The Scribe’s Comment (Mark 12:32-33) December 26, 2008
Posted by preacherwin in Devotions, The Greatest Commandment (Mark 12).Tags: Deuteronomy 4:35, dichotomy, fulfilling the law, Greatest Commandment, Jesus, loving God, Mark 12, Passion Week, psyche, Scribe, Shema, teacher, trichotomy
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“And the scribe said to him, ‘Very good, teacher, you speak truthfully that He is one and that there is not another besides him. And to love Him with the whole heart, with the whole understanding, with all strength, and to love a neighbor as ourselves is far greater than all of the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
(Mark 12:32-33)
It is obvious that the scribe is pleased with Jesus’ response, and this sets up an interesting dynamic, for Jesus will commend (at least on one level) the scribe as well. This makes for one of the more unusual interactions that Jesus has during this week. Prior to this question, Jesus has been bombarded by challenges to his authority and traps to try and trick him into siding with this group or that. Here, as we discussed above, is at least an underlying question again as to who Jesus will side with in his interpretation of the law. Some have made the suggestion that this comment by the scribe is rather insincere, but that seems rather odd given the context of Jesus’ statement in response. So how are we to understand this dialogue and how are we going to understand the variation between what Jesus taught immediately before and how this scribe paraphrases his statement?
To begin with, we see the scribe giving the briefest summary of the Shema. Jesus has quoted it verbatim and the scribe is giving his own interpretation of what Jesus said, tying in Deuteronomy 4:35 to support his answer. This was a common rhetorical technique amongst the Jewish Rabbis. Theology was done in the form of dialogue, so one might begin with a question, and the discussion that ensued would be in the form of more questions, answers, and interpretations in the hopes of arriving at a better understanding of the question at hand. We should not see the Scribe as being incompetent and unable to quote the Shema back to Jesus, but that he is interpreting Jesus’ statement in the context of the discussion. With this in mind, it sets the stage for the second part of the scribe’s statement. The scribe misses the language of yuch/ (psuche), or life, altogether and he replaces Jesus’ language of dia/noia (dianoia), or understanding, with the language of su/nesiß (sunesis), or intelligence. In addition, the scribe ties in passages like Hosea 6:6 and 1 Samuel 15:22, to speak of our loving obedience to God is far better than the ritual sacrifices of the temple. Again, what we find is that the scribe is responding to Jesus’ statement by offering an interpretation of it, and Jesus will respond favorably.
One of the major issues that Jesus battled with during his earthly ministry was the issue of people missing the intent behind the law in their pursuit of the letter of the law. The Pharisees, especially, were guilty of this. In their zeal for obedience, they had allowed the law to be understood in a legalistic way and had become blinded to the truth behind what God was commanding. God demands love and obedience from his people in every aspect and area of their lives. As Abraham Kuyper commented, “There is not an inch of this whole life that Jesus, as Lord of creation, does not put his finger on and declare, ‘Mine!’” And in the case of this scribe, it seems that he got it. He understood the intent of the law and demonstrated that understanding by the way he tied in other passages of scripture that spoke of similar things. So, beloved, what should we be reminded of from our scribe’s answer? We should be reminded that in all that we do, in whatever capacity that we serve the church, we are to be wholly committed to the Lord Jesus Christ. This commitment must never take the form of a list of “dos” and “don’ts” apart from what scripture commands to be a “do” or a “don’t,” but instead, we are to pursue God and his righteousness in service to our fellow man. This is our calling, to share the gospel with all and to make disciples by baptizing and teaching people to obey all that Jesus taught. Beloved, what a task we have before us; pray that the Holy Spirit will bless that task and empower it in such a way that God is glorified in all we do.
Not Far from the Kingdom of God (Mark 12:34) December 25, 2008
Posted by preacherwin in Devotions, The Greatest Commandment (Mark 12).Tags: intelligence, Kingdom of God, Mark 12:34, wisdom
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“And Jesus saw that he answered thoughtfully, and said to him, ‘You are not far from the Kingdom of God.’ And no one was bold enough to question him any longer.”
(Mark 12:34)
And Jesus saw that the man had answered thoughtfully, or, as in many of our English translations, “wisely,” though the word sofi/a (sophia) is not used, which is the normal word that means “wisdom” as we understand it. The term that is used here is nounecwvß (nounechos), which is derived from the term nouvß (nous), which refers to one’s intellect. Thus, the response that the scribe gave to Jesus was one of thoughtfulness, though it was not necessarily one of wisdom. Sometimes we forget that there is a difference between intellect and wisdom in our culture. We think that wisdom is a result of great intelligence, and that is not necessarily true. Intellectual knowledge deals more with what you know and wisdom deals more with what you understand. Intellect is developed through education; wisdom is developed through Godly experience.
