Mark 12:28-34

Welcome to our Tuesday Bible discussion!

In this weeks Gospel one of the scribes asks Jesus, ‘Which is the first of all the commandments?’ Often the sayings of Jesus are puzzling and unexpected, but in this passage Jesus gives the obvious answer quoting from Deuteronomy 6, ‘Listen Israel, the Lord our God is the one Lord, and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength’. And he gives a bonus extra too: ‘the second is this: You must love your neighbour as yourself’, also from the Jewish scriptures, Leviticus 19.

So what does it mean to love God? This saying is so familiar I struggled to have any new ideas about it. But I found this meditation by John Piper . (https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/what-it-means-to-love-god)

This is the essence of what it means to love God: to be satisfied in him. In him — not just his gifts, but God himself, as the glorious person that he is!

Loving God will include obeying all his commands; it will include believing all his word; it will include thanking him for all his gifts. But all that is overflow. The essence of loving God is admiring and enjoying all he is. And it is this enjoyment of God that makes all of our other responses truly glorifying to him.

We all know this intuitively as well as from Scripture. Do we feel most honored by the love of those who serve us from the constraints of duty, or from the delights of fellowship?

My wife is most honored when I say, “It makes me happy to spend time with you.” My happiness is the echo of her excellence. And so it is with God. He is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him

I like that phrase ‘my happiness is the echo of her excellence’. Likewise our happiness is the echo of God’s excellence: God’s excellence in creating the world, in creating us and in accompanying us through each day. Does this ring true for you?

This hints at a way of seeing ‘sin’ as that which interferes with the joy of God: war, hunger, exclusion, fear: these things all make it more difficult for people to enjoy God. So we are brought to the second commandment: love your neighbour as yourself. We are also called to work for a better world with no more war, no more hunger, exclusion or fear, so that everyone in their own way if free to love God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength. And just as we are called to delight in God, we are also called to delight in one another.

Frequently in the Gospels the Scribes are portrayed as being against Jesus, questioning his authority, trying to catch him out with their questions. But on this occasion, all is agreement and friendliness. The scribe agrees wholeheartedly with Jesus, and Jesus praises the scribe. It can be quite disconcerting when someone that we expect to be ‘on the other side’ says something that we totally agree with. And it can take some magnanimity to admit it. Both the unnamed scribe and Jesus himself show this magnanimity. They delight in God and they delight in one another.

Thoughts for reflection

What strikes you about this passage?

How do you experience love for God?

Are there times when you are not inclined to love God?

Have you experienced someone unexpectedly agreeing with you?