Mark 12:28-34
And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?’ Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘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 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, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that he is one, and there is no other but he; 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 oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any question.
“Hear him, or test him?”
It is really, really easy for me to hate the Pharisees. They are constantly picking on Jesus, constantly standing in opposition to him, constantly arguing with him, and constantly testing him and trying to trap him. It gets to the point where I get to think… “is there anything even remotely redeemable in any of them?” They are like the villains in the movies, where the author has them push a little old lady down just so we really, really hate them. And here again, right before today’s text, they are up to no good. They have cornered Jesus and are putting him to the test with questions designed to trap him… you know… the kind of question where any answer you give is a bad answer. And Jesus outsmarted them and directed it all rightly back to scripture and back to God. Oooooooo those sneaky pharisee’s… BOOOOOO!
And then something odd happens. The text takes us in a very interesting direction. A Pharisee steps forward, and seeing that Jesus had answered well… he asks a sincere question of Jesus. “Which commandment is first of all.”
And Jesus again, answers wisely quoting scripture in verse 29. “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 mind, and with all your strength,” … and to that he adds, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
And then here, the really amazing thing happens. We have a Pharisee who gets it. Not only does he understand what Jesus is saying… he takes it another step. You see… one thing you have to understand about the Pharisees is that they were very strict about following the rules… the letter of the law. They made sure that they did everything just so. So much so… that they often missed the whole point of what God was really calling them to do.
And Jesus, in a way of rebuking them… pointed them to the heart of their calling. Love God, and love neighbor. It’s as simple as that. And the scribe echoed back to him… in verse 32. “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that he is one, and there is no other but he; and to love him with all the heart, with all the understanding, and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
And Jesus replied back to him in verse 34… “seeing that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
What made this Pharisee so different? Why, amidst so many examples of Pharisees on the wrong side of it all, do we have this one shining example of a Pharisee gone right?
Thinking about this, I think there is enough evidence in today’s scripture for us to understand what makes this Pharisee stand apart.
First of all… he came with a heart that was seeking rather than a heart that was testing. Instead of coming into the conversation with his mind already made up, already thinking that his way was the only way… he came seeking to know… to understand… perhaps even to learn.
I think that we too… far too often fail to listen and rather come to the conversation with our minds already made up. Here, in today’s lesson… we have one of the “bad guys” setting the example for us… may we be willing to listen so that we may hear. May we come with hearts seeking rather than with hearts that are testing.
This is exactly what set the Pharisee apart… he was willing to really listen… and as a result he actually heard what Jesus was saying. And this is my second point… the Pharisee heard the message… and the message was this: Love God with all your 1) heart, all your 2) soul, all your 3) mind, and all your 4) strength. Again… the English words are good, but they come far short of what is being said in the original Greek.
The understanding behind 1) heart… is so much more than this thing in our chests. It not only represent the center of all of our physical being… it represents the very center of our spiritual life. More than that, it represents our passion, our desires, our appetites, even our affections… and Jesus calls us to direct all of them rightfully towards God.
Without making this section into its own mini-sermon… just think about all the things in this life we are passionate about, all the things that take priority… more often than not, these things are not God. And yet.. this is the example set for us in today’s scripture. We are called to make God #1.
Likewise… looking to the example of 2) soul… in the original Greek it means much more. It represents all of our feelings and even more to the point… it represents every single breath we take… everything we do. You think of everything we spend our time doing… we are called otherwise in today’s scripture.
Again with the example of the 3) mind… it not only represents our understanding… it represent our very way of thinking. Ultimately… when we truly have the appropriate and rightful love of God… it effects the very way we think.
Lastly, in the original Greek, strength represents our every ability… with all of our might. To summarize… it is a love of God that not only affects us outwardly… it affects us inwardly. It affects our feelings, our thought process, our passions, our priorities… every single breath we take… and we are to love him it with all the strength we can muster.
And it is not only him… look to verse 31. “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
I don’t know. If there was ever a more condemning bible verse than this one I don’t know it. It rightfully assumes how much we love ourselves… and calls us to love our neighbors just like that. You think about all that we do for ourselves… the level of commitment we give to helping ourselves… to thinking about ourselves… to talking about ourselves… and then to have that used as the benchmark for how much we are called to love both God and our neighbors. Wow.
And that is the message. That is the lesson that Jesus taught to the Pharisee who was willing to take the time to sit and listen… willing to learn from him. If you want to know how to roll I all up into one mission statement… one credo… one little saying to put on a bracelet… it is this… Love God… love neighbor. All else is subordinate to these two.
Before wrapping up this lesson… there is one more thing that strikes me as extremely interesting. In replying to the Pharisee… what were Jesus’ exact words? Lets look at them again… verse 34. “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” Interestingly… Jesus didn’t say he got it right or that he got it perfect… more so he just said that the Pharisee was getting close. What was the Pharisee lacking? He came with a willing heart… he heard the lesson that Jesus was teaching AND he understood it. So where is he falling short?
I believe the answer comes in looking closely at what both Jesus and the Pharisee actually said. When Jesus quoted scripture… what did he say? Verse 30 “love your God with all your 1) heart, all your 2) soul, all your 3) mind, and all your 4) strength.” Now compare this to what the Pharisee said… verse 33. “love him with all the 1) heart, with all the 2) understanding, and all the 3) strength.” 1) Heart… 2) understanding… and 3) strength…. What’s missing? SOUL! The Pharisee whether intentionally or not… left out the part about every breath he took… about everything he did. He had no problem mentioning the inner workings… but left out the outer workings.
And here is where the rubber meets the road. Love of God is not just about what we do on the inside… it is about how we respond both on the inside and the outside. It is the call to action that keeps coming up over and over. The call to actually do something. It is not just about being willing to change ones way of thinking, or change ones way of feeling… it is also about changing the way we act as well.
Our friend in our scripture today… while being an outstanding example of a Pharisee… who was willing to come with an open heart… and to hear the message… he fell just short by not being ready to do the message.
I close with the story of a magical land inhabited only by ducks. And in this land there is a duck church. One fine Lord’s Day, all of the ducks dutifully walked, or more appropriately… waddled, to duck church. The duck pastor stood to deliver his sermon. He opened his duck Bible to the place where it spoke about how “they could rise up like eagles.” The preacher started in… “With wings… we ducks can fly! We can mount up like eagles and soar the heavens! We can escape the confinement of pens and fences; we can know the utter euphoria of unfettered freedom! We must give God thank for such a great gift as wings!” To which all of the duck in duck church stood to their feet with a hearty “AMEN!” And then, they turned around… and walked home.
May we not fall where they have fallen, coming with open hearts, willing to hear, and also willing to do.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
