This analogy breaks down, of course, because the Christian life is infinitely bigger than even the most beautiful and solemn obligation. Christian love is about more than the old law we repeat every week before we willingly give some of God’s treasure back to Him through the offertory: our pledge to do unto others as they do unto us (which is just another way of saying: “love our neighbor as ourselves)” if that noble ideal was the ultimate summit of love then you and I would be doomed. If this dream shared among other religions and philosophies, a specter that has never been truly grasped, if this hope is all that love can be then we will continue to pound on the coffins of our loved ones and wonder why love wasn’t enough to save them. This shadow cast by the true love isn’t enough (you know it; I know it; we all know it), and that is why our Holy Communion service continues each week, it doesn’t just stop at the offertory or the Ten Commandments, the service makes us part of God’s loving sacrifice of Himself for a world which hated Him. Jesus did not love His neighbor as Himself; no, our Lord pushed His enemies’ heads above the water as He drowned in the blood red sea of our sin. Jesus didn’t hold anything back as He fought for the very soul of creation; He fought evil with the only weapon evil will never understand: pure, sacrificial, self-giving Christian love. By the power of God the Holy Spirit, we spiritually eat Christ’s flesh and drink His blood to remember that the only love powerful enough to save the world is a love we have not yet begun to comprehend—a love we must live and die in to ever fully know. We taste Christ’s death to know the love that saves.