So what are we to make of Jesus’ statement that the scribe was not far from the Kingdom? Is that to suggest that the Scribe understood the gospel? I am not sure that the text gives us enough information about this scribe to go quite that far in our assumption, though the scribe was on the right path. Note, that Jesus does not tell the scribe that the Kingdom is his, but rather he is not far from it. For the scribe to have come into the kingdom, he would have had to become a follower of Jesus Christ and the text remains silent about this particular scribe from hereon out. What we do know, though, from this interaction is that there were some scribes that had not fallen into the legalism of the Pharisaical school, though who still had a high regard for the law. Sometimes, when we read the Biblical accounts, we automatically group all of the Jewish teachers and officials in the same category of legalism. While many did fall into this error, there were some that were faithful in seeking out the intent behind the law that God gave—instructions for holiness, not a license for legalism.
The second thing that we learn from this final statement of the interaction is that this is the last time during the Passion Week that the Jewish authorities question Jesus in this way. As the text records, they were no longer bold enough to challenge Jesus any longer. Was this due to Jesus’ fine answers? Probably not. The fact is that these Jewish authorities had been hounding Jesus with questions trying to trap him for the past 3 years—you would think that they would have gotten it by now and repented, following Christ as Lord and Savior—if they trusted the wisdom of his answers. It is most likely because they realized that Jesus had quite a bit of popular support from the crowd. Jesus’ enemies knew that they needed to arrest him and convict him at night where the crowds could not intervene. This event took place on Tuesday of Jesus’ last week, by Thursday evening, Jesus would be arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. That time is coming, but for the moment, it is not quite there yet. Oh, beloved, one of the great difficulties of the study of this week is that we know the horrors that await our Lord. We rejoice that he would sacrifice himself for us so, but oh, how we agonize over the price that Christ had to pay for our sin. Beloved, in the shadow of the cross, remember this teaching of Christ—we are to love God with all of our being—every inch of our soul—and we are to love others as Christ loved us. Oh, how different our lives might be if we were able to faithfully live that commission out in all that we do.
The Scribe’s Comment (Mark 12:32-33) December 25, 2008
Posted by preacherwin in Devotions, The Greatest Commandment (Mark 12).Tags: burnt offerings, Command of God, Law, obedience is better than sacrifice, offerings, psyche, sacrifices, Scribe
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“And the scribe said to him, ‘Very good, teacher, you speak truthfully that He is one and that there is not another besides him. And to love Him with the whole heart, with the whole understanding, with all strength, and to love a neighbor as ourselves is far greater than all of the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
(Mark 12:32-33)
It is obvious that the scribe is pleased with Jesus’ response, and this sets up an interesting dynamic, for Jesus will commend (at least on one level) the scribe as well. This makes for one of the more unusual interactions that Jesus has during this week. Prior to this question, Jesus has been bombarded by challenges to his authority and traps to try and trick him into siding with this group or that. Here, as we discussed above, is at least an underlying question again as to who Jesus will side with in his interpretation of the law. Some have made the suggestion that this comment by the scribe is rather insincere, but that seems rather odd given the context of Jesus’ statement in response. So how are we to understand this dialogue and how are we going to understand the variation between what Jesus taught immediately before and how this scribe paraphrases his statement?
To begin with, we see the scribe giving the briefest summary of the Shema. Jesus has quoted it verbatim and the scribe is giving his own interpretation of what Jesus said, tying in Deuteronomy 4:35 to support his answer. This was a common rhetorical technique amongst the Jewish Rabbis. Theology was done in the form of dialogue, so one might begin with a question, and the discussion that ensued would be in the form of more questions, answers, and interpretations in the hopes of arriving at a better understanding of the question at hand. We should not see the Scribe as being incompetent and unable to quote the Shema back to Jesus, but that he is interpreting Jesus’ statement in the context of the discussion. With this in mind, it sets the stage for the second part of the scribe’s statement. The scribe misses the language of yuch/ (psuche), or life, altogether and he replaces Jesus’ language of dia/noia (dianoia), or understanding, with the language of su/nesiß (sunesis), or intelligence. In addition, the scribe ties in passages like Hosea 6:6 and 1 Samuel 15:22, to speak of our loving obedience to God is far better than the ritual sacrifices of the temple. Again, what we find is that the scribe is responding to Jesus’ statement by offering an interpretation of it, and Jesus will respond favorably.
