The Sunday lectionary gospel reading for the Fourth Sunday before Advent in Year B is the dialogue that includes Jesus’ summary of the law in Mark 12.28–34. Offering this kind of summary was not uncommon in Second Temple Judaism, and we have a number of other examples of this.
But Jesus’ response is striking in several ways. First, he summarises the law from within the law himself. Secondly, he holds together the ‘two tablets’ of the law—obligation to God and obligation to our neighbour. He highlights the high demand of God’s call on our lives, and is clear that he comes to enable us to obey—he has not come to abolish the law, but to fulfil it in our lives.
Come and join Ian and James as they explore these questions!
Full written commentary behind the discussion can be found in the next article.
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The written laws of Moses are utterly unique – a divinely given legal code for a nation. All other legal codes – ancient Middle Eastern (Hammurabi), Roman law, Sharia law, mediaeval Catholic law, modern secular law – are of man, claims to the contrary notwithstanding. And the priorities discernible in and underlying the laws in the Pentateuch are very different. There is never capital punishment for theft of inanimate objects or money, for instance, cf other codes of law. All other legal codes evolved in parallel with the growth of the civilisations they govern, but Mosaic Law was given before the Jews became a settled nation, and I believe its superior, divine ethic and the study thereof is responsible for the consistent success of the Jews in gentile societies they have lived in. (This explanation is not available to liberal Christians, who reckon that these laws were written on the fly as Judaism evolved.)
A legal code governs every part of life and provides the best way to learn about an ancient culture. Surviving art portrays only the concerns of the aristocracy and the priests. I exhort Christians to study the laws in the Pentateuch deeply. Not many people look at them in this light, because Christians tend to think “Thank God we don’t have to obey all that stuff” and Orthodox Jews believe that God gave a whole load of other laws at the same time that were to be handed on only orally, which they study jointly with the Pentateuch.
And in these verses of Mark’s gospel, Jesus shows what lies most deeply behind these laws…
Stirring it a bit, there is nothing in Jesus’ exposition to advocate the modern notion of ‘human rights’. Scripture is about God’s rights over his creation, and human wrongs. If we called human rights ”sinner’s rights’ then we get a better perspective. The Pentateuch is more about human responsibilities. Human rights are a secular version of respect for the image of God – as more than one Islamic commentator has noted.
“Wanderings” and Directions
By Jesus’ time, the Jews had accumulated hundreds of laws— some 613 by one historian’s count.
Some religious leaders tried to distinguish between what they termed as “major laws” and what they termed as “minor laws”. And naturally then, some were teaching that all laws— one and all— were equally binding and that it was dangerous to make any distinctions, while others were teaching that one law was not as equally binding as another. We can therefore understand how this teacher’s question might have provoked controversy among these groups about God’s laws.] How familiar is this to the alternative blog today?
As ever Jesus presents us with a nugget of Gold.
He simply quotes the Scriptures. Yes, that is the kernel, the essence, the fundamental truth, but how are we to Do this Loving required, how is it to be accomplished?
More determined devotions, longer prayers, more Retreats?
Paul hammers this nugget out into negation able coinage in
2 Thessalonians 3:5.in the form of a prayer,
“The Lord direct you into the love of God and the patience of Christ.”
It comes to the same thing whether we speak of the heart as dwelling in love, or of love as dwelling in the heart. The metaphor varies, the substance of the thought is the same, and that thought is that the heart should be the sphere and subject of a steadfast, habitual, all-pleasing love, which issues in unbroken calmness of endurance and persistence of service, in the face of evil.
See also Deuteronomy 30:6
And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.
Romans 5:5
And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
Lamentations 3:26
It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.
Holiness as Love {holy-love} is the centre and circumference, a place of rest and unsurpassable joy and peace as the hymn;-
There is a place of quiet rest,
Near to the heart of God,
A place where sin cannot molest,
Near to the heart of God.
O Jesus, blest Redeemer,
Sent from the heart of God,
Hold us, who wait before Thee,
Near to the heart of God.
2
There is a place of comfort sweet,
Near to the heart of God,
A place where we our Savior meet,
Near to the heart of God.
3
There is a place of full release,
Near to the heart of God,
A place where all is joy and peace,
Near to the heart of God.
https://www.hymnal.net/Hymns/Hymnal/svg/e0375_p.svg
‘We love Him because He first loved us’; and the way by which Jesus directs our hearts into the love of God is mainly by shedding abroad God’s love to us in our spirits by the Holy Spirit which is given to us.
By Jesus’ time, the Jews had accumulated hundreds of laws— some 613 by one historian’s count. Some religious leaders tried to distinguish between what they termed as “major laws” and what they termed as “minor laws”. And naturally then, some were teaching that all laws— one and all— were equally binding and that it was dangerous to make any distinctions, while others were teaching that one law was not as equally binding as another. We can therefore understand how this teacher’s question might have provoked controversy among these groups about God’s laws
What do you mean by ‘accumulated’? Maimonides counted 613 laws in the Pentateuch; the number is somewhat arbitrary since some laws can be subdivided, but Christians should believe they were all given in one generation, during the trek from Egypt to Canaan – not accumulated over the centuries.
They are all binding, but their seriousness can be categorised from the penalties accruing in Mosaic Law. Even one is enough to bar you from heaven. though; one sin brought the entire world we live in low, and God isnot going to let it happen again. That is why everybody needs Jesus Christ.
Consider Halakha law
The law, being an ongoing enterprise rather than dictated from above, is democratic, so to speak. Most halakhic literature is authored by individuals who hold no official position, and whose authority is accepted by the community due to their erudition and integrity. Another element that reflects the participatory dimension of Jewish law is its cardinal, all-embracing decision-making principle that the law is in accordance with the majority view.
Alan, the written laws of Moses were explicitly dictated from above. “Do this; don’t do that; I am Jehovah” is repeated again and again at Sinai and then in the wilderness. Do you believe this or not? If not, how do you believe these laws came to be written and enter the Old Testament?
Anton
YES I do believe. However I do think you are missing my point.
Please clarify your point!
Anton please re read my point,otherwise this will be an exercise in
futility.
Thanks for that – definitely one to chew over again
We do love alliterations..
Loyal Listeners and Visiting Viewers…?