What Is the Jesus Creed?

The Creed of Judaism

Daily, when awaking and when retiring, the observant Jew recites aloud a creed. This creed is lifted from the Bible, from one of the books of Moses, Deuteronomy 6:4-9, along with two other texts. (It is completely presented in the Glossary of Terms section at the end of the book.) This sacred Jewish creed is called the Shema (pronounced, Ske-me or Sh'ma). Anyone who wants to understand what Jesus means by spiritual formation needs to meditate on the Shema of Judaism. It is the Jewish creed of spiritual formation, and Jesus liked it and, as we will see, transformed it for his followers:

Hear (shema), O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Loin your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

According to a specialist of modern Jewish devotion, the Shema "is the first 'prayer' that [Jewish] children are taught to say," and it is the "quintessential expression of the most fundamental belief and commitment of Judaism.

The Shema expresses what is most important for spiritual formation: YHWH (the sacred Hebrew name for God) alone is Israel's God, Israel is chosen by God, and Israel is to love God--with heart, soul, and strength. The Shema outlines a Torah lifestyle for spiritual formation: memorize, recite, instruct, and write out the Torah, and wear tzitzit (fringes) to remind themselves of Torah. There is promise attached to living life according to the Shema: when Jews lived by the Shema they would be "blessed" beyond imagination.

One can say, then, that the creed of Judaism is this: Love God by living the Torah. So where does Jesus stand in a world of Judaism that affirms a Shema of loving God by living the Torah?

The Jesus Creed As the First Amendment

As a good Jew, Jesus devotionally recites the Shema daily. Later in his life, he encounters an expert in the law who asks him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" For a Jew this man's question is the ultimate question about spiritual formation. He is asking for the spiritual center of Judaism. He thinks Jesus might know. He does.

Jesus answers the man by reciting the Shema but adds to it, and in so doing, transforms a creed so he can shape the spiritual center of his followers. I call it the Jesus Creed.

The Jesus Creed

"Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul,
with all your mind, and with all your strength." [So far, so good;
this is Deuteronomy. 6:4-5.1]
[And now Jesus adds a verse from Leviticus. 19:18.] The second is this: "Love your neighbor as yourself."
There is no commandment greater than these.

Right here we discover the Jesus Creed for spiritual formation. As Thomas a Kempis puts it, in the Jesus Creed Jesus has "put a whole dictionary into just one dictum:" Everything about spiritual formation for Jesus is shaped by his version of the Shema. For Jesus, love of God and love of others is the core. Love, a term almost indefinable, is unconditional regard for a person that prompts and shapes behaviors in order to help that person to become what God desires. Love, when working properly, is both emotion and will, affection and action.

We cannot overemphasize the importance of the Shema for Jewish spiritual formation. So when Jesus amended the Shema, we need to take note. To be sure, Jesus accepted the Shema, but he also added to it. The question we then ask is this: Is Jesus suggesting only a subtle amendment? No. It takes real pluck (or chutzpah) to add to the sacred Shema, but this addition reveals the heart of the Jesus Creed.

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