One of the major issues that Jesus battled with during his earthly ministry was the issue of people missing the intent behind the law in their pursuit of the letter of the law. The Pharisees, especially, were guilty of this. In their zeal for obedience, they had allowed the law to be understood in a legalistic way and had become blinded to the truth behind what God was commanding. God demands love and obedience from his people in every aspect and area of their lives. As Abraham Kuyper commented, “There is not an inch of this whole life that Jesus, as Lord of creation, does not put his finger on and declare, ‘Mine!’” And in the case of this scribe, it seems that he got it. He understood the intent of the law and demonstrated that understanding by the way he tied in other passages of scripture that spoke of similar things. So, beloved, what should we be reminded of from our scribe’s answer? We should be reminded that in all that we do, in whatever capacity that we serve the church, we are to be wholly committed to the Lord Jesus Christ. This commitment must never take the form of a list of “dos” and “don’ts” apart from what scripture commands to be a “do” or a “don’t,” but instead, we are to pursue God and his righteousness in service to our fellow man. This is our calling, to share the gospel with all and to make disciples by baptizing and teaching people to obey all that Jesus taught. Beloved, what a task we have before us; pray that the Holy Spirit will bless that task and empower it in such a way that God is glorified in all we do.
The Whole Law Hangs (Matthew 22:40) December 25, 2008
Posted by preacherwin in Devotions, The Greatest Commandment (Mark 12).Tags: holiness of God, law and prophets, law and prophets hang, Matthew 22:40, unity of the law
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“On these two commandments the whole law hangs—and the prophets.”
(Matthew 22:40)
While Mark gives us a fuller description of the events surrounding this discourse, Matthew does include one statement from Jesus that is important to mention. As Jesus closes his explanation of what the greatest commandment is, he says that upon these two commandments, love of God and love of neighbor, all of the law and the prophets finds its rest and fulfillment. In the context of what we discussed earlier about the Pharisaical principle of giving more or less weight to this commandment or that commandment, one of the important things that we see Jesus doing is treating the law of God as one united whole, not a bunch of separate, legalistic principles. Jesus’ half-brother, James, would later build on this principle when he wrote that when you are guilty of breaking a portion of the law, you are guilty of breaking the whole (James 2:10).
In other words, what Jesus, and later James, is bringing out is the unity of God’s demands on his people for holiness. The law of God reflects God’s holy character and God has called us as his people to be holy as he is holy (Leviticus 11:45, 1 Peter 1:16). Since God’s character cannot be divided—God is perfectly consistent in himself—how is it that we think that we can divide up God’s law, obeying part of it and not the whole? Of course, this drives home another vital point—on our own strength, we cannot even obey part of God’s law, but instead are guilty of having broken the whole. We are incapable of earning God’s favor and are thus in need of a redeemer to do so on our behalf. Indeed, that, too, is one of the great purposes of the law—to point us to our need for Jesus.
Yet, Jesus unifies the law for us with two statements. Love God with every fiber of your being and love your neighbor in the same way as you love yourself. It is a simple principle to understand, but overwhelming to try and live out. Indeed, while we will never be able to fully live this great law out, what a wonderful way to strive to live! Jesus is showing us the intent behind the law as a whole and the writings of the prophets (which were largely covenantal lawsuits made by God against his people for their disobedience). In other words, the purpose of the law is not meant to bind us to an oppressive, legalistic system as the Pharisees interpreted the law, but it was meant to enable us to fully and properly love God with all of our heart, life, and abundance. Beloved, let us seek to do the same—no, we won’t be fully successful and no, we will rarely be very successful of doing this well, yet, how else will we reflect God’s love and character to the world unless we reflect it to one another in our lifestyles? Upon this rests the whole of the law and of the prophets.
Love your Neighbor as Yourself (Mark 12:31) December 25, 2008
Posted by preacherwin in Devotions, The Greatest Commandment (Mark 12).Tags: Command of God, Leviticus 19:18, Love your neighbor as yourself, Mark 12:31, obligations toward man, second commandment
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“Second is this: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.”
(Mark 12:31)
Jesus now adds to the first command about loving God with the second—that we are to love our neighbors. This is a direct quote from the Greek LXX of Leviticus 19:18, but the difference is found in the application. In the passage from Leviticus, God is specifically giving this command in the context of dealing with other Jews. Specifically, the passage speaks of how the Jews were forbidden from stealing from one another and that they were not to be partial to the rich or do injustice to the poor. Finally, the passage states that they are forbidden to hold grudges against one another and to take out vengeance against the sons of Israel, but were to love their neighbor as themselves. In the context of Jesus’ teaching, though the same word for neighbor is used, we find a far broader application of the concept. No longer should neighbor be understood only as other Jews, but also as gentiles as well. When Luke records Jesus as using similar words in an earlier context, Jesus applies the principle of the neighbor to a Samaritan, hated half-breeds from the region north of Judea. No other statement could have been more poignant to the Jewish people at that time; they were show grace and mercy and indeed love to even those they despised the most. In fact, such a commandment no longer allowed them to despise their gentile or Samaritan neighbor, but required them to reach out and minister to their needs.
