Shema and Crucifixion

Asked what the greatest commandment was, Jesus responded without hesitation: "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." In Hebrew, this is known as the Shema, which is simply the first Hebrew word in the phrase. It is obviously one of the most important statements in the Scriptures, and it should be made even more important to Christians as Jesus picks it out as the most important commandment.

This statement is so wrapped in layers of meaning, from the LORD is one to how we are to love the LORD. What stands out to me is that we are to love the LORD with heart and soul and strength. Basically we need to love God with our whole beings. To break it down a bit, heart is where our emotions and our desires and our will comes from. In Hebrew, it is actually very closely related to our mind. Strength is our body and all of our physicality. Soul, in ancient Hebrew belief, is actually the unity of the emotions, desires, thoughts, character, and so on as the whole person. So love the LORD our God with our whole beings.

So, if Jesus knew this was the greatest command, it's logical to think that He would orient his ministry towards the goal of making it possible. Making it possible for people, humans, to love the LORD with their whole beings, body, mind, and soul.

The more and more I read through the gospels the more that this is simply jumping all over me. Awhile ago I wondered about Jesus' miracles, healings, exorcisms and other radical things that he did that seem so beyond me. Now as I look at that stuff through a different lens, the lens of the Shema, I see that the miracles are meant to change people's minds, to allow them to see that God is God and God is all powerful. That God is the only God. That's why John calls the miracles "signs." They are not just about the miraculous thing that gets done, they are about what the miraculous thing points to. Miracles deliver peoples' minds and hearts and set them on the LORD.

And healings. Healings deliver peoples' bodies, their strength. A blind man, a crippled man, a leprous man, a bleeding woman, these people all have bodily problems that may separate them from worshipping with their whole bodies. A blind man cannot worship the LORD who provided the lush forests and magnificent mountains. A crippled man cannot worship the LORD who gave him speed and dexterity. And so on. Jesus delivers peoples' bodies.

And souls. The wholeness of a person. The seat of their "spirit." Traditionally, we think that this is what Jesus died on the cross for. And it is. But I don't think that it is only in the sense of "so we can go to heaven and be with Him." Soul, in the Shema sense, is the unity of body and mind, strength and heart.

So I think that Jesus came, lived, and died so that salvation could be brought to our heart, strength and soul. So that we could understand and be free to worship the LORD, to love the LORD, with our bodies, minds, and souls.

That seems to make sense to me, and it really helps me understand why Jesus does what he does...don't know how it was explained though. Or what to do with that now.

Lord, I know that You are the LORD. Help me to live in a way that teaches others You are the one LORD, that inspires others to serve You with their strengths, and invites others into the wholeness of Your salvation.