Read Mark 12:28-34.
In all of them, we hear about the greatest commandment – love God – and the one that’s linked to it – love your neighbour.
In Matthew (22:34-40), there’s a Pharisee who asks what the greatest commandment in the Law is. He asks the question to test Jesus. The Pharisees had actually got together to test him. What was the purpose of the test? We know from Matthew 22:15 that they wanted to trap Jesus. Jews were divided on this question. Can you call one of God’s commandments more important than another? Whatever Jesus said, it might cause him to lose followers. That would please the Pharisees.
In Luke (10:25-27), the story is similar, but different. An expert in the law asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus throws the question back – what does the Law say? The expert replies with those same two principles: Love God, and love your neighbour. Jesus approves: “Do this and you will live” (v 28). Is this enquirer genuine? Not really. We learn at the start of the Luke story that the expert “stood up to test Jesus” (v 25). But Jesus was a great teacher. He asked the expert for his own understanding. The man had to give his own position. He had to show his hand. And then the expert had to find another question to justify himself.
But here we are in Mark. In the story here, there is no hint that the questioner is trying to trick Jesus. Maybe he is, maybe not. We know that this teacher had heard Jesus win a debate with the Sadducees. Anyway, trick or not, Jesus answers plainly. He answers the question about the greatest commandment, and then follows it with the second. Love God, and love your neighbour. Asked for one, he gives two. “There is no commandment greater than these” (Mk 12:31).
Jesus was happy to take a stand on this question. There were many instructions in the scriptures of the Jews, the writings that know as the Old Testament. But it made sense to identify the main points.
In Mark, the questioner is happy with what Jesus says. He doesn’t try to quiz Jesus further. Instead, he respects Jesus as a teacher. The man shows that he believes in the same truths himself. He puts what Jesus says in his own words, and adds further words from scripture.
Are we still suspicious that this man was out to trick Jesus? Maybe he was from the same group of Pharisees that we see in Matthew. We might expect Jesus to judge him by his membership of that group. But that is not the way of Jesus. He warmly commended this man who had “answered wisely”. He said, “You are not far from the kingdom of God” (Mk 12:34).
Are we able to see wisdom in people who break barriers and ask questions? Do we prejudge people who come with other labels? Can we learn from a Catholic if we’re a Protestant, from a Liberal if we’re Labor or Green, from a non-believer if we have faith? The labels may become less important when we start to talk, and if we share about things that matter – like big picture things, rather than lots of little details.
Back in Luke, the questioner pursued Jesus on that second point – about loving your neighbour. This got Jesus onto the story of the Good Samaritan. That good man from Samaria was an outsider. He had compassion when he saw a wounded stranger. The religious insiders were focused on themselves. But the Samaritan didn’t think about his own label or the label on the man in need.
Jesus could pick a true enquirer. He didn’t play in-group games. Who would have thought that he’d side with a Pharisee? But our credit is no accident of birth or the club we were inducted into. Jesus sees the whole person. As followers of Jesus, can we see our neighbours this way, too?
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