Title: The
Greatest Commandment(s) and the Gospel
Subtitle: Rethinking
Jesus Use of “The Greatest Commandment(s)” in Mark 12, Matthew 19, Matthew 22, Luke
10, and John 6
Author: Christopher
Travis Haun for http://rethinker.net/soteria
Draft Date: November
2008 [first draft basically complete]
Copyright: This
rethink may be reproduced and distributed freely so long as neither changes nor
charges are made
Feedback: Please
feel free to email any feedback of any kind on this rethink to cthaun[at]rethinker[dot]net
Summary and Intro:
Is our worthiness to enter
God’s kingdom contingent upon obedience to the Greatest Commandment—to love God
and love people? This rethink attempts
to explore Jesus’ use of “The Greatest Commandment(s)” in Mark 12, Matthew 19, Matthew
22, and Luke 10. In some of these instances the men asking
Jesus about the Law were specialists (lawyers) in Mosaic-and-Rabbinic Law who
were attempting to trap Jesus with their craftiest and thorniest Law questions.
In other instances the men asking Jesus
about the Law were overly confident in their own righteousness. In all cases,
Jesus gives brilliant, deep, and tailor-made answers. We should not be satisfied with shallow conclusions
based on half-hearted examinations of these texts. This rethink attempts to take us on a deeper
examination of Jesus use of The Great Commandment.
While it does seems clear
that Jesus takes reinforces the axiom that those who could keep the Laws of
loving God and loving humans perfectly would be counted worthy by God to enter
the kingdom and receive true and eternal life.
However, Jesus also seems to hint strongly to men who think that they
have kept the greatest commandments perfectly that they have not kept the law
well at all. For a perfect man the
greatest commandments may be a guaranteed avenue into the kingdom. But since we are not perfect in our
obedience, the greatest commandments become the greatest obstacles to finding
acceptance with God. In John 6 Jesus
answers the same question in a different way for a different audience. Turning what should be bad news (that we
cannot obey the greatest commandment adequately for God’s approval) into Good
News, Jesus says that the work God really demands of us is to “believe in the
One God has sent.”
The Reflexive and Shallow
Assumption
Many Christians believe that
their worthiness to “enter the kingdom” and “inherit eternal life” depends upon
their ability to obey the two Greatest Commandments—loving God and loving
people.
This thinking flows naturally
from passages like Luke 10:
On one occasion an expert in
the law stood up to test
Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
"What is written in the Law?" he
replied. "How do you read it?"
He answered: " 'Love the Lord your God
with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with
all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"
"You have answered correctly," Jesus
replied. "Do this and
you will live."
And Matthew 19:
Now a man came up to Jesus
and asked, "Teacher, what
good thing must I do to get eternal life?"
. . . Jesus replied. “. . . If you want to enter life, obey the commandments."
"Which ones?" the
man inquired.
Jesus replied, " 'Do
not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony,
honor your father and mother,' and 'love your neighbor as yourself.'"
But to stop here and walk
away convinced that the most important question in life has been answered is to
prefer ignorance and oversimplification.
For our Lord said more about it than this. While the axiom may be true that our
worthiness is based on our ability to keep these commandments, this rethink
questions whether the salvation equation starts and ends with that axiom or if
it merely begins there. I’ll assume as
axiomatic that entrance into kingdom/life is based on our obedience to the two
greatest commandments. That seems
clear. But while thinking might end
there, rethinking begins there. There
are at least four passages in the gospel accounts where Jesus talks
specifically about the greatest commandment(s) and the need to think deeply is
also clear. To get a better feel for Jesus’
command of the Greatest Commandment, we need to at least examine, research,
rethink, and meditate upon the following passages from the gospels:
·
Mark 12:28-34 - The Greatest Commandment
·
Matthew 19:16-30 - The
Rich Young Man
·
Matthew 22:34-40 - The Greatest Commandment
·
Luke 10:25-37 - The Parable of the Good Samaritan
·
John 6:22-47 – Jesus the Bread of Life
Matthew 22:34-40 - The
Greatest Commandment
Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees
got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this
question: "Teacher, which is the greatest
commandment in the Law?"
Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your
heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38This is the first and
greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as
yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets
hang on these two commandments."
Mark 12:28-34 - The Greatest
Commandment
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 second 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, 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."
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.
Luke 10:25-37 - The Parable
of the Good Samaritan
On one
occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked,
"what must I do to
inherit eternal life?"
"What is written
in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?"
He answered: "
'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all
your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"
"You have
answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."
But he wanted to justify himself,
so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"
In reply Jesus said: "A man was going down from
Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him
of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31A priest
happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by
on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him,
passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the
man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged
his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey,
took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver
coins and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I
return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.' "Which
of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands
of robbers?"
The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on
him."
Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."
Matthew 19:16-30 - The Rich Young Man
Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what
good thing must I do to get eternal life?"
"Why
do you ask me about what is good?" Jesus replied. "There is only One who is good.
If you want to enter life, obey the commandments."
"Which ones?" the man inquired.
Jesus replied, " 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery,
do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,' and
'love your neighbor as yourself.'"
"All
these I have kept," the young man said. "What do I still
lack?"
Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your
possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then
come, follow me."
When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he
had great wealth.
Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth,
it is hard for a rich man
to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a
camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the
kingdom of God."
Once we are all familiar with
and reminded of the four excerpts above, let us begin to rethink them.
In Mt 22:34-39, I note that
the person who asked Jesus “Which is the greatest commandment in the Law,” was
not the average man. He was “an expert in
the law.” And he came to Jesus in order
to test Jesus. This was not a spur of
the moment decision. The man was sent to
test Jesus by the Pharisees who had a meeting together after “hearing that
Jesus had silenced the Sadducees.” Jesus
had indeed silenced the Sadducees (cf. Mt 22:23-33) and he did so in a way that
the Pharisees would have been very pleased with. Why
would the Pharisees approach Jesus after silencing the Sadducees? Perhaps the Pharisees were hoping Jesus
would pass their test and support their party and their tradition? The Sadducees were a competing religious
group and Jesus had sided with the Pharisaic interpretation when he silenced
them. Were the Pharisees hoping Jesus would
become one of their champions and strengthen their religious power? This seems unlikely to me. For the Pharisees had already tried to trap
Jesus in his own words before and they themselves had been silenced by the
brilliance of his answer. (Mt. 22:15-22.)
It seems more likely to me that even
though the Sadducee party and the Pharisee party were competing with one
another, by this time they both wanted to destroy Jesus’ reputation as an
influential Rabbi in Israel. Neither
wanted to compete with Jesus and they both were moving closer and closer to the
time when they wanted to have Jesus executed.
But my main point here is that a specialist, a lawyer, was the one sent
to test Jesus with this question.
Jesus’ answer was probably
quite suitable to the Pharisees and the Sadducees here. Jesus wasn’t inventing it. Other rabbis before him had said the same
thing. He was agreeing and reaffirming
with something the Lawyers probably accepted.
God had given Israel approximately 613 laws through Moses about 1,500
years before Jesus debated with the Pharisees.
Those 613 commandments were already summarized into the Ten Commandments
when Moses delivered the Law to Israel.
Since five of the Ten Commandments focused on the laws between the
Israelite and God, and since the other five of the Ten Commandments focused on
the Israelite’s relationship to other Israelites and People, it is not
surprising that Jesus and other rabbis could and would summarize all of the
Mosaic law into one or two commandments. This summation fits perfectly. We are to love God with all our all. And we are to love our neighbor as our self. These two inseparable commandments summarize
the Ten Commandments and indeed the entire Law of Moses.
In Mt. 22, however, we don’t
see what comes of Jesus passing this test.
He definitely passed it. The
Pharisees would have been pleased with his answer. Who wouldn’t be? In Mt.22:41-46, however, Jesus proceeds to
ask the Pharisees a question that tests them.
