You are not far from the kingdom of God

 

 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 

 

Currently, we are reading through the events of what is known to us as Holy Week, the final week of Jesus' earthly life.  Yesterday we read that the ruling Council 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 dying, 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."  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.  Here Jesus responds to one of the scribes, who seems to be asking his question in earnest.  Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 6:4-5, which is the greatest Jewish confession of faith, called the shema' (which means "hear," the first word of the confession).  But Jesus doesn't stop there.  To complete His answer, He adds Leviticus 19:18.  In this way, as my study Bible notes, Jesus combines what is already present in the Old Testament to create a new understanding:  love of neighbor is an expression of love of God.  

When Jesus answers this scribe (or lawyer) in Matthew's Gospel, He caps off His giving of these commandments with the statement, "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets" (Matthew 22:40).  In Luke's Gospel, Jesus turns the question back upon the one who asks, in what we might call a Socratic manner, and asks the lawyer what his reading of the law is.  The lawyer then responds with these two commands.  But not content with that, the lawyer asks, "And who is my neighbor?"  To this question, Jesus responds by giving the parable of the Good Samaritan, an illustration of what it is to be a neighbor. (St. Luke's Gospel is the only place where we find the parable of the Good Samaritan; see Luke 10:25-37).  From these slightly varied versions of this story, we get a full feel for where Jesus is headed in His teaching, for what is important here is the fullness of the Law in the sense of the full communication of its aims.  For at the heart of these two commandments put together is a teaching on love, inseparable from the compassion of the Good Samaritan.  "What does it mean to be a neighbor?" or "Who is my neighbor?" become key questions because at the heart of Christ's teachings is the heart of God who longs to be and to create the very center of our community here in the world.  God, who is love, in this sense defines what it is to be a neighbor, or how we know who is a neighbor, and how to be a neighbor.  For in this sense, we cannot truly participate in community without God -- who is love -- at the center of community and indwelling that community through each of us.  The aim of the Law and the Prophets, therefore, is the establishment of true community, and in this way we know our Lord longs to be with us and among us in the center of that community, and teaching love as we learn also to be a neighbor and to participate in community God's way.  It's quite easy to think that we can have this all worked out in our own sense of what love is, or what compassion is.  It's simple to conjecture that we all know how we'd like others to treat us, so we can just figure this all out by ourselves.  But then comes a day when one finds that indulgence of whatever our particular desire is does not actually constitute love, or perhaps we see that for others who are stuck in the throes of addiction, or other self-destructive behaviors.  Comes the day as well when we learn that to say "no" to something is the only way to preserve our own well-being, and perhaps that of the community at large.  Love becomes not the simple four-letter-word we tend to think of it as being.  Love then becomes something complicated, something requiring wisdom, and a wisdom that can come only from the true Source of love who truly knows what is best for us and for community.  Then we get into a far more complicated area indeed, as love ultimately becomes recognized as a mystery, that can only be learned through experience with God who desires to lead us to great union with that mystery, with God who is love.  So let us ponder Christ's answer, for in it is the secret of what we are doing in the world, and the secret of the wisdom and knowledge God would have us learn through lifetimes of struggle to learn and to grow through our own deficiencies and unknowing, and even wrong-knowing.  Let us consider God's love, for in that love God welcomes us to become truly neighbors, among those who can love with all their heart.  For this is what it means to dwell in the Kingdom, and even to see God (Matthew 5:8).

 

 

Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?

 

 But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.  Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"  Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.'  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like it:  'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."  

While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, "What do you think about the Christ?  Whose Son is He?"  They said to Him, "The Son of David."  He said to them, "How then does David in the Spirit call Him 'Lord,' saying:

'The LORD said to my Lord,

"Sit at My right hand,

Till I make Your enemies Your footstool"'?

"If David then calls Him 'Lord,' how is He his Son?"  And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question Him anymore. 

