The Life of Christ in the Synoptic Gospels
THE GREAT COMMANDMENTS
The Life of Christ in the Synoptic Gospels
THE GREAT COMMANDMENTS
Golden Text: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.” (Lk. 10:27)
Lesson Plan:
1. The Lawyer’s Question (v 28)
2. Jesus States the Fundamental Principle (v 29)
3. Love For God – The Greatest of all Duties (v 30)
4. Loving Our Neighbors as Ourselves (v 31)
5. Old Light on New Times
6. Not Far from the Kingdom of God (vs 32-34)
7. Story of the Widow’s Two Mites (vs 41-44)
Lesson Setting:
Time: Tuesday, April 4, A.D. 30. Closely connected with the last lesson.
Place: The courts of the Temple at Jerusalem. Christ’s last day of public teaching.
Research and Discussion: Was the scribe sincere in asking his question? In what Scriptures is Christ’s answer found? How can we know when we love God with all our heart? Why is this duty first? How is it related to loving our neighbor as ourselves? What connection, if any, between the story of the widow’s mite and these commandments of love?
Introduction: Mere statements regarding duty, courage, honesty, faith, hope and love, without a touch of life or a kindling flame of action, produces books we term as ‘dull;’ produces sermons we call ‘dry;’ and produces ‘boring’ lessons. The average mind recoils; it drops back into the realm of the near, familiar, every day ‘concrete.’ Try thinking for five minutes about the great virtue of courage, or self-sacrifice, truth, sincerity or righteousness. Try thinking about cowardice, meanness, injustice. How long before abstract courage is clothed with personality, or sincerity assumes the form of someone you know, or cowardice arrays itself in the garments of some poor soul, or injustice is clothed by your memory of an unfair deed? When an abstract virtue or vice is translated in this way into the ‘concrete’ of the mind, it makes an impression. Practically all of Shakespeare’s power lies in this ability to translate from the abstract into the concrete. Regarding this lesson, we should remember this principle, and make these grand eternal truths live in action, in story, in modern life, and call on memory to find examples of them in the people we know.
Scripture Reading: Mark 12:28
1. The Lawyer’s Question
The Herodians had asked Jesus a ‘political’ question that was dividing the nation; the Sadducees had asked Him a ‘religious’ question, on which the Pharisees and the Sadducees took directly opposite sides with no small intensity of feeling. Jesus answered these questions with a wisdom and truth that astonished His hearers. Now comes a scribe, a lawyer, one who whose life was devoted to studying and teaching the Jewish law as stated and exemplified in the Old Testament. There had naturally arisen many puzzling practical questions concerning which Jewish scholars and teachers were divided in opinion, often with bitter intensity. The scribe ...
v 28 ... “perceiving that he had answered [the previous questions] well, asked him.” Matthew adds “tempting him,” not in the sense of trying to get Him into trouble, but with the desire to learn all he could toward solving a difficult problem that really puzzled the scribe. This seems clear from Jesus’ own words to him in verse 34, “Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.”
The Question was “Which is the first commandment of all?” (v 28) In Matthew the form is, “Which is the great commandment in the law?” The Greek word translated “which” is not the usual relative pronoun, “but poia, ‘what sort of’ a commandment? It is a question not about an individual commandment, but about the qualities that determine greatness in the legal region. The prevalent tendency was to attach special importance to finding the great matters of the Law in circumcision, Sabbath-keeping, the rules respecting phylacteries, etc. (Lightfoot). The opposite tendency, to emphasize the Ethical,’ was represented in the school of Hillel, which taught that the love of our neighbor is the kernel of the Law” (Exp. Gk. Test.).
Scripture Reading: Mark 12:29
2. Jesus First States the Fundamental Principle
Before we can love God with all our hearts we must know about Him whom we are to love. Jesus therefore states first the preface to the commandments in Deuteronomy (6:4) ... “Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord” (v 29), in the R.V. “The Lord our God, the Lord is one,” the very words which every devout Jew recited twice every day; and which they inscribed on the parchment enclosed in their phylacteries, and wore on their foreheads and arms during prayer. Thus Jesus answered from their own Bible, in words they regarded as supremely sacred. This describes and designates the God we are to love supremely. Jehovah, the God of Israel, is the one absolute, self-existent, eternal God and He alone. He is the Creator, Ruler, Preserver, Guide, Savior, Father, and Source of all good.
