A Loaded Question

Gospel: Mark 12: 28-34

On the surface, today's Gospel portion seems to be a break in the trials of Jesus in Jerusalem we have been observing.  A scribe comes up to Jesus with a question on what the most important commandment is in the law.  The conversation between Jesus and the scribe appears amiable, and apparent agreement on the answer to the question is evident.  Jesus even tells the scribe that he is not far from the kingdom of heaven.  But perhaps he is further away, as are we...

The question about the greatest commandment is the most debated one in Judaism.  There are more than six hundred commandments in the law - which one holds priority?  The answer Jesus gives on the law of love was not controversial.  Many other rabbis had the same answer to the question.  The difference is in the scope of one's circle of concern and care regarding the term neighbor.  For Jesus it includes enemy and friend, stranger and family.  Few others had this interpretation.

This scope of Jesus' love is shown throughout his ministry to others.  He refused no one who came to him.  He provided care for people of all genders, races, creeds, and backgrounds of all types.  Jesus even cared for the untouchables of his day - lepers and those possessed by demons.  Did the scribe hold to this vision?  Do we?  Jesus will lay down his life for all people and forgive all people from the cross.  If we claim to be followers of Jesus, this must be our vision and mission as well. 

The Trials of Jesus

Gospel: Mark 12: 18-27

In the Gospel of Mark, when Jesus is in Jerusalem he is put through a series of trials by various groups.  Yesterday, it was the Herodians and Pharisees who seek to find fault with Jesus.  Today, it is the Sadducees who come to interrogate Jesus and find something wanting in him.  Jesus affirms the resurrection of the dead, a direct contradiction to the teaching of the Sadducees.  They concocted an elaborate thought experiment in an attempt to trap him, but Jesus was forthright and openly rejected their teaching.

The Herodians had found fault with Jesus because he had not openly come out to support the Roman occupation.  The Pharisees find fault with Jesus for various interpretations of the law, as well as in not openly condemning the Romans.  The Sadducees now find fault with Jesus for his views on the resurrection.  In a few days Jesus will come before the chief priests and Pilate who will find a way to put him to death.  

How often do we put others on trial in this same way, seeking any and every occasion to condemn someone? We often engage in this activity with public figures and people in the news, but also entire groups of people - foreigners, migrants, refugees, immigrants, and entire nations of peoples.  Our advanced degrees at Social Media University make us experts in every subject and thus entitled to our judgments of others.  We sit in judgment of Jesus a thousand times a day, executing him in countless ways.

Powers of the World

Gospel: Mark 12: 13-17

The Herodians represent the powers of the world, those who curry favor with the Herods and Caesars who wield political power.  The Pharisees represent the powers of institutional religion and its laws and rules.  On paper these two are rivals and enemies, and often in fact they are as they seek more power for themselves.  But in the one thing that matters they are allies: both oppose Jesus and seek to trap Jesus and ultimately to destroy him.  

Each is looking to see what decision Jesus makes.  Will he choose Caesar and the power of the world, or will he choose the religious law and the power of institutional religion?  Both walk away disappointed as he chooses neither.  The choice Jesus makes is the one he has made his entire life:  he chooses God alone.  On the surface that may appear to support the powers of religion, but it does not.  God and institutional religion often have little to do with one another.  

To choose for God is to entrust oneself to our very source of being and existence.  It is the recognition that all that we have comes from God, that nothing comes from Caesar, and that what Caesar claims as his and what institutional religion claims as theirs comes from God alone.  Jesus is put to death by the collusion of state power and institutional religion, as have so many others in our world.  But God raised up Jesus, and will raise up those who make the same choice as Jesus.