"Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of soul and with all your mind.....
This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it, "Love your neighbor as yourself......"
(Matthew 22:34-40)
During his earthly ministry, Jesus was asked by the elite religious leaders, what was the greatest commandment. They often asked Jesus questions, not because they were interested in pleasing God, but rather to test and discredit him before the masses of people. However, Jesus knew the motives of their hearts and was quick to silence their deceitfulness. But they never gave up and in Matthew's gospel, once again the Pharisees and Scribes put Jesus to the test!
34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together.35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment.39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Jesus gave a masterful answer to their question. He pointed out that the ultimate way to please God is to love him with our whole being. Loving God is the at the core of what it means to be a Christian. It is the identifying mark of a genuine faith, But notice what Jesus added. If we claim to love God, then it must also be evident in the way that we treat others. Jesus points out that "loving God," is not an isolated act, but a visible one and if we claim to love him, then it will be evident in the way we treat our neighbor.
Deah Barakat and Yusor Abu-Salha were newlyweds. They had only been married for a little over a month. Deah was a vibrant, bright, intelligent and energetic student in his second year of dental school at the University of North Carolina. Yusor had planned to begin her dental studies in the fall. They were both busily engaged in raising money for a trip this summer to provide dental care for the suffering Syrian people in Turkey. Deah and Yusor were both dedicated Muslims committed to bringing compassion and relief to the suffering masses of humanity. Razan Abu, Yusor's sister, had recently been recognized by the university for her artistic endeavor in abstract model making. Deah, Yusor and Razan, were three young and beautiful Muslims at the prime of their lives, studying hard to make a difference in the world.....and in just a few terrifying seconds, their hopes and dreams were shattered by an angry, out-of-control neighbor, Craig Stephen Hicks, who shot them each in the head in a rage execution, over an alleged parking dispute!
I have a live weekly blog talk radio program entitled, "The Cross in the desert: speaking hope and freedom to Iran." My radio program is dedicated to making listeners aware what life is like for my dear Iranian friends behind the "iron curtain" of the Islamic republic. The Islamic Regime is cruel and harsh to the Muslims living in Iran and torture them in prison if they dare to disagree and speak out against the many human rights violations. Besides being a "voice of hope," for my Muslim friends, I am also an author of Christian novels. Three years ago, I wrote a book called, "Tears in a bottle: Seeing through their eyes."
Tears in a bottle, is the story of an abused Muslim woman named Esther, who moves to New York City, with her husband and child, during the heated controversy over building a mosque near the World Trade Center Memorial. Struggling to overcome the hatred from non-Muslims and fighting to stay alive in an abusive marriage, Esther is desperate and hopeless until she meets Ariel, a Christian woman, one day in Central Park and her life is transformed forever!
I wrote Tears in a bottle to point out that not every Muslim is a terrorist. Muslims are human beings just like you and me, with hurts, and fears and struggles, that need our love and compassion instead of our hatred and judgment! My book focuses in on how a simple friendship, a listening ear, a caring heart, can bring hope to a troubled life. Ariel took the time to listen to Esther's problems and invested her time and energy into her life. Even though they both came from two different religious backgrounds, they both agreed to love each other unconditionally.
When I heard the tragic news of the three Muslims from Chapel hill being executed by an angry neighbor, I was heart broken! I immediately thought about my book and remembered the reason why I wrote it. I dedicated my radio program to Deah, Yusor and Razan and prayed for God to bring comfort and healing to their families.
Jesus taught that if we really love God, then we must demonstrate that in the way we treat our neighbors! Craig Hicks was a neighbor to Deah and Yusor. Yusor was terrified of Craig, telling her father that he showed up on her doorstep with a gun in his belt, arguing about parking spaces. She was convinced that he didn't like them because they were Muslims.
What about you? Are your next door neighbors Muslims?
Just a cursory reading through the gospels, and it becomes obvious how Jesus treated people. He was never judgmental, but instead compassionate and respectful to the every person, from every walk of life, from the fisherman, to the tax collector, the highest nobility and even to the lowest prostitute! Jesus lived by what he taught. He loved his neighbor. He was motivated by love and compassion. However, the opposite is true, when we are motivated by fear and suspicion. When our hearts are ruled by the "stereotypes" created by the media, that Muslims are no different than the members of ISIS, then instead of getting to know our neighbors, we erect walls of fear and hatred that make friendship impossible.
I have many Muslim friends on Facebook, in Iran and Malaysia and here in the United States. We chat together, pray together and sometimes even cry together. At the hospital where I work, I have a very good Muslim friend. Her name is Menny. She is from Morocco. Every time that I see her, she greets me with a smile and wants to know how my day is and how my wife is doing. If I'm having a stressful day, I'm one hundred percent better after I've talked with Menny! My stress is gone. Menny is the prefect example of a real human being, a very peaceful Muslim, who has nothing to do with terrorism or ISIS! She is my friend and
Tears in a bottle is a book about friendship...friendship between Muslims and Christians. The title of my book is based on a precious little verse in the book of Psalms.
Psalm 56 verse 8 says of God, "You keep track of all of my sorrows. You have collected all of my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book."
God cares about all of our tears and hurts and pains. He understands our suffering extremely well because he experienced it first hand. Jesus bore all of our guilt and shame when he died on the cross. In his suffering and death, he removed it, he took it out of the way so that we could have a real love relationship with God. In my radio tribute to Deah, Yusor, and Razan, I mentioned this verse and talked about how God uniquely understands our suffering and pain. God is not a "far away" distant deity in the midst of our pain. He is an ever present help in our time of need. The Bible teaches that He is close to us in our brokenness!
Psalm 34 verse 18 declares, "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted: he rescues those whose spirits are crushed..."
I prayed for the families of the slain Muslims, that they would feel the love and comfort of God, that they would sense his presence and recognize that he is there in their midst, right with them in the midst of their grief and sorrow.
We need to stop building walls between ourselves and our Muslim neighbors! We need to stop allowing the media to distort the picture of who they really are! Most Muslims are peaceful, law abiding citizens who deserve our love and respect instead of our fear and judgment. One neighbor allowed the media, his fears, his hatred and anger to control his heart and as a result, three Muslims became his victims instead of his friends!
Jesus taught us to "love our neighbors as we love ourselves..."
What will you do?
