Holy Week: Wholehearted love

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They were trying to catch Jesus out.

In Matthew 22:15–46, we read that Jesus is confronted by the Pharisees and Sadducees, who were hoping to trap him into a punishable offence with clever questions. Jesus knew their evil intent, and every answer he gave revealed something far deeper, holding a mirror to their own religion and spiritual posture.

The responses from Jesus not only expose the limits of human wisdom. They reveal the limits of religion without love for God, and for one another. As Paul later wrote, ‘If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal’ (1 Corinthians 13:1).

Matthew 22:37–40 reads: ‘“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” All the Law and the Prophets hang on those two commandments.’

We are drawn back to the centre of who we are and to the life we were made for: wholehearted love for God and for others. Jesus invites us beyond surface belief into a life shaped by love at the deepest level.

The wholeness God restores in us is not found in our own striving for perfection, but in the fixing of a heart, soul and mind turned towards Christ. Our lives do not become whole out of best efforts or in strained understanding, but when we are grounded in Jesus, who is wisdom and love incarnate.

Hope for our whole lives

All around and within us, love is vulnerable to growing thin. The Pharisees and the Sadducees professed to know God, but they could not love him. Despite their proximity to Jesus, they could not recognise the hope and the wholeness that he offered.

Where might Jesus be inviting you into more wholehearted life today? Ask the Holy Spirit to show you what it means to love God with all that you are. Allow that love to overflow to others.

Let us pray

Jesus, recentre my heart, soul and mind on your love. Let me seek your wisdom in all things, rather than rely on my own thinking. Root my hope in you alone. Teach me to love as you love, so that my life may reflect your wholeness.