Reflection on the Word for the Sunday of October 31, 2021
THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT IS JUST ONE - Mark 12:28-34
12:28 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?" 12:29 Jesus answered, "The first is, 'Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 12:30 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.' 12:31 The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."
12:32 Then the scribe said to him, "You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that 'he is one, and besides him there is no other'; 12:33 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 oneself,' --this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices."
12:34 When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." ....................................................
Despite the clarity of the answer given by Jesus in the Gospel, the popular view tends to forget the first commandment though it is declared to be the greatest one, and the second one is declared to be the second one. It might be not to polite to say that the second one is only the second one, way behind the first one, however actually that is the mathematical accuracy, that there is no greater commandment than the first one, not even the second one is equal to it.
It is important to put an accent on the first one because Jesus himself asserted in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 22, that " 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment.
Thus, the Apostle Paul is mistaken when he states in his letter to the Galatians chapter five, that "For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in this: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Because this is not only the second commandment according to the Gospel, but it is only a derivative from the first one.
However, Paul was not alone with this statement among his contemporaries, as he was depicted by the Gospel, that he was a student of the famous rabbi Gamaliel, who in turn was from the school of the sage Hillel the Elder.
Legends has it, that a gentile man approached the two great sages, first Shammai, then Hillel, with a request of urgent conversion, saying that "Teach me the Law of Moses, while I stand on one foot."
Shammai got angry, and chased him away with a large stick, and he was right, doing that.
Nonetheless, after that, Hillel received the gentile man, and taught him in a single sentence, "that which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Law, all the rest is just commentary. Now, go and learn it."
Hillel's answer sounds nice, generous, hospitable, even inclusive, and just great in its simplicity. In its reciprocal nature, technically it is the equivalent with the obligation of the you shall love your neighbor, but in its reciprocity it is still a derived commandment. However, Hillel’s answer is profoundly wrong. It does not mention the very commandment, which is according to Jesus the first and the most important one in the Law of Moses: "Hear, Israel: The Lord is our God; The Lord is one: and you shall love The Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.
Today the world is sinking into a greedy chaos and into permanent cold or iron hot warfare, because we exclude God. This is, of course nothing new. It is the old Hellenism, where, among many others, the Greek Protagoras openly claimed that "Of all things the measure is Man, of the things that are, that they are, and of the things that are not, that they are not" or shortly that "Man is the Measure of All Things".
This is the old attempt, when in Babylon, Nimrod built a Tower to besiege Heaven and to dethrone the Creator. A bit later, Roman Emperors were declared God and Savior in the same way. Nowadays, again, we want the Universe to serve us, and we want God to disappear from the way, as we worship science and man made machines in order to rule not even on behalf of God, but instead of God. It is also a popular, but inaccurate view that Jesus invented these two commandments, putting them into the summarized center of the Gospel, as a revolutionary new teaching. However, both Commandments are written in the Books of Moses, Jesus were merely quoting them.
Protagoras' maxim of the man in the center of the universe, was explained by Plato, that Protagoras meant, that there is no objective truth out there, as human truth or the by humans perceivable truth is relativistic in its nature. Whatever individuals deem to be the truth, is true, at least from his or her angle, perspective or boots.
Protagoras also taught as a philosophy professor in Athens, that though the gods are obviously out there, hardly anything is knowable about them or what their purpose is with humanity.
However, the very existence of the Bible is the full proof of the opposite and it is actually a fool proof testimony, because the Bible is a chain of revelations, when God talked trough his prophets. The Ten Commandments were given to the Jews at the Mount Sinai revelation, and through them to the world as Jesus said himself in the Gospel of John, chapter 4, to the gentile, Samaritan woman at the well that " You worship that which you don't know. We worship that which we know; for salvation is from the Jews."
The human points of views may differ from each other, they are relativistic to each other, but the divine truth, revealed by God is ultimate and absolute.
The purpose and the meaning of the human life to serve God out of true and pure love, which does not demand anything in exchange, as it is told by the ancient sages that " Be not like servants who serve their master on the condition of receiving a reward; rather, be like servants who serve their master without the condition of receiving a reward. And let the fear of Heaven be upon you."
During the history of Christianity, for centuries the relative truth or obvious deception of kings, emperors, popes ruled the life and death and human minds on a great portion on Earth, and the divine truth was suppressed. They were not able to destroy it, but they ignored it, they banned it, they exiled it. Many saints and faith heroes were killed as they insisted that humans shall love God first.
On every October 31, in the Protestant World we remember, that one single brave man, Martin Luther, in front of the Imperial Assembly, quoted the Bible against the German Emperor, the Roman Pope and his German bishops, the imperial dukes, saying with the Apostles that "We must obey God rather than men.” And a New Era started, because one man made a stand for the cause of God. We should do the same,loving God first, and after God, all of our neighbors may come,
AMEN.
