The Fourth Sunday before Advent
“you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength”
Summary
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbour as yourself”, this, Jesus tells us, in Mark 12:28-34, is the greatest commandment. The words are as familiar to us as they would have been to his first listeners. They come as no surprise. What is surprising is that this is a story of resounding agreement between Jesus and those who seem to be his enemies. In the lead up to today’s encounter Jesus has been engaged in series of escalating rows with the scribes and the pharisees, deliberately provoking confrontation and causing offence, to the extent that some try to have him arrested. What is beautiful in Mark’s telling of this story is that this moment of concord is initiated, not by Jesus, but by one of the scribes. In the midst of the “dispute” with his colleagues, he listens and hears that Jesus answers well. His is not a trick question, asked to trip up an opponent, it is an attempt to uncover shared values. In our public discourse we are not used to opponents agreeing, trying to discover common ground, in fact, we are not used to opponents listening to one another. But Jesus answers him with the Shema: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one.” There is a oneness, a unity, which underlines all our experiences. This unity does not mean that we all agree or that we are all the same but that we all are made by the same God for one thing and one thing only, to love. The second commandment “to love our neighbour as ourselves” flows inevitably from the first, the love of God. Today, as we welcome a new member of the family of God in baptism, we celebrate our unity, our shared kinship in God. Our identity and our purpose in life is given to us by this kindship, a kinship with God that cannot be separated from our kinship from one another. To love our neighbour as ourselves requires listening, demands genuine curiosity about their experiences and a commitment to understanding in order that we see and hear all that unites us and not just what divides us.
GOSPEL
Mark 12.28-34
‘One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, ‘Which commandment is the first of all?’ Jesus answered, ‘The first is, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall 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, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these.’ Then the scribe said to him, ‘You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that “he is one, and besides him there is no other”; and “to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength”, and “to love one’s neighbour as oneself”,—this is much more important than all whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices.’ When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’ After that no one dared to ask him any question.
