Greatest Commandment

Introduction

Today’s topic is a familiar one you have heard before and perhaps you know it well already. So why do we talk about it so much? It is of great importance to how we are to measure ourselves, not others. It is of great importance for what our lives should look like when asked the question, how should a Christian act? Looking at this story from a different point of view may help to see why this is so important to not just memorize but to keep reminding yourself daily.

How many of us enjoy looking at ourselves in the mirror every day? Why is it that we don’t? Perhaps because we are not happy with the way we look. Perhaps because it is a reminder of something we don’t like being reminded out. Or maybe you do like looking in the mirror because it allows you to catch any mistakes or misses when you were getting yourself ready to go somewhere. Each of us may be a little different in whether we like mirrors or loathe them. However, lets remember one thing. If we don’t look in the mirror we don’t know what we look like. If we don’t know what we look like then we don’t know if we are appropriately put together for where we are going.

Trouble in the text

If we go back to the question in the text, this is a question that has been asked for 1000s of years and still is being asked every day. This is the burning question in the back of our minds often, what is the greatest commandment, or what is the most important principle to follow, or what is the most important law to follow, or what is the most important teaching to follow? We can phrase this question differently but it all goes back to what should I be modeling my life after? How can I make sure I am on the right path and not straying for focusing on the wrong thing?

This scribe heard Jesus answer another tough question well so perhaps he thought Jesus could settle another debate which revolved around a challenge they were still trying to solve. What you don’t often hear about is why the Pharisee, Sadducee, Scribe, and other religious groups were formed or trying to accomplish. In all fairness, they were trying to resolve this age old dilemma of how to take the bible and apply it to their daily lives. How can they be certain they are following what is most important?

While we give these groups a hard time and make them out to be evil, you may also miss their original purpose. The original purpose of the Pharisee was to make the scripture accessible by setting up many synagogues so people had access to the bible and were taught regularly from it. This was not true before. The second item they took to task was making the bible practical to follow. This turned into a pretty lengthy rule list that you should follow and often this interpretation was where Jesus and this group came into conflict.

The people needed a way to learn and follow what helped them be a follower of God. Jesus was the answer.

Trouble in our world

We too struggle with this same issue. We too want to make the bible practical and easy to follow. We too get into conflict over our interpretation of how to follow the bible. Perhaps I may be off base but I will let you decide for yourself on this. Do we sometimes value the teaching and interpretation of someone above the original source? This may sound silly at first but to be honest, this is where we get into our conflicts.

You will hear some folks who adamantly insist there is no other valid translation of the bible other than the King James version. Others may take Paul’s writing about women to mean that they have lesser roles. Still others may insist also that the United States is the new promised land and now we are God’s favored people.

You may agree or disagree with any of those statements but these statements are personal interpretations, not bible verses. So how do we get down to what we all should agree on? If we are to study and learn from the bible, and when we do this we form our own interpretation, how do we separate what is non-negotiable and what is interpretation that we may disagree on?

This is a difficult task and is not much different than what these religious groups in this passage were trying to sort out. We need Jesus to sort out way to get through all of our disagreements on what a Christian should follow.

Grace in the text

When the scribe agreed with Jesus and even affirmed that the burn offerings and sacrifices brought to the temple didn’t matter as much, he showed Jesus that he truly believed what Jesus shared was the greatest commandment. This one thing is the center of it all. This one commandment could keep you centered on God and what your life should look like as a follower of God. The importance placed on other things and other interpretations were secondary to this primary, central commandment that eclipsed the other 600 or 700 rules that were being taught to follow in order to follow the teachings found in Scripture. Jesus told him, you are not far from the kingdom of God, or you are pretty close to getting the point of it all.

There is more in this interaction that is easy to miss. It has to do with the role of a scribe as the one who knows scripture forward and backwards and is the group that produces the official text that is taught from in every synagogue. What is also missed is that we still see scribe notes in our own bibles today. Anytime you see something in parentheses, it is a scribe’s note on the verse. This scribe that spoke with Jesus had his own thoughts but likely was either unsure or frustrated by others on the importance of following all the rules equally or whether there was an underlying theme that each was based on. The scribe got confirmation from Jesus he was on the right path to solving this age old debate.

Grace in the world

Wouldn’t our own lives be much simpler if we understood what God wanted out of us and could sum it up in a neat little package? Wouldn’t it be nice if Christians stopped fighting so hard amongst themselves and focused on what should bind all Christians together. This does not mean we have to agree on everything or believe the same way on everything but what holds us together as Christians. What central tenet of our faith is most important to follow? Jesus answered this question for us too. If we use this as our litmus test on our behaviors and beliefs, then we can know how we are measuring up or falling short to what is most important to God.

Where I find myself today is looking back on many people I have interacted with, worked with, worshipped with, or met as strangers. If they had to make a guess at what we my central faith or central belief, what would they say? If everyone is my neighbor then this includes people I disagree with or believe differently. What I have found is that we have a very diverse world and it is easy to find things to argue about. However, what I have also seen happen in my life is being able to navigate this life with Jesus at the center, putting me in places I may not be comfortable or like but I am better for having been there.

What I mean by this is that I have interacted with people of different faiths and loved them. I have known people who interpret scriptures quite differently than I do and I still love them. The hard part of this is that Jesus in this passage said to love your neighbor as yourself and left it at that. In our connected world, it is hard to define this neighbor idea other than the people you run across in your daily lives. What I have noticed is that, grace carries me through those conversations. What I have experienced is that loving someone as a neighbor, despite differences or disagreements, makes this world a better place. If you want to know am I following or basing my life on what is important to God, use this greatest commandment teaching here as that test to see how close or how far off you are. Let God’s grace shape and mold your heart and mind to be able to love your neighbor and teach the world who Christians are called to be.