Which is the first commandment of all?

Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, "Which is the first commandment of all?" Jesus answered him, "The first of all the commandments is 'Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." So the scribe said to Him, "Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He. And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices." Now when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." But after that no one dared question Him.

- Mark 12:28-34

Over the past several readings, we have been reading about Jesus' time in Jerusalem, after His Triumphal Entry, in which He was welcomed as Messiah. His first act, in Mark's gospel, was the cleansing of the temple. After this, he's been tested on several occasions by the authorities in the temple. The chief priests, the scribes and the elders asked Him,"By what authority are You doing these things?" In yesterday's reading, first a group of Pharisees and Herodians asked Him about the lawfulness of paying taxes to Caesar. Then He was quizzed by some Sadducees (who don't believe in the resurrection). They asked Him about a particular case of a woman married successively to seven brothers, without children. Whose wife would she be in heaven? Jesus told them, "But concerning the dead, that they rise, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the burning bush passage, how God spoke to him, saying, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. You are therefore greatly mistaken."

Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, "Which is the first commandment of all?" To understand this question properly, we must understand the great emphasis on the commandments and Mosaic Law. The scribes as a class are professional experts in the Mosaic Law. My study bible points out that while most of them were hostile to Jesus, this scribe seems to be a sincere inquirer. (Here is a list of the 613 commandments, based on a compilation by Maimonides in the twelfth century.)

Jesus answered him, "The first of all the commandments is 'Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' This is the first commandment." This commandment is a recitation from Deut. 6:4 & 5. It is the great confession of faith in Jewish spiritual heritage, and is called the shema. Shema means "hear" in Hebrew, and is the first word of the confession. We note that it is all about a relationship of love.

And the second, like it, is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." This second commandment is from Leviticus 19:18. My study bible points out that Jesus combines what is already in the Old Testament to create a new understanding, that the love of neighbor is an expression of the love of God. So often Jesus will teach us a type of conditional reciprocity: If we wish to be forgiven, we must forgive. If we wish our faith to bear fruit, then we must have faith. If we want good neighbors (as in this commandment), then we must be good neighbors. If we wish to save our lives, we must be prepared to lose them. If we wish to receive, we must be prepared to give -- and many who are first will be last, and the last first. There is a kind of reciprocal dependency to these teachings: so much depends on our own choices and cooperation with God. The very first commandment is one of love: we give our whole hearts to God who is love, and in this way we learn love and we grow in love. It is a mystical synergy, designed for us to grow in a kind of lifelong conversion, transformation, into the image of ourselves that God offers us in return. Therefore, what we hope to express in our lives, in the second commandment, will be that love whose source is God.

So the scribe said to Him, "Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He. And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices." Whatever worship practices we make and prepare, the whole of the law of the love of God and its expression through our lives is to be truly committed to faith. We wish for the law to be written on our hearts. Our worship practices give us tools for the development of this faith summed up in the two great commandments Jesus cites. My study bible notes, "This scribe's insight has penetrated beyond the Pharisees' obsession with outward forms. He understands that the condition of the heart is central to righteousness."

Now when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." But after that no one dared question Him. We remember Jesus' teachings to His apostles as they went on their first mission. They are to say, "The kingdom of God has come near to you." Jesus' words have a double meaning here -- the scribe draws near to God and God's love in his insight and understanding, and he is also present to Christ at this moment. My study bible says, "This scribe's wisdom and honesty bring him not far from the kingdom of God. Only God can say who is, and who is not, far from His Kingdom."

It is often that we find people try to separate these two great commandments quoted by Jesus in His teaching. Some will say the practice of one or the other is what we really need. But we must note that this is yet another quite clever answer by Jesus, as all of His answers in this series of testing in the temple have been. The subtlety here is in His response with two commandments, a first and a second, in response to a question that was really asking for only one, the first (and hence, the most important, the greatest). Jesus does indicate an order -- what comes first. But He also teaches us that the two are inseparable from one another. To have faith and to practice it is all of one piece. And that faith is based on love: on the relationship of love to God, and on the sharing of God's love with others that we learn from this primary relatedness. The love of God is primary in this set of commandments because that is the way in which we learn to be "God-like," just as in a marriage spouses become one with one another, and grow as "one flesh" while remaining two separate persons. But we don't get there by forgetting one of these commandments in favor of the other, and for this reason Jesus adds the second -- and the whole of the 613 commandments is summed up in these two. How does the love of God teach you to be a loving person? How does the practice of the first commandment teach you to practice the second? How does it teach you to grow in knowledge and understanding of the practice of love, in whatever form that takes in your life? And, we must remember, the first will also teach what we need to discard in order to more wisely and fully practice the second. And finally we recall Jesus' reciprocity: If we've failed at practicing the second, we have also failed at the first.