 

- Matthew 22:34-46 

 

Yesterday we read that, as Jesus has been disputing in the Temple in Jerusalem with the religious leaders, the same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him and asked Him, saying:  "Teacher, Moses said that if a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother.  Now there were with us seven brothers.  The first died after he had married, and having no offspring, left his wife to his brother.  Likewise the second also, and the third, even to the seventh.  Last of all the woman died also.  Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be?  For they all had her."  Jesus answered and said to them, "You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.  For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven.  But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'?  God is not the God of the dead, but of the living."  And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at His teaching.

 

 But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.  Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"  Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.'  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like it:  'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."  My study Bible comments by explaining that the Pharisees had found 613 commandments in the Scriptures and debated about which one was central.  So this question is not unusual, and is in keeping with the kinds of debate which were the constant practice among the religious parties of Judaism.  Jesus answers the question by setting forth the first commandment and the second, in terms of rank, which together constitute the grand summary of the Law.  Although the lawyer came with malice to test Christ, St. Mark's account shows us that this man is converted by His answer (Mark 12:28-34).    My study Bible also comments that the second commandment must be understood as written:  You shall love your neighbor as yourself, or more clearly, "as being yourself."  It's a misinterpretation to understand it as "You shall love your neighbor as you love yourself," which destroys the force of the statement.  It says that how much we love ourselves is not the standard by which Christ is calling us to love others.  Instead, we are called to love our neighbor as being of the same nature as we ourselves are, as being created in God's image and likeness just as we are.  As the Fathers teach, we find our true self in loving our neighbor.

While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, "What do you think about the Christ?  Whose Son is He?"  They said to Him, "The Son of David."  He said to them, "How then does David in the Spirit call Him 'Lord,' saying:  'The LORD said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool"'?  If David then calls Him 'Lord,' how is He his Son?"  And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question Him anymore.  Jesus asks this question to lead the Pharisees to the only logical conclusion:  that He is God incarnate.  The notion that the Messiah may be divine was not one that was entirely alien to Judaism at this time, but my study Bible explains that these men suppose the Messiah to be a mere man, and therefore they reply that the Messiah would be a Son of David.  It notes that David, as king of Israel, could not and would not address anyone as "Lord" except God.  But in Psalm 110:1, from which Jesus quotes, David refers to the Messiah as "Lord."  Therefore, the Messiah must be God.  The one possible conclusion from this dialogue is that the Messiah is a descendant of David according to the flesh, but is also truly divine -- sharing His Lordship with God the Father and the Holy Spirit.  The Pharisees do not answer because they realize the implications, and they are afraid to confess that Jesus is the Son of God.  

