Matthew 22:34-40

Is great really that…great?

Great to see you! Great job! That was great! You did great!

As a child, I remember playing at my piano recital and my grandmother saying. “That was fine.” And I truly know her “fine” was high praise and a wonderful compliment. But it gets lost in the mix of all things great.

So, let’s look at the history of great. When looking back to Old English and Proto Germanic Roots and Proto Indio European ancestry, the word is associated with something large or massive. The Great Wall of China. The Great Lakes. The Great Barrier Reef. You get the point.

Now any Tom, Dick or Harry can somehow be great. Everything is great. Everyone is great. It’s all great! It’s become kind of a filler in the conversation – losing its luster, its importance – its greatness. The world is imperfect and in the chase for the quick search for perfection or something true, we’ve often tagged yet another thing or person as “great.” And in this imperfect world where everyone is wanting to be great, we often find people attempting to knock others off their pedestal of greatness.

This type of act goes back thousands of years. Take for instance the gospel for this week. The Pharisees are working on tempting Jesus and trying to knock Him down a peg or two. After Jesus told them know whatever is Caesar’s give to Caesar and what is God’s, give to God, Jesus was then asked which of the commandments is the GREATEST of all commandments. I think they thought they had Jesus stumped on this one. (C’mon man!)

The world’s flaws make everything more complicated than they need to be. But with Jesus, He cut right through it to the way, the truth and the life we should be leading through the GREATEST of all commandments:

You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul,

and with all your mind.

This is the greatest and the first commandment.

The second resembles it: You must love your neighbor as yourself.

There it is. The answer on how to follow God’s path. It was so simple and it is so simple. The Pharisees didn’t have a chance against Jesus. Isn’t that great?!

So how do we keep these laws of God? How do we achieve these – the greatest of all God’s commandments? How do we get to great? Here’s a thought – why don’t we start by working on being – Good.

As this is one of the gospels, let us not forget that when we are hearing the Gospel, we are hearing the “Good News.” And for me, there’s no other written words more good than these. 

If we’re loving our God and loving our neighbor, should our goal be to be known as great – an external achievement of praise in this life? Or – should we, as children of God, live a good life through the sharing of our goodness, the encouragement of goodness, the acts of goodness.

When we are thankful for God’s blessings, are we thankful for His greatness – how externally powerful He is, or are we thankful for the goodness that an all-powerful, all-knowing God possesses inside Him? I’d like to think it’s the latter.

So, if we are made in God’s image, we need to follow His example as well, working each day on being good while following the Latin phrase, Soli Deo Gloria – give God the glory. Let’s be good sheep in His flock. Let’s also be good shepherds for others needing help in His flock.

In summation, He is Great because despite all the sins and wrongdoings we do, His goodness and mercy endure forever. Thanks be to God that He is so Good! Have a good day and be Good!

— Julian Katz