The Gospel for next Sunday… One of the scribes came near and… 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.” (Mark 12:28-34)
I am intrigued by Jesus’s
response, You are not far from the kingdom of God… it’s tantalising… only
a little way to go… what does he still have to do? Jesus has just given the classic Jewish
answer to the scribe’s question. The scribe needs for some reason to rank the
divine commandments, as though lowedown the list might be optional. Which is the greatest commandment of all? Jesus replies, and the scribe marks him
correct… awfully decent of him… and the scribe adds, to love God and to love
one’s neighbour is more important than all the sacrificial offerings of the
temple worship. Jesus must be right,
thinks the scribe, because I agree with him.
Over in Luke we find a similar version, about a lawyer asking Jesus
which is the greatest of the commandments; Jesus says, Well, what’s in the
Law, how do you read it? And the
lawyer gives the same answer from the Book of Deuteronomy, You shall love…etc
– and Jesus says, That’s right… so do it.[1] It is not our ideas, primarily, that need
changing – it’s not at that level -- it is our hearts. Entering the kingdom is not believing the
correct stuff, finding the answers – it is entering a change of heart, or a
heart ever open to change… to being blown by the wind of the Spirit… or to alter
the imagery again, to what the Hebrew scriptures beautifully call returning
and rest[2]... coming home, to where we belong.
Some people object to the word
kingdom, because it’s male. The Greek
word Paul uses is feminine. Let’s say
realm, then… the realm of Jesus, the realm of God, is where -- whether abroad
in the world and in human events or in the recesses of my heart – God’s command
is done, has precedence, is loved, informs and decides my life… the level at
which the Way of Christ is freely chosen.
The road less travelled, one might say[3],
is the one that goes all the way, the road that leads to the realm of
Christ.
The scribe is nearly there, says
Jesus. Jesus encourages him, I think. He is on the right road because it is to love
God and to love what God has made… and to forsake idols… what Jesus called pure
in heart.[4]
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