Sunday, September 21, 2008

The Great Commandment

Dear friends:During the last week of Jesus' earthly life, which is generally called the Passion Week [from Palm Sunday to Holy Saturday], having gone to Jerusalem to celebrate the traditional Jewish festival of Unleavened Bread and the Passover Meal; from Palm Sunday to the day before Holy Thursday [four days], Jesus preached in the Temple precincts, as recorded particularly in the Gospel of Luke 21:37-38:"Every day he was teaching in the temple, and at night he would go out and spend the night on the Mount of Olives, as it was called. And all the people would get up early in the morning to listen to him in the temple.

"These narratives of Jesus' last days in Jerusalem comprise some lengthy sections in the synoptic gospels: Matthew 21-25, Mark 11-13, and Luke 19:28-21:38.It was during the Wednesday of that Passion Week, that Jesus had numerous discourses and conversations with "all the people" who came to hear him speak in the temple precincts -- particularly a very important discussion which occurred between a scribe of the Pharisees [who was also a lawyer] and Jesus. The topic of this discussion is known as The Great Commandmant: it is recorded in Matthew 22:34-40, Mark 12:28-34, and Luke 10:25-28.

Let us review this event:Matthew 22:34-40 ...When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" He said to him, " 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."Mark 12:28-34 ...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: "This is the first: '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 neighbor 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 '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,' -- 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.Luke 10:25-28 ...Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he said, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" He said to him, "What is written in the law? What do you read there?" He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." And he said to him, "You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live."These are several versions of this Pharisee lawyer / Jesus dialogue, and the synoptic gospel writers take different perspectives on it. However, immensely important is that all three of these evangelists sandwich this Great Commandment dialogue -- between the previous dialogue that Jesus had with the Sadducees about the RESURRECTION [and the Sadducees did not believe in eternal life, being the hereditary elite priestly class that interacted between the Roman rulers and the lower Jewish classes] -- and the subsequent dialogue that Jesus initiates about the MESSIAH as DAVID'S SON.

No comments: