By Adam Winn, Ph. D.
Chair and Professor, Department of Biblical and Religious Studies at Samford University
THE GREATEST COMMAND
Mark 12:28–34
We are to love God with all our being. (28–30)
This story occurs in chapters 11 and 12 of Mark’s Gospel in which the primary focus is Jesus’ condemnation of the current temple and its leadership. Disputes between Jesus and the leadership of the temple feature prominently, with Jesus the clear winner of each one.
This story references such disputes and introduces a certain scribe who had heard them. This scribe brings his own question to Jesus, asking which commandment is the most important. Jesus responds by citing the first verse of the Shema (Deut. 6:4), something that faithful Jews recited twice a day.
It declares there is only one God, Yahweh, and then continues on to declare that Israel must love Yahweh with all their heart, soul, mind and strength — one’s entire self.
This verse reflects God’s desire for creation, namely for all people to come to love the God who made them, to live in harmony with the Creator and to experience the great joy and blessing that comes from doing so.
Loving others is as important as loving ourselves. (31)
Jesus follows this first command with a second: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19:18). This command is closely related to the first, as it also reflects God’s desire for His creation.
Not only does God want His creation to live in harmony with Him, but He also wants those He created to live in harmony with each other. God’s creation will only be as God intended and completely fulfilled when it is properly aligned with both the God who created it and all those whom God created.
Thus, the command to love God is inseparable from the command to love other people, and in fact one cannot truly love God if they do not love their neighbor (1 John 4:20). Jesus follows this statement by declaring, “There is no other command greater than these.”
Loving God is the greatest thing we can do. (32–34)
In what seems a rather striking twist in this chapter, a scribe — one from a group of people who are consistent enemies of Jesus in the Book of Mark — agrees with Jesus and affirms His answer! Thus, this story breaks from the pattern of the “dispute” stories that come before it.
In fact, the scribe even declares that to follow these commands is “far more important than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices.” One of Jesus’ supposed “enemies” not only agrees with Jesus but also mitigates the significance of the Jewish sacrificial system — at least in its relationship to these two commandments.
The fact that this story takes place within the temple courtyards adjacent to where burnt offerings and sacrifices are made and within the context of stories in which Jesus is condemning the current temple institution is significant.
It demonstrates that even some of Jesus’ opponents can see a truth greater than the current temple system, and it foreshadows a time when that temple system will be gone and these two commandments will guide God’s people.
Jesus recognizes the man’s wisdom and tells him that he is not far from the Kingdom of God. Such a story offers us a good reminder that not all leaders were the same, and that while many opposed Jesus, others did find common ground with Him, with some even becoming followers during His lifetime (John 19:38–39) and some after His death (Acts 15:5).
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