#008 - Greatest Commandment - pt. 1

JULY 2015

The way to happiness is through the service of others. I can’t think of a more instantaneous or lasting way. Through this act, change can be made in small steps, and lives can be impacted in small strides, all by loving one another as God loved you.

I want you to think of the last time you helped someone who did not ask. Go ahead, think. Then, I was hoping you could think of the feelings associated with that act. Okay, now you either had a positive experience or a negative experience. The positive ones are the best. The pride you feel from helping is an unmistakable feeling. But I‘m going to talk more about that later. I just wanted to get you feeling good. See how just mentioning succeeding at helping gave you a taste of that emotion.  

Now, unfortunately, there is always a downside. Sometimes, you’ve helped someone who didn’t ask, and you did not receive anything in return. No feelings, no words of thanks, no monetary compensation. We’re talking about the person who didn’t even acknowledge the deed- they just continued their lives. Unaware perhaps of the heroic act that you, the obvious better person here, have just anointed on them the now worse person. You’re the victim when that happens. 

When you’re sitting in traffic, and a person doesn’t signal, or when you let someone in while you’re sitting in traffic, they don’t wave to you. Or if you have mercy on that person who pulled out in front of you and thinks that the speed limit should never be approached. Since we live in a city with a lot of traffic, it’s easy for me to think of times when I served others while sitting in traffic. 

But that is not what I’m talking about. Yes, those are negative experiences when you expect one thing but get another. However, if you realize that you should not have expected anything at all, the next time someone doesn’t acknowledge the act of service you have done, you will feel positive no matter what. For it is the act, not the achievement, that creates happiness.  

Here’s the bible to back some things up. 

Hosanna in the highest.

We’re looking at a story found in Mark, and for those of you unfamiliar with the bible, there are four gospels written about this man named Jesus, who many at the time believed to be the son of the one true God. However, the religious elite of the time, called Pharisees and Sadducees and such, did not like how Jesus questioned their authority. They feared losing the power they had over the masses and their Jewish followers. 

Throughout the New Testament gospels, they pop up like the antagonists of any good story (the Daleks from Doctor Who or the Empire from Star Wars), always trying to catch Jesus off guard so they can arrest and ultimately silence him. That is how much power these people had. Mark, who it is assumed wrote the book after which he is named, sets up this chapter with parables Jesus directed towards a massive crowd that included these religious leaders.

To make the situation tense, Jesus had just ridden into Jerusalem and been heralded as the messiah the day before. So tensions, as you can imagine, are pretty heated between Jesus and this group of leaders. Each side was preparing for a battle royal that ended, as we all know, with the crucifixion of Jesus.

Parable play calling.

The Pharisees are doing what a football coach might do and sending out scouts to try and catch Jesus off guard. Unfortunately for them, Jesus not only manages to come up with fitting answers, but he also manages to dodge every single attack that comes his way.  Proof that he was who he said he was. This is the setting in this story and this particular chapter of Mark starts out with a parable assigned specifically to the prosecutorial elite of the time. It goes like this:

1 “A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and leased it to tenants and went into another country. 2 When the season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. 3 And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed.4 Again he sent to them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully. 5 And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed. 6 He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally, he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 7 But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 8 And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. 9 What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others.  [Mark 12:1-9, ESV]

I want to pause there because I want to explain what is going on. You don’t have to be a biblical scholar to see that Jesus wasn’t talking about an actual Vineyard owner. In this context, he was saying that God is like the owner. Time and time again, he has sent prophets, messengers, and servants, but time and time again, they have been discredited, shamed, or killed. 

In fact, a meaningful connection can be made in the word servant because these were unpaid persons who were simply serving their master by command. Because their master was responsible for their livelihood they went out on behalf of him to serve him, but instead were treated like they were not even human in some cases. This makes the context even more shocking that the tenants would do such a mindless thing as torture and kill a layperson for simply serving his master. For, after all, everyone truly serves the same Master. That is the key point in this story. 

Jesus is describing the actual state of his world through this parable. By telling it in the company of the Pharisees, he is trying to prove a point. If you continue to ignore God's will, surely he will take away what has been given to you. Look at verse 9 again through this lens:

9 What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. [Mark 12:9, ESV]

 Time and time again, Jesus is saying God has given us the necessary information for our success. Still, instead, we treat this gift like an ungrateful tenant approaches a loving landlord. If the landlord in the parable could collect the harvest himself, the tenants would not treat him like they treated his servants. The Pharisees are skeptical of Jesus because of what he could potentially do when Jesus is merely trying to show them what he offers. The beloved son represents Jesus, and with that in mind, let’s read again 

6 He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ [Mark 12:6, ESV]

Jesus is saying that if you truly believe he is God's son, you will respect his words. The ending for him is near, so now, he is trying to get them to listen more than ever. Instead, just like in the parable, they question him like they questioned those before him.  

7 But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 8 And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. 9 What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. [Mark 12:7-9, ESV]

He doesn't stop there and quotes a well-known Psalm.

