WWUTT 2218 The Greatest Commandment in the Law (Mark 12:28-34)

The Greatest Commandment and the Shema

Jesus was challenged on what is the greatest commandment in the law. And he said, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. A second commandment is like it, to love your neighbor as yourself.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. In our study of the gospel of Mark, we are still in chapter 12 with the third of the three challenges that are made at Jesus. I'm gonna begin reading here in verse 28 and go through verse 34 out of the Legacy Standard Bible.

Hear the word of the Lord. And when one of the scribes came and heard them arguing, he recognized that he had answered them well and asked him, what commandment is the foremost of all? Jesus answered, the foremost is here, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, 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.

The second is this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. And the scribe said to him, right teacher, you have truly stated that he is one and there is no one else besides him 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.

And when Jesus saw that he had answered thoughtfully, he said to him, you are not far from the kingdom of God. After that, no one would dare to ask him any more questions. The remainder of chapter 12, we will save until next week.

Why the Greatest Commandment Summarizes the Law

So once again, there are three challenges that are issued at Jesus here. The first one was with regards to paying taxes to Caesar. We considered that yesterday in verse 13. The second challenge came from the Sadducees concerning the resurrection of the dead.

That was in verses 18 to 27. Here today, we get to the third of the challenges and it's regarding a scribe in one of the other gospels, he's referred to as a lawyer or it might even be lawyer in another translation, but here it's listed as a scribe.

He comes to Jesus and he asks him, what is the greatest commandment of all? We've seen this asked in the other gospels as well. Matthew and Luke also have this same exchange. Note that the scribe hears all the arguing that's going on.

He hears the arguing between Jesus and the Pharisees and the Herodians and then Jesus and the Sadducees. And so when the scribe hears all of this, he recognized that Jesus answered them well and asked him what commandment is the foremost of all.

Now the scribe is still challenging him, of course, but it seems at least the way that Mark puts it, that the man doesn't have any ill intent. There certainly was motivation on the part of the Pharisees and the Herodians to try to discredit Jesus and to even do this in such a way that would get him into some legal trouble, probably get him arrested for telling the people to defy the Roman government.

And then with the Sadducees, it was a much more theological question that they asked him. The scribe is kind of standing there and he's watching this exchange and he sees Jesus has answered well in all of them.

So the scribe is gonna ask him another question and see how Jesus answers it. But it seems like the scribe is less motivated by malice or some attempt to try to make Jesus look foolish. And rather the scribe just wants to see how he's gonna answer.

I wonder what Jesus would have to say to this. So he asks him what commandment is the foremost of all? And Jesus answered, the foremost is, hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. Now this is of course the Shema, which is in Deuteronomy 6 .4.

It's worded a little bit different here than you're probably used to hearing it in Deuteronomy 6, but that is because what Jesus would be quoting here, he is quoting the Old Testament, he is quoting the Shema, but he would be quoting it according to how it was written in the Greek Old Testament, which of course we know as being called the Septuagint.

Now, when Jesus had actually answered this question, it was probably done in Hebrew or in Aramaic. It would not have been in Greek. Matthew, or sorry, Mark, we're in Mark now. Mark is writing in Greek.

All four of the gospels were written in Greek. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, they were all written in Greek because that was the language, that was the Hellenistic mission to get everybody to have the same language and be writing the same language in the Roman Empire.

And so it was Koine Greek. Therefore, all of the gospels were written in Greek. And so what we have here in Mark 12 is the Shema in Deuteronomy 6, but it's as you would find it in the Septuagint. Jesus likely quoted it exactly as we would probably read it from the Old Testament because most of our English translations are translated from Hebrew, not from the Greek.

As far as the Old Testament goes. So Deuteronomy 6, 4 reads like this, hear, O Israel, Yahweh is our God, Yahweh is one. You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

Now in the English Standard Version or the NASB or the New King James, of course the word Lord would be used here. So hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might.

And Lord in your Old Testament translations will be all caps L-O-R-D. And that is the stand in for the Tetragrammaton which is Y-H-W-H. The legacy standard translates that as Yahweh, which is probably the pronouncement.

This is a conversation Becky and I had on the Q &A this past Saturday. The Q &A we did Saturday, not on Friday, where we talked about what would the correct pronunciation of Yahweh be? We don't know for sure, so Yahweh is kind of like our best guess.

