Scribe Mark 12:28
I had been following the matter of the Rabbi for several months, aware that he was causing increasing amounts of concern amongst both the Pharisees, the Saducees and the Roman leaders. There was talk in the synagogues about blasphemy and talk in the town halls about revolution. Ordinary people in their hundreds, possibly thousands, were flocking to hear his teachings and witness the miracles which were allegedly happening wherever he went. Nothing like this had happened before to my knowledge. Yes, occasionally we had heard of radical revolutionaries calling for an uprising against the Romans, and sometimes a young gifted Rabbi would come to light in some country synagogue and make an impact in Jerusalem. But this was different. This felt like something momentous. I was very curious to see for myself the cause of all the talk and debate so I chose to follow Jesus closely when he came to Jerusalem.
As a member of the Sanhedrin and a lawyer I was most interested to discover if the theology Jesus was preaching did indeed contain heresy as some of the Pharisees were saying. I know that several of them and of the Saducees had been trying to catch Jesus out with tricky theological questions - but as far as I knew he had always been able to outmanoeuver them with clever answers. But then we heard that he had been into the temple and behaved disgracefully - throwing tables about and yelling and shouting. Someone even said he had made a whip and lashed the temple sellers forcing them to flee scared for their lives. This was behaviour totally unacceptable for a Rabbi and many of us who had been prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt on his theology now started to seriously doubt he could be a decent Rabbi, let alone the representative of God he was claiming to be.
The day I met Jesus I had been listening to him debating in the temple courts. A crowd of religious teachers were arguing and debating various fine points of theology with him. They asked him about taxes - should we Jews be paying taxes to the Romans?. This was a clever and sneaky question - if Jesus said yes, then he would be alienating those Jews who deeply resented paying our overlords. If he said no, he would be in defiance of the Romans, who were already seeking any opportunity to arrest him. I held my breath as I waited to hear his answer. Without skipping a beat Jesus asked one of the Saducees for a coin. He was handed one and he asked ' Whose image is on the coin?' ' Caesar's' they replied. ' So then, you should give to Ceasar that which belongs to him and give to God that which belongs to Him' He smiled and tossed the coin back to its owner and all who were listening looked at each other - everyone waiting for someone else to think up a reply. Nobody could.
Jesus really was brilliant at that debating stuff.
Changing the subject someone else asked about the laws on marriage, clearly trying to tie Jesus in knots with a rather ridiculous question about seven brothers who died one after the other but all of whom married the same woman. Whose wife would she be in the afterlife? This was said with huge sarcasm - the Saducees dont believe in the resurrection of the dead and they were laughing among themselves at this proposition of one woman with seven reusrrected husbands pondering her fate in the afterlife. I could tell Jesus was a little annoyed by this fatuous sort of questioning. It was clear to everyone that they were just trying to trap him with stupid hypotheses. But Jesus kept his calm and referred the questioners back to the scripture. He seemed to be saying that a) there is no marriage in heaven and b) as God clearly states Himself to be the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Pentateuch then reusrrection to the afterlife is clearly a fact and one not to be laughed about.
That put us all in our places. Nobody had an answer to that. And my respect for Jesus deepened with every masterful answer he provided. I decided to ask him something. Not because I wanted to catch him out, or even because I wanted to pick a fight, but because I actually really did want to know what he thought. I asked Jesus what he thought the most important commandment was.
He looked at me and paused. It was as though he was looking right into me. I felt a bit conspicuous and ashamed. I have no idea why. Jesus answered that the first commandment was the most important, followed by the second. Love God, love your neighbour. As he spoke the commandments he looked me straight in the eye and it was as though he was commanding me to do them. ' Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength and love your neighbour as yourself ' Bam! Straight into my heart like an arrow, He had such a scary authority when he spoke. I felt quite unnerved. But I agreed that love is indeed more important than anything else and I told him that I thought these two commandments were probably more important than any of the myriad other laws. I had long believed that God was more interested in the motives of men than their deeds. Surely it was better that people do good and live well before God rather than continually have to make sacrifices for not doing good and living badly?
