Which is the Greatest Commandment?

November 4, 2024 at 2:18 p.m.

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As Jesus comes to Jerusalem for the Passover celebrations his notoriety within the broader Jewish community is well-established. He has followers in Jerusalem, and many would have come from the Galilee for the feast and were well-acquainted with his teaching. While some of the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Scribes were seeking to trip up Jesus and make him say something that would give them cause to have him executed, there was one Scribe who came to ask Jesus a more esoteric question, but one that still had significance for the Jews: which is the greatest commandment. The answer is simple, yet it carries a profound meaning.

Jesus, as a practicing Jew, answered this question as would be expected, and that is to love God with the totality of one’s self. This is the great shemah as we hear in the First Reading, and yet today remains as the fundamental prayer and first commandment of Judaism.

Jesus quickly added a second commandment, the meaning of which is also well-known within the Jewish tradition, and that is to love one’s neighbor as one loves oneself.

Jesus linked the two commandments together in a way that makes them of shared importance.

This connection does, of course, raise other questions which Jesus answers in another place, and that is the question of who is our neighbor. Perhaps we are left here to ponder that question, though it is raised in a different place in the Gospels.

In delivering this response to the Scribe Jesus seems to make a deeper connection with him than he does with most of the other people he encounters. The Scribe came to test Jesus, saw that Jesus gave the succinct response and he accepted easily the inclusion of the Second Commandment. Jesus, seeing this acceptance from the Scribe, also affirmed him. In the flash of a moment, it might even appear that Jesus and this Scribe deeply understood each other.

We do not know who this Scribe was. As he remains unnamed we might assume that he is not part of the early Christian community, though his anonymity might also make him a representative of the many Scribes who indeed did join the apostles after Pentecost.

The joining together of the two great commandments by Jesus is yet another way in which Jesus takes that which was already known to still another level.

In this way Jesus is saying that the two commandments are so linked that one cannot obey one of them without obedience to the other. Love for God without love for neighbor is not love and it is not truly love for God. Conversely, love for neighbor without love for God is not truly love for neighbor.

This is where things get testy in the modern world. Non-Christian people are very comfortable chastising Christians for not loving their neighbor. They are indeed right to do so in those circumstances where Christians oppose support of the homeless, the destitute, poor children, and immigrants. Loving God without loving one’s neighbor is empty. Jesus was very clear on this as he told the parable of the separating of the sheep and the goats. Saint Paul says that if someone claims to love God and yet hates their neighbor then that person is a liar.

Yet, those who will accuse Christians of hypocrisy and exercise acts of charity and generosity while giving no regard to God, or even reject God entirely, are also hypocrites and exercising self-aggrandizement and not love. It is not enough to merely be concerned about someone’s welfare in this life, we are all called to walk with and lead others to eternal life. Love of one’s neighbor is not just about food, clothing, shelter, and safety, it’s also about eternal salvation.

The greatest commandment then is tied together: love God and love your neighbor, so that your neighbor also learns to love God and their neighbor as well.

We cannot separate this love -- the two commandments are glued together, completely complement one another, and are necessary in the path of Christian discipleship.