I got a telephone call recently from a friendly telemarketing sales representative. They were offering a revolutionary new product. They asked me if it was a good time to talk, or should the call be at another time. The presentation would take twenty minutes.
Now is a good time I said, but I don’t know if I want to spend twenty minutes, please just give me a one- or two-minute overview and then I can know the point and if I want to spend twenty minutes hearing about this. You must hear all or nothing was the reply. Well, ok, I guess I won’t be hearing anything about this revolutionary new product.
Some of us like to get right to the heart of the matter. We want to know the central point from the very beginning. If I have an illness, I don’t want my doctor giving me a three-hundred-page report about the problem. No, I want him to get right to the heart of the matter.
If that is you and you also like to get right to the heart of the matter then you will like Jesus statement here in this passage. In the ESV version the statement is just 63 words and in 3 sentences. This is all that Jesus needed to sum up the law and the prophets.
When people want to know God just handing them a Bible may not be enough. They start reading Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy and they may get bogged down. They need to know the central idea of the Bible. They need to know the heart of the matter before they begin reading.
This passage is known as the Great Commandment, and it gives us the heart of the matter.
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 most important of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 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 And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other 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 oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 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 more questions. (Mark 12:28-34)
This interaction between Jesus and the teachers of the law takes place on Tuesday, just before his crucifixion on the cross that will come on Friday in 3 days. Two days earlier was the triumphant entry to Jerusalem and the previous day, Monday, Jesus turned over the tables of the moneychangers in the outer court of the temple.
On this day Jesus was confronted by every group; Pharisees, Herodians and Sadducees. This is the last question before Jesus shuts them up for good. We get more background behind the scenes about the question from Matthew’s gospel. In Matthew 22:34 the Pharisees “got together” and one of them an expert in the law tested him with this question, “Which is the greatest commandment in the law?”
This is meant to be a difficult question considering that in the in Jewish system there are 613 commandments and they divided them into two sections the weighty and the light. Which one is most important?
They would watch and listen closely to the response to the question asked to test Jesus. They would watch, listen, test and evaluate him. Jesus gives them a clear, direct and to the point answer.
There are two Old Testament passages that would relate to Jesus’ answer. The first is the Shema repeated every day.
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. (Deuteronomy 6:4-5)
The other is from Leviticus.
You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord. (Leviticus 19:18)
The central thing in Jesus’ reply is love. This sums up the law and the prophets, love God and love your neighbor. Jesus brings a profoundly simple answer to what constitutes true religion.
Jesus makes a foundational theological statement that there is one and only one true God. You can’t get to the heart of true religion and ignore that statement. Israel lived in a world of idolatry. The nations surrounding them were polytheists worshiping many gods. Israel was called to be a witness to the nations that there is only one God.
God is the creator of all. He is sovereign and has the sole right to rule. It is so tragic when Israel was drawn away to the worship of other gods. In true religion there is room for only one God. In Christianity the trinity does not mean three gods. There is one God.
A philosopher asks who created God? The answer is no one. He is eternal and God has always existed and was created by no one. The heart of the matter is this that people need to know there is only one God. It is all or nothing. If you want to serve idols, then you cannot serve God. There is one God and only one true God.
You must love God. God is special. He is the unique creator and ruler. Because of who God is we must love Him. That is our supreme duty to love God with the totality of our being. To love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.
God wants us to organize our lives around his lordship. In Jesus day the Shema was repeated two times every day. It was at the heart of Judaism. Jesus makes it obvious that the greatest command is love.
Jesus even says that the way people will recognize if you are really one of his disciples is how you have love one for another. Jesus criticized the pharisees for tithing mint and cumin and rejecting the weightier matters of the law.
To love God means you will seek to do the will of God. Love changes our lives to live to please God. We will love the things that God loves. We will hunger and thirst after righteousness and seek the Lord. We owe to God the highest love. He first loved us with unconditional love.
He seeks love from us. There is no higher pursuit than the pursuit of loving God. That is the first and greatest command, love God.
There are 613 commandments and the weightiest one is to love God. The second weightiest one is to love your neighbor. If you only are able to complete two objectives on your daily to do list, it needs to be love God and love your neighbor.
Jesus answers them with love your neighbor. According to the Bible, God’s Word, you can’t love God and hate your neighbor. We need to just say no to hatred. God is calling us to love people. Be willing to do for them what you would do for yourself. We need to practice the golden rule.
You can’t love God and hate your neighbor. The two commands are intertwined. Look around you to see if you have fallen on the second command and you do not love your neighbor. This means you have not really fulfilled the first command to love God the way we are called to love God. The golden rule is the rule of love.
Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. (Romans 13:8)
How are we going to love the way we are to love in the great commandment? It will be through Christ. We need Christ to really love God and love others.
This was the last in a series of questions put to Jesus that Tuesday. His last Tuesday on earth, put to Jesus by those who hated him and were looking for an opportune time to kill him. They were testing him to see how he answered, Well said teacher.
The teachers of the law were testing Jesus but suddenly they realized he was appraising them.
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 more questions. (Mark 12:34)
Obedience is better than sacrifice. Love is the heart of the matter. When you realize this, you are close, you are right at the door of the kingdom of God.
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13)
We have a duty to follow the law and the prophets. It is summed up with love. The way we find that love is in Christ. God made this all possible through Christ. Through what he was going to endure in 72 hours.
How many are near the Kingdom of God. We enter the Kingdom of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)
The Pharisees were about to kill Jesus because of their hate for him. Jesus was about to die for them because of his love for them.
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit (1 Peter 3:18)
The heart of the matter is love found in Jesus Christ. Come to Jesus. Don’t delay in this. You are near the Kingdom of God. Put your faith in Jesus Christ today.