But the way that Jesus would have quoted this here before the people would have been probably the way they would have read it in Aramaic, not the way that it gets quoted here from the Septuagint. So Jesus answered, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

I believe it's only Mark's gospel that has that split into four, heart, soul, mind, strength. I think the other two accounts of this have it just heart, mind and strength. But then in verse 31, Jesus says, the second is this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

There is no commandment greater than these. Now that comes from Leviticus chapter 19, verse 18, you shall not take vengeance, you shall not keep your anger against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself, I am Yahweh.

So it's interesting that these two commandments are not found in the 10 commandments, the Shema, Deuteronomy 6, 4, and then love your neighbor as yourself is in the Levitical law. So when Jesus is asked, what is the greatest commandment?

These are the two commandments that he answers with and neither one of them are in the 10 commandments or the Decalogue, which kind of characterizes the entire law. But the answer that Jesus gave certainly does summarize the 10 commandments.

The 10 commandments summarize the law, but these two commandments that Jesus gave summarize the 10 commandments, in what way? Well, because the first four commandments are to love God and the next six commandments are to love one another.

In the first four commandments you have, I am God, you do not get another one. He will love the Lord your God, you will have no other gods before me, that's commandment one. Number two is you will not make a graven image and bow down to it or serve it.

The third commandment is you will not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. And the fourth commandment is to honor the Sabbath and to keep it holy. There's the first four commandments. They're all vertical commands.

They have to do with our relationship with God. So any commandment to love God is therefore the summation of those first four commandments or what we also call the first table of the law. Now, the second table of the law are horizontal commands.

They have to do with the way that we love one another. And the first one of the horizontal commandments is you will honor your father and your mother. That's the fifth commandment. Then the sixth is you shall not murder.

The seventh is you shall not commit adultery. The eighth is you shall not steal. The ninth is you shall not bear false witness. And the 10th is you shall not covet. There are all of the 10 commandments for you right there.

And the commandment to love your neighbor is the summation of the second table of the law, to love one another. So love God is the first table of the law. Love your neighbor is the second table of the law.

Now, with Jesus to answer in this way, you'll love the Lord your God, and then you will love your neighbor as yourself. He is essentially saying that all the law is important. If loving God summarizes the first table of the law, and loving your neighbor summarizes the second table of the law, then when Jesus says there is no other commandment greater than these, he's basically saying all the law is important.

And all of the law can be summarized with these things. And if you are doing these things, if you are loving God and you are loving one another, then you are keeping the law. And surely this scribe realizes that.

Now, whether or not the scribe knew that when he came and he asked Jesus this question, the text doesn't tell us that. So did he know that? And that's the answer that he was looking for. Or did Jesus say something that he as a scribe, as a lawyer, somebody with a good knowledge of the law, after Jesus answers in that way, he's thinking about it and he goes, that's right, that is it, isn't it?

That's the whole law, to love God and to love one another. And we don't know, again, we're not given insight into this man's heart, but he surely recognizes that Jesus has answered correctly. The scribe said to him, right teacher, you have truly stated that he is one and there is no one else besides him.

And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding, with all the strength and to love one's neighbor as himself is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices. If you complete these commandments, you are doing more of the law than if you were to even follow all of the ceremonial laws and the things that had to be done to offer sacrifices in a right way.

Because if you are fulfilling the law, what sacrifice do you need to make? You could make some Thanksgiving sacrifices, the freewill offerings, but you don't have to make any atonement offerings because you've been keeping the law.

You've been doing as the law requires. So surely if you do these things, loving God and loving others, well, that's even better than all the sacrifices. And when Jesus saw that he had answered thoughtfully, he said to him, you are not far from the kingdom of God.

Now that doesn't mean that Jesus is saying to this man, you've kept all the law well, and so therefore you're right next to the kingdom of God. That is not what Jesus was insinuating in the answer to that man.

Because remember back to the exchange that Jesus had with the rich young ruler, that man claimed to have kept all the commandments, but yet Jesus revealed that he hadn't actually kept all the commandments.

In fact, nobody has. You go to James where James says, if you have failed at even one of these laws, then you've broken all of it. So Jesus is not saying to this man that you are well-keeping with the law and therefore you're going to enter into the kingdom, but rather his understanding of how to enter the kingdom of God is sharp.

He's on the right track. Doesn't mean he's there, but he has to recognize that you must keep the law, fulfill the law, do these commandments in order to enter the kingdom of God. Here's the trouble though, you haven't.

So you're near the kingdom of God, but you can't get there because you haven't actually fulfilled love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.

