The Most Important One

THE MOST IMPORTANT ONE

Mark 12: 28-34

In this passage, we once again find Jesus answering a question.

In this chapter Jesus has already been questioned twice.
The first time the Herodians and Pharisees come with a question about paying taxes…and Jesus answers and tells them “to give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
And the second time the Saducees, in all of their self perceived knowledge, come and question Jesus about the resurrection…and Jesus tells them that in spite of their reputation of being so knowledgeable of the Books of Moses…they were in fact wrong in their understanding of those scriptures and not only that, they did not understand the power of God.

So two times Jesus has already been questioned in this chapter.

And in this passage we find him questioned again.

But this time seems to be different.

The difference this time is that this question, unlike the other questions that Jesus has been asked in this chapter, apparently is not asked in an attempt to trap Him.

This question is asked by a scribe…a teacher of the Law… who has apparently heard the other questions by the Herodians, Pharisees, and Saducees as they tried to trap Jesus by His own words.

He has seen how they had tried to get Jesus to make some misstatement that would get Him in trouble.
And he has apparently been so impressed with Jesus and the way that Jesus has answered and silenced His interrogaters that he steps forward and asks Jesus a question that he has sincerely been wondering about for some time.

And Jesus answers…perhaps not in the way that this scribe expects.

Because you see, the questions that usually were asked of Jesus were questions that came up as a result of a deeper misunderstanding…
A foundational flaw in their thinking.
And what Jesus would do is, instead of answering their questions that were nothing but a symptom or product of what was really wrong…He would take the question and use it as an opportunity to address what the real heart of the matter was.
He would cut away the fat and get to the meat.

And when He did, each time the people were amazed.

This morning, Jesus is going to do the same thing.

He is going to get to the heart of the matter…and when He does, hopefully we will not only be amazed…but we will also be convicted and repent if repentance is needed.

Lets look at the passage. Verse 28.

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“And one of the scribes came and heard them arguing…”

Isn’t that kind of funny?
Can you imagine arguing with Jesus?
You talk about an effort in futility…arguing with God.
But do you know what…it still happens today.
God will tell people something…and what do people do?
“That’s not true God…that isn’t the way it is”
“I don’t believe that God!”
Let me tell you…God is a righteous God…that means He is always right…and instead of arguing with Him what we need to be doing is repenting.

But any way, it says, “And one of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, “What commandment is the foremost of all?”

Now, you need to understand that that question did not just come “out of the blue.”

This was one of the most debated questions of the day.

You see, what had happened was these Jewish Rabbis had studied the Laws of Moses…and what they would do is they would add some of their own personal thoughts and opinions, and traditions, and regulations, and interpretations to them….most of the time to fit their own desires.

For example…turn back to Mark 7.
Here in this passage some of the Pharisees saw Jesus’ disciples eating bread with their unwashed hands…
Now notice verse 3. (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, thus observing the traditions of the elders.)

You see, they would add their traditions to the laws…and the result was that this huge debate broke out over which laws were the most important…or heavy laws….and which were not as important…or light laws.

Here in Mark 7 these Pharisees apparently felt that “washing your hands” was a heavy law.

Turn to Matthew 15. Read. 1-6.

Again, they had made a tradition heavy…and a commandment “light.”

You see, that was the debate.

One Jewish Rabbi at the time was a Rabbi named Shemei…and he had gone through the Books of Moses and had determined that there were 613 laws.

- 365 were prohibitions…or “thou shalt nots.”
- 248 were commandments or “thou shalts.”

So now the question came up…which ones were more important.

Some Rabbi’s said that “Keeping the Sabbath was a “heavy law” while those laws pertaining to “how you deal with animals or foreigners” were “light laws.”
- Circumcizing your male children was a “heavy law.”
- Wearing little prayer boxes or your forehead was a “light law.”

But then other Rabbi’s would come along and say, “NO, wearing the prayer boxes is a heavy law too.”

