EXPLOSIVE WORDS (That make people mad)

"Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?"  Jesus replied, "'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.'   This is the first and greatest commandment.  A second is equally important:  'Love your neighbor as yourself.'  The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments."  Matthew 22:34-40

According to which timeline you read (of the week preceeding Passover and the crucifixion of Jesus), the conversation in Matthew took place late Tuesday or early Wednesday.  While we could say that it really doesn't matter what day or what time in the week Jesus said it, but what matters is that He said it, we'd only be half right.  Some of the most challenging, revolutionary and explosive things Jesus said (and the things he left unsaid) were communicated in the week preceeding His death.  

 

We read his words and think, "My what lovely lofty things Jesus said".  Do we really understand how controversial those words were, and how enraged religious people became when they heard them?  It's as if He said exactly what He had to say, when He had to say it, and held His tongue at exactly the right moment, to ensure that he was crucified at exactly the right time.  Timing was everything.  Nothing was accidental.  All of it was planned from the beginning.  Nothing left to chance.  And Jesus never said or did anything that He didn't hear first from the Father.  Everything Jesus said came straight from our Father in heaven.  Every word true.

Less than 100 hours before going to the cross, Jesus said:
Loving God = Loving Others.