If someone walked up to you and asked “what is the most important rule for your life,” what would you answer? This is what happened to Jesus in today’s gospel, Mark 12:28-34. A Scribe walked up to Jesus and asked, "Which is the first of all the commandments?" Was this a trick question? Not really. Although modern Christians tend to limit the commandments to 10, there actually are 613 different commandments in Mosaic Law. Every observant Jewish person from the time of Moses up to today knows that the most important law or commandment is the first one, the Great Commandment, that we hear in our first reading from Deuteronomy 6:4-5, “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone! Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God, with your whole heart, and with your whole being, and with your whole strength.”
While the question put to Jesus was not a trick question, Jesus’ answer did have a different twist. He added a second commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” from Leviticus 19: 18. And he emphasised that, “there is no other commandment greater than these.” Putting these two different commandments together and making them one commandment was radical. It was radical because Jesus took the old law and gave it a new meaning. When Leviticus was written and for thousands of years thereafter, “ones’ neighbor” was interpreted by the Scribes and Rabbis to mean “fellow Jews.” It was perfectly OK to hate gentiles or other people like Samaritans. But for Jesus your neighbor was anyone (everyone), anywhere in any situation. Furthermore, Jesus implied that the only way anyone can prove their love of God is by loving all the people around them.
The truth is that it is much harder to love our neighbors as ourselves than it is to love God. It is hard because so many people today don’t love themselves very much. Our human tendency is to focus on our inadequacies and weaknesses rather than on our talents and strengths. God loves us unconditionally. If God can love us just as we are, then why can’t we love ourselves? The message in this short passage from Mark is that we are to love all people, including ourselves, with the same fervour as God’s love for us. And by doing so, we are all drawn closer to the kingdom of God.
Lord our God, loving Father,
all true love comes from you and leads to you.
You have committed yourself to us in a covenant of lasting love
in the person of Jesus Christ.
Help us to respond to your love with the whole of our being
and to live your commandments
not as laws forced on us from outside
but as opportunities to love you for yourself and in people,
our brothers and sisters.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
