Mark 12:28-34, CEB - One of the legal experts
heard their dispute and saw how well Jesus answered them. He came over and
asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?”
Jesus replied, “The most important one is Israel, listen!
Our God is the one Lord, and you must
love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, with all your
mind, and with all your strength. The
second is this, You will love your neighbor as yourself. No other commandment is greater than these.”
The legal expert said to him, “Well said, Teacher. You
have truthfully said that God is one and there is no other besides him. And to love God with all of the heart, a full
understanding, and all of one’s strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself
is much more important than all kinds of entirely burned offerings and
sacrifices.”
When Jesus saw that he had answered with wisdom, he said
to him, “You aren’t far from God’s kingdom.” After that, no one dared to ask
him any more questions.
This is the last question posed to
Jesus by the religious leaders and experts in the temple and Mark uses it to highlight
Jesus’s most important teaching. More
accurately, it is a summary of all His teaching. Another noteworthy aspect of this exchange is
that it is a positive conversation between Jesus and the legal expert, which is
rare in all the gospels. In Mark it is
the only positive exchange.
To the question of what is the most
important of all the commandments, Jesus combines quotes from Deuteronomy and
Leviticus to arrive at what I have often summarized as “love God and love
people.” However, when we’re looking at
the specific text, it’s important to note some unique details to Mark. First, Jesus begins His answer by quoting the
Shema (“Israel, listen! Our God is the one Lord”). Jews since the second century BC have quoted
this confession of faith twice daily. It
grounds Jesus answer in the everyday life of a person of faith and links what
will be the Christian faith to the Hebrew faith of old. It also affirms that both the Hebrew faith
and the Christian faith are monotheistic.
There are times when the Christian faith is accused of being polytheistic
(Father, Son, Holy Spirit). Jesus’s
quote of the Shema refutes that accusation.
Another important detail concerning
Jesus’s quote of the Torah is that Jesus adds “mind” to the list in Deuteronomy
of things with which we are to love God.
It brings to mind the 20th century Paul Tillich’s definition
of theology (loving God with the mind”). The faith that Jesus invites us to is not one
that requires us to leave our brain at the door. This idea is strengthened by the fact that
this theological discussion that Jesus is having with the legal expert ends
with Jesus proclaiming, “you are not far from the kingdom of God.”
The core of the Judaic (and Christian)
faith, according to Jesus is three loves – love of God, love of people, and
love of self. Love of self is assumed in
Jesus’s statement, but it is still important.
Where love of self is lacking, love of others becomes strained, if not
impossible. Both love of self and others
though, comes after love of God, which is our prime directive.
Love God and love people is simple,
but far from simplistic or easy. We can
do a thousand beneficial things without love and miss the point. This is the “not far” of Jesus’s final statement
to his questioner. It’s not enough to
know the centrality of love in following Jesus.
Love is a verb. As such, one cannot
possess the love Jesus speaks of, only practice it. We love God and people by the many things we
do and refrain from doing each day. As
soon as we stop actively practicing love, we have strayed from the Kingdom.
Question: Thinking
about your actions over the last few days, how have you actively loved God,
self, and others?
Prayer: Lord,
because You love us, we can love ourselves, return our love to you, and extend that love to others. Give us eyes to see the specific opportunities
we have to actively love today. Amen.
Prayer Focus: Pray
for people experiencing chronic pain today.
Song: Luv is a Verb –
DC Talk
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