How radical a thought that this is, that we are to serve those around us regardless of race, creed, likeability, looks, or preference. That we are to not hold grudges based on what someone might have done to us in the past—did not Paul plead with Philemon to receive Onesimus as a brother and not as a runaway slave to be punished? Oh, loved ones, what a radical call to rethinking the way we live! Sometimes we take a great deal of comfort in holding on to the grudges that we have. These grudges make us feel justified in grumbling about someone or speaking poorly of them. Let us repent of these things and seek to live out the commandment of God in every aspect of our lives! Let us seek to love even those we might despise like the Jews despised Samaritans (and visa versa) that the glory of God might flow through our lives and actions. Oh, beloved, what a call to service we have been assigned, to work to care for and minister to even the un-lovely of our society and of our world.
The question then that we are left with is that of whether or not Jesus is redefining the law. Some would say that he is, but I would say that he is simply clarifying the intention of the commandment that God gave to his people through Moses. Indeed, the immediate context of Leviticus 19 is that of God’s people dealing with one another, but the broader context of God’s covenant with his people is one of blessing to the nations. God’s promise to Abraham is that through his seed the people of the world will receive God’s blessing (Genesis 12:2-3). How are the nations to be blessed if they never enjoy the grace of God’s people in their lives? How will they be blessed if God’s people hold a grudge of anger over their heads? Oh, loved ones, let us recognize this not as a new law or a redefinition of the old law, but as a clarification of what the old law was always meant to be: God blessing his people so that his people would be a blessing to the nations; or, to rephrase it in a slightly different way: God blessing his people so that through his people the gospel would go out and men and women from every tribe, tongue, and nation would proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord because of the way God’s people live their lives. In many ways, this is a call to evangelism, let us order our lives in such a way that we might live it out.
Love God with All (Mark 12:30) December 24, 2008
Posted by preacherwin in Devotions, The Greatest Commandment (Mark 12).Tags: Deuteronomy 6:5, dichotomy, Heart, Jesus and the LXX, Life, Love God, Mark 12:30, mind and spirit, passions, personality, psyche, spirit or soul, strength, trichotomy, understanding
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“And you will love the Lord your God with all of your heart, and with all of your life, and with all of your understanding, and with all of your strength.”
(Mark 12:30)
Jesus continues the passage with an explanation of what it means to be committed to God as Wnyheloa/ (Elohinu), or “our God.” And Jesus says that the way we live this out is by fully committing ourselves to God’s adoration and service. The first section of this passage is a direct quote of the LXX, the Greek Translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, yet, it would seem, at the initial onset, that Jesus has added to the text as we move to the latter half of what Jesus is teaching, but we will address that as we get to that section.
Jesus begins with the command from Deuteronomy 6:5 to love the Lord our God with all of our heart. In the modern, Greek, mindset (remembering that our way of thinking is predominantly influenced by Greek thought, not Hebrew thought), the heart is the seat of the emotions or passions. Thus, when many of us read this line initially, we immediately assume Jesus to be commanding us to love Yahweh with all of our passion. While Jesus certainly does command us to love Yahweh with our passions, that is not what he means by heart. In the Hebrew mindset, the heart was the seat of one’s personality and reason. If a Hebrew person wanted to speak of one’s passions alone, he would talk about something as being from our bowels (I can’t figure out why Hallmark hasn’t picked up on that idea—I can just see the Valentine’s Day cards now; I love you with all of my bowels, dear…). Thus, the command that is being given is that everything that makes you a reasoning human being—the whole of your personality, if you will—is to be dedicated to the love of God. This would include, then, not only your reason and intellect, but also those little quirks that make you who you are. Beloved, have you ever considered the fact that you are to love God with your idiosyncrasies? They are part of your very makeup, thus, they are designed to be used by you to the glory of God!
Jesus continues with the command that we are to love God with all of our life. This is the Greek term yuch/ (psuche), which is the word from which our English word “psyche” comes. Many of our English translations will translate this word as “soul,” but I have opted to translate this as “life” out of deference to the Hebrew word that yuch/ (psuche) is being used to translate in this case. The Hebrew term is the word vp,n< (nephesh), which refers to all that which gives life to and animates the body. It is variously translated as life, breath, and even soul, but it is distinct from the word x;Wr (ruach), which means “spirit.” In modern English, we don’t normally distinguish between the idea of a soul and of a spirit, so to preserve the Hebrew distinction, I have opted to translate this as life. In Hebrew, the spirit is understood much in the same way as we understand a spirit today, but the soul was intimately bound to giving your physical body life, and hence our translation. Thus, the idea being communicated in this first half of Jesus’ statement is not a dichotomy between the passions of man and the soul of man, but a united image of how we are to love God with our personality and with all that gives us life and breath in this world. We are to be wholly committed to Yahweh, our God.
