We have some funny ideas about what love is. Love has been sentimentalized and ridiculed. Love is the subject of satire and parody. Love is the realm of the soft and sappy – the wounded and weak. In songs, stories, poems and in the psyche of the modern, western mind, love is not the condition on which you would establish a kingdom.

But Jesus brought a different idea. And before you remind me that Jesus was neither modern nor ‘western’ – let’s think about how we have missed Jesus’ point.

When Jesus gets this question about which commandment is ‘first of all’, the crowd leans in for the answer. Some of them are eager to hear more of Jesus’ wisdom. Others are sure that this question, coming from an expert in the law, is a trap. We are perilously close to the showdown in Jerusalem at this point in Mark’s gospel, and any mistakes on Jesus’ part will surely add to the list of charges against him. But there is a twist in the story.

Jesus offers as his answer the most appropriate – and the most Jewish – of answers. He summarizes Deuteronomy 6 – a statement of faith offered twice daily by observant Jews even now. (Listen, Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord is One. Blessed be the name of His glorious kingdom for ever and all time. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. These words which I command you today shall be on your heart.)

Jesus, being Jesus, modifies this ancient creed by including love of neighbour too. The scribe echoes Jesus’ answer by way of praise, and Jesus tells the scribe that he too is close to God’s promise. And no one asks any more questions.

Now – never mind that the story turns quite quickly to the doom and despair of holy week – what are we to do with this exchange? It sounds like a simple enough approach. Love one another.

Clearly it wasn’t enough (in Jesus’ own time) to turn the conversation away from crucifixion…but Jesus condenses centuries of law and tradition into a manageable statement of action. Love God. Love your neighbour as you love yourselves. Why not put that over the door of every sanctuary? Why can’t people behave as though they believed that love really was the answer?

Why are we Still wondering how to apply the ancient lessons of faith for our current circumstances. What are we missing?

The love thing should be enough. But ‘love’ (in English, at least) has become so loaded with emotional baggage that we are not always sure what it looks like. What is Jesus asking of us?

Well, it’s not the sweet and serene image of love that comes at us from movies and romance novels and Hallmark holiday specials. The romantic, violins and mist in the distance stuff is best reserved for February 14^th.  The word we struggle with is agape.

Hebrew has its own word – a word that suggests both a deep emotional response and an engagement with the object of our affection (aw-hav) – but the Greeks have several words that we translate as ‘love’ – each with its own specific emphasis. Agape is used in that famous wedding reading from 1 Corinthians (where the KJV chooses charity over love)– and it is agape Mark’s gospel uses to summarize the shema “…love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and might”

Our understanding of love changes from generation to generation (witness the KJV) but the sense of agape is quite distinct – it is a feeling of goodwill that is concerned for the welfare of the other. Not for seduction or other selfish purposes, but for the good of the other.

We are to be concerned with our relationship with God and our neighbours (and let’s not forget how Jesus defined who our neighbour might be…) because of our desire for their well-being.

Love in this sense is not a blind, headlong rush into the pleasure of one another’s company. It is, instead, a careful and thoughtful relationship of encouragement, empowerment, and respect.

In the twice-daily pledge of love that is the ‘shema’ the promise is to be mindful of the goodness of God and to honour the gifts God has given.

Jesus’ expansion offers us the chance to grown a community of respect across boundaries of family or faith. Loving neighbour as ourselves is not a mindless, self-indulgent fantasy. It is how we might respect the god-likeness in every human person.

The choice to take Jesus at his word – to adopt this loving approach into our life – comes with a caution. Not everyone who asks us to love is thinking of agape. Some who invite us to love are asking us to throw ourselves into a project (or program) with abandon. To trust them enough to ignore our uncertainties. To think of our gain and the potential for our own advancement.

This applies to both personal and corporate relationships. Advertising is designed to entice us into this selfish, singular ‘love.’ Politicians aim to convince us of their love of country – which is too often just a love of their own legacy. The agape at the heart of Jesus’ pattern of living is – as Paul reminds us – is patient and kind; neither envious, boastful, arrogant or rude. Jesus encourages us to rejoice in the truth. To look out for one another. To reflect the character of God, and so guard God’s ‘welfare’ by the way we honour God’s goodness. And having given that answer on that fateful day, the questions stopped because the task that Jesus sets for us is hard.

It’s hard to be mindful of one another. It’s hard to put aside our own needs for the good of the neighbourhood, or the town, or the province, or the country.

But that hard work bears the best reward. We see glimpses of it in a season of thanksgiving – when we honour someone’s efforts with praise – when we give gifts of candy to oddly dressed strangers – when we do these selfless, loving things, we change the world. We get a little closer to God.