Editor’s note: this week, a very different set of Connect Devotionals because this week is unlike all others. Each writer this week will invite you to explore a different passage:  the “cleansing of the Temple” (Monday), the argument about paying taxes to Caesar (Tuesday), the “great commandment” (Wednesday), the Last Supper and Gethsemane (Thursday), and the culmination of this week on Good Friday.  We hope that what we write will invite you to a deeper engagement with these Scriptures, as well as with the entire narrative of this week that began on a joy-filled Sunday and ended on a terrible Friday we now call “Good.” We hope you’ll read what we write.  Even more, we hope you will dive into what Matthew, Mark, Luke and John wrote!

 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:34-40 ESV)

As a child, you may remember playing the game “Simon Says.” Essentially, the leader does an action and everyone has to follow the action, but only if the leader says, “Simon says…” If they do not say that and you still do the action, you are out. It is a game of listening, a game of “follow me!”

Today’s passage is about the Great Commandment. Jesus tells the Pharisees that the two most important things one could ever do are 1) love God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and 2) love your neighbor as yourself. 

In his time on earth, these two things are what Jesus did best. He demonstrated how to love God by obeying His will and dying on the cross for us. He showed us how to love our neighbors when he noticed Zacchaeus, the tax collector, in the tree, and stayed with him in his house. That small interaction of kindness changed Zacchaeus’ life forever. 

Similar to the game of “Simon Says,” in these verses, Jesus is saying, “Follow me!” Follow Him in the way He loves God. Follow Him in the way he loves everyone, even if that means loving the people you’re not the greatest of friends with.

Following Jesus’ examples could mean taking risks or doing something out of the normal. Christ’s death on the cross is the most powerful example of “taking risks for the sake of God and your neighbor;” he took a risk by obeying God and in doing so, showing just how much He loves us. You may have to put your phone down for 15 minutes each day to grow closer to the Lord through worship, prayer, and reading Scripture. It might be necessary for you to do something a little bit different in your day by starting a conversation with a stranger, smiling in their direction, or even texting an old friend to check in. 

How can you follow Jesus’ examples of loving God and His neighbors as we draw closer to Easter?  If you’re ever doubting how to treat a situation, always remember what Christ would say: “Just follow me!”