Exodus 20:1-17, Psalm 19, John 2:13-22
In Exodus 20, God said to his people, “I have chosen you – you are my special family. I want you to live in a way that shows everyone else what I’m like – so they can know me too.” As it says there, we can’t keep all the rules all the time. But we can keep most of the rules most of the time and get forgiven for the rest. The more we practice keeping the rules the better we get at it and the better we get at it the more we live like Jesus and show people what God is like.
When Jesus went to Jerusalem for the Passover feast and saw what was going on in the temple and that it was not the way God wanted it, he decided it was time to clean the place up. The people had got off-track. Instead of loving God first and foremost, like they’d been told back at the mountain was the most important thing, they weren’t thinking of God at all and only thinking of themselves and of making money from the religious system that God had set up. When God told his people to make sacrifices to him it was so that they could show their love for God by giving him the best they had. But for the traders in the Temple, sacrifices had become just a way to make money.
During Lent (which is now) we do well to clean up our acts, too. That means taking a hard look at ourselves and asking, “Am I thinking only of myself or am I loving God more than anything else in the world?” We must be totally honest in this. “What am I doing that’s selfish and what am I doing to love God more and more?” and “How can I change the balance so as to love God more and be less selfish?”
The first commandment tells us to love God totally. The last commandment says, ‘Do not want anything that belongs to someone else.’ In between are 8 commandments about our actions – what we must do or not do. But the first is about who we love and the last is about what we desire. That is, what we really, really want.
The government has made laws that prohibit murder or rape or stealing, even if such laws can be difficult to enforce, and the church has made rules about things like going to church on Sunday. But no law can make us love God or not want what isn’t ours. Neither the government nor the church can hope to control and punish us for wanting the wrong things. While many have tried none have succeeded for it is impossible. So let’s investigate the tenth commandment to learn more.
It could be that the tenth commandment is there because if we desired nothing of anyone else’s, then most of the other commandments would be pretty much sorted. If we can be satisfied with who we are and what we have, if we cooperate rather than compete, we’re not going to feel a need to trivialise relationships, steal, lie or murder.
Unfortunately, because we are human, we find it very hard to completely control our desires. Try as we might we still do compare ourselves to others and desire what they have, wear and do. Whether it is beauty or fame or more material wealth – the bigger house, car or gadget – we find ourselves longing for it too. Envy is a nasty beast which brings out the worst in us.
The frustrating thing is, I know this. I have committed myself to follow the Way of Jesus, which I can do in general, but I forget the detail time and again. And it is when I forget that I find myself dreaming of things that are merely my desire and not God’s. So what’s the answer?
I believe it was Martin Luther who said, “Love God and do what you want.” By which he meant that when we truly love God we want what God wants. Psalm 37:4 expresses the same idea: “Seek your happiness in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desire.”
Jesus summed it up so well when he said we are to love God with all we are and all we have and love our neighbour as ourselves. That is our fundamental calling, no more and no less. Everything else is peripheral – off to the side, optional extra.
When I can go all-out to fulfill that fundamental calling to love, and when I can get it into my head that I am not called to follow anyone else’s path, then I can stop glancing over my shoulder and comparing my efforts with everyone else’s. From time to time I realise I’m doing it – loving God; following Jesus – and when I do, I have an irrepressible joy. All my other desires evaporate into thin air and I am radiantly happy and at peace. I know deep in my heart that I have everything I need; more than enough; and there is nothing I want other than to walk the earth in love with God and neighbour. At those times, of course, I envy no one and desire nothing; and I feel completely free.
Jesus lived and modeled a way of life that was marked by love, justice, mercy, peace and self-sacrifice. As his followers, we are called to imitate him, just as he imitated his Father in heaven – and if he and not the Joneses is our role model, then over time we will begin to look and sound like him. Our desires will be limited less and less by our mundane human imaginations, which are so captivated by material wealth, popularity or success. Instead, our desires will be shaped more and more by God’s love.
When this happens, our human desires will be revealed for the petty things they are. When love is our priority, suddenly someone else’s stuff, whether their spouse or their house, their plasma television or their perfect children, their intellect or their career path or their attractiveness, are simply theirs. Why would I want someone else’s stuff when I have my own? This idea that we will be satisfied with someone else’s .. anything .. is a have. Joy, real joy, is in our own relationship with God, living the Jesus life and enjoying whatever gifts he gives us.
Under the old system God’s people started with the commandments and tried to keep them. Under Jesus the commandments are not the beginning point; they are what result when people have learned to love and their desires have merged with God’s. Instead of putting your effort into keeping the commandments, work on living a life of love and you will find that you’ll be keeping the commandments without even trying to.
Yesterday I read some comments by a dietician about losing weight. She wrote that diets don’t work and what we need to do is give up our bad eating habits and adopt good ones. It’s the same for Lent. Don’t treat it like a diet and give up this or that for this time only. Better to use the time to deal with bad spiritual habits and replace them with good ones. Even one changed habit is worthwhile. To work out some steps you can take to change the balance so as to love God more and be less selfish would be brilliant.