Mark 12:28-34

The Royal Rumble Continues in this passage today like it has for the last few weeks, but this time the one who enters the ring isn’t really looking for a fight, he seems to be asking a legitimate, genuine question. And with that being the case, Jesus interacts with Him a little different then the others that were out for blood.

For the last few weeks now the religious elite have jumped in the ring and tagged each other into the ring to tussle with Jesus.

A few weeks back the Pharisees and Herodians tried to trap Jesus. They ended up marveling at Him.

The week before that we saw the Chief Priests, the Scribes and the Elders question the source of Jesus authority. But He demanded that they answer Him. Twice.

He is the One authorized to ask the questions, and everyone will answer to Jesus.

Last week the Sadducees jumped in aiming to make Jesus look foolish by serving Him a flawed, fallacious question in front of the a bunch of people, but Jesus was ready for it. His response was like a bull goring a taunting matador. He simply showed them a tense of a verb and they were done.

But this week, as was said earlier, a sympathetic questioner asks a really genuine and legitimate question to Jesus, and Jesus meaningfully interacts with him.

This is different than the other encounters. In the other encounters when Jesus is doubted, attacked and entrapped Jesus punches back and puts people in their place, but when a seeker approaches its a different outcome.

The tone of Jesus changes from straight forward and authoritative to conversational, friendly and even motivational!

and that tells me the way in which we approach Jesus matters.

So, like the previous weeks, let’s read the text, give the meaning and apply the principles we see to our lives.

Mark 12:28 ESV

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?”

Mark 12:29–30 ESV

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.’

Mark 12:31 ESV

31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Mark 12:32 ESV

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.

Mark 12:33 ESV

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.”

Mark 12:34 ESV

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.

Pray

We must approach Jesus knowing that He knows what He is talking about.

If we come to Him and doubt Him or try to trick or trap Him, we shouldn’t be surprised when our relationship with Jesus doesn’t seem to scratch where we itch. But if we humble ourselves and come to Him seeking legitimate answers to legitimate questions, we just might find what we are looking for.

We must approach Him and address Him as the King of the Kingdom. When we do that, we can also trust Him to supply us with the truth we need for our particular question and when that happens we can walk away satisfied and comforted by what He has said.

How we approach Jesus matters.

Ok, let’s look through this.

Mark 12:28 (ESV)

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?”

Ok, remember this is taking place in a public forum. It is in the temple courts and there are many people overhearing all the exchanges.

And here we are introduced to a scribe who potentially wasn’t part of the discussion initially but inserts himself in the conversation after overhearing they ongoing debate.

Mark tells us that this scribe “heard them disputing.” A dispute is a contentious and persistent discussion or debate. This unnamed scribes witness this and from his perspective, had determined that Jesus was winning.

He sees and hears that Jesus had “answered them well.” Meaning, Jesus is displaying more competence then His accusers. He sees that Jesus knows a thing or two. He seems to know what He is talking about on a whole host of religious matters.

So knowing this to be be true, he approaches Jesus with the most important matter of all.

“Which commandment is the most important of all?”

Out of the hundreds of the commands in the OT and the additional commands that the religious leaders had extrapolated from those command, it is important to prioritize.

How can I, a scribe, or any of us listening here, keep the 248 positive commands and keep ourselves from committing the 365 prohibitions from the OT?

“It is hard to have 613 bullet points in your head, so knowing that you know a thing or two about religious things, can we get your perspective on the most important one?”

He isn’t asking which ones should be obeyed and if some can be ignored or pushed aside, he is asking a genuine question.

“What is the fundamental premise of the law on which all the individual commands depend?”

Boil all those laws down until all that is left is their essence.

What is the intrinsic nature and character of all those laws?

With that sincere, honest question being asked, Jesus responds with the orthodox answer.

He quotes a Jewish prayer that was at the very center of the Jewish faith.

Mark 12:29–30 (ESV)

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.’

He references the Hebrew Shema from Deut. 6:4-5 and adds the line “with all your mind” to it because in the Hellenized Greek culture He and His audience were a part of the “decision-making” part of humanity had shifted from “heart” to “mind.”

So He explicitly mentions, “mind,” so that everyone hearing what He was saying would understand aspects of the ancient Jewish religion and when He does so, he answers the questioners question correctly.

He is so culturally relevant. He has always been and will always be!

Basically what Jesus says to this man is this:

“God is the only God and the aim of our existence is to love Him with our whole being.”

That has alway been true even to this day. That is why you and I are on the planet.

