Thurs 3rd Sept - #104. Priorities
If the house is on fire, what will you grab as you escape?
Your children, of course, if they can’t walk themselves.
Your wallet. Your computer. Your passport and personal documents.
A precious photograph. The wristwatch your grandfather gave you. A stack of letters from someone you love dearly.
You look on from a safe distance as everything else is burnt to ashes. You realize the significance of what you’ve just done. You have made some important choices. These things are more valuable to you than tables and chairs, china and glass, clothes, books, hi-fi equipment, and all the thousand other things that find a place in a home. You have discovered where your priorities really lie.
The question the lawyer asked Jesus was like that. Faced with the whole volume of Jewish law, which commandment really matters? Which one will you grasp on to in a moment of crisis? And what is the significance of that choice? What are you saying about the others? *1
Let’s read todays passage -
Mark 12
28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked Him, ‘Of all the commandments, which is the most important?’
29 ‘The most important one,’ answered Jesus, ‘is this: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” 31 The second is this: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no commandment greater than these.’
32 ‘Well said, teacher,’ the man replied. ‘You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but Him. 33 To love Him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbour as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.’
34 When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, He said to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’ And from then on no one dared ask Him any more questions.
This morning consider -
How you would answer the question that the teacher of the law put to Jesus.
Think about Jesus’ answer, how do we respond to this?
And lastly -
I will leave you with another thought from Tom Wright -
When the crisis comes, what remains solid in your life and the life of your community? Wholehearted love of God and neighbour? Or the mad scramble of everyone trying to save their own skins?
much love
Tim
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*1 Mark for Everyone - T Wright