Illustration: God carries His people, and has done so from the time of their conception and birth. He won’t stop; He will sustain and rescue them in their old age. “Even to your old age and gray hairs I am He, I am He who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you” (Is. 46:4).
Illustration: “Looking at the earth from this vantage point, looking at this kind of creation, and to not believe in God, to me, is impossible ... to see the earth laid out like that only strengthens my beliefs” (Astronaut John Glenn after viewing the world from outer space for a second time).
One of the greatest services which science has done for religion is proof that there is but one God. The light from the stars so far away that it takes 4000 years to come to our world is the same kind of light that shines from our sun. Spectrum analysis shows that the sun is made up of the same materials as the earth. The movements of the planets are by the same laws of gravitation that rule in our world. So far as we can discover there is a unity of material, force, natural law and moral law throughout the universe. This introduction is not superfluous. It would be a terrible thing if there were conflicting deities, some having one dominion and others another. There would be no peace, no safety, no assurance of hope, no eternal heaven. The universe would be worse than the chance world of Hafed’s Dream, it would be “the war of elements, the wreck of matter, and the crash of worlds.”
Scripture Reading: Mark 12:30
3. Love for God – The Greatest of All Duties
v 30 ... “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God,” the One God of verse 29, infinite, eternal, unchangeable, invisible, “that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in. Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: He calleth them all by names by the greatness of His might, for that He is strong in power; not one faileth. Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of His understanding” (Is. 40). How can we, so small, so sinful, so weak, love so great a God? Because we are His children, made in His likeness. Because He is a real personality, not a mere force or “power that makes for righteousness,” but a living, loving Spirit. Because He is so great that He can care for all little things no matter how many or how small; as we see in nature all around us. We can love Him because He is so lovable, for “like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.” And most of all we can love God because we see His heart and character in Jesus Christ, who is the “excess image of His person,” whose deeds of loving kindness and tender mercies, healing, teaching and love to children, are the lovable expressions of God’s own feelings.
How much should we love Him? – “With [or from] all thy heart” (v 30) the general word for the inner man. It is the seat of the desire, passions, affections, emotions.
v 30 ... “With all thy soul.” The life principle, the center of will and personality.
v 30 ... “With all thy strength.” The utmost energy of heart, soul, and mind, our whole being, no part left out, must go forth toward God in love. The greatest thing in the world is God’s love for man; so great that it can forgive the sins of the whole world if only they will repent; so great that it includes all peoples and nations; so great that it can raise the poorest and weakest to the blessedness of heaven. Dr. James E. Priest once stated in a sermon: “When I want to think of the love of God to you and me, I do not reject the helpful suggestion of human motherhood, fatherhood, wifehood, husbandhood, and childhood. I eagerly listen to their music, and in their love-strains I hear ‘sweet snatches of the songs above,’ faint echoes of the wonderful love of God. The love of our Father in heaven is like and yet very unlike the love of all good fathers on earth. It is so like an earthly father’s love that it is almost akin. Yet, it is so unlike an earthly father’s love that it fills us with adoring wonder and praise. As with the vast organ and the harmonium are akin, and can express the same tune; so unlike that, as with the organ and the harmonium, one overwhelms the other in range and capacity, in height and depth, in length and breadth of musical glory. ‘God loves you,’ and you have heard a bit of the tune in your mother’s love, in your father’s love, in the love of your husband, in the love of your wife, in the love of your little child. Human love may be only as a child’s earliest broken song in comparison with the Hallelujah Chorus, but it is akin.” The greatest thing in any person is supreme love for God. It brings us nearest to God in sympathy, friendship and character. We cannot love Him supremely and not grow like Him. It opens our souls to the best influences. It helps us to become co-workers with God. It brings to us the greatest motives, the greatest possibilities, the noblest character, the highest ideal, the largest usefulness, which we are capable of receiving.