Sometimes it's really hard to face the truth, although it might be staring you in the face.  There may be people within a nominal group who know and understand that the pervasive opinion of the group is wrong, and yet will be afraid to say so, simply because of the public pressure upon them not to rock the boat.  John's Gospel teaches us that "even among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God" (John 12:43).  I take the Gospel at its word, and I don't find this hard to believe at all.  These are learned men who spend all their time debating the Scriptures; it's the thing to which their lives are dedicated.  There is no doubt that the conclusions one would draw about Christ are all there in His ministry, His acts, His word, His teachings, and commandments.  But here, He debates them on their own terms, and again, there's no doubt who won this round.  It will have to turn to mischief, deceit, false witness, and a fake trial to sentence Christ to something worthy of death (blasphemy), and manipulation of the Roman governor to do so.  Here in open debate, among colleagues for whom debate is everything and where the whole history of Sanhedrin is one of a place to debate the Scriptures and the laws of Moses, there is no more decisive speaker than Jesus.  He's among the lawyers and the experts, the scribes and the Pharisees and Sadducees, all those who belong to the highest places for whom tradition dictates just this kind of debate, and this Man Jesus who's spent His time and ministry among the crowds and the poor and mostly far away from Jerusalem is the One who can out-debate all of them.  He's the One with the wisdom and the insight and the arguments they cannot successfully trounce except through force and manipulation.  But openly among the people they can't do that, so silence becomes their response.  It's clear from the Gospels that there were followers of Christ among the leadership, for we have two great examples in Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea of at least two men who showed incredible courage in doing so openly.  There's no doubt that many would have been convinced that Christ's death was unjust, and certainly the Gospels testify to the people's popular belief that Jesus was a prophet.  But when we read today's passages, we really need to ask ourselves how often we might find ourselves in similar circumstances.  The Gospels don't just give us a sense of something that happened 2,000 years ago, and they don't only testify to Christ.  They also open up for us the story of Christ in our midst, the story of human nature, a revelation of how we respond to truth and how we run away from it.  It teaches us about our capacity for blindness and denial, our need to go along with the crowd, our preference for the "praise of men" over the "praise of God."  Jesus' crucifixion is a lesson to us all not simply about Christ, but about all of us and for all the time.  That's because there may be truth we know, or hate to acknowledge, or are called upon in our own hearts to face -- even and most deeply as part of our faith in Christ -- and we will find ourselves in the same place as the men in the temple who hear Christ's word, who know it is true, and who stand in silence, faced with a decision they will be forced to either go along with or eventually choose differently and disrupt their lives.  This is the world that we live in, and it has not failed to continue to evince all the signs that it's the same world Christ was born into and died in.  We are faced with the same questions of the heart, of the truth, even of God's love pulling us in one direction or another, where the crowds will ask us to go along with things we need to take a closer look at and pray about.  We should not dismay when we find ourselves in this position, for here is the place Christ has opened up to show us, and the Gospels will always pose such questions of loyalty to us.  Where does truth come from?  Where does authority come from?  In whom do we trust and place our faith?  Whose commandments are essentially good, guideposts for how we live our lives?  Do we need the whole crowd to applaud and approve of who we are?  Social media platforms absolutely depend upon our need for crowd approval to keep coming back, attracted to clicks and likes.  There are those who simply like to stir up controversy, or possibly they are doing so for motives that are not open and obvious, even for a special interest -- or, as in the case of these rulers of the people, for political reasons of power.  Whatever it is, we still live in this world into which Christ came as one of us, so that He opened up life for us, showed us His way to live, gave us of His all and even His life out of love.  If we take this gift of Himself that He's given, let us look at our world and understand that He calls us now to the same place His own faithful were called.  We're the ones who decide our loyalty, where He is leading us, what His love teaches us.  What does it mean to love neighbor as oneself?  How does that stem first from the love of God?  And if we love Christ and love the truth, where does that take us in our lives?  These are the questions, and they remain for us all.

 

 

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 

 

Yesterday we read that the chief priests, scribes, and elders sent to Jesus 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 dying, 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."  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.   In today's reading, one of the scribes comes to question Jesus, as he perceives that He had answered the Pharisees, Herodians, and Sadducees well (in yesterday's reading; see above).   In Jesus' response, He quotes Deuteronomy 6:4-5, which is the greatest Jewish confession of faith.  This is called the Shema' (which means "hear," the first word of the confession).  The second commandment He quotes is from Leviticus 19:18.  Thereby Jesus combines what is already present in the Old Testament to create a new understanding:  that the love of neighbor is an expression of the love of God.  Indeed, in Jesus' teaching, the two are not separable.  

 

