Friday 12 March 2010

Background

It was common to ask a Jewish rabbi (teacher) which of the manycommandments in the Bible was the most important one. When aGentile (a non-Jew) challenged the rabbi Hillel (a famous Jewishleader of the 1st centuries AD and BC) by saying "I'll convert tothe Jewish faith if you can teach me the whole Jewish Law while Istand on one foot," he received the answer, "What you hate foryourself, don't do to your neighbour. This is the whole Law; therest is commentary".

So one student, impressed when overhearing Jesus in discussion,asks him for his opinion on the familiar question. Jesus gives notone but two commandments by way of answer. It is almost certainlywrong to suggest he is ranking them when he says, 'Here's thefirst... and here's the second..." The first was said daily bypious Jews as part of their creed of faith (see Deuteronomy 6:4-5). The second is foundin Leviticus 19:18. In that reference theneighbour is the fellow-Jew, but later in the same chapterforeigners are also to be treated well (Leviticus 19:33-34), and Jesus memorablyanswered the question "Who is my neighbour?" with the parable ofthe Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29-37), where the good neighbour isfrom an ethnic group whom the Jews despised.

Verses 32-34 are among the relatively few verses in the Gospel ofMark which aren't found in any other Gospel. (Mark is widelybelieved to be the earliest of the four New Testament Gospels.)They help to portray this particular student of the law as friendlytowards Jesus, when generally speaking they are presented assetting themselves against him. Jesus' final words to him - "Youare not far from the kingdom of God" - made a particular impact onJohn Wesley on the day in which he later discovered a heart-warmingfaith.

The last sentence about there being no further questions, whichcomes in slightly different places in the Gospels of Matthew (22:46) and Luke (20:40), marks the end of a phase of Jesus'ministry. The week of his passion (the suffering and death ofJesus) is now truly underway, and the two great commandments are insome sense his last official public words.

To Ponder

To what extent do you think it is helpful to havea simple maxim or rule to seek to live by? What would yours be?

The Jewish faith depends heavily on the many lawsfound in the first books of the Bible. Why do you think Jesus putso little emphasis on law-keeping other than these twocommandments?

Why do you think Jesus told the scholar that hewas "not far from the kingdom"? Can you identify at all with thisidea?