The greatest commandment: Love of God and love of neighbour

“28 One 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. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour 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. 33 To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbour as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 When 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.”

- Mark 12: 28-34

Chapter 12 is quite intense for Jesus - everyone wants to get a piece of him. Jesus’ teachings are proving hard for the priests, scribes and Pharisees. They were looking for ways to trap him in his words (v13) and arrest him (v12). Instead of succeeding Jesus’ words have them either walking away defeated, utterly amazed, and speechless. 

The passage above starts off with a scribe who overhears Jesus debating. He noticed that Jesus was answering so well and then went on to ask him’, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Why did the scribe as that question? What was he expecting Jesus to say to him in response? 

I for one, would expect that the scribe already new the answer because as he is likely to be familiar with the old testament let alone the various laws in the scripture. It is quite tricky to get a sense to the reason behind the scribe’s question. My initial observation is that : for he knew the answer already, the scribe wanted to see how well Jesus would answer the question. As for his motive, unlike the responses from the previous passages in this chapter - it seemed like the scribe had no malicious intent to arrest or trap him in his words.

Looking at Jesus’s response, Jesus was faithful to the old testament scripture. He quoted the Old Testament passages (Deuteronomy 6:4-6, Joshua 22:5 and Leviticus 19:18). The scribe may have been very well impressed by that. Jesus’ response :

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

In summary, Jesus’ states that the most important commandment is to love God with your all  and to love neighbour as yourself. He ends off by saying that there is no commandment greater than these. This is the standard that God has set and Jesus reiterates, to the scribe and to Israel again. These commandment are top-tier as they summarise all the commandments that were given to Israel that many of the scribes and pharisees followed. Part 2 and Part 3 which will be coming soon, will have us double click on these two essential laws.   

Now, let us swing back at the scribe now that Jesus has responded so well. The scribe seems content with Jesus’ answer, better yet he seems to agree completely with the Lord’s response to the question. Once again this is contrary to the responses that Jesus encounters from such people - hard hearts and malice. 

The scribe goes on to add that the love of God and love of people is far more important and far greater than burnt offerings. A wise answer is what Jesus observes from this man. You would think that because the scribe affirms Jesus’ response and has answered Jesus so wisely that it would end there. Jesus goes on to say, “ You are not too far from the kingdom of God”. Upon hearing the final response nobody dares to question Jesus further. This brief interaction - scribe’s observation and Jesus’  brief response, just put a spanner in the works for me. There is something that Jesus wants us to understand here, he wants us to lean in and dig our noses deeper into this text. 

So, What is going on here? 

It is evident that the scribe is wise and knowledgable. - a grace from the Lord. However he lacks the belief that comes from trusting in Jesus - the one who has brought the kingdom of God near (Mark 1:15). As much as the scribe’s response was wise and knowledgable - the scribe failed to engage his heart with this truth.

The scribe was meant to feel how far he was from the kingdom, he might have but chose not to ask further nor to admit the extent at which this was impossible for him. His choice not to engage with the Lord’s final statement in this way kept him from an encounter with the good news even more, with Jesus and his identity.

He is correct in saying that burnt offerings and sacrifices have no place in the Kingdom but that it is love of God and of his neighbours.

So, Unless he admits what he has been doing and admits how much he falls short of the kingdom and acknowledges Jesus as the one who brings the kingdom near and through him who has perfectly obeyed these major commandments and helps us to do so as well, will he be in the kingdom. 

Its easy to have the knowledge and wisdom and yet fail to implement and fail to let God’s word penetrate our hearts. We seek our own ways of getting being right with God. The Lord has set a standard to love him and to love people. The extent in which we are to do it is a high calling. We to ought to dare respond but rather grieve that we fall short of this kind of love. I

Like the scribe we might consider ourselves to be good and knowledgable people and yet in the scale of our love for God and people find that we fail dismally. We love other things other than God and are selfish - fixated with ourselves even at the cost of our neighbours.

Love of God with our all and love of neighbour as ourselves, is the most difficult thing to do.  Burnt offerings and and sacrifices - easy to do everyone can qualify - does not need your all and as yourself. But God calls us to look to his son who has loved God and neighbour perfectly.

Let us admit our lack of love and the trust in the one who loves God and loves his neighbours - Jesus Christ. Let us ask for the Lord’s grace through Jesus to empower us by His Spirit to love the Lord and people wholeheartedly.