“With our Whole Being”

Mark 12:28-34

Imagine if you will an incredible battle of wills and intellects

Between Jesus and the Chief priests, the Pharisees and

Herodians and the Saducees.

Each of these groups challenges Jesus with questions

“By whose authority do you do these things?”

“Should we pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

“Are people married in the resurrection?”

Each one of these questions was as important to Jesus’

Ongoing ministry and reputation as the questions

The modern politicians struggle with today.

Actually these questions were more critical since

Jesus could be stoned if he answered them wrong.

He could be accused of heresy and stoned

Or accused of sedition and hung on a cross.

Imagine that every fiber of Jesus being was tested by these questions

And finally a benevolent scribe comes up.

He has been listening to Jesus response and is impressed

So he lobs Jesus an easy question.

“Which commandment is first of all?”

Whether Jesus went to the Shema (Deut 6)

“Hear O Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord”

or Ten Commandments (Exodus 20)

“I am the Lord your God…

you shall have no other God’s before me”

the first command is God’s Lordship

and Jesus gets it right (as we would expect)

but instead of resting on his laurels

instead of holding back and playing it safe

Jesus goes on to expand and

personalize the Shema

And to combine it with Leviticus 19

“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

The “Shema” in Deuteronomy says that “we shall love God

With all our heart and soul and might.”

When Jesus quotes this passage he says:

heart soul, mind and might.

The words in Greek are not exactly the same

as the Hebrew equivalents but pretty close.

Heart, laba in Hebrew and cardia Greek

Meant not only emotion but mind and will.

Soul, nephesh in Hebrew and psyche in Greek

Actually means the ‘essence of who we are’.

Psyche is the word that is used by Jesus

when he says:

“The shepherd lays down his life (psyche) for his sheep.” (Jn. 10:11)

“Anyone who would save his life (psyche) will lose it,

and anyone who loses his life (psyche) for the Gospel

will save it.” (Mark 8:35)

In other words the idea of soul here means

The essence and vitality of life.

Then Jesus adds the Greek word dianoema

which literally means “thought, perception,

or knowing or mind”

Jesus is letting the scribe and everyone know

That his followers use their whole mind

and intellect to serve God.

Lastly, Jesus says in Greek ischys which means

Not only strength but also ability and

Economic power.

So what Jesus is dong here is saying “Don’t leave anything out”

Love God with ever ounce, fiber and ability of your whole being.

And in Greek each word is surrounded by the adjectives

Olys which means “all” and sou which means “of you”.

We are to love God with the all of everything

And it is personal.

It sounds so easy …but we know it’s not.

We always want to hold a little back for a rainy day.

We want to leave a little left just in case.

I remember my Mom told me one day that she never pledged

everything she was going to give to the church

because she liked to be able to add a little more

at the end of the year.

We like to hold a little back just in case.

But Jesus is different.

He challenges us to offer all that we are and all of our being

In our love of God and to consider out love of our neighbor

As part of that love as well.

And by neighbor we know that Jesus was not only talking

About our buddy’s but also the stranger, the alien

And even the enemy.

The people who were questioning Jesus

We the people in Jesus day who liked to put

Boundaries and fences and limitations on people

And Jesus in this passage was all about

Breaking down all the boundaries and limits

That get in the way of loving and living

The other story that Jesus told in Mark 12 was about a vineyard.

And Jesus describes the vineyard:

“A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it.”

The vineyard was Israel and the fence builders

Were the chief priests, Pharisees, Herodians and

The Saducees.

Jesus was the one who broke down the fence.

Not with a bulldozer but with the sacrificial love

Of a son for the father.

SO Jesus message to the Scribe was to love God without out boundaries.

Love God with all of everything and love your neighbor as well.

Did the Scribe get it?

Notice how he repeats the answer back to Jesus:

“You are right Teacher; you have truly said that ‘he is one’ and ‘to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength.”

Notice how the scribe reduces the demands of Jesus.

He includes the demand of heart and might but

He takes out psyche (our life essence or soul)

and dianoema, (our mind and intellect)

and substitutes syneseos which is “understanding”.

AS it understanding God is a substitute for

Loving God and our neighbor with

Every fiber of our body.

On top of that, notice he depersonalizes Christ’s calling.

Instead of saying that we love God with

all OUR heart, OUR soul , OUR mind and OUR might;

He says simply and impersonally to love God “with all THE heart,

understanding and might.”

Now these are small edits of what Jesus said

But it is a reminder of how hard it is to take the words and

The command of Jesus seriously in our own lives.

And that is the challenge for us today

As twenty-first century followers of Jesus.

We have so many demands on us we are lucky if we can

Give Jesus one hour on Sunday morning

And yet Jesus is asking here for everyting.

He is saying that when we are at a Soccer game with our kids

That at that moment we need to love God with all our might.

When we are studying at school or at work or reading, we need to

Be about loving God with our whole mind and intellect.

When we are making decisions about what we are going to do

With our future, then we are to love God with all our

Will and planning energy.

When we are trying to figure our how to use our gifts and abilities

We are to dedicate those gifts and abilities to God.

When we are exploring how to invest our lives, our finances and out time

We are to love God with all our energy and power.

And when we ask whether we should hold a little back just in case

We should hear Jesus voice.

“Love the Lord you God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your might. And love your neighbor as yourself.” Amen