St Bart’s Anglican Church
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Week 11 – THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT (Mark 12)
Discussion Questions
Read Mark 12:28-34 (The Greatest Commandment)1. What do you think is the difference between ‘love’ as a noun, and ‘love’ as a verb? Whilst we often talk about being ‘in love’ or that ‘all we need is love’, do you think the world is good at actually loving people? How about loving God?
2. Why do we find it so hard to love?
3. To love God completely is radical and costly. Can you think of some examples of the costliness of love? What do you think it actually means to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength? 4. What would the church look like if people loved God ‘half-heartedly’?
5. What does it mean to love your neighbour as yourself? (And who is that neighbour?)
6. How would you describe the completeness of God’s love to someone who doesn’t know God’s love? Read Mark 12:35-40 (Whose Son is the Christ)
7. What is the significance of Jesus quoting Psalm 110? How did it challenge the views of the people that the Messiah would be both the Son of David and Son of God?
8. To show his love, God didn’t give us a perfect argument or perfect sign (although there are plenty of both) – he gave us a perfect person who would die on the cross. As we read the Bible and learn more about Jesus, do you think the following quote is true?
“He is full of surprises, but they are all surprises of perfection. You are never amazed, one day by his
greatness, the next by his littleness. You are ever amazed that he is incomparably better than you could have expected. He is tender without being weak, strong without being coarse, lowly without being servile. He has conviction without intolerance, enthusiasm without fanaticism, holiness without Pharisaism, passion without prejudice. This Man alone never made a false step, never struck a jarring note.” Ian Maclaren (The Mind of the Master, 1896, p.81-82).
9. We’ve seen Jesus’ judgment on the temple last chapter (the clearing of the temple), this chapter (vv.1-12), and in the next (13:1-2). Read 12:1-11 and discuss the significance of the stone that will be rejected. Read Mark 12:41-44 (The Widow’s Offering)
10. Why was the widow’s gift greater than the other gifts that were being given?
11. How do we avoid being like the teachers of the law who desired to look good and get rich – all at the cost of loving God and those in need?
12. Do you think it’s true that, “you can give without loving, but you can't love without giving”? 13. Do you find it hard to relinquish control and trust in Jesus? How do you overcome this?
14. What is one way that you can show your love to God more clearly this week? What is one way that you can love your neighbour (i.e., someone in need) more this week?
Talk 11/15 (The Gospel According to Mark): 15/3/15
“The Greatest Commandment” by the Rev’d Adam Lowe
Bible Passage: Mark 12
INTRODUCTION \\ WONDERFUL RADICAL LOVE
In 1972, the crew of Apollo 17 took a photo of the earth that has gone on to become one of the most famous images ever taken.
• At 45,000 km from the earth, it was the first time the planet could be photographed like this and it’s become one of most famous and inspirational images of the 20th century. • Getting this sort of perspective
reminds us of the earth’s frailty and our very small place on it. • It reminds us that sitting amidst the wide chasm of space,
we’re all together on this blue marble.
• Stepping back like this, it’s easy to see the need for love. • But I think if we’re really honest,
we don’t need to zoom down very far to see how far short of love our world falls. • Despite the entire world having the hunch that love is powerful,
we seem unable to put it into action.
• And here’s my sneaking suspicion: we’re great at love as a noun (you know the stuff of song lyrics and poetry - love will change the world, all you need is love), but we’re hopeless with love as a verb.
• We struggle when it actually comes to the day-to-day loving of God, each other, and even ourselves.
• We’re great at aspirational and inspirational love, not as great at practical loving.
Today, as we look at the great commandment, here’s the thrust:
there’s a secret to living, and it’s all about love as an action rather than a concept. And I think chapter 12 tells us the what, who, and how of that secret.
1. What are we to do: Love completely.
2. In whom do we find perfect love? In Jesus, Lord and Son of God. 3. And how do we do this? By losing control.
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WHAT? LOVE COMPLETELY \\ VERSES 28-34
So first, what? love completely.
• It always kind of surprises me that when we come to the great commandment,
the default position in which it is often received is more of a great moral code that one might aspire to, rather than an authoritative instruction for us to obey.
A colleague of mine had a particular disdain for meetings, so if someone was a bit waffly
he’d ask them to communicate the key point of what they were trying to get across.
• And in a similar way - you could imagine even with the Torah in hand (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) - the teacher of the law is asking, out of all the commandments, what’s the key one?
• It’s a penetrating question that goes to the heart of the intended purposes of God’s commands.
• The answer is twofold. Love God with all that you are.