Jesus looked at me and smiled. He then said ' You, my friend, are not far from the kingdom of God'
I had no idea what he meant by that, but it sounded good to me and I determined in my heart that I was going to find out more about this kingdom. I was aware of the political and religious implications of becoming involved with Jesus and his people. But I was fascinated by this man and his words and ways. That day, having spent my entire life being a seeker after knowledge, I became a seeker after truth.
As a member of the Sanhedrin and a lawyer I was most interested to discover if the theology Jesus was preaching did indeed contain heresy as some of the Pharisees were saying. I know that several of them and of the Saducees had been trying to catch Jesus out with tricky theological questions - but as far as I knew he had always been able to outmanoeuver them with clever answers. But then we heard that he had been into the temple and behaved disgracefully - throwing tables about and yelling and shouting. Someone even said he had made a whip and lashed the temple sellers forcing them to flee scared for their lives. This was behaviour totally unacceptable for a Rabbi and many of us who had been prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt on his theology now started to seriously doubt he could be a decent Rabbi, let alone the representative of God he was claiming to be.
The day I met Jesus I had been listening to him debating in the temple courts. A crowd of religious teachers were arguing and debating various fine points of theology with him. They asked him about taxes - should we Jews be paying taxes to the Romans?. This was a clever and sneaky question - if Jesus said yes, then he would be alienating those Jews who deeply resented paying our overlords. If he said no, he would be in defiance of the Romans, who were already seeking any opportunity to arrest him. I held my breath as I waited to hear his answer. Without skipping a beat Jesus asked one of the Saducees for a coin. He was handed one and he asked ' Whose image is on the coin?' ' Caesar's' they replied. ' So then, you should give to Ceasar that which belongs to him and give to God that which belongs to Him' He smiled and tossed the coin back to its owner and all who were listening looked at each other - everyone waiting for someone else to think up a reply. Nobody could.
Jesus really was brilliant at that debating stuff.
Changing the subject someone else asked about the laws on marriage, clearly trying to tie Jesus in knots with a rather ridiculous question about seven brothers who died one after the other but all of whom married the same woman. Whose wife would she be in the afterlife? This was said with huge sarcasm - the Saducees dont believe in the resurrection of the dead and they were laughing among themselves at this proposition of one woman with seven reusrrected husbands pondering her fate in the afterlife. I could tell Jesus was a little annoyed by this fatuous sort of questioning. It was clear to everyone that they were just trying to trap him with stupid hypotheses. But Jesus kept his calm and referred the questioners back to the scripture. He seemed to be saying that a) there is no marriage in heaven and b) as God clearly states Himself to be the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Pentateuch then reusrrection to the afterlife is clearly a fact and one not to be laughed about.
That put us all in our places. Nobody had an answer to that. And my respect for Jesus deepened with every masterful answer he provided. I decided to ask him something. Not because I wanted to catch him out, or even because I wanted to pick a fight, but because I actually really did want to know what he thought. I asked Jesus what he thought the most important commandment was.
He looked at me and paused. It was as though he was looking right into me. I felt a bit conspicuous and ashamed. I have no idea why. Jesus answered that the first commandment was the most important, followed by the second. Love God, love your neighbour. As he spoke the commandments he looked me straight in the eye and it was as though he was commanding me to do them. ' Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength and love your neighbour as yourself ' Bam! Straight into my heart like an arrow, He had such a scary authority when he spoke. I felt quite unnerved. But I agreed that love is indeed more important than anything else and I told him that I thought these two commandments were probably more important than any of the myriad other laws. I had long believed that God was more interested in the motives of men than their deeds. Surely it was better that people do good and live well before God rather than continually have to make sacrifices for not doing good and living badly?
Jesus looked at me and smiled. He then said ' You, my friend, are not far from the kingdom of God'
I had no idea what he meant by that, but it sounded good to me and I determined in my heart that I was going to find out more about this kingdom. I was aware of the political and religious implications of becoming involved with Jesus and his people. But I was fascinated by this man and his words and ways. That day, having spent my entire life being a seeker after knowledge, I became a seeker after truth.
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