Mark 12:28-34
The One Question Asked in Good Faith
28Now one of the scribes had come up and heard their debate. Noticing how well Jesus had answered them, he asked Him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?”
29Jesus replied, “This is the most important: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.
30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’
31The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”
32“Right, Teacher,” the scribe replied. “You have stated correctly that God is One and there is no other but Him,
33and to love Him with all your heart and with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. This is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
34When Jesus saw that the man had answered wisely, He said, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And no one dared to question Him any further.
Berean Standard Bible
Everyone else who came at him in this chapter came to trap him. This man came because he had been listening. Mark says as much: a scribe had heard the arguing, noticed how well Jesus answered, and came over with a question of his own: which commandment is the most important of all? That was a live debate among the teachers and not a frivolous one. The law held hundreds of commands, and people wanted to know where the weight sat.
Jesus answers with two passages and neither of them is a surprise, because both were already in the Bible these men had by heart. The first is the sentence a Jewish household said out loud every day.
Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
That is Deuteronomy, and it opens with a fact before it gives a command. God is one, and therefore all of you, all the way through. The second line comes from a different scroll altogether, buried in a chapter of Leviticus about not bearing grudges and not taking revenge.
The second is this: "Love your neighbor as yourself." No other commandment is greater than these.
He reaches into two different books, takes one line out of each, and welds them into a single answer. Then comes the part that makes this exchange unlike anything else in the chapter. The scribe agrees with him. He says Jesus has stated it correctly, that God is one and there is no other, and that loving him with everything and loving your neighbor as yourself counts for more than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices.
He does not only accept the answer, he adds to it, and what he adds is also scripture: Samuel told a king that obeying God matters more than sacrifice. This man knows his Bible and is thinking with it out loud, in the temple, in a courtyard full of people working out how to destroy the man he is talking to.
When Jesus saw that the man had answered wisely, He said, "You are not far from the kingdom of God."
Mark closes the sequence there. From then on nobody dared to ask him anything else. The run of hostile questions ends with two people agreeing rather than with anybody defeated.
How We Know
Both halves of the answer are quotations. Deuteronomy 6:4-5 is the Shema, recited daily: hear O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is One, and love him with all your heart and soul and strength. Leviticus 19:18 supplies the second: love your neighbor as yourself.
Verses 29 to 31 follow both closely, with one addition: Mark has with all your mind, which Deuteronomy does not.
What Jesus does is join them. Neither text is obscure and neither was in dispute, but the scribe's reply in verses 32 and 33 treats the pairing as something worth agreeing to out loud, and Mark records his agreement in full.
Questions
1 How is this scribe different from everybody else asking Jesus questions in this chapter?
AnswerHe came because he had been listening. Mark says he heard them debating, noticed how well Jesus answered, and then asked something he actually wanted an answer to. The others came to catch him out.
2 The two commandments Jesus puts together come from two different places. Where are they from?
AnswerThe first is from Deuteronomy, the sentence Jewish families said aloud every day. The second is from Leviticus, sitting in a chapter about not bearing grudges and not taking revenge. Jesus takes one line from each and hands them back as one answer.
3 Who is the hardest person for you to love at the moment? Jesus put loving that person in the same breath as loving God: why do you think those two go together?
AnswerLet the hard names be said, or held quietly, without anybody arguing about them. Jesus does not offer a reason for joining the two commands. He joins them, and the scribe agrees that the pair of them counts for more than everything on the altar.
4 What does Jesus say to the scribe at the end, and what is unusual about it?
AnswerThat he is not far from the kingdom of God. Nothing in the whole exchange is hostile on either side, which is not how the other conversations in these chapters have gone, and it ends with Jesus telling a man the truth and encouraging him in the same sentence.
What This Means for Us
Not far is not the same as inside, and Jesus said the kind thing without saying the finished thing. It is a hard balance to hold. He did not pretend the man had arrived, he did not hold back the encouragement the man had earned, and he got both of those into one short sentence and let him carry it away.
Most of us pick one or the other. Either we tell people they are fine when they are not, because we like them, or we keep every kind word back until somebody meets the standard. He did neither. So tell somebody at this table one true good thing about where they are, without pretending it is the end of the road.
Prayer
Father, thank you for a man who asked a real question and got a real answer. Make us people who want to know what is true more than we want to win. And when we are close but not there, tell us both halves, the way you told him. Amen.