Tuesday

Yesterday's cleansing of the temple created quite a stir among the religious leaders and the crowds. Today Jesus spends the morning directly confronting questions from these religious leaders, using His last appearance in the Temple to address the following:

Questions from priests and elders about His authority to cleanse the Temple.
Questions from the Pharisees about the legitimacy of paying taxes.
Questions from the Sadducees about the resurrection.
Questions from the Pharisees about the greatest commandments, and
Questions from the Pharisees about Jesus' relation to the Son of David

Jesus spends the afternoon teaching his disciples and the Passover crowd, focusing on topics which are very important for His followers:

Seven lessons on religous hypocrisy,
A lesson on giving based on a simple widow's offering,
signs about the timing of the coming temple destruction and end of the age,
A lesson on preparing for His return (Parable of the Ten Virgins),
A lesson on faithfulness and stewardship (Parable of the Talents), and
A lesson on judgment of Gentile nations (Parable of Sheep and Goats).

Today we will focus on Mark's account of the question from a Pharisee about the greatest commandments:

"One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" "The most important one" answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 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 scond is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." "Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, wtih all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices." When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions." (Mark 12:28-34)

The Jewish scribes had catalogued 613 commandments - 365 prohibitive ones and 248 positive ones. Just this week a good friend loaned me a book entitled "The Taryag Mitznos" which includes this list of 613 commandments (Mitzvahs) and a page of interpretation on each one. As an example, Mitzvah 1 is "Be fruitful and multiply". The explanation addresses age of applicability (18 or older), number of children required (at least one boy and at least one girl), and rules for dealing wtih special cases (death of children, infertility, divorce, etc).

Unlike some of the other questions from the Pharisees, this is not a trick question. This Pharisee is asking Jesus to address a much-debated question of the day.

After quoting the magnificent Hebrew Shema - "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one" - Jesus clearly identifies the first and second greatest commandments. The bad news is that these most important comandments are very difficult to obey. Have we ever truly obeyed them for a single moment in our entire lives?

These commandments identify two of our most significant struggles in life: to love God wholeheartedly and to love other people. Our inability to keep the most important commandments demonstrates the depth of our depravity and our desperate need for a savior. Scripture describes this as the overarching purpose of the law as a whole: the law is a tuor that leads us to Christ.

"So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith." (Galatians 3:24)

My hope as we move through each day of Passion Week is that we will more fully appreciate how Jesus' death, burial and resurrection make this justification possible!