[January 2003 journal entry]
The Matthew 25:31-46 story has been pivotal for my decision to align with ‘the second commandment’ (i.e., love your neighbor as yourself) as I wrestle with the complexities/limitations I find inseparable from understanding or experiencing ‘the first commandment’ (i.e., love ‘God’ with all your . . .). The Matthew 25:31-46 story supports this reverse ordering of these two ‘commandments’. The story can easily (and ironically, I think) be read through the perspective of the ‘goats’ in the story – i.e., with the readers/interpreters concluding, “Let us, therefore, serve ‘the least of these’ because in doing so we are serving ‘God’.” The ‘goats’ in the story beg for a second chance to do just that. The ‘sheep’ in the story are commended because their motive for caring for ‘the least of these’ is free from such self-serving, from such self-promoting, from such ‘means to the end of strengthening my case in judgment’ objectives. The ‘sheep’ in the story care for ‘the least of these’ in a pure and unconditional sense. If I had stayed on the ‘religious’ path of having to settle ‘the first commandment’ issues as a prerequisite for participating in ‘the second commandment’ ethic, I would either have given up the further inquiry re ‘the first commandment’ I already knew had to be pursued to maintain intellectual integrity or I would have neglected my responsibilities as a spouse, as a parent, as a neighbor. Stepping instead directly into ‘the second commandment’ responsibilities actually liberated and energized my continued inquiry into ‘the first commandment’ questions. Doing so also necessitated a ‘scrapheap’ or ‘non-religious’ rationale for seeking to be the sort of person who sees and cares deeply for ‘the least of these’.
