Being on Jesus' Side

Scripture: Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, teacher. You have correctly said that he is one, and there is no one else except him. And to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, is far more important than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices.” When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And no one dared to question him any longer. Mark 12:32-34

Observation: One of the scribes poses the question to Jesus about the greatest commandment, and Jesus directly answers, quoting the Shema, and including as the next most important being the love your neighbor as yourself. Given that this is Jesus, it likely wasn't necessary for this random scribe to then confirm for Jesus that he is right.

However, the scribe actually goes one step further. He invokes a sentiment of many of the prophets, making the statement that complying with these two foundational teachings - love God, and love others - is more important than "all the burnt offerings and sacrifices." This is a truth declared by many of the Old Testament prophets, include Jeremiah and Micah. It would not have been popular to declare this in the present context, which was effectively a collection of Pharisees and Sadducees all attempting to trick Jesus based on the "law".

With many witnesses all trying to find some law-based concept with which to trap Jesus, this scribe gives Jesus the opening to declare that which is truly important, pronounces Jesus as correct (and therefore effectively in alignment with Old Testament commands), and adds on the fact that the rest of the law is significantly less important. For that, Jesus publicly declares that this scribe is "not far from the kingdom of God."

Application: I have often understood that what happened with this last question was this scribe asked Jesus a very difficult trap of a question ... name the 'most important' commandment. When Jesus answers so directly and so wisely, everyone decides it is a waste of time to continue this game of entrapment. However, perhaps what was really happening was the scribe created a scenario for Jesus to shut down this game by opening showing that not only was Jesus wise, but that all their questions were based on legalistic trivialities that were meaningless, and had in fact been declared meaningless by a dozen prophets in the scriptures, beginning with Moses.

When Jesus said the scribe was "not far from the kingdom of God," maybe he meant the scribe was close to understanding. However, what he may have been saying was that this man had now placed himself on "team Jesus", and thus was now closer to him, and closer to true faith. This scribe didn't just agree with Jesus as a wise teacher. He stepped into a confrontation, took Jesus side in opposition to his fellow scribes and Pharisees, and eloquently defended the truth about Jesus and Yahweh in the face of 'logical opposition'.

I think this scribe, then and there, declared himself to be on Jesus' side.

I have publicly declared myself on Jesus's side, and I have done so in groups where I have known it wasn't the popular position. I hope this brings me "not far from the kingdom of God."

Prayer: Lord, I do not know who this scribe was, but you do. I hope he held onto his faith to the end. Amen.