Loving God, Loving Neighbor
Bringing some simplicity to faith and action.
Mark 12:13-34
Despite all the trickery and attempts to trip Jesus up, he plays along by answering each of the three questions.
The third seems like it was a more genuine request of Jesus. In fact, the legal expert’s response to Jesus is a bit of a rare kind of thing in the gospels in that we get good teaching from someone other than Jesus.
This greatest commandment teaching is pretty foundational, isn’t it? All the law, stories, wisdom, and theology of the Bible - however you want to look at it - Jesus says that boiling it down gives us one two-ish greatest of commandments.
Love God. Love Neighbor.
This is a repetition of the Shema and while it’s simple in the end, it has deeply-threaded understandings related to monotheism and the reception of God’s law via listening. Further, whole books can be and have been written on the “heart, being, mind, & strength” aspect of loving. Regardless, the simplicity of the great commandment(s) can be such a refreshing reminder in the midst of faith angst.
Mark 12:13-34
They sent some of the Pharisees and supporters of Herod to trap him in his words. They came to him and said, “Teacher, we know that you’re genuine and you don’t worry about what people think. You don’t show favoritism but teach God’s way as it really is. Does the Law allow people to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay taxes or not?”
Since Jesus recognized their deceit, he said to them, “Why are you testing me? Bring me a coin. Show it to me.” And they brought one. He said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?”
“Caesar’s,” they replied.
Jesus said to them, “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” His reply left them overcome with wonder.
Sadducees, who deny that there is a resurrection, came to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a widow but no children, the brother must marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman; when he died, he left no children. The second married her and died without leaving any children. The third did the same. None of the seven left any children. Finally, the woman died. At the resurrection, when they all rise up, whose wife will she be? All seven were married to her.”
Jesus said to them, “Isn’t this the reason you are wrong, because you don’t know either the scriptures or God’s power? When people rise from the dead, they won’t marry nor will they be given in marriage. Instead, they will be like God’s angels. As for the resurrection from the dead, haven’t you read in the scroll from Moses, in the passage about the burning bush, how God said to Moses, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He isn’t the God of the dead but of the living. You are seriously mistaken.”
One of the legal experts heard their dispute and saw how well Jesus answered them. He came over and asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?”
Jesus replied, “The most important one is Israel, listen! Our God is the one Lord, and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this, You will love your neighbor as yourself. No other commandment is greater than these.”
The legal expert said to him, “Well said, Teacher. You have truthfully said that God is one and there is no other besides him. And to love God with all of the heart, a full understanding, and all of one’s strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself is much more important than all kinds of entirely burned offerings and sacrifices.”
When Jesus saw that he had answered with wisdom, he said to him, “You aren’t far from God’s kingdom.” After that, no one dared to ask him any more questions.
Prayer
God,
Forgive me for when I have made faith something more or something other than what it is. I mean, you gave me this brain, so it’s kind of your fault. I kid, I kid…
But seriously, sometimes my mind runs away to confounded complexities of confusion. So I’m grateful for the teachings of Jesus which come to me much more simply, and even still yet somehow profound.
So help me, God: teach me to love.
By your spirit & in Christ,
Amen.