The readings for the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time call us to consider our relationship with others and how that relationship reflects our relationship with God. The first reading calls us to consider how real is our concern for the powerless and the poor. Paul, in the second reading, challenges us to model ourselves after the apostles and the Thessalonians in our zeal to spread the gospel. In the Gospel reading, Jesus ties the love of neighbor to the love of God. The Pharisees thought that placing God first meant that people were less important. Jesus tells us that our love of God is manifested in love of God’s people and that God considers all of the human family to be His people.

First Reading: Exodus 22: 20-26

20 “You shall not molest or oppress an alien, for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt. 21 You shall not wrong any widow or orphan. 22 If ever you wrong them and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry. 23 My wrath will flare up, and I will kill you with the sword; then your own wives will be widows, and your children orphans.

24 “If you lend money to one of your poor neighbors among my people, you shall not act like an extortioner toward him by demanding interest from him. 25 If you take your neighbor’s cloak as a pledge, you shall return it to him before sunset; 26 for this cloak of his is the only covering he has for his body. What else has he to sleep in? If he cries out to me, I will hear him; for I am compassionate.”

NOTES on First Reading:

* 22:20- 26 This is a small portion of the section that runs from 20:22 to 23:33 and lists various customs and rules of life in Israel. It was developed when Israel first settled in Canaan well before the monarchy. Although it was not promulgated at Sinai, it applied the spirit of the Ten Commandments to common situations and came to be seen as the charter of the Sinaitic Covenant and was inserted here. In more modern times it is often called the “Book of the Covenant” because of 24:7.

* 22:20 Due to differing verse numbers between the Hebrew text and the Septuagint (ancient Greek text), there are variations in the numbering of the verses in Chapter 22. Some translations (NRSV, NIV, RSV, KJV, and several others) have this verse as verse 21.

* 20:21 (20) Aliens who lived permanently among people other than their own were often classed with the widows and the fatherless as being in need of special protection (See Deut 24:19-22; Jer 7:6; Ezek 22:7). Being without clan protection they were vulnerable and often poor (See Lev 19:10 and Deut 24:14). Their special access to the ear of Yahweh is their protection.

* 22:25-27 (22:24-26) In those days loans were not made for commercial purposes and lending was intended to relieve someone’s distress. To take interest on a loan was seen as profiting from another’s suffering. Intrusive creditors were regulated (Deut 24:6, 10-13). The poor were not to be deprived of their outer cloaks at night because they were usually needed as blankets. Amos refers to this when he accuses the wealthy of sleeping upon garments taken in pledge (Amos 2:8).

Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 1:5c-10

5 For our gospel did not come to you in word alone, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and (with) much conviction. You know what sort of people we were (among) you for your sake. 6 And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, receiving the word in great affliction, with joy from the Holy Spirit, 7 so that you became a model for all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. 8 For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth not only in Macedonia and (in) Achaia, but in every place your faith in God has gone forth, so that we have no need to say anything. 9 For they themselves openly declare about us what sort of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God 10 and to await his Son from heaven, whom he raised from (the) dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the coming wrath.

NOTES on Second Reading:

* 1:5 The term, Gospel, was used by Paul in several senses. Often it means the act of preaching by the ministers of the word and sometimes it means the content of their proclamation or the good news itself. Here it appears to be used in both of these senses. Paul emphasizes that the power of the gospel was not in the force of his own rhetoric but rather it was the power of the Holy Spirit. In addition, while the proclamation of the Gospel was accompanied by demonstrations of God’s power in miracles, the proclamation of the Gospel was also in itself an expression of the power of God and His love.

* 1:6 For Paul the idea of “imitation” (See also 1 Thes 2:14; 1 Cor 4:16; 11:1; 2 Thes 3:9.) is rooted in the concept of our solidarity in Christ through our sharing in Jesus’ cross and in the Spirit of the risen Lord. The faith of the Thessalonians is expressed in their having become imitators of the Lord and the apostles. As they imitate Paul and Jesus they themselves become models for other to imitate.

Affliction (thlipsis in Greek) became almost a technical term for eschatological distress. In other literature it came to be described as the final battle. Joy, a gift of the Spirit, is an eschatological reality and suggests the presence of God.