And love your neighbour as yourself. (Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18.) • Seems simple enough doesn’t it? But it’s not just a warm fuzzy.
The commandments centre with the love of God, because if we’re made in God’s image we will find our fullest meaning, our true selves, the more we learn to love and worship the one we are designed to reflect. (see Tom Wright, Mark for Everyone, p.170).
It’s really important to note that when Jesus commands to love with all your ‘heart, mind, soul, and strength’ (cf. Matthew 22); and ‘love your neighbour as yourself’ it’s a command of action! The word for love there is a verb! It’s not like being ‘in love’. • When he says with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength - he’s saying that you’ve
got to love God with everything - with all that you’ve got, and with all whom you are. • Similarly, I don’t know how much you love yourself, but if we are really honest I’m sure
we look after our own needs more than that of our neighbour - that is, those in need.
• You can imagine how if we even began to get these two things right, it would change the world overnight.
But of course, it’s not meant to be a half-hearted response.
• A church loving God with only half-hearts would not be a very beautiful expression of the grace shown to us, would it?
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• Not meant to be some sort of daisy love: they love me, they love me not…
Or like Facebook where you can ‘like’ for a moment, only to ‘unlike’ the next.
• If one of the key challenges in Mark’s Gospel so far has been to have soft hearts, then the logical extension to follow is, what then do we do with those soft hearts?
• Well the answer’s clear here: Single-hearted devotion. It’s not a sentimental or romantic love - it’s radical and costly.
• I officiated at a wedding last weekend, and as I do at every single wedding at which I speak, I talk about the standard of love for the couple getting married.
• That standard of love is that of Christ loving the church, and the church loving Christ. • And if you want to know what that love looks like, just look at the cross.
It’s a deep, costly, sacrificial, and generous love.
32 “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33 To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
• As they stand in the temple - the place where offerings and sacrifices were made - the the teacher of the law has realised that loving God is more important than making sacrifices and offerings in the temple.
• What he doesn’t understand yet is that it is because of what Jesus is going to do on the cross, that all of this is made possible.
• So, love completely.
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WHO? JESUS, LORD AND SON OF GOD \\
VERSES 35-40
The second thing we discover is that the way we meet God, in order that we might love him completely, is not a place - like the temple - but in the person of Jesus.
• Leading up to chapter 12, Jesus has generally had to be defensive with those who argue with him, but we see quite clearly now that he goes on the offensive to some of those who are leading people away from God.
• So in verse 38, we get a very strong critique of the teachers of the law who are all about themselves - looking good and getting rich.
38 As he taught, Jesus said, “Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted in the marketplaces, 39 and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. 40 They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. Such men will be punished most severely
• And as Jesus comes now to challenge some of the people’s understanding of who he is, he challenges them first in their understanding of who is the Messiah.
• “Who will be the Messiah” and “what can we say about him” were two critical questions on the minds of people.
• And we see, quite simply that Jesus claims that the Messiah - the Christos - is not just a Son of David, but also God.
35 While Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, he asked, “How is it that the teachers of the law say that the Christ is the son of David? 36 David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared: “ ‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.” ’
• The Hebrew prophets predicted a Christos, a Messiah, to put things right in Israel. And it was expected that this Messiah would be a descendent of David.
• That’s what is meant by Jesus reminding those present that the teachers of the law say that the
Christ would be the son of David (i.e., David’s Son) (v.36).
• But the teachers of the law weren’t expecting that this Messiah would be God.
• So Jesus pushes the issue - if they think that the Messiah is just going to be the Son of David, how did they interpret David’s own words in Psalm 110 declaring that “The Lord said to my Lord” (v.36).
• So what Jesus is saying is, if David calls himself Lord, and it is expected that the Messiah will be of his lineage (his son), why would he be calling him Lord? • David wouldn’t be calling one of his sons,
regardless of how many generations had passed, Lord.
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• So how can this be the case? • There’s only one answer?
This one sent by God must not only be human - but he must also be God.
• Later in Psalm 110, that Messiah is also spoken of as priest. And here we are in the temple, in which Jesus has claimed authority over it and even the right to declare God’s judgment on it.
• We saw that in chapter 11 with the clearing of the temple.
• You see it at the beginning of chapter 12 in the parable of the tenants in which Jesus speaks strong words of judgment upon Israel, and makes an allusion to a new temple, in which he will be the capstone that will be rejected.
• And we’re going to see it again in chapter 13.
• So, here we have Jesus as both Son of David and Son of God.