10 Have you not read this Scripture:

“‘The stone that the builders rejected

 has become the cornerstone;

11 this was the Lord's doing,

    and it is marvelous in our eyes’?” [Mark 12:10-11, ESV]

He is saying to remember God, who has been with us always, who is always here, and who knows our ways. This God hasn’t changed. Mark finishes the narration:

12 And they were seeking to arrest him but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they left him and went away. [Mark 12:12, ESV]

The rest of the story is clear. Because the landlord had sent his laypeople to do his work, the tenants rejected their obligation to their landowner. In biblical times, the landlord was usually rich and powerful and respected by his tenants. A good landowner would provide for his tenants' needs in return for a share of the crop.   

Landlord/Tenant relationships.

God sends people into your life, much like a landlord, to check up on you because he cares and loves you. But we have a tendency to see the package that is contained in a less than pleasing way. So we instead see it as a negative in our lives instead of seeing the positive in the situation. Life is not easy and clear cut, and Jesus knows this, but the point he is making is why are we treating the gifts of God like they are from a less-than-pleasing source? Why are we not trusting in the one who gives us everything in life, or the parable, the one who planted, built, and started the whole process in the first place? 

God knows how everything works and will work because he started everything from the beginning. 

This particular chapter is intentionally prefaced with this story because of what happens next. Mark goes on to explain: 

13 And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians, to trap him in his talk. 14 And they came and said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone's opinion. For you are not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God. [Mark 12:13-14, ESV]

This is an old-fashioned way of buttering up Jesus before they ask him to break the law. They are trying to prove he is incorruptible. However, Jesus sees it coming and dodges a question about taxes, still a hot-button issue to this day, and resurrection, still a hot-button issue in religious crowds. The religious elite wants him to fall because he is literally changing everything, and they are scared! 

Jesus juking Jesus.

We finally reach the point in the chapter where I like to think a large crowd had gathered, and all of the Pharisees and Herodians and Sadducees and chief priests and scribes and elders are all amazed at this point that Jesus has not managed to break their laws. This is particularly amazing because they have been running the gambit on the hot-button issues of the day. Taxes? Check. Afterlife? Check. The only question that was left gave way to perhaps the most famous answer ever to be uttered in all of human history. This is the question found in Verse 28- 

28 …’ Which commandment is the most important of all?’ [Mark 12:28, ESV]

In some translations, it is-

28 ...’ Which is the first commandment of all?’ [Mark 12:28, KJV]

or-

28…’ Of all the commandments, which is the most important?’ [Mark 12:28, NLT]

Or, simply, of all the laws and commandments that have ever been written from the time of Adam, Abraham, and Moses—from all the rabbis, all the prophets, all the servants of the one true God who, like Jesus, found themselves in this same persecuted state—which law was the greatest?

I do not have to tell you the intentions of those questioning. Jesus already told a parable that summed up his entire situation, how he was feeling and what he was experiencing, but they did not listen to his words. Instead, they asked him to pick the greatest law, trying to put him in an inescapable situation, just like a good antagonist always does. God always provides the exit.

What Jesus said changed the course of Humanity for the next 2000 years:

29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And 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.’

It would be great if Jesus stopped there, if all our purpose was summed up in that one line: Love God with all you’ve got! Great. Done! But he doesn’t stop there, and those who were gathered heard a second part before anyone else was allowed to speak. 

31 The second is this: 

I like to think that Jesus had this answer locked and loaded.

31 ...‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Jesus did something that still shocks the world to this day: proof that he was the son of God, that there is God, and that God wants nothing more for his creation than for his creation to love and serve one another. He didn’t stop at loving God. He made sure to include loving others as a requirement. If he had not included this second phrase, think of how different the world would be. 

The real unifying message of Jesus.

Up until this point, several hundred laws had to be obeyed, overseen by priests and rabbis, who were the ultimate law enforcers. Punishments could be handed out to those who broke religious law, and the worst offenders were often crucified publically. This was a scary concept for all who listened. 

Jesus did to religion what Einstein did to Physics with E=MC2.

Jesus was revolutionary in every way because he was the Son of God. He was constantly questioned because he knew that his mission was greater than petty squabbles over who was right and wrong. 

In the end, Jesus was saying that our lives on this planet, our world that has been so meticulously created for us, are fragile and insignificant compared to what lies after. Life should be spent in the service of others, foremost in loving and diving deeper into a relationship with God.

After all, if you believe that Jesus is the son of God and heaven is your end goal, then nothing beyond the grace of God matters in this life anyway. So, while waiting, God has given us two simple rules. Love God and love one another. Period. End of discussion. But what about-

31 …”There is no other commandment greater than these.”

We find ourselves in times like the ones in ancient Rome today. When the love of God is put behind us when we serve but do not feel like we have gained from the service. If you truly love God, loving others must be a part of the equation. Period. But what if-

31 …”There is no other commandment greater than these.”

That person in traffic or the person next to you at the grocery store. The person you disagree with politically or racially. The person at the DMV who makes you hate life or your daughter’s boyfriend that you know is wrong for her. Any person you should meet in life should be met with an attitude of love, for there is no greater love than that for God and others. Thoughts like these have the potential to change the world once again, which is the message of Jesus. Live a life full of a love of God and with a true love for those who surround you.