Saturday, September 25, 2010

“It’s got to be the going, not the gettin’ there that’s good.” Where’s that from? That’s one of those song lyrics rattling around in the hard drive of my brain, left over from who knows when. I’ll look it up later, just to satisfy my curiosity. But I don’t need to right now, because in this case I disagree.

Oh, I’m all for enjoying the journey. I tell my kids to look out the windows when we drive somewhere. “Seen it, dad,” they reply, “nothing there, dad.” “Trees and road, houses and cows, dad.” Yeah, but, I’ll argue, oddly shaped trees, perhaps. Funny houses you’d love to live in, maybe. Mutant cows from Mars. Or maybe not.

Getting there IS what its all about, isn’t it? Otherwise, why have destinations in mind? Why have goals, outcomes, plans at all? We’re on the way, we say, but to where? We’ll get there, we say, but will we? How can we, if we don’t have any concept of where we are going? It’s got to be more than just the going that’s good.

Now all of this random musing has come about because of a phrase that Jesus uses in our gospel passage for this week. It is a phrase of such hope and promise that it catches your breath. And yet is could almost pass you by, if you aren’t paying attention. Take a look:

Mark 12:28-34 One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, "Which commandment is the first of all?" 29 Jesus answered, "The first is, 'Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 30 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.' 31 The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." 32 Then the scribe said to him, "You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that 'he is one, and besides him there is no other'; 33 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 oneself,'-- this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices." 34 When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." After that no one dared to ask him any question.

A familiar passage, in a familiar setting. And so clearly significant, it is like a bright red flashing light that draws our attention to the center message. It is a message that we have to grasp, a message we have to wrestle with and claim as our own. It is a message that we have to figure out how to live in our day to day existence. “The greatest commandment,” right from Jesus’ own lips. How can we debate the meaning and value of such words? There it is in black and white - or red and white, if you have one of those bibles!

And isn’t it interesting that it comes in the midst of an argument. Or rather, a tag team wrestling match. It was a collusion of bitter rivals who band together against a new common enemy. The Pharisees and the Herodians wouldn’t give each other the time of day, wouldn’t hand out a band-aid to cover a bullet wound. And yet, there they are in the beginning of Chapter 12, palling around together in an attempt to trip up Jesus with their rapier like logic. Only it doesn’t work. Jesus out logics the logicians. And when they are left hanging on the ropes, panting for breath, who should show up but the Sadducees. Now, both the Pharisees and the Herodians would rather belly surf in a pig sty than ask for help from the Sadducees, but in their desperation they reach out to tag them in. Only to watch them driven to their knees in humiliation by the surprisingly unmarked Jesus.

All of that happens in the first part of Chapter 12. That’s the scene that elicits the passage we are looking at today: a UFC cage match gone horribly wrong. During a commercial break, when the main contestants are catching their breath and stitching up the gaping wounds, this guy sidles up to Jesus and asks his question. Now, this guy is a scribe, Mark says. Which under normal circumstances is presented as a bad guy; a letter of the law guy, a stickler for the whereases and heretofores of the fine print buried in the back pages of the incomprehensible legal document. Mark tells us this with a sly grin and a “who’d a thunk it” shrug of the shoulders.

“Which commandment is first of all?” And being a scribe, he knew in intimate detail just how all all could be! There has been a debate over the centuries as to whether this was just round 4 in this melee and the scribe was trying to trip him up just as assuredly as the previous combatants. But Mark doesn’t think so, and neither do I. There is something different about this approach. Mark describes it by saying the scribe was impressed by Jesus. “He argues like a scribe” he must have thought to himself. Which many would see as an insult, but for a scribe it was the highest of compliments.

No, it appears to be an honest question, a sincere search for answers. And that is how Jesus responds. “Hear O Israel,” Jesus reverts to the shema, a traditional liturgy that every Jewish child learned almost as soon as he or she could talk. “The Lord our God, the Lord is One.” These are the words that are written on a scrap of paper and placed in the mezzuza, that little box attached to the doorframe of every Jewish home. As they would go in and come out, they would touch that box and recite the words, remembering who they were and whose they were. Of course he would use those words. What else? Then follow them up with the proscription to love God and love neighbor. Presenting them both as though they were inseparable, two sides of the same coin.

There are some variations of wording between Mark’s account and the Old Testament. Mark has four dimensions of this love - heart and soul, mind and strength; the Deuteronomy has only three - heart and soul and might. But we can understand the shift by remembering that Mark wants to make sure that Gentiles understand the totality of this commitment. To the Jew the heart was the seat of both emotion or feeling and intellect. Greeks tended to divide the human emotion from the rational mind, so Mark makes sure we hear both heart and mind.

But for the most part it is the same. Jesus reaches back and grabs a foundational statement and offers it up as answer to the plea. And the scribe grins and claps his hands. Not in appreciation of the scholar who passed the test, but in the joy of knowing that what was in his heart is truth. When Jesus sees this joy in agreement, he tosses out the phrase that transforms this whole event from a back alley brawl to glimpse into eternity. “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” Wow. No wonder no one could ask any more questions, they were stunned by the fleeting image of glory.

What we wouldn’t give for a statement like that from Jesus. “You are not far off” Jesus tells us that is why he came, to seek those who are far off and bring them near. We want to be near, we want to know that we are close to the Kingdom, close to the hope, close to the model for living that we are called to live - more than that, close to model for living that we long to live.

Mark tells us here that to get close, we have to live full out. We don’t hold back, we don’t keep a little in reserve. With all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. That’s the only thing Jesus wants from us - everything. In our Aldersgate book study, this section is called Live Passionately. Which I guess means that the going and the getting there are pretty much the same thing. Let’s get going!

Shalom,
Derek

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