See, the teachers of laws and others, thought the Messiah would come to destroy the Romans. • They don’t understand that he is actually coming to destroy death and evil.
• Far more than any human conqueror could accomplish.
• They weren’t understanding who Jesus really was, because he wasn’t matching their expectations of what the Messiah would be.
• Friends, we must not make the same mistake. • If you think Jesus was only human,
then there’s nothing he can do on the cross to destroy evil and death.
• See the problem is, each of us, especially depending upon our culture have ways of evaluating if something is true.
• It was the same in the first century - things don’t change that much! • The Jews - they wanted signs. Give us the perfect sign and we’ll believe.
Still today, some of us can be like that, can’t we?
• The Greeks - they wanted a perfect, rational and logical argument. Give us that, and then we’ll believe. Certainly, lots of people today are in that position too.
• Well I’m here to tell you that you are not going to find a perfect sign or a perfect argument to convince you of Jesus.
• There’s lots of evidence. Jesus did plenty of signs. Jesus provided lots of rational and logical arguments. But you’re not going to get it, until your soft heart is ready to see Jesus for who he is.
• Not a perfect argument. God gave us a perfect person. • You’ve got to look at the life of Jesus, and read it.
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• Because if you take up that challenge, and I challenge everyone to go home and read the Gospel of Mark in full, you’ll see things about Jesus that you’ve never noticed.
• As one person put it over 100 years ago:
“He is full of surprises, but they are all surprises of perfection. You are never amazed, one day by his greatness, the next by his littleness. You are ever amazed that he is incomparably better than you could have expected. He is tender without being weak, strong without being coarse, lowly without being servile. He has conviction without intolerance, enthusiasm without fanaticism, holiness without Pharisaism, passion without prejudice. This Man alone never made a false step, never struck a jarring note.” Ian Maclaren (The Mind of the Master, 1896, p.81-82).
• Jesus is nothing like the worldly leaders who let us down.
• Jesus is nothing like the teachers of the law who seek their own riches and power. • He instead empties himself of ALL power on the cross.
• The way of Jesus is not by the love of power, but the power of love.
• And that leads us to my final point, that as you look to the real Jesus, prompted to respond with complete love, we’ve got to be willing to lose control.
HOW? LOSE CONTROL \\
VERSES 41-44
We’ve been already primed in Chapter 12 with the incident between Jesus and the Pharisees and Herodians, in which Jesus tells them to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.
• And now, with the example of the widow we really discover what it means to lose control and trust in God completely.
• Here we have all these rich people giving out of their wealth - putting in big amounts, but the widow who puts in the two smallest coins in circulation is pointed out by Jesus to give more than anyone else.
43 Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44 They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything–all she had to live on.”
• To make matters worse, not only were the rich people failing to love God completely, but they were also failing to love their neighbours - those in need - as themselves. • The one who should have been looked after by the community,
was in fact the one who gave the most.
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• When Jesus says that she “put in everything - all she had to live on” (v.44), he’s saying that she put it all in, her whole life.
• She had nothing left to live on. She trusted God completely.
• You know what I think: when Jesus told people to Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s we don’t very often include ourselves in that equation. • But I wonder, if that widow knew that she belonged to God, therefore it was
appropriate that she gives herself to him.
I don’t know how uncomfortable this makes you feel. But I know how uncomfortable it makes me feel!
• Because if I’m really honest with you, I like being in control. • I struggle to love God with all that I have.
• I struggle to love my neighbour - all of those in need - more than myself. • Sometimes we’d love it if the standard of love was less.
• But friends, the standard of love can be no less than what God has for us. • The standard of love cannot be any less than the cross.
• And that means to love God completely,
we’ve got to be willing to lose control of our life and give it to him.
• And it also means that we have to have genuine concern for those in need in our community - loving them as much as we love ourselves.
• This requires a deep, costly, sacrificial, and generous love.
• We heard similar words in Mark 8:35: For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.
• See we learn something so valuable here about love.
• You can give without loving, but you can't love without giving.
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CONCLUSION \\
RECEIVING JESUS?
God loves us perfectly and he’s had demonstrated that through the great gift of his son. • Therefore, our proper response to the standard of love that Jesus has set for us,
is to love God with all that we have - heart, mind, soul, and strength.
• And whilst there’s lots of example of love in our world, some good, some bad, the only way we can even begin to understand what it takes is by looking to who Jesus is. • You’ll never fully understand Jesus’ love by a sign.
• You’ll never fully understand Jesus’ love by a perfect argument. • You’ll only begin to understand by looking to Jesus on the cross
