A Very Jewish Answer
Wonder with the Word
Fr Dermot Connolly
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One of the scribes came near and
heard them disputing with one another,
and seeing that he answered them well,
he asked him,
“Which commandment is the first of all?”
(Mark 11:28-34)
“I will tell you of the time I met Jesus of Nazareth. As a scribe, I had a professional interest in this young man up from Galilee; so had all the other teachers and leaders in Jerusalem. He offended them, that’s the only way to put it, so they ganged together to argue with him – an unlikely assortment of Pharisees and scribes and Sadducees and lackeys of King Herod. They took him on one by one and asked him trick questions which he easily answered; that angered them even more. For myself, I was more curious than hostile, but there was something I wanted to ask him.
“Finally I got my chance, and put my question to him – not a very original one, I’m afraid: ‘Which is the greatest commandment? What is it we must do?’ He remained silent for a little while. We all waited, and then, quite softly, Jesus began to pray – at least that’s what I thought he was doing: ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart...’ I found myself joining in the prayer: ‘...with all your soul, and with all your strength.’ The Shema, the prayer we Jews recite every day: the daily reminder of the centre and direction of our lives. (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)
“I was about to speak when he turned to me and continued: The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these. He was so sure of this, almost fierce about it. In answer to my old chestnut of a question he had taken a phrase from Leviticus 19 about loving your neighbour, and laid it down beside the prayer from Deuteronomy about loving God, and it caught fire! It was a very Jewish answer.
“I found myself liking this man, rough and ready as he seemed at times. What he said was right, and I told him so. These commandments were not so much a rule as a response to the One Who is One; they could not be separated, how we stand with God and how we stand with our neighbour. Getting that right, I said, was more important than any sacrifice we might offer. I think the prophets had the sense of it long ago:
For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. (Hosea 6:6)
“He seemed a bit surprised at my reaction, and pleased. He’d been having a hard time of it from so many who opposed him that to meet someone who even half understood what he was saying must have been an encouragement, an affirmation. The truth is he didn’t have much time for scribes, nor they for him. But he stared at me – I can picture it to this day – and nodded and said, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’
“I never met him again, and a short time later he was crucified. I try to live by what he said that day; I believe his teaching came from the Torah, our Jewish Law. But I have not felt able to join his followers – I fear it is a step too great for me. So I stand here, not far from the ‘kingdom of God’ as he said, hoping that ‘not far’ is near enough.”
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