So how is it that you get to that fulfillment of those commandments so that you may enter the kingdom of God? And that's of course where Jesus steps in. Jesus who has kept the law perfectly has done everything to the will of the father and to the glory of his name will offer himself as an atoning sacrifice for sins, a sacrifice greater than all the bulls and goats and everything else that could have been offered in Israel for the last 1500 years.

And all who believe in him, their sins are forgiven. They are clothed in his righteousness. And now because Christ has fulfilled the law and the prophets, we may enter the kingdom of God by faith in him.

So understanding that one must keep these laws and in keeping these laws, it's more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices. They understand that, they recognize that we're closer to God in keeping these things than if we had been sacrificing to even atone for our sins.

You can sin all you want and then offer these sacrifices and believe that they have washed you clean, but it is your desire for holiness that is really going to bring you closer to God than all the burnt offerings than you can offer.

And so it's this knowledge that Jesus is crediting as being close to the kingdom of God. You are not far from the kingdom of God. Again, doesn't mean he's there, but that knowledge will get him closer than doing all these sacrifices and rituals.

The Pharisees had been doing all of that, same with the Sadducees. They'd been keeping all of the ceremonial laws and offering all the sacrifices. Remember that this week began with a cleansing of the temple.

They were, it was the sacrifices that they were selling there in the temple and then even doing the money changing so that they could get a little extra off the top. They had been selling sacrifices. They had been doing sacrifices in the temple.

But as Jesus had said to them back in Mark 7, you acknowledge me with your lips, but your heart is far from me. But knowing that you must keep the law of God and that loving God and loving others is better than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices, that understanding is closer to the kingdom.

And after that, no one would dare ask him any more questions into verse 34. And that concludes the challenges that are made at Jesus. But we see this several places in the New Testament and understanding that love is the fulfilling of the law.

It's also in Romans 8, 4. The righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. Romans 13, 8, owe nothing to anyone except to love one another.

For he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. Verse 10, love does not work evil against a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. If you're loving your neighbor, then you're not murdering him, right?

You're not committing adultery with his wife. You are not stealing from him. You're not bearing false witness against him. You are not coveting his stuff even because you're satisfied with God. God has blessed your neighbor in this way.

I don't need my neighbor's stuff. And so if you love your neighbor, you've fulfilled that second table of the law. It is the fulfilling of the law. Galatians 5, 14, same thing. The whole law is fulfilled in one word, and that is this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

James 2, 8, if however, you are fulfilling the royal law, according to scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well. That's a very similar statement to what Jesus said here to the scribe.

You're not far from the kingdom of God. Jesus, who is love, God is love. He loved his father in heaven with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength. He loved one another. He loved others, loved his disciples, even loved those who opposed him to the extent that Jesus warned them that if they do not repent, well, the judgment of God is going to fall upon them.

And there were some, even of those scribes and Pharisees that did repent and become followers of Jesus. We read of a few of them in the gospels. It is upon each and every one of us that we would love one another.

And love is the fulfilling of the law. Think of the rebuke that Jesus made of the Pharisees in Matthew 23, 23. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you tithe men and dill in cumin and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness.

But these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. In other words, what Jesus is saying here is you should have been loving one another. You should have been loving your neighbor and you weren't doing that.

Instead, you were boasting in yourself by your self-righteousness instead of doing what the law really requires. And that's to love God and love others. And we must do the same. And when we talk about loving God and loving others, it's not what we want love to be, but what God says it is according to his word.

We don't love people based on what makes them feel good or what makes us feel good. It's rather what is pleasing to the Lord. What does God say it looks like to love one another? Well, we get the answer to that when we read the scriptures.

In fact, we're gonna see an example of that coming up the next lesson when we finish up chapter 12 and we'll get to that next week. But in the meantime, we'll finish up here. Let's conclude with prayer.

Loving God and Neighbor in Practice

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the love that you have shown to us. And I pray that it would be upon our hearts to live today unto you and think about ways that we can even show love to others. As said in Galatians 6 .10, as we have opportunity, let us show love to everyone, especially to those who are of the household of faith.

So we consider our brothers and sisters in the Lord with whom we go to church and worship, but maybe we also find opportunity to show love to others outside the church who desperately need to hear the gospel so that they would turn from their sin to the Lord Jesus Christ.

And by faith in him, we will not perish, but have everlasting life. Thank you for showing this love to us. For as said in 1 John, we love God because he first loved us and gave his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Closing Announcements

You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book.

On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow, we'll pick up on a Old Testament study When We Understand the Text.