I am reading a book by Thom Ranier and Eric Geiger called Simple Church. I must admit I love Ranier's material. He is so well researched and lives in the real world. On page 16 he makes the observation that Jesus was a simple revolutionary. However he stepped into a very complicated and cluttered religious scene with all the Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, Zealots and Essenes. He says that "the religious leaders had developed a religious system with 613 laws. They chose the number 613 because that was how many separate letters were in the text containing the Ten Commandments. They found 613 commandments in the Penteteuch... they divided the list into affirmative (do this) and negative commands (don't do this). There were 248 affirmative commands, one for every part of the human body, as they understood it. There were 365 negative commands, one for each day of the year. " They constantly debated the ranking of each command.
In this context Jesus was asked that famous question in Matthew 22:37-40. What is the greatest commandment in the Law? They had complicated the life of service to God but Jesus now reveals its simplicity. Jesus now returns to the word of God and says that all the commandments can be summed up in two, love God with everything you've got and love your neighbor as yourself.
Ranier's and Geiger's proposition that God's way is a simple way is shown clearly in this exchange. It made me think. How often do you we preachers, teachers and leaders over analyze and complicate the simple message of God. God forgive us.
