"One of the scribes
came and heard [Jesus and some Sadducees] debating, and recognizing that
[Jesus] had answered them well, asked him, 'What commandment is the foremost of
all?' Jesus answered, 'The foremost 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 [Deu
6:4,5]" The second is this, "And you shall love your neighbor as
yourself [Lev 19:18]" There is no other commandment more foremost than
these.' The scribe said to him, 'Right, Teacher; You have stated truthfully
that He "is one," and "There is no one else besides Him"
[Deu 4:35]. 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'
[1Sam 15:22; Psa 40:6; Hos 6:6]” When Jesus saw that [the scribe] had answered
intelligently, he said to him, 'You are not far from the kingdom of God.' After
that, no one would venture to ask [Jesus] any more questions" (Mar
12:28-34).
Some observations:
1. Jesus was debating (vs
28, Grk συζητούντων / SUZETOUNTON). And why wouldn't he be? This is the primary
way Jewish people in his day (and now) learned and taught Scripture. Going to a
yeshiva (Jewish school for learning the Law) today, you might get the
impression that everybody is angry at each other, so much yelling and
disagreement going on. But you would be wrong. Observant Jews share a cultural
trait: heated debate for learning and teaching. Not all debate is
"irreverent babble" (2Tim 2:16), "foolish and stupid
arguments" (2Tim 2:23), or "foolish controversies" (Tit 3:9).
2. Scribes were (are …
they're still around today) often experts in God's Law because it was their job
to hand copy it constantly for temple and synagogue use. Rarely did Jews in
those days have personal copies of the Scriptures, but almost all males (and
many females) had the entire Law memorized. Yet handwritten copies were needed
for public readings. Scribes, as such, were an asset, not a problem (E.g. Ezr
7:6). And God's Kingdom today has its own scribes, i.e. experts (Mat 13:52).
3. It shouldn't have to be
repeated, but it has to be: Jesus was debating about the Law of Moses. This
event with the scribe happened just days before his crucifixion, yet here he is
conversing about commandments of the Law. Why? Because the Law was (and
remains) still relevant. Knowledge about the Law was considered by our Lord to
be important. Ignorance of the Law was rebukable (E.g. Mar 12:24, 34).
4. Mark's rendition of this
event has Jesus quoting the SH'MA, i.e. Deu 6:4, the central confession of the
Jewish faith. Why? Because the authority of Deu 6:5 and Lev 19:8 flow from the
uniqueness of the one true God. We love God with all we are and have, in part,
because He is the one and only God. We love our neighbors as ourselves, in
part, because the only God there is commands us to.
5. Contrary to many
Christians' interpretation of what transpired here, Jesus *did not* reduce the
number of applicable commandments from 611 (the count in Jesus' day; today it
is 613, two added by implication) to just two. Please notice the positive
reaction of the scribe to Christ's answer. Had Jesus "add[ed] to or
take[n] away from … the commands of the LORD" that Moses had given Israel,
he would have been sinning (Deu 4:2; 12:32). He himself would have been
breaking a commandment. The scribe would not have reacted positively if he
interpreted Jesus' answer the way that many Christians today interpret it. No,
the scribe would likely have found a temple guard and had Jesus arrested on the
spot for "high-handed" sin (Num 15:29-31). What Jesus did was to organize
and prioritize all of the remaining commandments under two organic
"headers": Love God and Love Neighbor, the same two organic
"headers" that organize the Ten Commandments. "All the Law and
the Prophets hang on these two commandments" (Mat 22:40). These two commandments
epitomize the remaining commandments of the Law. Jesus was not the first or
last rabbi to encapsulate the whole Law in one or two commandments. And no
rabbi who did so (including Jesus) intended anything close to dismissing the
other 609 commandments as unimportant. That would have been illegal, i.e.
sinful.
6. Jesus saw that the scribe
had a good understanding of the legal matters they were discussing. Christ saw
that the scribe was "not far from the kingdom of God" (vs 34).
Although the scribe was not yet born again, he was "not far" from
being so. Sometimes a person's eternal state is a matter of degrees.
- Michael Millier
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