The Gravity of Love (Mark 12:28-34, 41-44)

When asked to sum up all the commandments into one, Jesus says, “You will or you shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.”  And the second is like it, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”   The word Mark uses here is the Greek word agape.  Agape is different than say romantic love, affection, or friendship.  Agape is less of a feeling and more a state of the will.  It is an unconditional, self-sacrificial power that bends our will toward the well being of another.   And what does this love look like. A few verses later we meet a widow who has lost everything. She cannot love money nor her husband because she has neither.  But she can love her God.  And she does so without restraint. And perhaps we see it most clearly in the person and work of Jesus, who, like this widow, he does not hold anything back, giving us everything he has so that we may experience the everlasting, steadfast, self-sacrificial, and unconditional love of God.