You may still hate Halloween and avoid it at all costs. That’s fair. It’s not for everybody. But hey, it’s over now so you’ve got a whole year to mull it over. Give Halloween a chance. Be a blessing. Love your neighbor. Even if you think the whole thing is just awful. Jesus didn’t come to redeem a day. He came to redeem lives and all we have to do to be part of that is to love our neighbors. Not preach at them. Not throw Bible verses in the Halloween bag instead of candy. Just love them. It’s so easy. It’s so worth it. And seriously, it’s so much fun.
But as I’m reading and thinking and chewing I keep coming back to the question they asked Jesus.
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
The wanted the insight, the inside scoop. They wanted a check list of things to follow and do to be sure they spent eternity on streets of gold instead of the fires of Gehenna.
And some days I wish Jesus had said, “You need to do this, this, this and this. And then if you can do all that, do this, this, this and that.”
Because check lists are easy. We can have a goal and a target. And they make things like knowing who’s-in and who’s-out a lot easier.
But instead of a checklist, Jesus responds, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
And so I’m left wondering… What if really is that simple?
