These verses from
Mark’s Gospel take place after Jesus has faced a period of testing by the
Pharisees and the Sadducees, the religious experts and the elite priestly class.
After his verbal sparring with these other leaders, Jesus is asked a question
by a scribe, an interpreter of Holy Scripture. When he answers, Jesus chooses
words that would have been known to everyone within the sound of his voice.
The words are from the
She-ma, a confession of faith found in the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy, the
fifth book in the Old Testament. Tradition says that Moses wrote Deuteronomy
but scholarship dates the book closer to the sixth century BCE, near the end of
the Babylonian exile that Israel suffered when, first, the Northern Kingdom,
and then, Jerusalem were destroyed.
Deuteronomy is the
final book of the Pentateuch, or what is called the Torah in Judaism, that
includes the first five books of Scripture. These are the books that contain
many of the covenant stories we will hear this Lent. It is where we find the flood
story we heard on Sunday morning,
where we will hear the
covenant made to Abram and Sarai, and
where we will witness
the famine in Egypt and Israel’s wandering in the wilderness for forty years.
Each of these stories
teaches us that our God is a covenantal God, One who enters into a sacred
relationship and makes and keeps promises to God’s people.
The words of the she-ma
that had been said for centuries by ancient and pious Jews in the morning and
again in the evening, are:
“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.”
These words are yet
another reminder of the covenantal relationship we have with God. While Matthew
and Luke have accounts of the exchange between the scribe and Jesus, only Mark has
Jesus begin his answer with the call “She-ma, Is-rael”: “Hear, O Israel! The
Lord our God is one Lord.”
“The Lord our God is
one Lord” is a statement of faith, a radical confession that identifies who is at the center of identity and relationship. To the critics
who said that Jesus was corrupting Judaism and or disregarding the Law, he answered
by beginning his teaching with a central and unambiguous confession, calling
the people of Israel to return to their allegiance to the one, true God.
From there, Jesus
reminds the people that the basis for our relationship with God is love:
God creates us and
loves us;
God desires
relationship with us and covenants with us to preserve us;
God provides us with
laws to teach us to live in relationship with God and in community together.
Responding to the
scribe’s question, Jesus teaches that everything we do is grounded first in our
love for God.
Yesterday I saw a
story of a little boy whose mother was coaxing him to write his first Valentine
card. She explained that Valentines were cards or letters written to people we
love. She asked if he wanted to write one for his sister which got a vehement
headshake and screeching “No!”, but she must have persuaded him, because as the
camera continued to roll you could hear him answer her questions. She asked, “What
would you like to say?” and the little
boy said, “I love you.” Mom prompted him, “Because….” And he said, wide eyed and innocently, “Because
you’re my sister and I have to!”
Hopefully, the full
allegiance and love for God that is commended to us in Scripture isn’t
something we offer grudgingly. Truly our
complete love for God is grace to us because it frees us from competing claims
by the world on our identity and our allegiances. Our answer to the question of
who is at the center of our identity and
relationships is, “The Lord our God, the Lord alone.”
Throughout Lent we
will look at Scripture and, remembering Jesus’ words here, we will explore how loving
God is a call to follow Jesus with our whole selves: heart, soul or life, mind
and strength.
Let us pray.[i]
O Lord our God,
Show us your
everlasting love that we may serve you from the obedience of our hears.
Lead us in the way of
your peace, that our souls may be restored.
Guide us in the way of
the cross, that we might proclaim the strength of your love.
We pray in the name of
Your Son Jesus,
Amen.
[i] Adapted
from Sundays and Seasons Midweek Lenten Series: You Shall Love the Lord Your
God.
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