Now, as we look back to Deuteronomy 6:5, from which Jesus is quoting, we find a peculiar difference. The Hebrew concludes with a third command, that we are to love God with all of our daom. (meod), or, literally, all of our “veriness.” The idea expressed, by making the adverb “very” into a noun, is that of applying all of your abundance, all of your blessings, and all of the external things that God has put into your life toward the worship of God. All of the rich blessings that have come to you in this world, as they have come from God, are to be used and applied toward the love of God. That raises an important question for all of us—how are we using those blessings? How do we use our vacation time; how do we use our savings; how do we use the finances that we have been afforded; and how do we use the retirements that God has given to us? Beloved, we are often guilty of applying these things—these things that make up our “veriness”—toward our own ends and not for the love of God. How we need to regularly look at our lives and see just how we are using the blessings that God has afforded us.
Yet, Jesus does not use this language, nor is he quoting from the Greek LXX, which reads, all of our du/namiß (dunamis)—or might (dunamis is the word from which we get the English word, “dynamite”). Instead, Jesus breaks this final command into two separate parts: dia/noia (dianoia) or understanding and ijscuß (ischus) or strength. My initial response was that maybe Jesus was breaking up the language of vp,n< (nephesh), or life, as yuch/ (psuche) and dia/noia (dianoia) and replacing du/namiß (dunamis) with ijscuß (ischus). Thus, the idea of life would be expressed by both life and mind or soul and mind and power would be changed to reflect the idea of strength. The problem with this interpretation is two-fold. First of all, it seems odd that Jesus would add the word dia/noia (dianoia) to yuch/ (psuche) when yuch/ (psuche) is a direct quote of the Greek LXX. Secondly, given that Matthew does not record Jesus as saying ijscuß (ischus) at all, but ends with dia/noia (dianoia). Matthew, being a good Jew, would have been intimately familiar with the text and importance of Deuteronomy 6:5 and it would have been very unlikely that he would neglect to record an element therein.
That leads us with one other reasonable alterative, and that is to understand Jesus as expanding on the idea of our loving God with all of our daom. (meod), or veriness. Instead of using the LXX translation, then, we see Jesus giving his own translation of daom. (meod) into Greek by using two terms: dia/noia (dianoia) and ijscuß (ischus). In other words, Jesus is saying that for us to worship God with all of our abundance, or veriness, requires us to do so with our mental capacity, or dia/noia (dianoia), and our physical capacity, or ijscuß (ischus). In other words, all of the energy we might expend, to accomplish all that we do in this life, we are called upon to use to love God. We are to think about God, reason about God, meditate about God, and then the work of our hands—as mighty as that work may be, must too be done for the glory and love of God. Indeed, this translation would capture the idea of the abundance that God has given us (as that abundance so often comes through the labors of our hands and/or our minds).
Thus, Jesus, in quoting Moses here, leaves no stone unturned when being asked the question of how we are to express our love and adoration for God on high—every inch of our life is to be devoted to God’s glory regardless of our career, trade, or background. Does this mean that all should be preachers and missionaries? Certainly not! Yet, this does mean that whatever you do, whether hobby, curiosity, or career, should be done to the glory of God. Dear friends, I wonder, can we say this about our own lives? Can we say that the way we have ordered our career or the way we have spent our leisure time is designed to glorify God? Oh, beloved, how we should look deeply at our hearts, our lives, and our efforts and ask ourselves, “how is God glorified in this.” And then, when an answer is shown, work diligently to change how we live our days so as to submit ourselves to the challenge of Jesus’ words. May our lives be lived all for the glory and honor of God alone.
Shema! (Mark 12:29) December 24, 2008
Posted by preacherwin in Devotions, The Greatest Commandment (Mark 12).Tags: Adonai, Deuteronomy 6:4, Elohim, Galatians 3:29, Hear!, I am, Israel, Kurios, Lord, Mark 12:29, Our God, Shema, The Lord is One, Witness, Yahweh
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“Jesus answered, ‘The first is: ‘Hear, O’ Israel, the Lord, your God, the Lord is one!’’”
