Thoughts for the Day

* First paragraph of the Shema

One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, ‘Which commandment is the first of all?’ Jesus answered, ‘The first is, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 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.” The second is this, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these.’ Then the scribe said to him, ‘You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that “he is one, and besides him there is no other”; and “to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength”, and “to love one’s neighbour as oneself”,—this is much more important than all whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices.’ When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’ After that no one dared to ask him any question.

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

Jesus has just spoken to some Sadducees trying to catch him out by posing a question about a woman who had had seven husbands, all brothers, who had died (Mark 12.18-27). They asked whose wife would she be in the after-life? The Sadducees were wealthy aristocrats who didn't believe in resurrection. They frequently collaborated with the Romans, and didn't believe in the oral law that the Pharisees thought would keep them from breaking the Law of Moses.

Now some scribes comes forward. They are experts in the oral law, and are responsible for interpreting the millions of rules and regulations that 'hedge' around the Law of Moses which the Pharisees wished to uphold. Jesus might well have expected the scribe to ask another question to try and trip him up, but instead he engages in the debate that has been going on for years, about which is the primary Commandment. Jesus quotes the Shema (Deuteronomy 6.4-9) the words of which were bound on people's wrists in phylacteries, put in boxes by the door of each room, and said at the beginning of all worship: There is one God and we are to love Him, secondly we are to love others as ourselves.

At the scribe's answer, that this law is more important than offering sacrifices, we can almost hear the love Jesus has for him in his voice.

Lord our God,
may we learn to be as wise
as the scribe,
and to love You the one God,
with all our heart,
with all our soul,
with all our mind,
and with all our strength,
and others as ourself.
Amen.