Hebrews 9:11-14; Mark 12:28-34
Ordinary 31B
Proper 26
At first reading of the Gospel text this week, I marveled at the audacity of the scribe in Mark’s version of this story.
The scribe says to Jesus, “You are right, teacher.” The scribe feels he has the authority to affirm Jesus’ response. The scribe grades Jesus, the teacher. I marveled too at Jesus’ response to the scribe’s presumptuous confirmation of his answer. Jesus tells this scribe, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” Jesus does not say, “Of course I am right!” or “Who do you think you are assessing my answer?” Jesus sees that this scribe understands the bottom-line bulwark of the faith: love God and neighbor. And therefore Jesus says, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
This affirmation of the scribe is particularly striking as it is the only time in Mark’s Gospel where a scribe gets a shoutout from Jesus. This exchange is no pleasant, churchy small talk. This back-and-forth between Jesus and one of the scribes represents a radical new possibility of relationship, understanding and religion. Even scribes who’ve done all they can to test, trap and destroy Jesus can be moved by that very Jesus to a different understanding of religion and a new relationship with God and neighbor. In Mark’s version of this story Jesus quotes the Shema, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” Everything else flows from this reality of the one and only God. This scribe knows this affirmation better than anyone and proclaims that from this truth comes love directed to God and toward neighbor. This truth renders even religious ritual secondary. The scribe, the keeper and arbitrator of those rituals, recognizes their limits and their penultimate position to love of the one God and all neighbors.
No wonder Jesus says to this scribe, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” This scribe experienced an epiphany and Jesus recognized the transformation. The scribe had eyes to see and ears to hear. Perhaps his response to Jesus’s answer to his question isn’t so much presumptuous as it is an enthusiastic “ah-ha,” eureka-type moment. Maybe this scribe is “amening” the word of God he just heard and Jesus is confirming his faithful response to the word of the Lord.
This exchange is not about either Jesus or the scribe getting the right answer on the Bible content exam. This exchange is a conversion. The scribe’s affirmation is worship, an affirmation of faith. All the scribe thought he understood, he sees differently and now knows by heart, moving him closer to the kingdom of God.
Have you ever had such a revelation? I recently preached a sermon on a text I’d preached many times before. Part of the text had been read at my wedding. It was a passage I loved, returned to regularly, prayed, studied and taught. It was Colossians 3:1-17, the poetic verses on living as a new self, the new self in Christ. It contains the parenetic phrase “but now” that tips the reader off to the list of ways we should now be living given that we’ve learned by heart the command to love God and neighbor. You know that “you were once” all these ugly, evil things, but now you are gentle, patient, humble, loving, kind. For years I preached and taught that we should be striving harder to make our lives match all that came after the “but now.” The problem being, of course, that no matter how hard I tried, a lot of my life reflected the “you were once.” It felt like the makeover didn’t stick and I wondered what was wrong with me. (OK, and what was wrong with other Christians, too.)
However, over the course of writing the sermon on this text this time I had an “ah-ha,” forehead-slapping moment. Like the scribe in Mark I said to Jesus, “You are right, teacher!” I realized that the “but now” isn’t my perfect behavior, but rather Jesus’ perfect love and sacrifice that frees me to be who and whose I truly am. The “but now” is the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, not my flawless discipleship. I am clothed in Christ even when my outward appearance doesn’t much imitate him.
I had the focus all wrong all these years. Like Jesus in Mark’s gospel, I should have started with “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is One.” Our lives should always, first and foremost, be directed toward the Lord our God, the One and only God. We are to worship, love with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, our Lord. From there comes our love of neighbor as ourselves, wanting for them what we want for ourselves, working for their wellbeing as we seek our own, caring for them as we care for our own flesh and blood. That’s how we get closer to the kingdom of God. Those rituals and sacrifices, our morality and good behavior, these are important, but they won’t grant us entrance to the kingdom, only the life, love and sacrifice of Jesus Christ reconciles us to God and each other. “You are right, teacher!”
The writer of Hebrews understands this truth. “ For if the blood of goats and bulls, with the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer, sanctifies those who have been defiled so that their flesh is purified, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living God!”
The passage from Mark ends with silence. No one dares ask another question. We are left to wonder if the scribe follows Jesus as a result of this scales-removed-from-his-eyes experience. Like other parts of Mark’s Gospel, readers are invited to fill in the silence with their own stories. If we know that Jesus is right – that God is one and that the greatest commandment is to love God with all we’ve got and our neighbors as ourselves – will we follow Jesus and try our best to do so, trusting that when we fail (and we will fail) Christ the high priest with his own blood has obtained our eternal redemption? Once we know Jesus, our teacher, is right, what will we do with that knowledge that is now written on our hearts?
This week:
- When have you had a revelation where you saw something in a brand new way? When have you had an epiphany?
- When Jesus says to the scribe, “You are not far from the kingdom of God,” is he implying that the scribe isn’t quite there yet? Or is he acknowledging how far the scribe has come in his understanding of God?
- When you think about loving God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, what does that look like? Are their distinct ways we love God with our heart? Soul? Mind? Strength?
- How do we love our neighbor “as ourselves”? What does that “as” mean to you?
- Why do you think the scribes dare not ask Jesus another question? Why does Jesus’ response silence them?
- What is the relationship between the three objects of love in this passage: God, neighbor and self?
Want to receive Looking into the Lectionary content in your inbox on Mondays? Click here to join our email list!