(Mark 12:29)
To answer this question, Jesus quotes what is known in Hebrew as the “Shema” (Deuteronomy 6:4). The Shema is easily the single-most important text in the Hebrew Bible; it defines the Hebrews as a people and perpetually reminds them of their place in relationship to God. Many scholars have argued that the book of Deuteronomy itself is essentially a constitution for the Israelite nation when they enter into the promised land, and if this is the case, the Shema is the Preamble to that constitution. It is the first prayer that a Jew prays in the morning when he awakens and the last prayer that he prays before bed; in times of distress, like during the oppression of the Jews in Nazi Germany, it was the Shema that was used as a means to identify oneself as a Jew to the Jewish community in hiding. It is also the first prayer that is prayed (normally sung or chanted) at the beginning of a typical synagogue service. And here, Jesus uses this prayer, this statement of faith, to sum up what it means to obey the law.
The Shema begins with an imperative statement: “Hear!” The word in Hebrew that this is derived from is the term [m;v. (shema), which is where it gets its name. More importantly, though, the term [m;v. (shema) does not simply mean “to listen,” but it also carries the connotations of obedience and submission to what follows. It is a command to the people to hear the words that are being said, to internalize them, to submit to their authority, and then to live in obedience to what is being commanded of the listener. There is no room for ambiguity in this command—you must hear is the idea that this command is conveying.
The second word that is found in the prayer tells us to whom the prayer is addressed: Israel. We, as Christian believers, must be reminded here that the name Israel applies to us today. Paul reminds us in Romans 9:6-8 that one is not a member of Israel simply because of genealogical descent, but through the promise of God—through faith. In Galatians 3:29, Paul also reminds us that we are counted as Abraham’s offspring—heirs according to the promise and members of true Israel—through faith in Jesus Christ. Thus, this command of “hear, O Israel,” is a command that is set before our very ears today and must be laid upon our own hearts as well.
Yet, what is significant about this language of “Israel” is not simply that we are part of the promise (though that is a great and a wonderful thing), but it is a reminder that we are bound together as one people in Jesus Christ and we have been given a name. Israel was not a name that Jacob chose for himself, but it is a name that was given to him after he wrestled with the Angel of the Lord (Genesis 32:28). The name means, “One who has striven with God.” Now, we usually think of striving as a totally negative thing, yet let us never forget that while striving against God is not an act of submission, it does mean that God’s hand is upon your life. The reprobate and pagan who has rejected the things of God does not need to worry about striving with God in his or her life—Paul reminds us that God has given them up to their sinful ways—allowed them to pursue the sinful things that will destroy them (Romans 1:24-25). God’s hand is only upon his people, rebuking us when we sin, drawing us toward himself in righteousness. In our sin we strive against God; we wrestle with his calling upon us, yet his calling is upon us; his hand is in our lives. Israel is a name given to us as God’s people to set us apart from the rest of the world, to remind us of our corporate unity as God’s people, to remind us that it is a name given to us by our God (only the Master has the authority to give a name to those in his service), and it is a reminder that God’s hand is upon our lives. It is a reminder that we should rejoice in as gentiles, for once we were not a people, but now we are God’s people—once we had received no mercy, and in Christ Jesus we have received mercy (1 Peter 2:10—a fulfillment of Hosea 1:23).
The next words that are pronounced are, “the Lord,” or kurio/ß (kurios) in Greek. In Hebrew, this would be pronounced, “Adonai,” which means “Lord of Lords.” Yet, Adonai is not the Hebrew word that is used in Deuteronomy 6:4, hwhy (Yahweh) is. Yet, out of reverence for God’s covenantal name, the Hebrew people developed a practice of never pronouncing it and saying “Adonai” instead. That practice carried over into the Greek writing, and thus, kurio/ß (kurios), or “Lord,” was used instead. What is important about this language is that this is the covenantal name of God that he gave to Moses in Exodus 3:14, which is a statement of his eternality and uniqueness. “I am who I am,” is how we often translate this name into English; that God is, he always has been, and he always will be. God is eternal and there never was a time when God was not—nor will there ever be a time when God will cease to be. All things that are had a beginning and this beginning is found in the creative work of our God. Yet, this God, as great and mighty as he is, chose to condescend to fallen man and have a relationship with them, and in doing so, has given us his name that we might know him by that name for all generations (Exodus 3:15). He is a God that is knowable, and is ultimately knowable in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ, who is answering the scribe in this case.
Jesus continues his quote of the Shema with the words “our God.” In the Hebrew, this is one word, Wnyheloa/ (Elohinu), which is the Hebrew word, “Elohim” with the first person plural pronoun as an ending, thus, it does not read, “the Lord God,” but it reads, “the Lord, our God.” This is important on a number of levels. First of all, we must remember that these words were recited by the Hebrew people at least twice daily. Thus, every day men and women were professing that this Yahweh was their God, personally and individually. To call Yahweh, “our God” is also a reminder that we are bound as part of a covenantal community and not isolated, “Lone Ranger,” believers. We are in a covenantal relationship as the church with one another and with God himself, and these words form a concise reminder of that fact.
