We've all grown up knowing the Golden Rule, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Unfortunately, this rule has been corrupted over the years to read, "Do unto others
before
they can do unto you!" How sad - how unenlightened -
how unbiblical
!
Jesus espouses the Golden Rule earlier in the Gospel of Matthew in verse 7:12, "Therefore, you should treat people in the same way that you want people to treat you; this is the Law and the Prophets." But is the Golden Rule enough? Taken in context with what Jesus was speaking about in Chapter 7, namely Asking, Seeking and Knocking, we find that this is an important tenet for our faith. However, I believe that the Golden Rule remains subordinate to the answer Jesus gave to the Pharisee in Matthew 22:37. First must come our love for God!
When I was 14, my family owned and operated a fishing camp/resort in Northern Minnesota. We worked hard and played hard and those times were some of the most memorable times in my life! That summer an old friend from Des Moines, we'll call him Danny, had managed to talk his parents into letting him come up and stay with me for a few weeks. However, this was no picnic for Danny - he was expected to work right along side of me before we could embark on our numerous adventures. One day, he and I were tasked to mow the lawn by Cabin 7. Now, this was no easy feat! This lawn was about 1 acre out of nearly 5 acres of grass to be mowed each week at the resort - using two push mowers. This was before the days of self-propelled mowers (I'm aging myself again). If you look at the image of the resort below, the area that we mowed that day was between the flag and the cabin to the right and on up the hill. A fairly decent sized pasture to mow!
(As an aside, I was going to get up and find a photo of the resort to put with this devotion, but got lazy and on a whim, Googled the resort name - Timberlost Resort and Campgrounds. Lo and behold, somebody was selling the vintage postcard that you see above, taken of the resort in the 1960's! I about fell out of my chair!)
Danny and I made quick work of the task, criss-crossing back and forth until we finally met in the middle with the chore complete. We hurried to put the equipment away and get out on the lake for some quality fishing time. Later that afternoon, we returned, docked the boat and trudged up to the lodge, only to notice a deputy sheriff's patrol car in the driveway. Known in the local vernacular as a "county mountie," the deputy was already on the carport talking to my parents. We walked up and all turned to look at us. I don't recall ever seeing a more serious expression on the faces of my parents. The deputy stepped up to us and looked at us from under his broad-rimmed hat. "You boys want to tell me about it?" he asked casually.
"
About what," I returned.
"
Follow me." He walked towards his patrol car and opened the back door. "Get in." We complied and there I was, sitting in the back seat of a cop car, staring out at the worried face of my Mom, wondering what the heck was going on.
"
Now then," the deputy said, turning around in the front seat to glare at us. "This is your one and only chance to tell me what happened this afternoon."
Both of us started talking, our voices getting shriller by the moment, our comments climbing over each other. "I don't know what you mean!" "We went fishing!" "Nothing happened!"
"
What did you do before you went fishing?" 
"
We were just mowing the lawn over by Cabin 7."
"
Are you sure? There's a lady there who says that you were doing more than that."
"
What? What were we doing? What lady?"
"
She says that you came into the cabin and stole her purse." The deputy took turns glowering at each of us. Danny turned to stare at me, his eyes wide and his face pale.
The interrogation went on for another 15 minutes, reducing Danny to tears and me to a slow, burning anger. Why wouldn't he believe us?
Finally, the deputy seemed to have had enough. "Look, boys, I know you did it. Just come clean with me and give me back the purse and we can get to the end of this mess!"
"
But we didn't do it! I would never do anything like that!" I pleaded. Danny couldn't stop crying long enough to say anything at that point.
"
Alright, if you want to stick to that story, so be it. There'll be an investigation and it will go harder on you, but that's your choice. You can go."
We shot out of the patrol car, into the lodge, and upstairs to the bedroom we shared, literally shaking in our boots. How could this have happened? Nobody seemed to want to listen to us! What were we going to do now?
Our conversations were strained, but we were confident in our innocence. Night fell and I tried to sleep. Finally, exhaustion overtook me and I slept, tossing and turning through much of the night. Early the next morning, as the sun began to peek out from the horizon, I woke to get ready to run the daily garbage route. I didn't feel too bad, until the memories of the nightmare from the day before came flooding back. How could they accuse us? I hadn't even met the people in Cabin 7!
I groused at Danny to get up and then slowly made my way downstairs. My Dad met me in the living room. "They're gone," he said. "The father just came up to the lodge, paid their bill and they left. He told me that they had brought his mother with them on this vacation because there was nobody to watch her." Dad looked at me and raised his eyebrows. "Apparently, she has dementia and took her own purse, rifled the contents and threw the purse out back in the woods. He found it, asked her about it and they were all so embarrassed that they decided to call off the sheriff and then leave. You're okay now!"
I felt the weight of the world lift off my 14 year old shoulders and I smiled at him, relieved that the ordeal was over. But my smile faded as I couldn't help but feel sorry for the lady and her family. I had always made it a point to get along with everyone and was totally shocked to find that anyone could or would come back at me like that. But how could I have known about the burden that this family carried - that she carried? What would it have been like if that was MY situation?
Over the years, I have felt my love, compassion and understanding for this family, and what they faced on a daily basis, continue to grow. No matter what they had done to me, I knew that God wanted me to continue to love them and not to harbor any ill will towards them. And I don't.
And that is what God requires from us. First, to love Him with all that we've got! Then, we must love each other, regardless of what we perceive to be a person's response towards us or what happens between us. We can't know their inner feelings, or what they may be experiencing. They may be our enemy. Jesus wants us to transcend the labels we put upon others. All we can do is to love them as we would have them love us. It's a step beyond the Golden Rule.
Jesus demands that we love one another, regardless of vendetta, grudges, perceptions, race, color, creed, everything. He loves us unconditionally with Agape love and as an extension of that love towards us, we are to love each other. Without love on Earth for God and each other, how can we enjoy the fruits of His love for us? Imagine the sorrow that God must feel when His love for us is not reciprocated to Him or to each other.
Just as we are bound to God through His love for us, let us also be bound together through our love for Him.
