You had one thing to do. One thing!

He gave you one thing to do. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. The people at his feet complained that there were too many rules and asked him what the most important thing to do was. Instead of picking one of the rules as most important, he reduced everything down to a single sentence. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. It’s every good rule wrapped up into one.

The tragedy is how few people understood that, for that rule to work, you actually have to love yourself first. Not in the callous and self centered way spoiled children love themselves. With the true light of creation shining through your heart onto yourself. A deep appreciation of your own place in the world and the value which God has invested into each and every one of us. No matter who you are or what you’ve done, you are one of God’s children and deserve love.

Through that initial experience of the light of God shining on you through yourself you can come to learn how to love others. You can learn what it feels like to be loved and what to look for in others to see if they feel loved. Through God’s love and yours you can spread the light to the world. That was what he hoped people would hear.

He was such an optimist. He loved everyone so very much that it may not have even occurred to him that people didn’t know how to love themselves. He tried to show them. If the party was turning sour he brought more wine. If someone was too short to see over the crowd he brought them to the front. If someone had lost their way in the wilderness he went into the woods and walked with them until they found their way home. He lived and loved and laughed with all of the joy that God had given him to rejoice in. In the end he showed people that death was not something to be feared.

They misunderstood. They turned his passion for life into a death cult celebrating human sacrifice. Rather than learn to live a life of love without fear of death they worshipped the cross on which he died. Instead of the life which brought him to the cross they imagined him a suicidal goat. They didn’t understand that if you love your life with all of the light that God has given you then death is not something to be feared. It’s just the end of the story and if the life was well lived then it was worth it.

It wasn’t his fault of course. He found thirteen who were all very different people. He made sure that each one learned the things that they were most suited to. Between them they carried the full message he taught without putting too much of the weight on any one person’s shoulders. Sadly, the world was so unwilling to hear his message that eleven of them were killed before they got to pass along what they had learned to more than a few people.

The flame has survived though. A fire, no matter how small, can become a blaze when given fuel. The fire which Jesus started needs an open heart and an open mind ready to love and be loved. Allow yourself to love yourself. Allow yourself to love others. Allow yourself to be loved. Not by one or two but by all. Open your arms to the world and accept the love which God sends to you through the world and through the people in it. Soften your heart and know that you are one of God’s children.

You can enter the kingdom of heaven whenever you wish. It is all around you and inside you. All you need is love. Whether you believe that Jesus was divine, a prophet or just a man doesn’t matter. Walk the path that he walked. Live the love that he showed. He showed the pathway and paid the ultimate price for the privilege of doing so. Love yourself. Then once you’re good at that, love your neighbor. Finally, let your neighbor love you and then the cycle will be complete. Everything else flows from that one circle.