Friday March 28, 2025

Mark 12:28-34

One of the scribes came up to Jesus and put a question to him, ‘Which is the first of all the commandments?’ Jesus replied, ‘This is the first: Listen, Israel, the Lord our God is the one Lord, and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: You must love your neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.’

To my brothers and sisters of the Islamic faith I want to wish you a blessed Eid this coming Sunday. May Allah bless you abundantly.

Do you know which has become the greatest commandment? The unspoken commandment known by every Jew. “Listen, Israel, there is but One God and it ain’t you!!” I think this has humor but it drives home the point. Stop making gods of yourself or other things.

However I want to be clear, I would not dare add or subtract to what our Lord is saying here. It got confusing. My understanding is that by the time this question was asked, they had over 633 commandments. You would sin if you got out of bed the wrong way. Jesus says today, remember what is important. Love God, love neighbor, everything else is commentary. This actually does not over simplify things. On the contrary it becomes super tough. All the wars have been started because we did not see God in the other. You will do well to remember that God is other!!