Leviticus begins with the clear goals and boundaries that are necessary for the sake of a moral and a religious society, and the tangent is set in motion with the final so-called “Golden Rule.” This all leads and develops to create the Jesus phenomenon, and what could well be called Jesus’ “commandments,” which go far beyond mere boundary-keeping to actually moving beyond all boundaries to take care of those who did not make it, do not fit in, the outsider, the criminal, the vulnerable, and the weak. It is quite a leap which, to be honest, many Christians have never made. You could obey the Ten Commandments perfectly all of your life and never come close to the mark that Jesus sets for the final judgment.
—Richard Rohr, Wondrous Encounters: Scripture for Lent, 26-27
And there it is. Ever since reading it this morning, I have had that paragraph and especially that last sentence rattling around in my head. Because of course that is the difference of actually following Jesus. It is not whether you can keep the commandments, it is whether you are doing what you can to care for those who do not make it, do not fit in, the outsider, the criminal, the vulnerable, and the weak (Rohr also points out that seed of what Jesus is talking about is right there in Leviticus’ admonishment to love your neighbor as yourself).
This last month is Minnesota, we witnessed ordinary people doing just this. There has been a movement to protect neighbors that have been targeted by ICE. Through grocery runs, carpools, Zoom calls, protests, whistles, and so much more.
“We’re taught to love our neighbor. Right now, it’s so clear who our most vulnerable neighbor is. We don’t need to be asking, ‘Who should I be helping?’ The answer is right in front of our faces.” Those are the words of a Minnesota pastor referred to as Mia in an article by Jordan Ritter Conn. That piece of journalism—”Inside the Hidden Network of Resistance in Minneapolis”—takes readers into the heart of those hitting the mark of loving their neighbors. You should really read it. It heartened me to see how many of those folks were part of churches. Of course the kicker is plenty more people who are following Jesus in this way are not part of any sort of religious community. All in all, thank God for the good people of Minnesota.
There is an encouragement and a challenge to their witness and Jesus’ story. I would much rather be among those that move beyond boundaries to fully love my neighbor instead of the type of Christian that keeps a bunch of rules. For all the times that I might come close to that mark there are many times where I miss it completely. As the prayer at the end of this morning’s devotional read: “Loving God, allow me to be a sheep at least once in a while, and never let me forget that most of my life I have been a goat.”
That’s a good place to start.