days of teaching

This is the third in our series of Holy Week devotionals. The last couple of days we talked about Palm Sunday and what happened in the Temple.

The middle part of this week leading to the arrest, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus doesn’t have events quite as clearly labeled, yet we know a lot of things were happening. Matthew has five chapters between the Triumphal Entry and the Passover meal. Mark has about two and a half chapters. Luke has two chapters, and John has half a chapter.

So what do we find in those chapters? Jesus did a lot of teaching. He also did some praying, weeping over the city, and giving warnings to the religious leaders, but a lot of teaching took place during those days. Some of the teaching happened while He was being questioned by religious leaders trying to set Him up and trap Him, some of it happened through parables and observations in the Temple, and some of it took place as He tried to explain to the disciples what was about to happen and what would be coming in the future.

In the midst of all of this, both Matthew and Mark give the account of Jesus teaching about the most important commandments in response to being questioned by religious leaders and scribes. In Mark 12:28-34 it says:

One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, ‘What commandment is the foremost of all?’ Jesus answered, ‘The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.’ The scribe said to Him, ‘Right, Teacher; You have truly stated that He is One, and there is no one else besides Him; and to love Him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as himself, is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.’ When Jesus saw that he had answered intelligently, He said to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’ After that, no one would venture to ask Him any more questions.

I for one am so thankful for the scribe that asked Jesus this question. To have Jesus so concisely wrap up all of the Law and the heart of God so clearly into these two commandments  is so helpful. Because life gets crazy and busy and confusing and challenging for all us, there are times when we all feel a little lost. When we’re confused and don’t know what direction to go, this is a good place to come back to. If we remember who God is and focus on loving Him with everything in us and then focus on loving others well, that’s a great direction to start. It might not solve all of our problems. It might not give us perfect clarity on what our future should look like, but it gets pretty close. There’s a lot that we can do while honoring those two commandments, but it also helps us see that there’s a lot that doesn’t matter as much as we might think it does.

As we draw ever closer to Easter, how is your relationship with God? Are you loving Him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength? Are you loving others well? Let’s follow Jesus’s example and love well this Easter week.