 My study Bible comments that the second commandment expressed by Christ (from Leviticus 19:18) is frequently misinterpreted.  It says that it must be understood as written:  You shall love your neighbor as yourself; or more clearly, "as being yourself."  It is often misinterpreted to be understood as "You shall love your neighbor as you love yourself," which is not true to the force of the statement.  How much we love ourselves isn't the standard by which Christ calls us to love others.  My study Bible explains that we are called to love our neighbor as being of the same nature as we are ourselves -- as being created in God's image and likeness just as we are.   Moreover, if we look at the precise commandment, it leads us into an interesting perspective in its fullness:  "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."  Its first impetus is a prohibition against vengeance, and against bearing grudges within community.  That is, it is foundational to Christ's injunction regarding the practice of mutual forgiveness.  In Monday's reading, Jesus spoke about the power of faith and prayer.  But when He spoke of prayer, He added this statement:  "And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.  But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses."  There are many things that open up here for our understanding.  The first is that to love neighbor as oneself is to see an injury to neighbor as to oneself; these are commandments regarding community, after all.   The original commandment also sheds light on the meaning of forgiveness:  that it does not preclude justice or the normal understanding of appropriate conduct in the face of harmful behavior.  But it does preclude vengeance and the exercise of holding a grudge; it limits tit-for-tat harm or injury, and it gives us a context for Christ's teachings on forgiveness -- that we give up our "debts" or "trespasses" to God, first, because community comes from God and our love of God in the first place.  It helps us to more fully understand Christ's teachings on community, and the kind of community He wants His Church to be; that is, the community of His followers, those who belong to Him.  Moreover, to love neighbor as oneself suggests a kind of love that is like a good parent for a child:  it does not imply harmful overindulgence, a nurturing of selfishness or self-destructive behavior.  But rather it implies that whatever discipline is good for us and healthful on any level, this also applies to how we love others.  To love another is not to encourage nor tolerate bad behavior, but to nurture what we believe is good for ourselves and therefore for others.  It supports Christ's notion of mutual correction in the Church found in Matthew 18:15-35.  In that passage, Jesus also speaks famously of forgiveness,  telling Peter to forgive "seventy times seven."  But this teaching is couched in a means of correction, giving us a way to reconcile injury, while at the same time upholding the teachings in Leviticus 19:18 against vengeance and nursing a grudge.  In Christ's important combination of these two commandments, we come to understand that everything begins and ends with the love of God.  We turn to love of God in prayer to help us to reconcile our own sense of injury and the command to forgive; we seek God's love for us to teach us how we are to behave in community, in the world.  We "turn over" our debts to God the metaphorical central Banker, and we find how to conduct our lives free of vengeance and grudge-holding, in order to find our peace and by extension that of community.  Life is full of injury, because life is full of sin and selfishness.  But Christ asks us to find the best way to make our way through this world within the loving embrace of God and the teachings of God, not as frustrated individuals lost without community.  Christ's great emphasis is the centrality of God to our own identity and understanding of community.  Connecting it to Psalm 27, we might say, according to the Septuagint translation in my study Bible:  "For my father and my mother forsook me, but the Lord laid hold of me" (verse 10).  It is in keeping with the understanding that although sin or abuse may interfere with relations in this world, we can still find community in God, the good teachings that will see us through life.  This is the kind of community that Christ offers to us through His teachings.  They are not teachings of self-centeredness or selfishness, but they are teachings for health of self and in community, teachings of true self-love and therein true discipline, offering us what's good for us, like a truly good parent should.  Let us take to heart that Christ's way is both the way of truth and the way of peace:  these are so often hard to reconcile on human terms, but, as the psalm says, the Lord will care for us and teach us the way in our lives.  Everything begins and ends with the love of God, for it is God's kingdom in which we seek to dwell.

 

If David then calls Him "Lord," how is He his Son?

 But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.  Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"  Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.'  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like it:  'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."

While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, "What do you think about the Christ?  Whose Son is He?"  They said to Him, "The Son of David."  He said to them, "How then does David in the Spirit call Him 'Lord,' saying:t

'The LORD said to my Lord,
"Sit at My right hand,
Till I make Your enemies Your footstool"'?

If David then calls Him 'Lord,' how is He his Son?"  And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question Him anymore.

- Matthew 22:34-46

In our current readings, it is the week of the final Passover of Jesus' life, the week that we commemorate as Holy Week.  Yesterday we read that the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus and asked Him, saying:  "Teacher, Moses said that if a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother.  Now there were with us seven brothers.  The first died after he had married, and having no offspring, left his wife to his brother.  Likewise the second also, and the third, even to the seventh.  Last of all the woman died also.  Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be?  For they all had her."  Jesus answered and said to them, "You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.  For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven.  But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'?  God is not the God of the dead, but of the living."  And when the multitudes heard this, they were astonished at His teaching.

