The First Commandments

The gospel reading for this coming Sunday is Mark 12:28-34 in which we witness a conversation between Jesus and a scribe regarding the first commandments. We know this commandment well: “to love…” to love God and to love others as we love ourselves. Mark 12:28-34.

The crowd is left speechless as they hear Jesus and this scribe agree so wholeheartedly on which commandment is the greatest and what it means.

What is this love that leaves them without words? Is it a feeling? A thought? A right belief or doctrine? A right group to which they might or might not belong?

Richard Rohr reminds us that first century Christians did not have doctrine or dogma. They did not have a singular identity as a people, but were Jews, gentiles, men, women, rich, poor, slaves, free, and citizens. They called themselves followers of “the way.” Perhaps the love of which Jesus and the scribe spoke is “the way,” a way of being, a way of acting, a way of living.

We will ponder more on these questions as well as others, as we take the gospel passage alongside the Deuteronomic text from which Jesus and his interlocutor reference.

Take a look at all the passages for this Sunday’s lectionary here: https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=227

See you Sunday!