The Shema was something that was taught to children as soon as they could speak and then they would recite it every morning and every evening throughout the duration of their existence. Not only that but, Rabbis taught that the last ritual before death was this…

“The last words of a dying Jew should be the Shema.”

Heart, soul, mind and strength. Don’t let anything, even death hinder you from allowing the unique one of a kind Holy God of the universe rule every aspect of your life.

Having given the supreme answer about loving God, Jesus then says…

Mark 12:31 (ESV)

31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

This was a quote from Leviticus 19:18.

What Jesus was saying was that we can’t love God in isolation from other relationships that we have in life. Loving God and loving people are inextricably linked.

One commentator says,

Love is our inner commitment to God that is expressed in all our conduct and relationships. Those who do not show love to others can hardly claim to love God. - David E. Garland

This is surfaced so often in the epistles of James and especially 1 John. I could show you multiple passages but let’s settle on one.

1 John 3:14–18 (ESV)

14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?

18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

Love looks like laying down your life. Love is giving other people what they need but don’t deserve. And while it is possible to love people with our words, that can’t be our only way of loving people, we must love them with our deeds.

The scribe questioning Jesus is aware of the importance of love, so…

Mark 12:32–33 (ESV)

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.”

So basically the response was ding ding ding. You did it. Jesus you nailed it.

He basically repeats what Jesus had said, but then adds to it a part about “whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

This scribe is showing that He knows the heart of God that was on display in the books of Amos and Isaiah and Micah. These prophets give voice to God repeatedly saying that He takes no delight in those sacrifices if they are devoid of loving your neighbor in concrete ways.

And this encounter is happening in the temple where offerings and sacrifices were being made as they were speaking!

This scribe understands the heartbeat of God and that is why Jesus says

Mark 12:34 (ESV)

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.

It is interesting because Jesus doesn’t ask Him a question, but allows the scribe to answer his own question.

The scribe after asking Jesus a question and after listening to the truth that was coming out of Jesus mouth, was able to agree wholeheartedly with the truth coming out of Jesus mouth and comes up with the wise and correct answer to His own question.

That tells me, we have to listen to and agree with what Jesus is saying on any given subject to come up with the right answers to our questions.

We can’t just make up right answers. We have to listen to and agree with Jesus take on our questions.

But notice this, Jesus says, even though this scribe is armed with the right answer, knowing the right answer isn’t enough to get Him entrance into the kingdom of God.

Jesus says you are, “not far from the Kingdom of God.”

We have talked about the kingdom of God before. The kingdom of God is the ruling and reigning of God as the unmatched supreme King over His creation.

When Jesus says, “you are not far from the kingdom” He isn’t saying you are “in” the kingdom. More than likely Jesus says this to provoke his thinking even more. So far the scribe has proven to be open to the truth of Jesus and is in agreement with what Jesus has said; but will he personally invite Jesus to be His Lord? Will he allow Jesus to call all the shots and allow Him to rule and reign over his life? That is is yet to be seen and that is where Mark will goes next in verses 35-38 next week. So come back.

Knowing the right answer doesn’t get you into the Kingdom; knowing the right person and calling Him Lord will!

So we have given the meaning of the passage, now let’s apply a few principles.

Last week we said, don’t underestimate the power of God. This week,

Don’t undervalue the centrality of love.

Love is the reason we are alive and love is the way we can bring life to everyone around us.

Loving God and loving others.

We have often talked about THE MISSION our our church is: to be a F­­­­­­­­­­ellowship of disciples who Make and Mature more disciples.

Our motive for fulfilling our mission is because we want to Love God and Love Others.

The way that we honor God is by showing love to others.

So here are a few good questions for us to consider.

Is the way we relate to our family, friends and those that make up this fellowship marked by the love of Christ? Would someone walk away and say, I think I just interacted with Jesus?

I might be crazy, but it was like I was with Jesus the other night at the dinner table.

When we were in the car the other day, it was like Jesus really did take the wheel!

Remember when the disciples hearts were burning on the road to Emmaus when Jesus was disguised from them and they were talking about the Scriptures? Remember after He departed from them, when the residue of that moment finally hit them and they recognized that they were with Jesus?

Do we think that after people encounter us; they would ever have the same experience or thought process?

Here is a convicting thought. They should. And they should often. The way we show our deep reverence and honor to God is by the way we give ourselves to love people.

Just think about the way Jesus demonstrates His love for people.

His attitudes and actions were marked with patience and humility. He was kind and understanding. He was peaceful and joyful. He gave people playful nicknames (Rocky, Son’s of Thunder). He was gentle, considerate, meek and merciful. He was controlled. Passionate and Compassionate. He was wise, orderly, tender and above all sacrificial.

