Matthew 22:34-40 Mark 12:28-34
|
34 But when the Pharisees heard that
Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered themselves together. 35 One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a
question, testing Him, 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the
Law?” 37 And He said to him, “ ‘YOU SHALL LOVE
THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR
SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ 38 “This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 “The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL
LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ 40 “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”
|
28 One of the scribes came and heard them
arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, “What
commandment is the foremost of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘HEAR, O ISRAEL!
THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD; 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.’ 31 “The second is this, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE
YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ There is no other commandment greater than
these.” 32 The scribe said to Him, “Right,
Teacher; You have truly stated that HE IS ONE, AND THERE IS NO
ONE ELSE 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
HIMSELF, is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 When Jesus saw that he had answered intelligently, He
said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” After that, no one
would venture to ask Him any more questions.
|
Since Jesus has answered the Sadducees so well, the
Pharisees were put in a difficult position.
On the one hand, they agreed with His teaching on the resurrection; but
on the other hand, they were not about to admit He was Messiah. They gathered together and decided to send a
lawyer to question Him further and see if they could catch Him in His
words. They were not very fast
learners. Their hope was to be able to
level some sort of accusation of false teaching against Him. Little did they know that they were dealing
with the source of truth. This
confrontation demonstrated that they were not going to be able accuse Him
through any legal means. The exchanged
also provided Jesus with an opportunity to teach all future generations about
the priorities of our faith. If we can
learn to practice these two commandments, our lives will be pleasing to God and
impact the world in which we live.
AN INQUISITION OF JESUS: The Pharisees were looking for any
means by which they might trick Jesus or lead Him into saying something they
could use against him. They decided to
pick a lawyer from amongst them who was good with his words and also an expert
in the law. He starts by asking an open-ended
question that would require Jesus to talk.
Perhaps he hopes this will be the best way to promote a slip on the
tongue. The question he asks was which
the greatest commandment was. These
kinds of questions are always hard to answer because as soon as you put one
commandment above another, it become easy to accuse the person of promoting the
other sin. For instance, if Jesus were
to have answered thou shall not kill as the most important command. The lawyer could have come back with a
question like, so you don’t have a problem with adultery which is punishable by
death? The lawyer thought that no matter
what Jesus answered, he could turn His words against Him. The lawyer was wrong.
AN AFFIRMATION BY JESUS: Jesus is unphased by the question
and clearly states the greatest command as loving the Lord your God with all
your heart, soul and mind. There can be
no question about something being more important than this commandment. We were created by God and have been the
objects of His unfailing and unconditional love. Our number one priority is to love Him. Nothing can ever become more important in our
hearts than our love for God. Jesus decides
to move forward and answer a question that was not asked. He affirms that the second most important
commandment is to love one’s neighbor as themselves. This can cause a little confusion as it seems
that if we love God with all our heart, we would not have any love left for our
neighbor. What we need to understand is
that loving others is the most effective way we can demonstrate our love for
God. If we were to sum up the commandments
of God in only one word, it would be love.
There can be no confusion on our part as to what God expects of us.
AN ADMIRATION OF JESUS: The lawyer is both impressed and
silenced by the Lord’s answers. He has no
follow up questions or criticism and can level no accusation as was his plan. Instead, he simply stands in admiration of
Jesus and the answer He gave. He
recognizes that loving God and others is far more important than the rituals
and sacrifices that had become so prominent in the religion of his day. It is so easy for us to become ritualistic instead
of relational in our walk with God.
Keeping our focus on loving God and others will always help us to avoid
that trap.
AN ADMONITION FROM JESUS: When Jesus saw the perception of
the lawyer and his recognition that loving God was of greater importance than
sacrifice, Jesus admonished the lawyer.
He said that he was not far from the kingdom of God. However, it is important to notice that the
kingdom of God is not something you just want to be close to. It is something you want to be right in the
middle of. Someone who almost won still
lost. Someone who is almost in the
kingdom is still outside of the kingdom.
Many people can have good thoughts about the Lord and the kingdom, but
still be very lost.
APPLICATION: Don’t try to rationalize any kind of attempt to
fool God. He knows everything and is the
source of all truth. Understand that our
highest calling is to love God and the best way to demonstrate our love for God
is by loving others. Don’t forget that
God wants a loving relationship with us and not simply a keeping of rules and
regulations.
Comments
Post a Comment