As mentioned last week, chapter 22 in Matthew finds Jesus being confronted by Pharisees, Sadducees and the Herodians. These three different strands of Judaism, perhaps meant to represent the nation’s rejection of Jesus, felt offended, threatened and disrespected by Jesus and were looking to put him back in his place. Fearing the crowds reaction, they could not directly confront Jesus, so they tried to use their knowledge of scripture to flip Jesus over, and topple his credibility with the crowds. Jesus, defense from these attacks, (and make no mistake, this whole chapter is filled with them) not only answered their questions, his answers put them on their heals. In this, the final assault of the chapter, the Jews send in their big gun, in the form of a lawyer learned in mosaic law. Again, in Jesus’ response we find that he not only could answer the question satisfactorily, but also in a subtle manner of tying two separate parts of the text together, shifts the understanding of the “laws”, from a list of legalistic rules to, an assessment of their true meaning, and intent. In essence he took the “laws”, which for so long had been used as a rote understanding of rules to dutifully follow, (yet ultimately just hide behind), and turned them into concepts to live by. Indeed, if you look at the commandment to “love thy neighbor” as something to do out of a forced duty, can it truly be said that you love your neighbor? What kind of love is forced?