The Greatest Commandments: The Pharisees ask which commandment is the greatest and Jesus responds with Judaism’s most fundamental passage known as the Shema: “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” (Deuteronomy 6:5) However he does not leave it at that. He adds that another scripture is “like it,” “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Leviticus 19:18) “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” In putting these two commandments together, Jesus is able to condense the 613 Hebrew Laws and the Ten Commandments into two laws. They describe how we honor and worship God, how we rest on the Sabbath, how we deal with disputes and laws, and how we treat people. All of these laws, in the broadest terms, are encapsulated in The Great Commandments that Jesus outlines in today’s lesson.

The question Jesus asks them about whose son the Messiah is a way of engaging them in further conversation about God and God’s expansiveness. Jesus wants them to think bigger, wants them to understand that God is more than they can imagine, that the Messiah surpasses the lineage as they know it.

·         I wonder why Jesus said that those were the greatest.
·         I wonder how we can live out these commandments.

Prayer: Almighty and Everlasting God, in Christ you have revealed your glory among the nations: Preserve the works of your mercy, that your Church throughout the world may persevere with steadfast faith in the confession of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.