Approaching the Kingdom of God – Mark 12 :28-34

One thing that often happens when we read Scripture in our services of worship is that we do not get the context.  A portion of Scripture that we highlight often makes the most sense when we look back to where the beginning of the story really is.  Our passage today comes from a time when Jesus and the disciples have entered Jerusalem once on what has come to be known as Palm Sunday.  According to Mark, Jesus went into the temple and looked around but then left as the hour was late. They then went to Bethany. The next day Jesus returns with the disciples and on entering the temple proceeds to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying. As Jesus was doing this, they heard him quoting the prophet Isaiah: “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations.” (56:7) “But” continues Jesus, “you have made it a den of robbers.”  While the leaders were visibly upset with Jesus, they dared not touch him as the crowd in the temple were spellbound by his teaching. What was being offered was not the issue for Jesus but rather where and how it was being offered.  Actual animal sacrifices were still what was required and if you didn’t raise animals yourself you needed to have a place to purchase them but within the temple was not the place.  How could a person pray and experience the mercy and forgiveness of God in the midst of the cacophony that must have been in that place.  After this Jesus once again leaves Jerusalem.

The next day he returns to the temple. This time the chief priests, scribes and elders come to him asking by what authority he was clearing the temple and preaching and teaching.  He offers to answer them if they can answer his question. “Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?  For them to answer from heaven, that would be an admission that John was truly a prophet sent by God. For them to answer of human origin, the crowd might turn on them as the people in general regarded John as a prophet. They answered: “We do not know.” To which Jesus replied, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”

What follows between this exchange and our chosen Scripture for today are the Parable of the Wicked Tenants in which Jesus describes how the leaders of the people had treated the prophets whom God had sent.  The parable tells of a vineyard being worked. The owner sends a trusted servant to collect his share of the harvest. The first one is sent emptyhanded away, the second is beaten, the third is killed. Many others are sent and suffer in similar ways. Finally the owner sends his son believing that the tenants will respect him. But they believe that if they kill the son, the owner will have no heir to the vineyard and they will inherit it themselves.  The owner’s response is to evict the tenants and give the vineyard to those who will respect the owner and give him what is due. Mark records that the leaders of the people recognized themselves in the parable but fear of the crowd did not allow them to move against him. They simply turned and went away.

Two more challenges come to Jesus. One is from some Pharisees and some Herodians seeking to trap him. It is the question of paying taxes. Jesus’ answer: “Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s and to God the things that are God’s,” left them amazed and unable to imagine how they could trip him up.

The second is from some Sadducees and involves questions about what happens or doesn’t happen after death. Jesus’ closing answer is that God is the God of the living, not of the dead.”

The story that Mark tells now comes back to one of the scribes who no doubt was part of the group that first challenged the authority of Jesus. He has been listening carefully to all that has transpired and he was impressed with the answers Jesus gave. “Which commandment is the first of all?, he asks.  Jesus answers in the words of the Shema which we heard today in our reading from Deuteronomy. The Shema is the Jewish confession of faith, the confession that was to be the daily prayer for the believers. The title comes from the Hebrew word ‘shema’ which means ‘hear’. To repeat the Shema is to make a daily confession of faith, to act as a reminder to the people to not put other gods in the place of the Lord God that they might not repeat the mistakes of their ancestors but live their lives loving the Lord their God will all their heart, soul, mind and strength.

But Jesus doesn’t just answer the question he is asked. He goes on to add a second commandment: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.” For Jesus there may have been hundreds of commandments covering a multitude of situations but to follow these two would enable a person to fulfill all the others.

The scribe then says something which is so unexpected and yet something that shows that not all scribes doubted the authority of Jesus’ teaching. He acknowledges that these two commandments are not just more important but much more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices. In that moment, he came close to the kingdom of God.

We too come close to the kingdom of God when we truly believe and fulfil these two commandments. In those moments when we are loving God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength; and in those moments when we are loving our neighbour as ourselves, we are close to the kingdom of God.

For the kingdom of God breaks into this world and this time when we hear and live these two commandments that are more important than anything else.  Burnt offerings and sacrifices were outward signs of a commitment by the people to honour God and show him that they craved his mercy and forgiveness but they were poor substitutes for what God really desired – what would truly enable God to reveal the full extent of his mercy and forgiveness.

The prophet Micah summed it up in his prophecy to the people. What does God really require of his people? To do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with God.

It is in the times that we live and follow these two greatest commandments that we come close to the kingdom of God for it is in those times and those moments that we begin to see God’s vision for our lives and the life of all in this world!

AMEN