 But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.  Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"  Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.'  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like it:  'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."  This question is no doubt an essential one for the Pharisees.  They had found 613 commandments in the Scriptures, and would debate about which one was central.  As usual, Jesus answers the question, not using the foundation set forth by His questioners, but His own basis for a correct answer.  He gives two commandments, not simply one.  The first is Deuteronomy 6:5, the second from Leviticus 19:18.  Together, in Jesus' teaching, they constitute the grand summary of the Law.  My study bible adds that although the lawyer has come with malice to test the Lord, we know from St. Mark's account that this man is converted by Christ's answer (Mark 12:28-34).   My study bible further elaborates that the second commandment here must be understood as written:  You shall love your neighbor as yourself, or even more clearly, "as being yourself."   Often, it says, this is misinterpreted as saying, "You shall love your neighbor as you love yourself," but this destroys the force of the statement.  How much we love ourselves isn't the standard by which Christ calls us to love others.  Instead, we are called to love our neighbor as being of the same nature as we ourselves are; that is, as being created in God's image and likeness  just as we are.  The patristic teaching is that we find our true self in loving our neighbor. 

While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, "What do you think about the Christ?  Whose Son is He?"  They said to Him, "The Son of David."  He said to them, "How then does David in the Spirit call Him 'Lord,' saying:  'The LORD said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool"'?  If David then calls Him 'Lord,' how is He his Son?"  And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question Him anymore.  My study bible says that Jesus asks this question to lead the Pharisees to the only logical conclusion:  that He is God incarnate.  They believed the Messiah to be a mere man, and therefore they reply that the Messiah would be a Son of David.  David, as the king of Israel, could never and would never address another as "Lord" except God.  But in Psalm 110:1 (quoted here by Jesus), David refers to the Messiah as "Lord."  Therefore, the Messiah must be God.  The only possible conclusion, my study bible tells us, is that the Messiah is a descendant of David only according to the flesh, yet is also truly divine, sharing His Lordship with God the Father and the Holy Spirit.  The Pharisees do not answer because they realize the implications and are afraid to confess Jesus to be the Son of God. 

On some level, we have to give the Pharisees credit.  Although Jesus points out the hypocrisy of many of the leadership, and also condemns some of their practices (virtually the whole of chapter 23 will consist of Jesus' scathing criticism of the scribes and Pharisees), there are Pharisees who believe in Him, and also who become His disciples (see John 3:1-20).  Here in today's reading, we see they are totally unable to answer Jesus' rational explanation of the Scriptures.  They cannot defy His word.  They recognize the power of His argument and what He is saying.  It is precisely for this understanding that Jesus will condemn them as hypocrites in the next chapter of Matthew, starting in tomorrow's reading.  Despite their understanding, they will seek to destroy and to condemn Him.   Their search for the greatest commandment of all is an interesting one, because it leads to Jesus' teaching.   If we take a closer look at Leviticus 19:18 (the second commandment Jesus names), we read, "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."  It's quite interesting that the first invocation is against vengeance, because this mirrors Jesus' teachings as well, in the Sermon on the Mount.  Jesus elaborates on His explication of the Law when He says, "You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.  If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also.  And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two.  Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away."  This is in keeping with the second commandment in today's reading, as its first words give us a proscription against vengeance.  Altogether, the factors in today's reading give us a picture of the Man who is truly the great Teacher of the Law.  He silences the Pharisees with His clear understanding of Scripture, He sums up all the Law and the Prophets with the two greatest commandments.  We see the consistency of His teaching.  His understanding of the Law is not merely in its words and teachings, but rather in its depth, its intent, and origins, for He is the true Lawgiver.  He is the author of the Law, the Logos.  He is the One whom David calls "my Lord."

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 yesterday's reading, Jesus' quizzers are still coming forth. They are in the temple, and Jesus is being questioned. First is a group of Pharisees and Herodians, who ask Him about paying taxes to Caesar. They are trying to trap Him -- if He approves of paying, then the people will dislike Him; if He disapproves, then the Roman authorities will be alerted. But Jesus sidesteps this dilemma with His own response, pointing to a coin of the realm, with Caesar's picture and inscription on it. Next, a group of Sadducees quiz Him about the resurrection, and a case in which one woman was married successively to seven brothers, without offspring. Jesus tells them they have it quite wrong - they know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. He tells them, "He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living."