They fail his test. Verse 46
concludes saying, “No one could say a word in reply [to Jesus’ riddle], and
from that day no one dared to ask him [Jesus] any more questions. The most brilliant minds working with Jewish
law among the Scribes, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees all tried to do their
best to trap Jesus with questions about the Law. Jesus never once got trapped. Through his supernatural brilliance and
understanding of the Law and understanding of his opponents minds and hearts,
Jesus always amazed and stunned those who were trying to trap him with his own
words. After a few attempt to trap him,
his opponents realized that they better stop trying to trick and trap him and
just try to get him executed.
How is this relevant to the
question at hand though? To me I take
it as a sign that simple thinking will not suffice for such passages. There is a certain amount of audacity to
suggest that we English speaking people living 2,000 years after Christ and the
Pharisees have any right to try to make sense of their debate. We’re separated by oceans of time and
culture. We’re ignorant of the Mosaic
Law and even more ignorant of Rabbinic interpretation in Jesus’ day. And yet somehow some of us skim the surface
of passages like this and walk away thinking we’ve got it. Many walk away thinking, “See, the most
important thing in life for me to focus on is to try harder to love God and to
love people.” On some level this is
good of course. But the door seems wide
open to the notion that we’ve only scratched the surface on Jesus brilliance
here. Let’s proceed with the
understanding that when Jesus spoke, the brightest legal minds of his day were
stunned, thwarted, awed and silenced. This alone should set us to cautious and deep
rethinking on these passages.
In Mark 12 the only thing
that really jumps out for me is the way the story ends. Everything seems normal and good until the
last two sentences of the story:
When Jesus saw that he [the teacher of the law] had answered
wisely, he [Jesus] said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And
from then on no one dared
ask him any more questions.
I cannot connect the dots
but I know they’re connected. It is
interesting that Jesus concludes with the judgment that the teacher of the law
is “not far from the kingdom of God.” I’m
not sure what they expected to hear. I’m
not sure what to do with this myself. My
best guess for now is that here Jesus was interacting with this teacher of the
Law, one of the most educated and seasoned and powerful religious authorities
in Israel, and very possibly a man who was a member of the Sanhedrin, and
somehow Jesus proved to be his superior, a teacher of the Teacher. Also I think perhaps I sense a surprise in
Jesus saying “You are not far from the kingdom.” I imagine most men would have assured such a
Teacher, especially after answering well, that he was guaranteed entrance into
the kingdom. But Jesus says he’s not
quite there yet. Close, but not there yet.
I’m left wondering if knowing what the
two greatest commandments are is not enough.
Knowing what they are and trying to obey them is also not good
enough? Is it a step in the right
direction but not the full solution? Whatever
happened here, the real indicator that something big and deep happened here
was, “from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.” It seems that at this point all the religious
authorities realize that they cannot defeat Jesus in the war of interpreting
the Law.
In Lk. 10 we see the same theme. A teacher of the law is testing Jesus with
what may be the most important question about the Mosaic Law. He’s not just asking out of personal
curiosity. And he’s not asking for the
sake of rethinking his own opinions.
The teacher already has his own firm opinions. He also has a very high opinion about how
well he has done at obeying all the laws.
Jesus rewards his understanding
of the Law saying, that the teacher’s conclusion is right. If the teacher can love God with all his all
and love his neighbor as himself, the Teacher will live, will inherit eternal
life. But the story only begins there. Something else is going on. We might expect the teacher to say, “Ohh,
good. The new Rabbi in town says that my
judgment about the Law is right. Very well then. Off I go.”
But Luke says that something about this conversation spurred the teacher
to want to “justify himself.” The
teacher somehow felt a prick of conscience perhaps. Or perhaps he somehow felt like Jesus was
leaving the door open for the possibility that this man may not be loving his
neighbor. I’m not sure. Whatever it was, it causes the Teacher to
ask, “Who is my neighbor?” Perhaps the
Teacher was finding it relatively easy to love his friends but perhaps he was
not loving towards others. Jesus
answered his question with the parable about a man left dead by bandits. A Jewish Priest and a Jewish Levite walk past
the man and don’t show him anything resembling love. It is very possible that this teacher of the
law would have done the exact same thing as the priest and the levite. Extremely possible. Perhaps likely. For the Pharisees were attempting to apply
the stringent levels of holiness that normally applied only to Priests and
Levites to themselves. But they seemed
to always do so at the expense of love.
