Drama: Legislate for love

Cast: One person to play the Pharisee and one to play Jesus.

Pharisee: Rabbi, may I ask you a question?

Jesus: Ah! A Pharisee, of course you can…everyone else is trying to trap me by clever questioning, so be my guest and ask your question.

Pharisee: Thank you, I think! My question is this, of all the commandments that there are in Scripture, which one is the greatest?

Jesus: Ah, a seemingly innocuous question. But how can one rate one of God’s laws above another?

Pharisee: Teacher, surely you know that some commandments concern more trivial, rudimentary regulations regarding more everyday matters.

Jesus: I see we have a lawyer here.

Pharisee: That I am sir. And I give as evidence the Ten Commandments: five concern our standing before God and these come first, so they must be the most important. The rest concern our dealings with our fellow human beings and these come second.
 
Jesus: You are right my friend.

Pharisee: Thank you, but I think you owe me an answer to my question: which is the greatest commandment?

Jesus: It is obvious, as you know well: ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’

Pharisee: Indeed, what we call the ‘Shema’, the Jewish Creed… and you’ve missed a bit. It begins with ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one’, then it goes on to say ‘and you shall love the Lord your God.’

Jesus: Let me ask you a question. Why is this the greatest commandment?

Pharisee: Are you trying to trap me, sir?

Jesus: Only if you don’t know your Hebrew.

Pharisee: Ha! Ha! The word ‘shema’ means two things, it means ‘to hear’ and ‘to obey’. So if you hear the word of God, your duty is to obey.

Jesus: Well done! But I’m sensing that you are a little disappointed with my answer, perhaps because I am telling you what you already know.

Pharisee: I would like to push you a bit. Religiously speaking your answer is fine, but I am a lawyer as you say, and I want to know what you really think. By what law do you live your life? I know you love the Lord your God with your whole being, but what does this mean for the way you conduct your life.

Jesus: You are a formidable student! It means that there is an equally important commandment: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’

Pharisee: Hmmm…now we are getting somewhere, for I know that every religion has something akin to this law, whether it’s talking about treating people the way we wish to be treated or, conversely, not treating people badly because we don’t wish to be treated badly ourselves. Is this a religious obligation, though?

Jesus: What else could it be? The two commandments are inseparable, they go hand in hand. If you love God, then you must love those whom God loves.

Pharisee: Ok, here we go! I am a lawyer as you say and it’s great to say that we should love God and everybody, but can you legislate for love?

Jesus: Do you think I am talking about having a warm, cosy feeling towards all and sundry? Do you think I’m suggesting that love has no practical application?

Pharisee: I don’t understand.

Jesus: The two commandments go together and the love we have for God should be the same as the love we have for each other. Remember: love with all your heart, soul and mind, with every bit of your being – self-giving, sacrificial love.

Pharisee: Tell me more.

Jesus: If you start with a love like this, then there is no way you will steal, covet, injure, murder or harm your fellow human beings in any way. You will spend your lives speaking out for the oppressed and working against injustice at every turn. Society will govern itself fairly and justly, for the good of all. What other laws do you need?

Pharisee: That’s too idealistic, we need laws and plenty of them, because you can't trust people to live this way. It’ll never work, though I wish it did.