This coming Sunday is the 31st Sunday in Year B. Our gospel is taken from the Gospel of Mark and is one of the most well known passages. Jesus is asked about the commandments: 28 One of the scribes…asked him, “Which is the first of all the commandments?” The response is very familiar to Christians: 29 Jesus replied, “The first is this: ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! 30 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 

This is not the first question asked of Jesus by Jewish leaders. Jesus has been under “observation” throughout Mark’s Gospel as Pharisees, Sadducees and the scribes were always evaluating Jesus’ activities. They judged charged Jesus him with “blasphemy” after hearing him forgive someone’s sins (2:7); they evaluated the people with whom Jesus ate (2:16); some Jerusalem scribes claim he was in league with“Beelzebul” because of his exorcism activity (3:22); they questioned his disciples’ hand-washing practices and adherence to the tradition of the elders (7:1,5); along with priests and elders, the scribes probed into the origins of Jesus’ authority (11:27-28), which the general populace perceived to be distinctive from the scribes (cf. 1:22); along with Jerusalem priests, they wanted to kill Jesus because they were afraid of his popularity (11:18, 32; 14:1). These are not hallmarks of a warm and cordial relationship.

The setting for this gospel pericope is in the midst of Holy Week. Jesus has already entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Our story falls within a series of conversations between Jesus and various leaders which began in Mark 11:27:

• Question about authority from the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders (11:27-33)
• Parable about abusive treatment of authorities (12:1-12)
• Question about taxes from Pharisees and Herodians (12:13-17)
• Question about the resurrection from Sadducees (12:18-27)
• Question about the greatest law from a scribe (12:28-34) ~ our gospel
• Question about the Davidic ancestry of the Messiah raised by Jesus (12:35-37)

Our gospel reading is the final discussion initiated by one of these leaders, since “no one dared to ask him any question” after this encounter (cf. Mark 12:34)

The scribe’s question in our text is not posed “to test” Jesus as in Matthew 22:34-40 and Luke 10:25-28. The question is, in fact, a familiar one from Jewish tradition: “Is there a way of summarizing the commandments?” The questions seems to have been asked by a scribe who was well impressed with Jesus’ answers in the preceding discussions. A common feature of the preceding questions was the traditional rabbinic distinction between lighter and weightier, smaller and greater commandments. In this context it is not the “10 Commandments” but the 613 individual statutes of the Law/Torah.

In Jesus’ day, a well-known summary of the whole Law/Torah was given by Hillel the Elder. When challenged by a Gentile, Hillel replied: “What you yourself hate, do not do to your neighbor: this is the whole Law, the rest is commentary. Go and learn it.” (Shabbath 31a; cf. Tobit 4:15)  Likewise, Jesus’ response goes much deeper than the distinction between small and great commandments and shows that he understood the question to concern the principle of Law/Torah. But Jesus’ answer will summarize the whole Law/Torah in the will of God which calls for the love which is a whole-hearted response to God and to the neighbor.

Image credit: The Pharisees and the Sadducees Come to Tempt Jesus | James Tissot | Brooklyn Museum, PD-US