PENnED

Mark 12:28-34 NRSV

²⁸One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” ²⁹Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; ³⁰you 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.’ ³¹The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” ³²Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that ‘he is one, and besides him there is no other’; ³³and ‘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,’ —this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” ³⁴When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” After that no one dared to ask him any question.

“Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

You might wonder why the scribe asked Jesus such question. Well, there were 613 commandments in the Torah: 248 that were positive, 365 that were negative. With so many commandments, it’s not surprising that he did ask the question. In fact, there were extensive discussions among the rabbis about which commandments were heavy and light, that is, which were of greater and lesser importance.

The Babylonian Talmud tells many stories about two great Sages, Hillel and Shammai, who lived in the first century B.C.E. They were colleagues but rarely agreed with one another and they had temperaments that were greatly different, perhaps one was fiery hot and the other icy cold.

Talmud records that one day a gentile who knew nothing about Judaism came before Shammai and said, “I will become a convert if you teach me the entire Torah while standing on one foot.” Shammai took the man’s challenge as a joke and chased him away. The gentile then came to Hillel with the same challenge. Hillel responded, “Whatever you find hateful, do not do to your neighbor. That is what the whole Torah is all about. Everything else is commentary. Go and learn this.” With such wise response, the man became a devoted follower of Hillel.

Jesus responds to the scribe in a way that is similar to Hillel’s. But Jesus’ answer was different in that instead of using the Golden Rule or what was called the “Silver Commandment,” he cites the most central tradition of Israel, the Shema, from Deuteronomy 6:4. “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”

But to the Shema, Jesus adds the phrase, “with all your mind.” For the ancient Hebrews, to love God with all your mind was included in the phrase “with all your heart.” But that was no longer the case in Jesus’ day—people no longer assumed the heart, but rather the mind, to be the center of understanding. So he added “with all your mind” just to make sure it was understood properly.

The most distinctive aspect of Jesus’ interpretation of the law, however, is that he combines the Shema with the commandment from Leviticus: “love your neighbor as yourself” (19:18). The significance of this is that Jesus neither neglected the love of God nor the love of neighbor. So, in this story, Jesus provides both a theological answer and an ethical answer. In Jesus’ teaching, love of God cannot be divorced from love of neighbor, and vice versa. You cannot have one without the other!

The early church knew the greatest commandment. It’s just that they sometimes failed to apply it, just as as you and I also fail to do it today. Thus in 1 John 4:20 there is this reminder: “Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.”

Today, just a couple of days before election day and in the heat of the election debates, can we truly say we love that sister or brother who does not agree with us and who will not vote for our candidate of choice? If we can honestly say yes, then perhaps we are not far from the kingdom of God. Or perhaps it takes one who has truly become a child of God and one who has already entered the kingdom of God to love both God and neighbor.