Why is this the first and greatest commandment? (a) It is the greatest in its nature, being the highest and noblest act of the soul. (b) It is the sum of the first table of the Law. (c) It has the greatest value, being the fountain and source of all virtue, of all love to our neighbor, because it is the consecration of self to the Father of all good, and all men. Political alchemy cannot produce golden conduct out of laden instincts. (d) It is the act, the outgoing of the whole nature of man. It is all-inclusive.
Reasons for loving God supremely: (a) He is supremely good; He is the sum of all good. (b) He is not only good, but lovable. (c) All we have and are we owe to Him; and the only way we can express our appreciation is to love and obey Him in love. That is all we have to offer God. To withhold it speaks of unutterable selfishness, not to mention rudeness. (d) The best thing in man is love, and God wants the best. (d) Such love not only honors God, but elevates man. Love is the most ennobling act of the soul. The nobler and higher the object and the more intense the love, so much the more is the one who thus loves ennobled, purified, enlarged, exalted in nature.
Scripture Reading: Mark 12:31
4. Loving Our Neighbors as Ourselves
v 31 ... “The second is like,” because as the first is the sum of the first table of the law so this is the sum of the second table. The same principle of Love underlies both. They are twin Commandments.
v 31 ... “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Your neighbors and yourself are to be loved in the same degree, and by the same standard, even if your neighbor is your enemy. It is another expression of the Golden Rule: “whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the Law and the Prophets.” If you love your neighbor as yourself, you apply the Commandments in your conduct toward him as scrupulously as you wish him to apply them to you. You must not injure him, lie to him, steal from him, or covet his success. You must treat him exactly as you wish to be treated by him. It would be a great exercise to read over 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, noting the nine ingredients in the spectrum of Love: Patience – “Love suffereth long.” (b) Kindness – “And is kind.” (c) Generosity – “Love envieth not.” (d) Humility – “Love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up.” (e) Courtesy – “Doth not behave itself unseemly.” (f) Unselfishness – “Seeketh not her own.” (g) Good Temper – “Is not easily provoked.” (h) Guilelessness – “Thinketh no evil.” (i) Sincerity – “Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth.” Read the duties laid down in the Sermon on the Mount, and the virtues in Galatians 5:22, 23. By considering these one by one, decide honestly how many you practice in your personal dealings with others.
Illustration: “He who does not live in some degree for others, hardly lives for himself” (Montaigne).
Illustration: When vonHugel, the philosopher, was on his death bed, his little niece noticed that his lips were moving, but she couldn’t hear him. She quickly put her ear close and heard his last words: “Caring is everything; nothing matters but caring.”
Illustration: “He who comes to do good knocks at the gate; he who loves finds the door open” (Tagore).
A religion of negatives? – True religion has a number of negative requirements. Do not murder. Do not lie. Do not love the world. Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. Do not do this or that. It is a mistake of major proportions to mold our view of religion, God, or the Christian life around the ‘don’ts’ in Scripture. Doing so will make you critical of others, unsure of yourself, and vulnerable to failure. Jesus once told this story: “When a corrupting spirit is expelled from someone, it drifts along through the desert looking for an oasis, some unsuspecting soul it can bedevil. When it doesn’t find anyone, it says, ‘I’ll go back to my old haunt.’ On return, it finds the person swept and dusted, but vacant. It then runs out and rounds up seven other spirits dirtier than itself and they all move in, whooping it up. That person ends up far worse than if he’d never gotten cleaned up in the first place” (Lk. 11:24-26, The Message). It simply isn’t enough to banish either a demon or a bad habit. Neither will it be sufficient to “sweep clean” and “put in order” an old lifestyle. A ‘clean-but-empty’ heart is an ‘at-risk’ heart. It will be filled with something. Yet religion has too often stressed what must be banished without teaching what belongs in the place of those things.
5. Old Light on New Times
(A) One way to love God with all the heart is to work with Him in accomplishing the objects He has at heart, both for ourselves and for others.