Jesus could have stopped there.
But he twists the knife of argument by adding the Samaritan factor. The Samaritans were enemies of the Jews. The Teacher of the law probably hated
Samaritans. I suspect highly that Jesus
was exposing the fact that this teacher of the law was not so far even truly
willing to try to live up to the second greatest commandment. He was showing the Teacher that he had so far
failed to live up to the law’s demands.
In Mt. 19 the man asking
Jesus about the Law is a “rich young ruler.”
He does not seem to be an Expert in the Law trying to test Jesus this
time. But being a “ruler” he was a
member of the Sanhedrin. So perhaps this
could be the same man described in Mk 12 or Lk 10 or Mt 19. Or perhaps the dilemma was just so widely
faced in that day that this same topic came up at least four separate times.
When the man asks, “What
good things must I do to get eternal life,” the question seems to smell like a
law question. This is probably the same
as asking which laws he must obey.
And/or it could be asking which good works he must perform. It’s all the same thing, I think.
Jesus immediately changes
direction and attempts to force the man to rethink everything.
The NIV translation puts it
this way:
Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what
good thing must I do to get eternal life?"
"Why
do you ask me about what is good?" Jesus replied. "There is only One who is good.
If you want to enter life, obey the commandments."
The NKJV translation puts it
slightly differently:
16 Now behold, one came and
said to Him, “Good Teacher,
what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?”
17 So He said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is,
God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”
Jesus attempts to make the
man rethink his definition of Good, of what is Good, and/or of Who is
Good. I suspect here that Jesus already knows that
this man, who probably looked rich and smelled wealthy and held an esteemed
position that only a good man should hold, probably thought of himself as
good. But who is good? Only God is good. This should spur rethinking in us all.
But instead of belaboring
the point, or rather as a way of expanding that point, Jesus proceeds to
reaffirm the axiom that obeying the commandments is what is required for
entering into eternal life in the kingdom of God.
"Which ones?" the man inquired.
Jesus replied, " 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery,
do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,' and
'love your neighbor as yourself.'"
"All
these I have kept," the young man said. "What do I still
lack?"
Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your
possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then
come, follow me."
When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he
had great wealth.
It is probably safe to
assume that this man had not murdered anyone, had never committed adultery, and
had not consciously stole anything from someone. But he also failed to understand what Jesus
had taught earlier that when we hate a man that we have in some way become
guilty of murder in our hearts. When we
lust after another man’s wife we have become guilty in some way of adultery in
our hearts. When we covet (which is also
part of the ten commandments) we are in some way guilty of theft in our
hearts. And although perhaps the man had
not given false witness in a court of law against someone accused, who has
never lied? Although this man may have
never had a huge fight with his father and mother as he grew, who has really
given their father and mother the honor they really deserve? And who has really loved their neighbor as
much as their self? This list should
have made the man rethink things but it did not.
The man believed that he had
kept the 10 commandments, even the 613 commandments adequately. Was there anything lacking?
Jesus affirms that the
standard is perfection again. (He had preached
that a few times before.) Jesus exposes
the man’s idolatry. Even though the man
had probably never bowed down to an idol made of gold in a pagan temple, the man
had an idol of gold. Jesus showed the
man that he loved his “great wealth” more than he loved God. The man didn’t realize it until Christ
forced the issue to come out. The man’s
immediate response seems to have been to chose his idol of gold rather than God
and Jesus. Hopefully he changed his
mind a day or two later.
Conclusion
Specialists in
Mosaic-and-Rabbinic Law plotted and schemed to trap Jesus with their craftiest
and thorniest questions about the Law of Moses. When they came to Jesus with questions
specifically about the mosaic law, Jesus met them where they were at and gave
them brilliant answers. As always, instead
of being trapped by his own words, Jesus springs their trap and silences his
critics with the sheer brilliance of his answers. When other self-justified men came to Jesus
to ask him if they had obeyed the law adequately to merit eternal life, he gave
them brilliant answers which exposed the fact that they were not keeping the
law like they thought they were. In all
cases the Greatest Commandment was maintained as the standard by which we are
judged. But in no case was hope offered
that our obedience merited eternal life, was it?
