There is no other commandment greater than these

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

In our current readings, it is Holy Week, and Jesus is in Jerusalem, daily disputing in the temple with the leadership.  Yesterday we read that the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders (after their own confrontation with Jesus) sent to Him some of the Pharisees and the Herodians, to catch Him in His words.  When they had come, they said to Him, "Teacher, we know that You are true, and care about no one; for You do not regard the person of men, but teach the way of God in truth.  Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?  Shall we pay, or shall we not pay?"  But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, "Why do you test Me?  Bring Me a denarius that I may see it."  So they brought it.  And He said to them, "Whose image and inscription is this?"  They said to Him, "Caesar's."  And Jesus answered and said to them, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."  And they marveled at Him.  Then some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him; and they asked Him, saying:  "Teacher, Moses wrote to us that if a man's brother dies, and leaves his wife behind, and leaves no children, his brother should take his wife and raise up offspring for his brother.  Now there were seven brothers.  The first took a wife; and died, he left no offspring.  And the second took her, and he died; nor did he leave any offspring.  And the third likewise.  So the seven had her and left no offspring.  Last of all the woman died also.  Therefore, in the resurrection, when they rise, whose wife will she be:  For all seven had her as wife."  Therefore, in the resurrection, when they rise, whose wife will she be?  For all seven had her as wife."  Jesus answered and said to them, "Are you not therefore mistaken, because you do not know the Scriptures nor the power of God?  For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.  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?"  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.   Jesus quotes from the shema' in His response to the scribe.  Shema' means "hear" and it is the first word of the greatest Jewish confession of faith.  Deuteronomy 6:4-5 reads:  "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength."  Jesus doesn't answer by giving a single commandment, but adds a second, which He says is like it, quoting from Leviticus 19:18, which reads:  "You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord."   My study bible says that Jesus takes what is already present in the Old Testament and creates a new understanding:  that love of neighbor is an expression of love of God.   The Pharisees had found 613 commandments in the Scriptures, and would debate over which one was central; Jesus expands the question with His own summary of the greatest commandments.

What is the link between love of God and love of neighbor?  Perhaps it's important that we review a significant question from Luke's Gospel.  Upon being told these two greatest commandments, a lawyer asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"  To that question, Jesus replied with the parable of the Good Samaritan.  (See Luke 10:25-37.)   In that parable, the true neighbor was the one who took the initiative to act like a neighbor.  The link between people as neighbors wasn't custom nor culture nor nominal faith nor position nor affiliation, as the two people who passed the injured Jewish victim of a violent robbery were a priest and a Levite.  The bond between love of God and love of neighbor cuts straight to the heart, and in Jesus' hands so often everything comes down to a question of the heart.  Faith itself -- in this perspective in Jesus' answer to the question on the greatest commandment -- comes down to an affair of the heart.  To love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength is to love God with a depth of the person that is more than paying lip service to an idea or an ideal.  This is an active love, an active participation, a true faith, with everything we've got.  It calls upon us to be "all in."  It is God who calls us to love of neighbor; thereby loyalty to God means this active love extended to the ways in which we choose to treat "neighbors" -- it is a voluntary choice to learn the love that God calls out of us.  Interestingly, this goes hand in hand with the forgiveness that Christ commanded His disciples when He taught them about the power of prayer (in Monday's reading).  The full command to love one's neighbor in Leviticus primarily includes the command to refrain from taking vengeance or bearing grudges.  But Jesus focuses on the positive aspect of the command:  "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," signifying the activity of love.  A genuine love isn't merely following a dictum or command, but it is an act of the heart:  a true love of Creator leads to a way in which we see all of Creation, including our neighbor.  There is a kind of respect for the "person" that is an inherent demand in our dealings, one that asks us to see that both of us are persons, and created in the image of God, and that we may consider to treat others in the way that we would wish to be treated (see Matthew 7:12, Luke 6:31, called "the golden rule").   Overall, Jesus' emphasis is on the positive.  It's up to us to be good neighbors, to put into practice our love of God.  If we look around in the world, Jesus' words seem to remind us that it's up to us to understand what it is to be "not far from the kingdom of God."  He calls us to bear fruit, as what we find in the world may not be the good fruit we're looking for -- but rather depends on those who willingly volunteer.