Day 37 : Mark 12:28-34
With all your heart?
Surrounded by the whole Bible and all the Church’s teaching, it can be hard to answer simply ‘What is the nub of our Christian faith?’ Here is a story that might help!
Jesus has had to face many tricky questions. Now, finally, we have a straight inquiry from a serious scribe: ‘Which commandment is the first of all?’ Such questions were commonplace to Jewish teachers. Faced with the 650 laws in the Jewish Torah, people wanted rabbis3 to sum up the essence of the Law and their duty to God. In answer the rabbis would highlight one or two key commandments.
Here Jesus does exactly the same. He brings together a verse from Deuteronomy about love for God with a verse from Leviticus about love for neighbour. These two principles are interrelated but not identical. Love for God concerns putting God first. It is about the life of worship and devotion, enjoying God’s presence, about openness to his spirit and the transformation that brings. From that flows love for neighbour, an unconditional care for all, regardless of race, class or sexuality. Love for neighbour also entails challenging those systems that impoverish people. Here is Christianity in a nutshell!
The real heart of the Gospel is God’s love for us, shown in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. This is Mark’s fundamental story.
These two principles take us to the heart of our faith. But even more they may take us to the heart of our humanity. People are asking today what it means to be human: what leads to human flourishing. Jesus here provides the answer. After all, perhaps this is why we were created?
3A rabbi is a teacher or leader of the Jewish community.