The greatest commandment

It is now the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time and today’s gospel reading is a question that the Jews asked Jesus, which is a very basic prayer for all Jews. Today’s gospel reading comes from Mark 12:28-34. It is a simple question that Jews know by heart, so in a way it was asked by a Jew to find out what Jesus really believed in.

“28 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?” 29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’

“31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”32 “Well said, teacher,” the man replied.  “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33 To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

“34 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.”

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If you read Deuteronomy 6:4-9, you will understand that this is about the Hebrew word found in the Shema, which is read in English like this: “Shema Ysrael, Adonai Elpheinu, Adonai Echad.” Which means, “Hear O Israel, The Lord is our God, the Lord is One!” Then in Deuteronomy 6:5-9, Jews recite, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might.”

The Shema prayer is the centerpiece of Jewish prayers; first in the morning when they wake up then in the evening before they go to bed. It is Judaism’s affirmation of God’s singularity and kingship that there is only one God amongst all the gods that other nations or peoples worship. The Shema is a daily recitation by devout Jews and they even use it in their phylacteries, which are also called tefillin that Jews wear when they pray.

When the Jews realized that Jesus answered them correctly and wisely, they did not dare ask him again. The Jews did not know that God whom Jesus called his father is the same god that Moses met in the burning bush in Mt. Zion. It is a fact that if you read Matt. 5:17 our Lord Jesus Christ was crystal clear to all when he said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” This statement is more than enough proof for the Jews to realize that Jesus came not to abolish the law.

Allow me to give another example of how things were and how the Jews changed the law. Matt. 19:3-8 says “3 Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?” 4 “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at “the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh]? 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

“7 “Why then,” they asked, “did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?” 8 Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning.”

So what we learned today is that Judaism during the time of Moses gave the Jews the right to divorce their wives when God never changed that natural law. In the end Jesus taught them a lesson saying “but it was not this way from the beginning.”

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