Mark 12:28-34
(A Bible Study Led by Dr. Larry Reynolds)
January 31, 2013
One of my all-time favorite stories is about Bobby Bowden, the legendary
football coach of Florida State University…Bowden and his
wife, Ann, have six children...one day the entire family was sitting together
in their church to hear a visiting preacher speak about the family...this
preacher looked at the Bowden family all sitting together on a pew near the
front of the church and said to Bobby, “Sir, I see you have six children.
Let me ask you a question. If I put a 40 foot I-beam here in front of
the church and it was only one foot off the floor, would you get up on it and
walk across for $20?...and Coach Bowden said, “Sure.”...then preacher said, “Let me ask you another question. If I took that same I-beam and place it
between two skyscrapers 50 stories in the air, then would you walk across it
for $20?”...and Coach Bowden responded, “No way!”...and then preacher said, “Well, let me ask you a third question. If I put that I-beam 50 stories in the air
and on the other side I was holding one of your six children over the edge of
the building and I said if you walked across the I-beam I would not drop the
child, would you walk across it then?”...and Bowden thought for a
moment then said, “Let me ask you a
question. Which child are you holding?”
I thought of that story this week
as I began to study the passage at which we are going to look tonight in our
journey through Mark’s Gospel. Even
though Bowden certainly didn’t mean it that way, the implication of his answer
was that some of his children were more important to him than others. In that passage on which we are focusing
tonight, someone put to Jesus a question that implied some of God’s laws are
more important than others.
Tonight we are going to look at
the last in a series of four questions put to Jesus by the religious leaders in
Jerusalem. These questions were asked of
Him on Tuesday of the week of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. That was the day after Jesus had gone through
the Court of Gentiles in the Temple over-turning the tables of the money
changers and sellers of sacrificial animals.
I shared with you several weeks ago that Warren Wiersbe in his
commentary on Mark classifies this series of questions this way:
·
A question of authority
(11:27-12:12)
– They wanted to know why Jesus thought He had the authority to do the things
He was doing and say the things He was saying.
·
A question of responsibility
(12:13-17) –
This question had to do with the issue of Jews paying taxes to the Romans.
·
A question of eternity (12:18-27) – This question had to do with
the resurrection from the dead.
·
A question of priority (12:28-34) – This question had to do with
which was the greatest commandment. This
is the question on which we will focus in this session.
Then, toward the end of chapter
12, Jesus turn the tables on the religious leaders asked a question about them
(12:35-37).
Mark 12:28-34
Verse 28a introduces the questioner and what caused the question
to be asked.
"one of
the scribes" - Scribes were people with special training in the
religious law of Judaism. They were the
ones to which the people looked to interpret the law and to apply it to
everyday life. They were the legal experts.
The word Mark uses to describe this man is grammateus. Matthew uses a
different word that means lawyer. This
was a man who dissected the language of the law.
Mark portrays this man in a much better
light than he portrayed—
--the
delegation from the Sanhedrin who asked the question about authority
--or the Pharisees and Herodians who asked
the tax question
--or the Sadducees who asked the
resurrection question
Those people were clearly
manipulative and deceptive, obviously trying to trap Jesus. But, at least on the surface in Mark's
account, this scribe seems more honest, sincerely desiring information.
However, in reality, the
question the scribe asked was also a trick question. One of the favorite past-times of scribes was
sitting around debating which law was greatest or most important. Not any of the great legal minds of Israel
had been able to come up with an acceptable answer. And I suspect this scribe did not believe
Jesus would be able to answer either.
“heard them
arguing” – Refers to the preceding paragraph where Jesus and the
Sadducees were discussing the resurrection from the dead.
“recognizing” – The Mark
uses (eidon) carries the idea of
paying careful attention. He did not
merely casually overhear what was being said.
He carefully followed every word.
“answered
them well” – He liked what Jesus said because he was a Pharisee and
would have vehemently disagreed with the Sadducees on just about every
religious issue.
Verse 28b contains
the question. “What commandment is the foremost
of all?” The word translated “foremost”
is protos from which our word protocol comes. In effect, he was asking, “If you had to pick one commandment over all
others, which comes first? Which is most
important? Which takes precedent over
all the others?”
Verses 29-31 contain Jesus’ response to the question. The way the text reads, it appears that Jesus
responded immediately. He needed no time
to think or ponder the question. The answer
was obvious to Him. And in response to
this question about which of the commandments was "foremost of
all" or greatest, Jesus laid down a basic principle about the life
to which God calls us. And that
principle was a direct challenge to the thinking of the scribe. In effect what Jesus said is, “You need to understand that God does not
call you to a life rules and regulations.
He calls you to a life of relationship – relationship with Him and relationship
with people. .
1. The scribes, for the most part, belonged to
the party of the Pharisees...they were really into laws, rules, and
regulations... these religious lawyers had gone through the OT law--known as
the Torah or the first five books of our OT--with a fine tooth comb...found in
those books 613 specific laws to be obeyed...365 were negative in nature and
248 were positive in nature...and on those 613 laws had built an incredibly
complex system of rules and regulations knows as the oral tradition...was
full-time occupation just keep up with and attempt live by their myriad of
rules...
