Week 38 Mark
Mark says that a man asked Jesus: of all the commandments, which is the most important?
I read this story a couple of weeks ago in Matthew. The man was an expert in religious law and Matthew said that he: tried to trap (Jesus) with this question. Mark doesn’t say it was an entrapment question. He says the expert had been listening to the public Q&A and: he realized that Jesus had answered well. That doesn’t mean the guy wouldn’t have liked to trip-up Jesus. But at least he admitted that the Lord was pretty smart.
Anyway after the Lord answered the question Matthew’s story ended. But Mark added an extra note. He said the legal expert agreed with the Lord and added that loving God and loving others was very important…in fact more important than anything else. It sounds sincere and Mark says: realizing this man’s understanding, Jesus said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God”.
I tend to have a simple binary view of the kingdom of God. It’s an intangible destination and you’re either in or out – kind of like a light switch with On-Off settings. But the Lord adds this extra idea of proximity. You’re either nearer the kingdom or farther away. Closing the distance or increasing it.
Where the legal expert eventually ended up is anyone’s guess. But for a while he was getting pretty near.
Note: quotes from Matthew 22:35 Mark 12:28, 32, 34 (NLT)