Word to the Wise
Friday, March 16, 2007 - Friday of the Third Week of Lent
[Hosea 14:2-10 and Mark 12:28-34]And when Jesus saw that he (the scribe) answered with understanding, he said to him, "You are not far from the Kingdom of God."
There may be a note of irony in Jesus' response to the scribe who acknowledges what is important in faith. The scribe is standing right there. At least the scribe realizes that love of God and neighbor are the supreme values in the Mosaic law. By this acknowledgment, the scribe actually is on the right track. All he had to do to go further was to acknowledge that the kingdom was staring him in the face! A lot of folks will say, "I love God, but I have a ways to go before I really can say I love my neighbor." The two commandments are like two sides of one coin. It's true that the relationships are not the same but they cannot be observed apart from each other. All those "burnt offerings and sacrifices" have to be accompanied by "acting justly and loving tenderly." (Micah 6:8). This is made explicit in 1 John 4:20-21: "If anyone says, 'I love God,' but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. This is the commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother." I do have to admit, however, that I have encountered folks who really have problems the other way around. They find it easy to love another human person but find it difficult to love the God "they cannot see." The challenge here is to see God in the neighbor. That was the challenge for all those who met Jesus in person. All that many of them could see was the carpenter's son from Nazareth - a great guy, a great teacher, a wonderworker - but God? Yes! God in person, in the flesh. That's why the scribe was not far from the kingdom, but still not quite there! How close are we? AMEN
config
view
logs
3840.0 KB
64 ms
4
