August 5, 2024: Monday Bible Study on the Gospel of Mark 12:28-36
Buenos Dias - Good Day to you this morning. May the LORD of all Creation enfold you with His Love and grant you strong growing faith in His Son our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We all need to be praying for calm and conversation between Middle Eastern nations. Our world, and the world of revenge that is currently playing out in the Middle East is proof of our readings for today in Mark.
In our reading for today we find a Scribe who comes to Jesus asking Him, what is the first commandment of all the commandments? We should all know Christ's answer to this query. But over the centuries there had been a list of writers, prophets, and leaders like David who had addressed the laws by which a person of faith must live. It was taught by rabbis and religious leaders that Moses had received 613 precepts on Mt Sinai, 355 laws according to the days of the year, and 248 for the generations of man. But David comes along and states in Psalm 15 that there were only 11. We can all read these in the Psalm. Isaiah came along and reduced them to 6. See Isaiah 33:15. Micah wrote in 6:8 that there were only three. Let's see what Micah had to say. For this prophet they were 1) to do the Lord's Justice. 2) to love mercy. 3) to walk humbly before God. And, later in Isaiah 66:1 there were only two. 1) To restrain from judging others. 2) To do God's justice. Finally, the prophet Habakkuk whittles it down to one! "The just shall live by faith."
Jesus takes Old Testament Scripture and refines it. Deuteronomy 6:4 "Hear O Israel, the LORD your God is one LORD." This phrase is named the Shema. It is meant to direct the faithful. It is an imperative to hear. We have imperatives in our own language. When the children are being rowdy and not hearing any direction from the adults we may loudly say "Listen!" Even our street sign with the words STOP on it are an imperative. The Shema is the foundation for monotheism that was certainly at the heart of the faithful of the Hebrews (Jews) and the current Jewish faithful. But there is more. In Leviticus 19:18 we see "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Jesus puts these two passages together to come to the Great Commandment and its second, satisfying the Scribe who had asked the question. In fact, Jesus found this Scribe to a person of great faith and having the fullness of all that the Bible reveals about what is really most important for all people who have faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This is the place where you and I can never go wrong if we allow the Spirit's guidance in our faith! But it is also the place in our lives of faith where we so often fall miserably short. The simplicity of "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and the second to it is to love your neighbor as you love yourself. Its strikingly simple, but for you and me, extraordinarily difficult in our faith journey. We encounter the need for this Great Commandment every day, from minute to minute, and hour to hour. From the man or woman on the street median, to the person sitting next to us in worship, to others who we will never see, but for whom our faith calls for our lovingkindness, and the most difficult, to offer our love to those we loathe in this life. I want you to know that I am saying that right along with you I certainly have miles to grow in my own life as I shepherd Christ's flock and pray for His guidance and courage to be all that these two commandments ask of me. We all need to know that worship is not just a Sunday morning thing that we do, it is instead what we do with every minute that is also our worship. So, is our worship right with God? Are we God's justice for others? Do we love God fully all of the time? What is really the god that we love the most in our lives? These questions and more are good for us to ask ourselves every day. For Jesus, the answer to every one of these questions is answered in the Great Commandment and its second.
God bless you all, and may your worship be constant and your prayers to the Father endless.
In Christ's love, Pastor Kim
Comments