* 1:9-10 Paul uses language that is traditionally used in missionary Hellenistic Judaism. The language focuses on real conversion, the Biblical “sub,” meaning “to turn back.” The thrust of the conversion described here is a movement away from idols and a movement toward the true God.
The qualifiers “living and true” are common adjectives used to distinguish the God of Israel from the false gods of their neighboring nations. They invoke the whole monotheistic tradition of Israel.

* 1:10 The tense of the verb, “deliver,” is usually translated as present tense. In the Greek text, the present participle is used to emphasize that the deliverance has already begun as well as that Jesus is God’s agent.
The wrath to come is God’s eschatological wrath already operative in history (2:16; Rom 1:18).

Gospel Reading: Matthew 22: 34-40

34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35 and one of them (a scholar of the law) tested him by asking, 36 “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 37 He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the greatest and the first commandment. 39 The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

NOTES on Gospel:

* 22:34-40 In the Marcan parallel (Mark 12:28-34) the story is cast as an exchange between Jesus and a scribe who is impressed by the way in which Jesus has conducted himself in the previous controversy (Mark 12:28), and then compliments him for the answer he gives to his own question (Mark 12:32). Jesus goes on to say that the scribe is “not far from the kingdom of God” (Mark 12:34). Matthew has sharpened that scene and increased the level of hostility present in it. Here rather than a scribe acting on his own, the questioner is the representative of other Pharisees who was sent to test Jesus by his question (Matthew 22:34-35). Matthew has removed both the scribes reaction to Jesus’ reply and Jesus’ commendation of him. See also Luke 10:25-28.

*22:35 The word translated here as “scholar of the law” is often translated as lawyer or scribe. It is the Greek word, “nomikos” and is found only here in Matthew but occurs six times in Luke. It means the same as scribe, one learned in the Torah (Law).

* 22:36 Although a devout Jew was to keep all the commandments with equal care, there is evidence that there was a certain academic preoccupation in Jewish scholarly circles concerning the question put to Jesus. Various rabbinic schools of thought varied as to how such a question should be answered. The Pharisees were interested in popular education in the Law. For this purpose they were always seeking summaries of the Law which were useful for teaching. They had a tendency, however, to over develop minor laws and so made essentials harder for the common people to grasp (7:12). Here Jesus goes even further and gives not only a summary but the very center of the Law.

* 22:37-38 Jesus response is drawn from Deut 6:5. The first part of Mark’s more complete quotation (Mark 12:29; Deut 6:4-5) is omitted in Matthew’s version of the account. This is most probably because he thought that its monotheistic emphasis was not needed for his church. As worshipers of the true God, we must not hold back any part of ourselves; the total person (heart, soul, mind) must be engaged in the love of God.
This love was not a feeling or emotion but a covenant fidelity, a matter of willing and doing. To the rabbis, heart meant will, soul meant life, and strength meant wealth. Here Matthew has not translated wealth but has given another translation of heart as mind (see 4:1-11).

* 22:38 For Jesus the law is a unified whole where all of the other laws flow from and are derived from the love of God.

* 22:39 Jesus goes beyond the original boundaries of the question put to him and joins a second commandment to the greatest and the first. This second commandment is that of love of neighbor which He draws from Lev 19:18. While some scholars believe it to be likely that this combination of the two commandments had already been made in Judaism at the time of Jesus, there is no clear documentation to show such a connection before Jesus. While the text of Lev 19:18 was one of the less central texts of the Jewish liturgy, it became a very central theme in New Testament thought.

* 22:40 A common rabbinic saying held that the world hangs on Torah, Temple service, and deeds of loving kindness –or, on truth, judgment, and peace. Matthew turns it around and has the law itself depend upon deeds of love. Thus the double commandment is the source from which the whole law and the prophets are derived.</p

Scripture text: New American Bible with revised New Testament copyright © 1986,1970, Confraternity of Christian Doctrine.
Commentary Sources:
Vince Del Greco
The New Jerome Biblical Commentary (1990) (Eds. Brown, Fitzmyer & Murphy)