A Call To The Reformation of The Church

In 1517, Martin Luther posted and promulgated the infamous Ninety-five Theses, setting the Protestant Reformation in motion. The various corruptions in the church troubled Luther greatly, and much of his energy was spent wrestling with the church’s rationale for placing itself between God and the people. As a result of these struggles, the European church began a period of splintering and reforming. The purpose of reformation is not breaking and dividing but instead refocusing on the core principles that God would have the church establish as its mission.

Throughout the Gospel, Jesus admonishes the people to establish a relationship with God by connecting with the Word of God directly. However, the Sadducees and the Pharisees sought to control that relationship and act as the intermediary for people’s connection with God. With that control over the Jewish faith, they could then shape the core principles to those that most suited them. However, in the passage below from Matthew 22, we see that Jesus wants nothing to do with this type of religious elitism and instead breaks down a relationship with God into simple pillars upon which everything else in our relationship with God would be built.

34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 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. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” 

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Mt 22:34–40.

The Pharisee lawyer gathered themself and sought to understand Jesus’ priorities by questioning what part of the law was most important. The answer could reveal a strategy for how to trap Jesus in rhetoric. The words of Jesus would reveal the heart of the mission for the world. We must look at our answer to the question posed because our response opens a window to our heart and what guides us in our words and actions. The way the Pharisees would have responded might have started similar to Jesus but would ultimately continue on past devotion to God, including all the ways that would ensure that you are not offending God. These additional walls built around the law and commandments were lifted so high that they ceased acting as barriers and became the pillars upon which they had built their faith. 

In response to the false pillars of rules, Jesus redirects the people to the heart of faith in the Shema Yisrael, as found in Deuteronomy 6:4-5. “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” The first pillar of faith that dictates how we live starts by loving God with our whole being. Everyone who heard Jesus would instantly know what this referenced. Our faith is dictated not by the negative or avoiding offending God, but rather, it actively guides us to love God. Loving God is not about what we don’t do or stay away from but how we actively live in the world. 

Jesus bolsters the understanding that loving God is active by not skipping a beat and connecting love for each other in the same breath as loving God. The second pillar of faith demands that we love our neighbors, no matter who they are. This teaching would have seriously challenged the Pharisees since they had spent most of their time building walls to divide the Jews from those who were less than Jews, which meant that they practiced religion correctly and others did not. Through their regular practices, they created systemic othering, and Jesus warns us that the Gospel works antithetical to this practice. Rather than keeping people out of worship spaces, Jesus calls us to radically include and invite those on the fringes to the heart of worship. 

Martin Luther called the church to return to the heart of worship and discard the vessels that did not proclaim the Gospel to the people. In doing so, he mimicked Jesus’ call to remember that the Gospel is built upon the pillars of loving God and loving our neighbor. Similarly, the church today must remember that the Gospel and the mission of God’s church aren’t about looking just right or playing politics, but rather, it is about loving God AND loving our neighbor. The sharing of the Gospel is propped up by our remembering these two items. Next time we speak, ask whether it loves God and whether it loves our neighbor, and in the same way, when we do something, ask if I am loving God and my neighbor by engaging in this activity.

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Published by JRMITCH85

I am often asked what describes you, which is a hard answer because sometimes I move in a thousand different directions. Some call me an engineer, others call me pastor, a few call me captain, some call me friend, others call me dad, and one calls me sweetheart. All of these things are descriptors and are accurate, but they don't fully capture me. My favorite place is in the mountains, enjoying the beauty of nature and God's creation, running and hiking around with my family and friends, and taking photos to cement the memories. However, the people that know me the best know that my favorite thing to do is come up with crazy adventures that push the limits of what our minds and bodies can do. My faith in God is important to me and drives me to look at creation the way I do. Because of my faith, I look at these adventures and running races from Half Marathons all the way to 24 hour races, as well as several Obstacle Course Races, as an opportunity to push the body God gave me as an act of worship. Hopefully, someday soon, I look toward running longer races and bigger adventures. My hope is that humanity can understand that the wild is a gift, and we need to care for it and quit destroying it by the way we live.

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