Mark 12:28-34
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Another scribe comes up to Jesus for the dirty work of the Pharisees.
This scribe though is different. He’s a bit more friendly, he seems to have less of a ego. His level of pride is down considerably than those of his other scribe and pharisaic friends.
He approaches Jesus with a question that was more than likely a question that all his other friends wanted to ask. He was the one that probably drew the short straw to go and ask.
12:28
12:28
28 And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?”
The question asked reflects the fact that the scribes had identified 613 separate commandments, 365 of which were negative and 248 of which were positive. They divided them further into “heavy” and “light”, or “more important” and “less important”.
One of their favorite exercises was in discussing which of these divine commandments was the greatest.
12:29-30
12:29-30
29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’
Jesus hears his question and decides to play along. There does seem to be a commandment that to God is most important than any other!
Jesus quotes from Deut. 6:4-5. The first part of this is of the famous THE SHEMA (From the first word of the confession which means HEAR). In the second century this was a confession of faith that consisted of Deut.6:4-9; 11:13-21; Num. 15:37-41, and was recited twice daily by devoted Jews. Even till this day, devout Jews will recite this in their worship of God.
Now, both Matthew and Luke do not have the sentence right before saying, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.”
But for Mark’s readers this would have been very important.
Within Mark’s church there were these debates with Jews where the Christians were trying to tell them that they were monotheist (the doctrine of belief that there is only one God), not polytheist (the belief in or worship of more than one god), as the Jews sometimes accused them of being.
This is important, because the obligation to love God is based on His oneness. Love for Him must be undivided.
Now is He a God of three in one, YES! But in His sovereignty and holiness, He is able to be a God of three in one in complete UNITY.
The piling up of terms in the latter part of the verse: “heart,” “soul,” and “mind” is just a way of saying “WITH YOUR WHOLE BEING”. Those aren’t really intended to be divided up. But it means that we are to be undivided in our love and devotion to God.
OUR WHOLE BEING.... This means every part of our lives should reflect our love for our God.
This should be far and above how we change our lives for other loves that we are dedicated to. (parents, school, boyfriend girlfriend, sports, spouse, children, job)
12:31
12:31
31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
The second quotation is from Lev. 19:18
18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
Notice the first part of this verse mentions “the sons of your own people.” (A fellow Israelite)
Lev. 19:33-34 extends this love command to resident aliens.
33 “When an alien resides with you in your land, you must not oppress him. 34 You will regard the alien who resides with you as the native-born among you. You are to love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.
It’s likely that many first century Jews mainly focused on Lev. 19:18 as they would kind of ignore verses 33-34.
One of the most significant elements of Jesus’ teaching was to redefine the neighbor as everybody. Including the hated samaritans and gentiles.
Jesus made love the most important thing in life, because “love is the fulfilling of the law” (Rom. 13:8-10).
If we love God, we will experience His love within and will express that love to others.
We do not live by rules but by relationships, a loving relationship to God that enables us to have a loving relationship with others.
This is another one of Jesus’ great teaching contributions. Bringing together and merging the commands to love God and to love fellow human beings.
Jesus showed that it was impossible to really love God without loving neighbors.
Love for God is expressed by loving others.
12:32-34
12:32-34
32 And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. 33 And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.
Here is a interesting part of this passage.
We actually get to see a scribe described favorably. This is the only place where a scribe is commended by Jesus.
Kind of makes you realize that not all Pharisees and scribes were bad. At their best, they represented the finest element in Judaism.
The scribe says that loving God like this is far above all burnt offerings and sacrifices.
Basically saying, loving God and loving people is far above all the “religious rules”.
Because of this… Jesus says to the man, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
Jesus was saying to keep going. He’s saying, I see in you the humility to follow men, go the remainder of the way and wholeheartedly follow me!
What does it mean to “not be far from the kingdom of God”? It means he or she is facing truth honestly and is not interested in defending a “party line” or even personal prejudices. It means the person is testing his or her faith by what the Word of God says and not by what some religious group demands. People close to the kingdom have the courage to stand up for what is true even if they lose some friends and make some enemies.
This is why the man was not far from the kingdom of God.
Jesus says… keep going!
Follow me! Let the worries go and follow me as Messiah!