“Like Ripples in a Pond” based on Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18 and Matthew 22:34-46

Leviticus is one of those books of the Bible that we often pass over — I mean a fair portion is instructions for high priests in ancient Israel or dietary rules that we were absolved from following so this might be understandable. Or even worse – rules that are cherry-picked and used to harm. But there are portions of it that help not only with what we’re still commanded to do, but which I think help us make sense of the whole.

“You shall be holy for I the Lord your God am Holy.” The word used in Hebrew is “Kedosh” meaning “holy” or “set aside” – and while in much of Leviticus it’s used to refer to ritual purity, cleanliness that allows humans to be in the presence of God (like in the temple in Jerusalem). But in this case, the verses that follow cast a different light. To be “kedoshim” or “holy ones” requires no dunking in water nor abstaining from certain foods, but rather speaks to how we are required to live in relation to one another. That we must not be vengeful nor slanderous nor hate-filled. But rather kind, just, and loving.

Now often Christians act as if Jesus came up with the loving of God and likewise neighbor – it’s one of those “holier than though” habits that obscures our mission and creates tensions that need not exist. It wasn’t even a new way to interpret the Pentateuch – in fact at least one biblical scholar, Nicholas J. Schaser, notes that “Jewish sages who lived in Jesus’ era described these biblical verses in very similar ways. For instance, according to the Jerusalem Talmud (circa 4th century CE) Rabbi Akiva—who was born around fifty years after Jesus—says that the Levitical command to “love your neighbor as yourself” is the “great principle of the Torah.”1 A famous story preserved in the Babylonian Talmud (circa 600 CE) states that the renowned first-century sage Hillel once paraphrased Leviticus 19:18 for a non-Jew, saying, “Whatever is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor; that is all the Torah, the rest is commentary. Go study.” 1

The Talmud, for those who are not familiar, is one of the central texts of Rabbinic Judaism, second only in importance to the Hebrew Bible (which includes at it’s core, the Torah). It’s the combined thinking and arguments of thousands of Rabbis and a major source of Jewish Law or “Halakah” – which actually translates more literally to “the way to go” or “the way of walking”. For what it’s worth, I think the Church Universal would be far less fractured if we had the equivalent of the Talmud…but alas, here we are.

So, we’ve now clarified that “loving neighbor as ourselves” is the heart blood of not only Christianity, but also Judaism and that to be “kedoshim” or holy ones we must be just and kind in the ways we live and treat one another…how the heck do we do that in this world that’s gone mad? How do we look at each and every person and see a beloved child of God – even when that other person is the antithesis of what we want our “neighbors” to be? How do we “reprove our neighbor”, demand accountability, use our voices to end our privilege, while not losing sight of the “Imago Dei” or image of God in the opposition? And how do we keep on keeping on when we’re tired and discouraged?

I think we start small, like the mustard seed that grows into the huge tree and recognize that even the tiniest pebble creates ripples that reach far beyond the water it touched. And just like a tiny amount of yeast will raise 100x it’s weight in flour, our efforts, our voices can start the fermenting, the leavening, that allows all of us to rise. Allows all of us to grab hold of the knowledge that we are kind, capable, beloved people of God – and feel the power that comes with that knowledge, that God is within each of us, we’re not alone in this.

The Pharisees in this reading of the Gospel didn’t give a wrong answer – they just didn’t give a complete one: Jesus was a descendant of the House of David, yes, but also upon his resurrection and triumph over death, he becomes Lord as well. Likewise so often in contemporary Christian preaching, Jesus as God Incarnate gets all the emphasis (often leading to that “holier than thou attitude” again), when in many cases we would do better to remember that Jesus also was fully human. A poor man, with brown skin, living in an occupied land under siege, one who raised his voice and made enemies of his religious authorities as well as the empire, one who fed the hungry, who treated women as equal, who cried out in fear and sadness as he said goodbye to friends and his mother. And in doing so, God became more like us, giving us the chance to become more like God.

May we use that power and knowledge to live into what it takes to help build the Kindom. Amen.

Based on “Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18” and “Matthew 22:34-46”

1) Commentary on Matthew 22:34-46 – Working Preacher from Luther Seminary

October 26, 2025

Karyn McCloskey