or Why the Law Starts with Listening
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind”; and, “Love your neighbour as yourself.” (Lk 10:27)
I was teaching recently about the parable of the Good Samaritan. And honestly, I was kind of lamenting the fact that I felt this pressure to come up with something interesting to say about a story I’ve taught many times before. But as I was reading the story and sitting with it, thinking about it, ironically, I noticed something I’d never noticed before.
Famously, the lawyer in the story [who asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life (Lk 10:25–26)] gives an answer about the greatest commandment that’s almost exactly the same as the one Jesus gives in Mark 12 (Mk 12:28–31). But this time, it was the almost exactly that finally caught my attention. I noticed there’s something different about the way they frame their answers. Something I think is worth listening to.
The quotes are essentially the same. It’s Deuteronomy 6:5, love the Lord your God. It’s Leviticus 19, love your neighbour as yourself (Lev 19:18). But Jesus begins six words earlier.
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