Mark 12:28
Have
you ever listened in on a conversation without really being in the
conversation? You happen to walk in the room and you enter the conversation
midstream. Your brain scrambles in order to try to make sense of what they are
saying. It seems as if you are missing a few vital pieces of information. You
continue to listen in without being noticed.
And
then there is a shift in their voices as they realize that they can be
overheard. That is when listening in becomes even more difficult. You focus
your concentration and pick up what you can. You continue to put the pieces of
the conversation puzzle together. And then it happens; you finally figure out
what they are talking about. And it wasn’t at all what you thought it was. Your
first guesses were wrong. You were missing a few key pieces of information.
Our
text tells of a man who has walked in on the conversations Jesus has had with
two groups of antagonists. These two groups want Jesus out of the picture. They
are plotting His death. We don’t know if this man is part of the third group’s
official offensive line or not. We don’t know if he was sent with a specific
question or not. We don’t know lots of facts. It is almost as if we are
eavesdropping on these events. So we try to fill in the gaps.
I
believe that this man was the official spokesperson for the teachers of the
law. He had been sent with the assignment of getting Jesus to stumble, to
incriminate Himself. He might have been sent with the official question
selected by the group. We don’t know the history of contact between Jesus and
this man. Had he ever heard Jesus in person before? Had he only heard second
and third hand reports about Jesus?
But
something happened as he listened to Jesus. He is actually paying attention. He
isn’t just waiting his turn in the succession of questioners. He is listening
to their answers. And while he listens, something changes. He goes from being a
close-minded antagonist to someone who hear Jesus in a new way. He recognizes
that Jesus is giving good answers, serious answers to the other questions. And
I think something happens in his heart. Perhaps like the Grinch, his heart grew
three sizes that day.
It
seems as though he goes from someone on a criminal mission to someone with honest
curiosity. When he hears Jesus something happens. So he asks a question. Was it
his official question, or was it one he made up on the spot? We don’t know. But
he wants to know Jesus’ take on the commandments. Which is the most important?
You
can tell a lot about someone when you find out their priorities, both their
stated priorities and their lived priorities. And with honest reflection, I
have to say that I have never met a person whose stated and lived priorities
were always congruent. We all fail to live our stated values 100% of the time.
We all fall short.
So
this question about commandments and their role in life is an important one to
this teacher. He wants to hear Jesus’ heart on the matter. He wants insight
into what makes Jesus tick. And in the process, Jesus finds out what makes him
tick.