2. In responding the scribes' question about
which of the 613 laws was the greatest, Jesus did not give the scribe any new
information ...as matter of fact, pointed him to the part of the law with which
he would have been most familiar...the statement in vv.29-30 about loving God
with "all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your
mind, and with all your strength" is taken from
Deut.6:4-5...Jewish people in first century and today refer to this part of
Scripture as the "shema"..."shema" is Hebrew word for
"hear" which appears in the phrase "Hear, O Israel" at
beginning of this statement...
·
This was the opening sentence spoken in every synagogue
worship service...
·
It was repeated by pious Jews at beginning and ending of
each day...
·
It was worn by devout Jews in a tiny leather box called a
phylactery on their foreheads or wrists...
·
It was hung on their doors of their homes in a small
round box called a mezuzah...
Jesus could not have picked a
part of the law with which the scribe was more familiar...
3. The second part of Jesus answer, "You
shall love your neighbor as yourself" taken from Leviticus 19:18
was also very familiar to the scribe...as matter of fact, Hillel, one of the
great Jewish rabbi's studied by every student of the law, once said, "What
you yourself hate, do not do to your neighbor; this is the whole Law -- the
rest is commentary."
4. Now, you might be wondering if all Jesus did
was quote back to this scribe two OT passages with which he was already
familiar, what is the significance of His answer?...what is so brilliant about
that?...the significance is this is first time any teacher had linked these two
teachings together...and doing that was brilliant because taken together they
summarize the 10 commandments which is the foundation of all the law...
·
The statement
about loving God summarizes commandments 1-4 which deal with our
relationship with God...(no other gods,
no graven images, not take name in vain, remember Sabbath)
·
The statement
about loving neighbor summarizes commandments 5-10 which deal
with our relationship with people…(honor father/mother, not murder, not commit
adultery, not steal, not bear false witness, not covet)
5. And by putting these two passages together
Jesus was making significant statement...saying love for God and love for
people are inseparably tied together...if don't love God, can't really love
others...and if don't love others, sure sign don't love God...
1. Typical scribe in first century world would
never have agreed with that...to the scribes, it wasn't relationships that were
important...it was laws, rules, and regulations...in their thinking, those
always came before people...Jesus was just the opposite ...He always placed
people before laws...
·
In Mark 2 when Jesus was criticized by the religious
legalists because his disciples did not keep their laws about the Sabbath,
Jesus swept aside their laws by saying, "The sabbath was made for
man, and not man for the Sabbath."
·
In John 8
when came bringing woman caught in act of adultery quoting law said should be
stoned, Jesus disarmed them by saying, "Let the one among you
without sin cast the first stone."
·
In Luke 10 told
incredible story in which Jewish priest and priest's helper portrayed as
villains because passed by an injured man and left him by side of road to die
in their haste to get to temple to obey religious laws...
2. The primary thrust of Jesus's teaching in
this passage and elsewhere is quite clear...can't read gospels without seeing
God is much more concerned about how we treat people...about our
relationships...than He is about which laws and rules we obey...the New Testament
knows nothing of religion that expounds principles but tramples on people...as followers
of Jesus we are called to:
--love
our neighbors...
--forgive those who have sinned against us...
--bear one another's burdens...
--care for those with special needs...
--share life changing news of the
gospel...
And none of those things can be
done in isolation from people. Genuine
Christianity must be lived out within context of human relationships, not in
the realm of legalistically keeping laws, rules, and regulation.
3. In book
Before I Wake Paul Carlson tells interesting story about Lenin the
Russian revolutionary...his wife had been keeping a around the clock vigil over
her dying mother...finally, in exhaustion she begged Lenin to watch her mother
for one night so she could get some rest...she went to sleep with Lenin writing
at his desk... when she awakened the next morning he was still writing and her
mother was dead...Lenin's wife angrily criticized him for his inattention and
he responded, "You told me to
awaken you if your mother needed you. She
died. She didn't need you."...and
Carlson points out Lenin was so wrapped up in the Bolshevik revolution he had
lost his capacity for human compassion...
4. That's a tragedy...and it's an even greater
tragedy when it happens in the name of religion...and that is exactly what
happens whenever we allow religious laws, rules, and regulations to become more
important to us than people...Jesus indeed said it well...the essence of true
religion is loving God and loving others...
Verses 32-34a indicate, that to his credit, this scribe recognized the
truth of Jesus’ answer. “You
are not far from the kingdom of God” (v.34) could have a double
meaning. If he would but open his eyes,
he would see that in Jesus the kingdom of God (the reign of God in the hearts
of people) was at hand. And the
indication is that he was very near to understanding that.
Verse 34b marks a turning point in this chapter. The religious authorities had asked their
questions, and now it was Jesus’ turn to ask a question of them.