(B) By loving God we learn how to love our fellow-men. One of the great values of studying the life of Christ is to learn how He expressed His love for man, and then “go and do likewise.”
(C) We gain help in loving God by obedience to the first table of the Law; by choosing Him as our God; by honoring Him before others through never taking His name in vain; by keeping the first day of each week, The Lord’s Day, holy, and worshipping alone and with others, faithfully studying His mighty and glorious works in His Word at home and in Bible School.
(D) We love our fellow-men more when we strive more to help them, being true to them, working with them as equals more than merely for them.
(E) “Duty makes us do things well, but love makes us do them beautifully” (Phillips Brooks).
Illustration: A man battled alcoholism for 17 of his 32 years. He was a Christian and went to church faithfully. The church leaders where he attended took a strong stand against alcoholism. Thinking of the church leaders as his ‘shepherds’ and deeply spiritual men, he went to them in private asking for their help. He praised his spiritual leaders for allowing him to teach and assist in public worship. However, his trusting request – made when his life had been “swept” and “dusted” for nine months – served only to identify him as a recovering alcoholic. The leaders later met in secret, deciding that he would no longer be allowed to serve in the teaching program or in any of the church’s public programs (except cutting grass) such as leading in any part of public worship. He found out through a formal letter, pointing out that ‘recovering alcoholics’ would not be allowed church leadership positions. A few weeks later, he went to a bar, got drunk, and picked a fight with a man who pulled out a pistol and killed him.
A church’s strong stand on religion’s negatives without opening the door to positive alternatives isn’t very helpful. The same is true of personal character formation. Greed must be replaced by generosity. Hatred can be overcome through forgiveness. Rooting out evil begins with cleansing but is final only when that soul has been filled with something virtuous where evil once held sway. Banishing an evil spirit is only a half measure, incomplete until you have been filled with God’s Holy Spirit.
Scripture Reading: Mark 12:32-34
6. Not Far From the Kingdom of God
The scribe recognized the wisdom of Jesus’ reply, and the fact that the law of love was infinitely above all outward rules and religious services; for these at best were but means to the greater duties, and often were made a substitute for the virtues they were intended to inspire.
v 34 ... “Jesus ... said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.” His mind was clear. He understood the truth and sympathized with it at least in theory. He stood at the door of the kingdom. He knew his duty. Did he enter in? Did he consecrate himself to God to love Him with all his heart? Let us hope that on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2) he was one among the great numbers who repented and were baptized for the remission of their sins.
v 34 ... “And no man after that durst ask him any question.” No wonder. The combined cleverness of Herodians, Sadducees, and Pharisees, despite their flattering admissions so damaging to their cause, had produced nothing that could aid their campaign against the Lord; but on the other hand, their questions had resulted in greater glory for Jesus.
Scripture Reading: Mark 12:41-44
7. Story of the Widow’s Two Mites
Jesus was in the Court of the Women, i.e., the court beyond which, toward the inner sanctuary, women were not allowed to go. Here were thirteen trumpet-shaped receptacles into which the worshippers deposited their offerings for the Temple service. Jesus looking on saw among the rich who cast large amounts into the treasury a poor widow who put in two mites, the smallest copper coins in circulation, each one worth about an eightieth of a cent. Jesus taught His disciples that she of her want giving so small a sum, really, in the sight of God, gave more than all the rich, for it cost her a greater sacrifice, and was the expression of a larger and deeper love. It was an illustration and example of how the poorest and weakest are not shut out from feeling and expressing a love as highly esteemed by God as anyone in the community.
The measure of the gift: A gift is measured not by its largeness, but the love and sacrifice it expresses. It’s not the size of the gift, but the cost to the giver. It’s not the number of the sheaves or the measures of fruit, but the love, gratitude and faith filling them. and in that great day when we present our fruits at the judgment seat, some large sheaves will grow larger by that measure, and some will shrink into a handful of half-grown stalks; and pebbles which the gatherer blushes to present as the only fruit from barren fields, will grow into gems and gold; and homely plants will be transformed into blossoms of Paradise; and the widow’s mite will become a harp of gold; and a handful of grain become the seed of the Tree of Life.