In addition, the name, “Elohim” carries with it a variety of connotations. We must remember that there are many names for God used in the Old Testament, and these names all are designed to reflect different aspects of his character. The name Elohim reflects two ideas: God as creator and God as lawgiver. To speak of God in this way, then, reflects the idea that the people are confessing God to be their creator and their lawgiver. A creator has ownership over that which he has created and a lawgiver has the right to establish the rules and guidelines that his creations must live by. These are words that remind God’s people of our submission to his authority and to his laws. It is God who defines who we are and sets up the parameters as to how we go about doing what we do.
Finally, the Shema ends with the language, “The Lord is one.” This reflects not only that God is one, monotheistic, God, but that he is alone in his Godhead. God has no rivals, he is unique and infinitely wonderful. Nothing in creation even comes close to his perfection. This reflects the immutability of God’s perfections, and as the great and wonderful God, he is the source of all true wisdom and knowledge. This language also reflects the language of the first commandment: “Thou shalt have no other Gods before me.” God is God alone in our lives; he will not share his authority or place with any other. There is no room for idols of any kind (even modern ones like our careers, wealth, status, etc…) in the lives of God’s people. God is God alone.
And this is how the Shema closes, although the language of the larger passage explicates how the believer is to go about living this out. Jesus will touch on this as he continues, but let us not overlook the importance of this first statement. It is the credo, if you will, of God’s people; it establishes our identity and reminds us of our proper relationship with God. In fact, in most traditional editions of the Hebrew Old Testament, the last letter of the first and last words are written in bold case and a larger font. These two letters spell the Hebrew word d[e (ed), which means testimony or witness. How often we are guilty of seeking to distort that relationship. How often we are guilty of trying to set ourselves up as lawgiver in our own lives. Oh, beloved, we are men and women in submission, but we are in submission to a good and wonderful God; let us live happily in submission to God’s laws and God’s providence in our lives, and let these words always remind us that we are God’s people and he is our covenantal God.
Which Commandment is First? (Mark 12:28) December 24, 2008
Posted by preacherwin in Devotions, The Greatest Commandment (Mark 12).Tags: 10 Commandments, 613 Commandments of God, Commandment, Decalogue, Division of the Ten Commandments, Essines, First Commandment, First in the Whole, gematria, Greatest Commandment, Law of God, Maccabees, Mark 12:28-34, Passion Week, Pharisee, Royal Priests, Sadducee, Scribe, Seleucids, Ten Commandments, Two Tables of the Law, Unity of the Ten Commandments
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“And one of the scribes approached, hearing them disputing, and seeing that he replied well to them, put a question to him: “which commandment is first in the whole?”
(Mark 12:28)
Matthew and Mark both include this dialogue between Jesus and the Scribe/teacher of the Law with very few variations. Luke relates a similar account, but the context and the question were entirely different. In Luke 10:27, Jesus is being asked what one must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus’ response is to give the same answer that he does in this passage, but also to tell the parable of the Good Samaritan to illustrate who one’s neighbor happens to be. In addition, Luke then records the event with Jesus at Mary and Martha’s house to help illustrate (through Mary’s actions) what it looks like when you love the Lord God with all of your heart, strength, and mind.
In this context, we find Jesus during his last week of earthly ministry, often referred to as Jesus’ Passion Week. Jesus has entered into Jerusalem during this time and has been publicly teaching and facing the challenges of the Jewish authorities. In terms of the immediate context, this dialogue most likely takes place that Tuesday, two days before his arrest, and he is facing a string of legal and philosophical questions that are designed to trap Jesus into siding with one religious party or another—a trap that Jesus refuses to fall into. Hence, unlike the account in Luke, there is no genuine interchange of ideas nor does Jesus tell any parables to illustrate his point; he is being challenged and the statements that come out of the mouth of our Lord are made with emphasis and with clarity.
