“The Way of Love”
November 3, 2024
Rev. Rebecca Migliore
This passage from the gospel of Mark, or portions of it, are well known to many of us. We might have learned it in Sunday School-- that the greatest commandments were about loving God (with all that we have, with heart, soul, and mind) and loving our neighbors as ourselves. But as I tried to figure out what this parable might say to us today, I kept running up against the fact that this does not seem to be a very loving time.
You turn on the TV and are bombarded with election advertising that is certainly not loving. There was a comic speaking at a rally in Madison Square Garden talking about other Americans as garbage. There is vitriol and anxiety and lots of talk about what is going to happen in the next few days. “What’s love got to do with it?” (as Tina Turner asks). But God’s commandments, God’s wish for how we live our lives, is meant for all times and places, and maybe this is exactly the right time to be reminding ourselves of what Jesus thought was most important. So, let’s spend a little time looking closely at this story.
First off, the person who is asking the question, “What is the first (the most important) commandment?” is a scribe. Now scribes and Pharisees do not get shown in a good light in the gospels. They were the religious establishment and Jesus was pushing against that establishment. In the chapters that we skipped over between last week and this week—Jesus has entered Jerusalem (in that motley parade) and almost immediately began to make waves. He cleanses the Temple, upturning the tables of the money lenders, and driving out those who were selling sacrificial animals, proclaiming “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers,” getting up the ire of the chief priests and scribes who then look for a way to kill him.
The scribes and priests engage Jesus in conversation, or debate, or testing, around Jesus’ authority, about who one should pay taxes to, and about marriage in the resurrection. It is in this context that this one scribe “heard” them disputing with one another, and “seeing” (notice this word) that Jesus answered them well, asked the question.
Let’s notice that this scribe seems to both see and hear what Jesus is saying. He is not as blind as even some of the disciples seem to be. He is paying attention. He has ears to hear. Does he come to Jesus with an open heart? We don’t know. Certainly this is not the normal attitude for a scribe in Mark. And maybe this our first clue to what we might be hearing in this passage—don’t prejudge people. Don’t think you already know who they are. Love insists on another way.
And what question does the scribe ask? “Which commandment is the first of all?” Interesting question. Does he ask because all the other questions (on authority, taxes, and resurrection) are really tricky points—like the small print on the bottom of a commercial? Does he ask because he thinks they are getting away from the bottom line? Does he want to make the measure of this man—and what better way than to ask “what is the most important thing that God asks of us?” As we sometimes sing, “What does the Lord require of us?” Unlike the other questions it’s not a trick question. Any good Jew would know the answer. For they would have heard the Shema constantly: “Hear, O Israel. The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” And as we heard when Lyric read more of Deuteronomy 6, the Shema was supposed to permeate your life. You would have heard it read at temple, and been taught it around the Shabbat table. You might have it tacked onto your doorposts so that you might be reminded of its words every time you go in or out of your home. You might even have worn those words in a phylactery on your arm or your forehead.
So which commandment is first of all? I can just imagine all the people listening in on this interaction between this scribe and Jesus, mouthing the words, as Jesus said them. ‘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 Jesus adds) and with all your strength.’ Jesus could have stopped there, and been in good company. But he didn’t. He goes on: The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
I almost had three readings today. Because I think it is important to realize that Jesus was lifting up sentiments from his holy scriptures. We read the most obvious of these from Deuteronomy 6. And we could have read the passage from Leviticus which talks about loving your neighbor, and is probably what Jesus was referring to when he mentioned his “second” commandment. But if I had picked a third reading, I might have read some of the book of Ruth, which is an alternative reading for today. I would have read the part where Ruth, the daughter-in-law, no blood relation to Naomi, and not even of the same ethnic or religious people, decides that she is going to follow her mother-in-law, to a different land, to a different people, not knowing how she might be treated or accepted. You have surely heard the words: “Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people and your God my God…” It’s an interesting partner, and interesting expansion of “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
So after enumerating what he thinks are the first and second commandments, I notice that Jesus ends his answer with “There is no commandment greater than these.” Now Jesus. You didn’t exactly answer the question as it was asked. Which is the first? Which is the greatest? You gave two answers. And maybe that is the point. Maybe Jesus felt you cannot separate one from the other. You cannot put one before the other. They are intertwined. And just as they can be seen as encapsulating the whole of the original 10 commandments—they are the law in a nutshell.
All the other 613 laws found in Leviticus are just musings on this theme. These are the way of love. These are the way of God. These are the way we are to live our lives, each and every day.
And the scribe agrees with Jesus. He even restates what Jesus has said, pulling the Love of God and Love of neighbor/self together. “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 neighbor as oneself.’ But he goes further than that. He adds a commentary that points to a quote from the prophet Hosea. The scribe says, “this [Loving God and loving neighbor as self] is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” Listen to Hosea’s words and remember he is prophesying--or speaking God’s words: “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” It is almost as if the scribe is acknowledging that Jesus’ anger at the goings on at the Temple mount might have been righteous anger. Was the temple, the religious establishment, too interconnected with animal sacrifice and burnt offerings—instead of steadfast love and the knowledge of God? It is a question for every age.
Here is an example of theological dialogue at its best. Two faithful people wrestling with a basic and yet most important question. Not trying to trick one another or outshine the other in showing how much Biblical knowledge one has. Not just parroting a verse from Scripture but expanding it by pulling threads from different places, threads that woven together give a more complete picture of an answer.
In our Sunday School lessons (at least the ones I remember) we have completely removed the scribe’s excitement at Jesus’ answer, and his “Amen, to that brother” comment by alluding to Hosea. There is no disagreement here. There is mutual respect. There is a sharing of deeply held beliefs. Might we even say, there is love of neighbor as of self.
Our text tells us that “When Jesus saw (note the sight word again), when Jesus saw that he answered “wisely,” he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” I do want to lift up that the word translated as “wisely” is used only in this passage in Mark’s gospel. And some commentators believe it could be translated as “thoughtfully.” Either way, as Sung Soo Hong at workingpreacher.com says, “The scribe’s reply is truly exceptional.”
But I don’t think the wording is what prompts Jesus’ comment. I believe it was the way this scribe met Jesus as an equal, as a fellow traveler on the path towards the knowledge of God, as a neighbor that one loves, and as a brother in the faith. “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” There is no higher complement from Jesus.
And Mark ends this story by saying, “After that no one dared ask him any question.” It is not often that we are invited in the gospels to be like a scribe. But this person, this scribe, was walking in the way of love. This person, this scribe, held Love of God and Love of those around us in high regard. This person, this scribe, knew Love was what God intended, and Love is what God wants from us. Simple. And almost impossibly hard.
Love. Not the shallow, “love means never having to say you’re sorry” love. But love that is infused with justice, with right, with dignity, with mercy and compassion, with care of the other, with sharing of one’s self, with walking hand in hand with God. And maybe, maybe, if we can be like this scribe, we too can get “not far from the kingdom of God.” May it be so. Alleluia, Amen.