Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” - Mark 12:29-31
For many Christians, this “summary of the law” is recited every time we gather for communion, reminding us of our call to love God and neighbor. Jesus' answer wasn't new; it reflected the ancient commandments of the Old Testament. This continuity helps us understand how Jesus came to fulfill the law, not to destroy it—a truth we may know but might not fully understand.
Our Anglican liturgy—our collective worship—reveals what it means when we say that Jesus came to fulfill the law.
In Deuteronomy, we learn why following these commandments is so vital. We read,
“That it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you.” Keeping God’s law isn’t about arbitrary rules that define us
as a unique community. It’s about human flourishing. These commandments reflect the created order, the very structure of creation in which we live.
Imagine God’s promises to us like a guide for growing a tomato: “You shall love your tomato plant as yourself. Nourish it, water it, let the sun shine upon it. In doing so, it will go well with your plant; your tomatoes will multiply greatly; your sauce will be rich, red, and flavorful.” These aren’t rules for an elite gardening club. They describe how tomatoes thrive. Likewise, loving God fully and loving our neighbor genuinely is the essence of human flourishing.
Living by these commandments aligns our lives with God’s purpose. We’re promised that doing so will bring us into a flourishing community. This is why we recite these commandments every Sunday. We want to keep them before us. Yet there is a huge problem. We can't keep them through our own will power. We recognize our need for grace.
Each week, right after reciting this summary, we say the Kyrie: “Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.” This ancient prayer of the Church confronts the reality that, despite our best efforts, we fall short. This acknowledgment brings us to our first glimpse of how Christ fulfills the law: He enables us to keep it by empowering us with His mercy. From this point, our liturgy leads us closer to communion with Him.
As we continue in worship, we listen to Scripture, hear the Gospel proclaimed, and receive a sermon that (hopefully) points us to Christ, stirring our hearts and reminding us of our need for Him. We confess our faith through the Creed, joining in the ancient belief that countless Christians have upheld, even to their last breath. Martyrs who when told that if they renounce Christ they will live, instead recite these words. The same martyrs we pray for during the Prayers of the People.
Then, we arrive at the Confession of Sin, acknowledging, “We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.” Here again is the summary of the law—our realization that we have not perfectly lived it. Yet, it is here that we also receive forgiveness through Christ.
Forgiven, we share the Peace—a mini-evangelizing moment where we proclaim and celebrate the mercy we’ve received as part of God’s family. The offertory follows, and here we offer not only our financial tithe but our hearts, our souls, our minds, our strength, indeed our whole being. In giving back, we run toward Jesus, admitting our blindness yet seeing clearly in our spirit, asking for His healing.
Finally, we reach the pinnacle of worship: Communion. In this Eucharistic moment, we experience thanksgiving as Christ becomes present to us in bread and wine. Here, in a mystery we can’t fully explain, we receive His grace. Jesus tells us in John 6,
“Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” Communion with Christ enables us to flourish in His life.
Through Christ’s sacrifice, we receive the strength to keep the law, empowered to love God wholly and to love our neighbors as ourselves. The post-communion prayer sends us out to “do the work you have given us to do, to love and serve you as faithful witnesses.” Christ infuses us with the power to live as He lived, loving and witnessing as the Body of Christ.
Isn’t that amazing?
Do you see it? Christ came to empower us to keep these commandments, to redeem creation, and to help us love God and others as faithful witnesses of His truth.
This is the Gospel!
Living within God’s created order is still the path to flourishing. God has given us a beautiful world filled with everything we need. But without Christ at our center, we misuse it. We desecrate creation by idolizing it. We needed Christ to die for our sins, to rise again, and to reorder our brokenness. Through Him, we are again co-creators, children of God who are called, as the Church, to love Him completely and love our neighbor as ourselves.
Loving God and Loving Others