And when people deny Him or walk away from Him, He pursues them like a shepherd looking for a lost sheep in some deep dark valley far away.

That was how Jesus loved. Is that how we love? I think that if we start thinking and acting this way on a more consistent basis, none of us would ever underestimate the power of love.

It would transform our relationships for the better.

Jesus welcomes our legitimate questions.

If we have legitimate genuine questions, Jesus loves to interact with us.

When we come to Jesus we don’t check your brains at the door. When we initially came to Jesus we didn’t take a blind leap of faith into nothingness over the Abyss of hell hoping that somehow Jesus might in some way have the ability to save us.

That is not the case. Any of us who have come to know Jesus have used our deductive powers of reasoning and thinking and united what we heard about Jesus with our faith and we trust that because He was the sinless Son of God, sent to the be the Savior of the world, He had the ability to save us. So we cried out to Him.

He substituted Himself and sacrificed Himself for us so that we might be given His merits.

When the Gospel was explained to us in one way or another we, thought about it, and it’s proposal made sense to us to some degree and we decided to apprehend the truth of the message by faith.

We didn’t check our brains at the door and jump, we used our brains to fall into His arms.

And now that we follow Him, we probably still have a whole litany of questions that concern us, but the most important question we should start each day with and each endeavor and each personal encounter is, “What is it that you want me to do Lord, because my aim is to please you.”

What do you want me to do?

2 Corinthians 5:9 (ESV)

9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.

How can I live by faith today because without faith it is impossible to please you.

Hebrews 11:6 (ESV)

6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

So the most important question we can ask of Jesus in any given situation is, “What do you want me to do? How can I walk in a manner worthy of the Gospel in the next 30 minutes of my day.”

We may have dozens, if not hundreds of question concerning theology, doctrine, ethics, interpersonal relationships, discovering God’s will for our lives with potential schools, careers, and spouses.

How should I parent my children or let them go once they are out of the house.?

The entirety of our lives is spent wrestling with one question after another. So do what this scribe did, come to Jesus and ask questions from every category of life to Him and see what He says.

He speaks through His word and with His till small voice. He even speaks in a general way through the vastness and orderliness of His creation.

He speaks through our wise friends that are well versed in the Scriptures and can teach, admonish and show us our Father’s heart.

He speaks to us through prayer. When we open up our bibles and pray prayers that are Scripture-fed, Spirit-led, worship-based, we can trust that God will give us some directives.

(Elder agenda) - Training Prayer - 12 directives from the Lord as He moved in my spirit.

Communicating with other Spirit indwelt, in step with the Spirit believers.

God didn’t intend for us to go through life on our own. Good friends are a good gift from God that help guide us along when we need it most.

Don’t be satisfied being close to the Kingdom. Enter the Kingdom.

We can love other people well. We can ask and get reasoned answers to all our questions, but that doesn’t make us kids in the kingdom.

Look at this…

Mark 12:34 (ESV)

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.

Jesus noticed that this scribe “answered wisely.” He understood important things and in fact the most important commandment, but it is one thing to “know” something and it is another thing to “do” something.

All this scribe had to do at this point was start following Jesus, but whether or not this scribe ever made it into the kingdom is a question Mark doesn’t tell us the answer too.

And here is the punchline, if we are more concerned about whether or not He “made it into the kingdom” than whether or not we as Mark’s readers, have “made it into the kingdom,” then we are way off base.

Don’t think about how this message should apply to everyone else around you, let this message and all it’s requirements sit heavy on your chest for a bit.

Do you love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.

Do you love your neighbors? Is love the motivating factor for all your endeavors?

Do you have questions for Jesus? Do you come to Him or assume He won’t ever give you any answers so you keep Him at an arms distance?

Are we satisfied with come to this gathering and looking like we are part of the kingdom or do we love coming here gathering with all our brothers and sisters in Christ because we truly are a part of it?

Close is only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.

Benediction

Discussion Questions

Is the way we relate to our family, friends and those that make up the fellowship at FCC marked by the love of Christ? Would someone walk away and say, I think I just interacted with Jesus after interacting with you?

How did Jesus relate and interact with people? What were some of the skills He brought to His encounters with people that made them experience His love? (ex. patient, humble, truth filled…)

What are some questions occupy your mind often? Have you ever asked Jesus take on your genuine question? What are some ways that we can seek answers to our legitimate questions?

Are you “not far” from the Kingdom or are you “in the Kingdom?”