Mark 12:28-34

The Greatest Commandment

28One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"

29"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' 31The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself. 'There is no commandment greater than these."

32"Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."

34When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.



BACKGROUND READING:


Deuteronomy 6:1-9


Ezekiel 11:16-25


Luke 10:25-37



Dig Deeper

One of the most nonsensical questions that someone can ever ask a parent is which one of their children they like the most. Any parent worth their salt will not be able to really answer that question beyond the classic, "I love all my children equally but in different ways." In the same way, our first thought might be that this is something of the position that this teacher of the law has put Jesus in with his question.


His question certainly seems sincere enough. It is, in fact, one of the few times that one of the teachers of the law ask Jesus a legitimate question without trying to trap him into some incriminating answer. Yet, Jesus doesn’t seem to have a problem in answering it, even though there are some 613 laws in the Old Testament. How could he pick just one out of all of those? What Jesus shows us, though, is that this isn’t quite like picking a favorite child, because children are all truly distinct and separate. The entire law, however, can be summed up in just one command: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. This phrase actually comes from the Old Testament. It is a version of a Jewish prayer called the Shema, which means ‘listen’.


If one were to truly love God with all of their heart, soul, mind, and strength, the rest of the law would take care of itself. Creatures who were made in the image of God would be completely whole only when they are in perfect harmony with God. If people could truly live up to the commandment all of the time, then surely the age to come would already be here. That is, after all, what the age to come really is all about.


Even though the teacher only asked Jesus about the most important law, Jesus feels compelled to give his number two answer, which is in some respect tied into the first, but is still important enough to list separately. Again, the ability to truly love others as yourself, is the type of thing that can only fully happen in the age to come. It is one of those commandments that man can’t truly keep.


So why would God give commandments that man can’t keep? That’s the entire idea. God wanted man to see that we couldn’t live righteously without him. We needed something more than just ourselves, or even the law.


The teacher applauds Jesus’ answer and comes to a very important conclusion, something that Jesus hasn’t said directly yet, but has certainly implied. If loving God and loving others is the true fulfillment of the law (and certainly these two commandments sum up the whole of the law), then the whole system of burnt offerings and sacrifices and the Temple itself, are quite unnecessary. This is the same conclusion that the prophets like Hosea (6:6) began to understand. With enlightenment like that it is no wonder that Jesus tells him that he was not far from the kingdom of God.


The teacher seemed to grasp what most people could not. That what Jesus had done in the Temple, was a signal that it was unnecessary once one realized that the Temple simply pointed to something greater than itself. This was the whole point of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus seems to also want people to realize that through his kingdom, is coming the ability to actually fulfill these laws. What the law was completely and utterly unable to do, his kingdom would.


It was once sin entered into the world that people were separated from God and relationships between humans were completely corrupted. In fact, the book of Genesis makes it clear that man was immediately expelled from the Garden after their sin, and, in the very next chapter, we discover that murder and hatred quickly follow as a result. Through the work of his kingdom, Jesus believed that these things could be reconciled and put to rights. Through his kingdom, God would enable people to worship and love him and to love one another in a way that came from renewed hearts, minds, and lives.



Devotional Thought

When all else is boiled away, would these two commandments still stand as supreme in your life and in your church? Could it be said that you are a person who is wholly committed to loving God and loving others in the way that Jesus believed would be possible? Could it be said that your church is a group of people who truly feel that way?