When average people asked
Jesus what good works God required of them, Jesus gave them the good news that the only “work”
God requires of us is the opposite of work; it is belief.
John 6
22The next day the crowd . . . 28 . . . asked him, "What must we do to do the works
God requires?"
29Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has
sent."
30So they asked him, "What miraculous sign then will you
give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31Our forefathers
ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: 'He gave them bread from heaven
to eat.'"
32Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, it is not
Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives
you the true bread from heaven. 33For the bread of God is he who comes down
from heaven and gives life to the world."
34"Sir," they said, "from now on give us this
bread."
35Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go
hungry, and he who
believes in me will never be thirsty. 36But as I told you, you have seen
me and still you do not believe.
. . 40For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son
and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the
last day." 41At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he
said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven." . . . 47I tell you
the truth, he who believes has everlasting life.
The Greatest Commandment is
where our problem—the problem all humans face—begins. It is not where the solution begins and
end. The common notion that “the
greatest commandment” (to love God and love your neighbor) is the heart and sum
of the Christian gospel is something I’ll disagree with. I recommend here instead that the gospel
exists because of the problem the greatest commandment creates for us. The gospel and the greatest commandment are
closely related then; but they are not identical. The Greatest Commandment is not a method of
salvation; it is a cause for the need for salvation. The Greatest Commandment is something we
cannot obey. Jesus use of the Greatest
Commandment is not meant to encourage people to try to improve their love for
God and for people in order to inherit eternal life. Jesus uses it to try to help
The greatest commandments in
the Law are to Love God and Love our Neighbors.
But in the light of the fact that it is impossible to keep these
commandments perfectly, the greatest commandments become the greatest
obstacles. If we could keep the Law
perfectly, we could stand pure and unstained before a perfectly holy God. But since we break the two greatest
commandments frequently (every day?) we run into the problem of being highly
imperfect beings facing a totally perfect Judge. That is the bad news. But the good news is that God the Father sent
his Son to become one of us and do all that was needed to enable us imperfect
people to enjoy peace and acceptance with the perfect God. That is the good news, the euangelion, the
gospel.
Prior to believing in Jesus,
the Greatest Commandment proves to be the Greatest Obstacle. The first step in “salvation” is coming to
realize that we cannot keep the Greatest Commandment. We’re constantly breaking the top two
commandments. The solution, however, is
not to try harder and do better in keeping them. That may be the natural human conclusion for
the well meaning person. But it is not
the solution God and Jesus are offering us.
We begin by realizing our inability to keep the Law. Then we stop trying to work for our
salvation. We stop trying to merit our
entrance into the Kingdom by our obedience.
We realize that the only good work we are commanded to do is quite the
opposite of work, it is belief. We come
to believe in the One God has sent. God
sent his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to deal with the problem of our inability
to keep the greatest commandments. Jesus
took our sin upon himself and dealt with it.
Jesus was the only man who ever kept the Greatest and Least of the
Commandments perfectly. He took our sin
and he now offers us his own righteousness.
Do we work for it? Do we earn it? No. We
accept it as a free and undeserved and unmerited and unearned gift. We reinvest our faith. We withdraw our faith from ourselves and our
own righteousness we have created by obeying some of the commandments of God
some of the time. We invest our faith into the Savior who kept the law perfectly
and offers us his righteousness. We take
it with the empty hand of faith. We
invest our faith/belief/trust/reliance into Christ Jesus. We cease to work for our salvation. And in ceasing to work (by believing, which is
the opposite of working) we receive Jesus and the gift of HIS
righteousness. Once you have come to
truly believe in Jesus, the one sent by God, then you may proceed in the power
Jesus gives to gradually become more and more loving towards God and our fellow
humans.
References and
Recommendations:
Romans 3-5
Kenneth E. Bailey. Jesus
Through Middle Eastern Eyes; Cultural Studies in the Gospels. http://IVPress.com.
2008.
Chapter 22: The Parable of
the Good Samaritan – Luke 10:25-37
Chapter 23: The Parable of
the Rich Fool – Luke 12:13-21