In today's reading we have yet another quiz for Jesus, and this time he appears in the form of a scribe. 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?" "The scribes," says my study bible, "are a professional class of experts in the Mosaic Law. While most of them were hostile to Jesus, this one seems to be a sincere inquirer." So, we understand, once again, that the question reflects the concerns of the questioner and his position or perspective. Being an expert in the Law, the scribe poses his best for Jesus. Perhaps each of these questions in this sequence of readings can be taken to reflect the perspective of each class; however, through the Gospels, we know there were exceptions to all of them. We are told of Jesus' supporters also from the ruling classes, the wealthy elite and the powerful religious leadership.

Jesus' answers, we have seen, also reflect the perspective of the questioner. He is either direct or indirect, depending on the source. In yesterday's reading, we commented on His teachings and how they are tailored for every audience He addresses. Today He answers this scribe directly and clearly. 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." My study bible notes, "In response, Jesus quotes Deut. 6:4, 5, the greatest Jewish confession of faith, called the shema' (meaning 'hear,' the first word of the confession)." Before all things, is this first commandment - but Jesus adds a second in answer to this question.

And the second, like it, is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." My study bible says that, in this verse, Jesus quotes Lev. 19:18, "combining what is already in the Old Testament to create a new understanding: love of neighbor is an expression of love of God." It is a deeper understanding also of the process of what it is to truly worship, and to have the depth of relationship with God we are asked to build. Not only is there a single God, but to worship with all we are is to build, in fact, union. Through our love for God, Who is love, we express that love in our world.

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." According to the New Oxford Annotated Bible, "the words of Deut. 6:4, which are both preface to, and part of, the first commandment, define qualitatively the wholeness of the love that God requires." This the scribe has grasped. Sacrifices were only offered in the temple in Jerusalem -- we recall that it is Jesus who, in His first act of confrontation in Jerusalem, swept the temple clean of the sellers and money-changers for sacrifice. My study bible says, "The 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. My study bible notes that "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." Of course, the kingdom of God is also there in the presence of Jesus. In tomorrow's reading, Jesus will become the questioner of the scribes, and He will add His own feelings about the scribes as a class. But this individual comes to Him and is "not far from the kingdom of God." It is an important understanding, then, couched within this discussion of our relationship to God, of how we each come to God, as individuals - "with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and all our strength." Therefore we must never let any appellation or characterization of a "group" blind us to this understanding of God's love for each individual creature, and the potential therein for this relationship of love.

In a 4th century commentary, St. Maximos the Confessor calls this "the commandment of love." He writes, "Do not neglect the commandment of love; for through it you will become a son of God, but transgressing it you will become a son of gehenna. Love between friends is destroyed if you envy or are the object of envy; if you cause or suffer loss; if you revile or suffer revilement; and finally if you feed and keep suspicious thoughts against your brother .. Do not be conquered by hatred but conquer by love ... Pray God sincerely about him, accept his excuses or cure yourself by excusing him, regard yourself as the cause of the trial and resolve to endure until the cloud has passed. ...hasten to make your peace with him, lest you forsake the commandment of love. Fear keeps the old commandments, but that love keeps the life-giving commandments of Christ."

Let us consider, then, the law of love and how it works. God, who is love, becomes a part of us when we truly worship "with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and all our strength." To be in this kind of growing union, or communion, throughout our lives is to grow in God-likeness. We must be careful what we worship -- there is only room for one God. In a very pertinent sense, this is exactly what St. Maximos conveys above. There is only room for one God, and what is in our heart must reflect that. Let everything else go that conflicts with it, he is saying, and keep the commandment of love. How do you work on that today? To love is not an invitation for abuse or denial, but a sincere response in relationship to life and to God. Let us understand where and how it begins, and let the gospels teach us how to live its love. We are not born knowing perfect love, but we come to God and grow in relationship, and learn that love -- this is His greatest commandment.