One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him,
“Which is the first of all the commandments?”
Jesus replied, “The first is this:
Hear, O Israel!
The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul,
with all your mind,
and with all your strength.
The second is this:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
There is no other commandment greater than these.”
The scribe said to him, “Well said, teacher.
You are right in saying,
‘He is One and there is no other than he.’
And ‘to love him with all your heart,
with all your understanding,
with all your strength,
and to love your neighbor as yourself’
is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding,
he said to him,
“You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
And no one dared to ask him any more questions.
Gospel for October 31, 2021
Unlike the reaction Jesus gets from the Pharisees and the Sadducees when he answers their questions, this scribe enthusiastically endorses Jesus’ reply to his question. And Jesus responds, positively to him. But not completely so. Our question is, why does Jesus say, “You are not far from the kingdom of God”? What does this—
Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.
The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
There is no other commandment greater than these.”
—leave out?
The part about loving God is the core statement of religious life prayed daily by all Jews. Adding “the second” part about loving our neighbor originates with Jesus as far as anyone has ever discovered, yet the scribe firmly supports it. Jesus seems to give him credit for recognizing how the two elements fuse—this is more than Jesus has heard from any of those who have challenged him before. Nevertheless, the most he will credit the scribe with is to say, “You are not far….” So, what is missing?
What is missing is the as-yet-unforeseen depths of the love that Lord your God has for you. That can only be grasped as Jesus performs that love the Father has for each of His children by offering to take all their sins and their brokenness and their human weaknesses upon his own back and then die for them on the cross, trusting the Father will vindicate him in the Resurrection. What is missing is how Jesus’ life/death/Resurrection shows the practically unfathomable seriousness of God’s love and mercy towards every one of His wayward children (even you and me). In Jesus we see and come to know (if we will) how far his Father goes to save and give eternal life to all who honestly open their hearts to Him and seek to follow His guidance in all things.
Our normal distance from what God hopes for us and urges us to do is quite great. After all, the prayer Jesus gave his Apostles to pass on to us instructs us to ask for God’s forgiveness every single day of our lives.
We must not kid ourselves that we don’t need forgiveness. The Good News in Christ is that God’s loving, loyal mercy to us His creatures seeks only a repentant heart that reaches out towards Him every day. Every day He will work with that.
After the Cross, after the Resurrection, after the sending of the Holy Spirit—then the depths of God’s love for us is revealed completely. Until those things have taken place, “not far from the kingdom” is as near as anyone can get.
For further reflection:
With “loving your neighbor as yourself” Jesus is quoting Leviticus 19:18. Originally, “neighbor” meant “fellow countryman” that is, the people under covenant with God, members of the 12 tribes. But, in practice, a firm line was difficult to draw. Exactly what was the status of the non-Israelites who left Egypt with the tribes and lived among them? Of those captured in the advances into new tribal areas? Of refugees who fled other territories and settled among the various tribes in Israel itself? From the parable of the Good Samaritan, we know it was a question debated in Jesus’ day. In that parable, Jesus sweeps away all distinctions among “hard cases” and turns it back upon the questioner: you are the neighbor, so the question to ask yourself is, “how would I want to be treated in this situation?” With mercy and compassion, most likely…