This is Much More Important

Year B: Proper 26

Therefore one of the most significant elements in the teaching of Jesus was to redefine the neighbor as everybody, including the hated Samaritans and Gentiles (cf. Luke 10:30–37, which follows immediately his account of the discussion about the greatest commandment).

Brooks, James A. Mark. Vol. 23. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1991. Print. The New American Commentary.

Year B, Proper 26, November 3, 2024

First Reading: Deuteronomy 6:1-9

Psalm: Psalm 119:1-8

Second Reading: Hebrews 9:11-14

Gospel: Mark 12:28-34

This is Much More Important

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, “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 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 ‘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. 

Mark 12:28-34

The Law taught that humans are to love God with their whole self. We shouldn't, and don’t have to, hold anything back from God. God already knows our strength, the contents of our heart, and the innermost thoughts of our mind, yet God still loves us.

If we can begin to grasp this truth, then nothing should stop us from throwing ourselves into the arms of God. A Father can’t help but love his children, and we love because God first loved us. 

But what does Jesus mean by the saying “love your neighbor”? 

We might even ask, “Who is my neighbor?”

This question is usually asked by people who want to get out of loving people that are either hard to love or that they don’t want to love. Jesus foresaw this problem, so he taught,

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven... Matthew 5:43–45

We see from the passage in Mark 12 and the one in Matthew 5 that these two commands are inseparable. 

You can’t love God without loving your neighbor, and you can’t love your neighbor without loving God. 

The one who loves the Father loves the children, and the one who loves the children loves the Father. (1 John 4-5)

At this point it is natural for one to seek a proper definition of love. If this is what God wants us to do, we better figure out how to do it.

I think this question, though, is already starting off on the wrong foot.

It’s starting from a place of wanting to control love. “Put love under a microscope, figure it out, and then we can do it!”

This kind of thinking, though, usually ends up with the ones in the laboratory trying to figure out how to control, manipulate, or, even worse, market love.

The secret is realizing that love can’t be defined; love can only be revealed. 

If love can be defined, God would have given us a dictionary instead of a Son, a letter instead of a Cross, or a dissertation instead of a resurrection. 

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son…”

“God proves his love towards us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us."

The best way to learn to love is to leave behind what power or ability we think may lie in the mind, the heart, and the strength so that we can turn all of that over to Jesus on the Cross. When we commit our entire self to Christ by “laying down our lives for our friends,” then and only then will we know Love and be able to Love.

When the scribe heard Jesus’s answer he said, “This is much more important than all whole offerings and sacrifices.”

Sacrifice, offerings, tithes, charity, faith, hope, worship, knowledge, gifts of the Spirit, etc. are all nothing without LOVE. 

We can’t work our way to God. We can’t faith our way to God. We can’t worship our way to God. We can’t hope our way to God.

All of things are important, but without love they are nothing.

So, Jesus looked at the man and said, “You are not far from the kingdom.”

I interpret this to mean something like…

You know that loving God and loving neighbor are the most important commands. 

But knowledge without action doesn’t’t help anyone. 

It doesn’t feed the hungry or clothe the naked. 

In other words, the one who has faith in Christ loves, and the one who loves has faith in Christ. Knowing you should love your neighbor and loving your neighbor are two different things. 

Having the correct knowledge may count for something in some people’s eyes, but if that knowledge doesn’t manifest itself in love, we aren’t living in the fulness of the kingdom.

Are you on the edge of the kingdom?

Second Reading: Where Was the Holy Spirit?

Where was the Holy Spirit during the crucifixion? We know Jesus was there, and we know God was there (Psalm 22:1, 24). In John, Jesus said, “The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each one to his home, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me” (John 16:32). Paul also taught that God was “in Christ” reconciling the world to himself (2 Corinthians 5:19).

But where was the Holy Spirit?

We know from passages like Luke 3:22 and Luke 4:18 that the Holy Spirit visibly descended upon Jesus at his baptism and that Jesus taught that the Spirit of the Lord was upon him, so it makes sense for the Holy Spirit to be present at the Cross somehow but how?

The Hebrews writer said, “For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer sanctifies those who have been defiled so that their flesh is purified, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living God!” (Hebrews 9:13–14).

While sacrifices under the Law were offered “through the fire,” Jesus’s offering took place through the Spirit. That is, the Spirit of God empowered Jesus through the very end, and Jesus’s sacrifice enables us to be confident in eternal redemption and a total cleansing of the conscience.

So where was the Spirit during the crucifixion? Like the Father, the Spirit was right there. Jesus wasn’t alone on the Cross, and we aren’t alone in our trials. Just as the relationship between Father, Son, and Spirit cannot be broken, our own relationship with God is eternal because of the love poured out for us.

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