Earlier this day, the Sadducees had sent a group to question Jesus’ authority to preach in the temple and to clear it of those who were selling in the courtyard. After the Sadducees leave the Pharisees step in only to be followed by the Sadducees once again. Historically, the Pharisees and the Sadducees were at odds with one another. The Sadducees were the remnant of the elite priestly ruling class that went back to the Hasmonean Dynasty, which had begun in Judea roughly 170 years earlier. When Judah Maccabees and his brothers overthrew the Seleucids, who controlled the area at the time, his brother Simon would end up ruling over the then free Jewish state (Judah had died). Simon combined the office of King with that of the High Priest, making the priestly office one of privilege and reputation and not one of Levitical service. These “Royal Priests” would become known as the Sadducees. During this era, two reform groups emerged: the Pharisees and the Essines. The Essines were a radical group that withdrew from the cities into what were essentially fortified monasteries. They studied and trained to become the army of the Messiah when he would come. The Pharisees were a less radical group, but one that pushed personal piety and who challenged the hypocrisy of the ruling order. Sadly, by Jesus’ day, the Pharisees had reduced themselves into a legalistic view of what it meant to be a believer and had become very hypocritical themselves, obeying the law (as they nuanced it) but missing entirely the purpose behind the law. With this history in mind, it is easy to see not only the tension between the two classes (Pharisees and Sadducees), but also the way each group was looking to try and get Jesus to take sides so that they could discredit him.
Thus a scribe approaches Jesus and puts him to the test—which commandment would Jesus say was first amongst the whole of the law, or, as we usually put it into language today, which is the greatest commandment? Our idiomatic English translation does us a little bit of an injustice, though, given our mindset. When someone poses the question to us of which commandment or which law is the greatest, we think back, and in our minds, treat the commandments of God as separate commands that can be isolated from one another. As westerners, we are accustomed to compartmentalizing everything, and while on some level this is useful for acquiring and applying knowledge, it also creates a perception that the commandments of God are not intimately interrelated—or more specifically, are a unified whole. One of the great points that James makes is that if you break one of the commands in the Ten Commandments, you are guilty of breaking the whole law because the whole law is one (James 2:10). It should not surprise us, then, that Jesus answers this question by summing up the spirit of the law in two categories rather than elevating one aspect of the whole. Which is first in the whole, Jesus is asked? “Love God” is his answer. Which is second? “Love man.”
While many of us who have grown up in the Protestant traditions are accustomed to this kind of language, essentially dividing the Law of God (the 10 Commandments) into two sections, or two tables, one being our obligations toward God and the second being our obligations toward man, we must not assume that such is the same way the ancient minds approached the Law. In fact, there were and continue to be many schools of thought amongst Jewish and Christian thinkers as to how the Decalogue should be divided up. Some have suggested that there are five and five, drawing thematic parallels between the first and the sixth, the second and the seventh, and so forth. For example, the line of thinking is that the first commandment (no other gods) is connected with the sixth (not kill) because when you take the life of another you put yourself into God’s place, essentially making yourself to be a god and breaking the first commandment as well as the sixth. Though Jesus does not divide up the law in this way, it does help illustrate the inter-connectedness and unity of the Ten Commandments of God.
In Jesus’ day, gematria had become a popular way of looking at the Law. Gematria is a means by which the numerical value of words or phrases was calculated (remembering that letters in ancient times represented the numerical system, so “a” would be equal to 1 and “b” would be equal to 2, etc…). Then, the laws which represented the highest numerical value was considered to be most important. Another way that was popular was to look at the penalty that was connected to disobeying the law. The harsher the judgment against the sin, the more important that rule was considered to be. This concept was later picked up by the Roman Catholic church and provided some of the foundation for their division of mortal and venal sins along with isolated passages like 1 John 5:16-17 and Hebrews 10:26). By Jesus’ day, the rabbis had extended this debate outside of the Ten Commandments to reflect the whole council of God’s command. They had identified (in what we refer to as the Old Testament scriptures) 613 commandments of God (248 positive commands and 365 negative commands). Others weighted commands more heavily depending on how far back in the scriptures that they were recorded as having been given, thus emphasizing the Sabbath command or the Circumcision. Yet, once everything was said and done, they missed the purpose of the law—to demonstrate to us the holiness of God and to make us painfully aware that based on human efforts alone, we cannot come close to that holiness—or, in other words, to drive us to our knees in the midst of our sins and make us realize how desperately we need a redeemer. The Law was not designed to be parsed and made into a checklist; it was meant to drive us to Christ!
With this now before us, we have a far better picture of what the religious authorities were trying to do with Jesus. They were trying to put him into a box or a category, and then once defined by men’s terms, they could give him a label. Once labeled, they could have worked to discredit him in the people’s eyes. This scribe is essentially seeing where Jesus is going to fall in this matter, but our Lord does not allow himself to be put into a box. Our Lord never allows himself to be put into a box, but oh, how we so often try. We want to define God on our terms and according to our own understanding of how we believe God should think and behave, but God refuses to be dealt with on human terms. Beloved, how we must always endeavor to submit ourselves to God’s terms. Let God define our theology and our ideas according to his word, do not try to make God work to support your pet preference. This way of thinking and living is a harder road to travel, but it is the only road that honors God with your heart, mind, and whole life.
