsome. He’s so charming. I wouldn’t mind spending the rest of my life with him. What can I do to get him to love me?’ Then you hear the woman say in a stern voice: ‘I command you to love me. You will marry me. We will live happily ever after.’ Would a marriage like that work? Can love be commanded?”

The underlying word for the verb “to love” is agano. It implies action rather than emotion. No command can change one’s heart, soul, mind, and strength. Rules might make us act more lovingly towards other people but not “with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” But then again there is one other time agano is used in Mark’s gospel.

In the story of the rich young man who comes to Jesus asking him what he must do to inherit the kingdom of God (10:17-22), we read: “Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, “You are lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to [the] poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” Jesus’ love for the man was evident in the action recommended. Jesus’ response was not a Hallmark card moment, but a response for the good of the other. Jesus commands us to love our enemies (in Matthew 5:44). Our response might well be all action accompanied by feelings not commonly described as “love.” So, there is a sense in which love can be commanded.

Along with the other evangelists Mark records Jesus’ response which is a combination of

Deut. 6:5 – “Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God, with your whole heart, and with your whole being, and with your whole strength.” and

Lev. 19:18 – “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”

“It is the Lord our God who is to be loved with a completeness of devotion which is defined by the repeated ‘all.’ Because the whole man is the object of God’s covenant love, the whole man is claimed by God for himself. To love God in the way defined by the great commandment is to seek God for his own sake, to have pleasure in him and to strive impulsively after him. Jesus demands a decision and readiness for God, and for God alone, in an unconditional manner. Clearly this cannot be the subject of legal enactment. It is a matter of will and action. The love which determines the whole disposition of one’s life and places one’s whole personality in the service of God reflects a commitment to God which springs from divine sonship.” (Lane, 432-3)

Image credit: The Pharisees and the Sadducees Come to Tempt Jesus | James Tissot | Brooklyn Museum, PD-US