The cross itself
Some people feel like love is okay, but what we really have to do is love God over the humans He made. Others feel like love is okay, but what we really have to do is love the humans God made over the God who made them. You can think of loving God as the vertical beam of the cross. And loving our neighbor as the horizontal beam. To make the cross - Jesus needed both. All that refers to Jesus’ teaching that the two greatest commandments are to love God and love our neighbor. (Matthew 22:36-39, and Luke 10:25-28) And how can we have TWO greatEST commands anyway? - Doesn’t greatEST automatically imply that there' can only be one? What’s going on here?
This thinking - in short - is referred to as “dualistic” thinking. It is not the greatest example of dualistic thinking … but it works well enough.
Dualistic thinking is great when you want to know a very simple answer such as “who’s got the best price on gas in my neighborhood?” It falls short of giving a satisfying answer to the really hard questions that people like you and me and those we love face every day. Questions like, “I prayed, and God didn’t answer”, “my relationship’s over and I’m heartbroken”, “why’d my child get this diagnosis?” Some might feel tempted to give a “just do this” answer, or a “all you have to do is bla bla bla” answer - but those responses don’t usually work. They don’t really read the full situation and fall flat.
Truth is most of what I learned in Sunday school left me thinking if I just knew about Noah, and the shepherd boy King, David - I’d always know what to do. Maybe I did learn how to to always know what to do in Sunday school - and just didn’t get it because I was a really bad Sunday school student … but I don’t think so. I needed a Sunday school or youth group that talked about the fact that being adult means the vast majority of my decisions - the “right” decision is the one that’s only 1-2% better. Which major, internship, apartment, car … what to say to my friend, bae, or family member when they’re having a hard time, or they’ve hurt my feelings, or when I feel like I have to let them down. So often really hard situations don’t even have a yes or no/go or stay.
If one of the two greatest commandments was “better” than the other - we’d only have that one. God could’ve made that happen. But that’s not how God set it up. Why?
What if having TWO greatest commandments is a gift for us. What if God did this on purpose - so we’d really get it. What if God knew we had it in us to do more than zero in on one of those. After years of watching students’ grow their faith - I’ve come to appreciate that some are “better” at loving one or the other. It just comes easy for some to put one of those first. It’s having two greatest commandments - both loving God and others that really pushes each and every one of us into a place where we have to give up the idea of “looking smart, or wise, or whatever - because we came up with an easy answer. Being called by God to live by both of those commandments means we are all dealing with a lot of complication all the time - which means we really feel and know our own need to pray for one another, and we really need one another’s help, perspective, wisdom, compassion, patience and on and on and on. And it all reminds us every step of the way that none of us has all the answers - and the journey is so humbling. But there are few things sweeter than watching Jesus’ people live out vertical and horizontal love over and over again. It heals us of our wounds as we follow Him this way. It restores us to a better relationship with God and one another. It’s richly connecting. It’s beautifully genuine - and it grow us up, makes us better than “strong” - it makes us good, kind, and more aware of when our ego is trying to lead us into trouble. It expands our awareness of just how much God loves us that He gave us the cross - with it’s vertical and horizontal beams to remind us how to find our path. I love it.