Tuesday 06 December 2011

Background

The Pharisees were a religious group, including expert scholars('lawyer' here means a specialist in the laws within the books ofMoses - the first five books of the Old Testament). They shared inan uneasy coalition with the Sadducees in overseeing the practiceof Jewish faith. In the previous passage Jesus silenced theSadducees with his answer to the trick question about resurrectionthat they had asked him.

It was a principle of the Pharisees that all the laws of Moses(over 600 of them) were of equal importance, so the question testswhether Jesus will promote some laws at the expense of others.Jesus responds by choosing two commandments, not because they aremore important than the others but because all the others, alongwith all the teaching of the prophets, are dependent on them.

The two commandments are found in Deuteronomy 6:5, which is part of a passagereligious Jews recited twice a day, and inLeviticus 19:18. In the first of these, "heart","soul" and "mind" are not separate parts of a person but differentways of speaking of a complete person, so the whole law emphasisesthe totality of love that should be shown to God. With regard tothe second of the chosen commandments, for a Jew "neighbour" meantfellow-Israelite or resident foreigner; in Luke10:25-37 Jesus gives it a much wider interpretation withreference to this law.

After deflecting trick questions from both Sadducees and PhariseesJesus then puts a question to them regarding the pedigree of theMessiah, the expected God-anointed Saviour. They answer that he isthe "son of David" (v. 42). Jesus, who had recently been so hailedhimself (Matthew 21:9) does not want to deny this, but toshow that it does not go far enough.

In verse 43 Jesus therefore reminds them of Psalm 110 which theybelieve David to have written, but in which the writer calls theMessianic king "my Lord" (Psalm110:1). How can a man use such a title of his son, he asks. Notonly can they not answer him, but Matthew says they gave up askinghim questions altogether! Jesus clearly believes that the Messiah,and therefore he himself, is much more than simply David'sSon.

To Ponder

What title for Jesus works best for you? If "Sonof David" is inadequate, as well as rather meaningless to those whoare not Jewish, what works better and is likely to be understood bythose of your friends who do not have a personal relationship withJesus?

Do you have a 'most important principle' or someother kind of motto or primary rule by which you seek to live? Whatis it? And how well to you live up to it?

Who are the neighbours you find it hardest tolove as you love yourself?