- - So they would go back and forth trying to decide which was a “heavy law and which was a light law.”

So this is a debate that has been going on for some time…and this scribe is so impressed with Jesus’ answers to other questions…that he wants to know what Jesus has to say about this issue.

So he asks, “which commandment is foremost of all.”

Now, here this man is waiting to hear one of the commandments from the Law of Moses.

He is waiting to hear Jesus say “You shall have no other Gods before me” is the foremost commandment.
Or “Thou shalt not kill.”
Or some other of the 10 commandments…or some of the ordinances…or traditions.
That is what he is waiting to hear.

But, Jesus doesn’t deal with the symptom…He deals with the heart of the matter.

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Look at what He says in verse 29.

This man says, “What commandment is foremost of all?”

And Jesus says,

“Hear, O Israel! The Lord, our God is one Lord; and 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.”

Do you understand what Jesus has said here?

Here these people were debating what the “foremost commandment of all was?”
“We want to know which is number one.”

And what Jesus does here is HE gets to the heart of the matter and He says, “You can call one commandment more important than another.”

You can argue and wrangle and discuss all you want too.
But if you do not love God…if you are not committed to God…devoted to God…it’s a waste.

It is a waste!

You can argue all day long…you can even keep all the commandments you want too.
YOu can keep the Sabbath…you can circumcise your mail children…
You can wear your little prayer boxes on your forehead.
You can offer your sacrifices…you can do them all.
But if your relationship with God is not right.
IF there is no love for God…no devotion to God…no commitment to God…it’s a waste…and you are still not pleasing to God.
These people were notorious for this. Turn with me to Matthew 23: 23-28.

Look at this.

The problem was, the one thing they needed most…was missing and that was a love for God.

And it is the same for us…we can keep all the commandments we want.

We can come to this building and sit here as many times as we can.
We can do good deed after good deed.
You can be baptized…10 times…and visit 200 widows and orphans.
But if there is no love for God…no devotion to God…then we are still not pleasing to God.

Look at what Jesus says next in verses 31.

“The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

You can almost hear them can’t you?

“Thou shalt not kill is the most important command concerning your neighbor.”
No, “Thou shalt not commit adultery is.”
“I don’t agree, I think “Thou shalt not bear false witness is.”

And again, Jesus says, “You can keep all the commandments you want.”

You can wrangle and wrangle about which one is most important…and you can teach one as being more important than another.
But if you don’t love your neighbor…you still aren’t pleasing to God.

Several years later Paul would teach this same principle to some of our brethren in the church at Corinth.

They had been blessed with all these spiritual gifts…
And they were so proud of them.
They could perform miracles of healing…and the could speak in tongues.
And they could prophecy…and interpret the tongues.
I mean they could do all of these great and wonderous things.

But listen to these words from Paul found in I Corithians 13: 1-2 as he warns these brethren about the use of their gifts.

1 Cor 13:1-2 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have {the gift of} prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

Brethren, you can do it all….

You can preach…teach…you can honor your father and mother…keep the Sabbath…
Refuse to take the Lord’s name in vain…
What ever it is…you can do it or not do it.
But if you don’t love God…and if you don’t love your neighbor…it means nothing.

Look at what the scribe says next in verse 32.

Mark 12:32-33 And the scribe said to Him, “Right, Teacher, you have truly stated that He is One; and there is no one else besides Him;33 and to love Him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as himself, is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

Now look at verse 34.

And when Jesus saw that he had answered intelligently, He said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”

Just knowing it is not enough.

Just saying it is not enough.
Christ hears what this man says and He tells him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
“You are so close.”
The only thing he lacks is doing it.

Did he come to “love God…and his neighbor?”

WE don’t know.
Mark doesn’t tell us.
So I guess you will have to write the end to this story yourself.
But you know what is more important than how this scribes story ends?
It is how your story is going to end?

Will you make it to the Kingdom of God…or will you just miss it by a little bit?