Putting Jesus to the Test

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator

The enemies of Jesus are trying to trip him up in today's Gospel passage. A lawyer asks him to choose which of the commandments is the greatest. By now, most of us know Jesus' response by heart. The greatest commandment is to love God completely. How is this a test?

The Torah or Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, is full of commandments. The two which Jesus chooses in answer to the question are from the Book of Exodus and from the Book of Leviticus. As children, we were taught to recite the "Ten Commandments." However, most Jewish boys would have been expected to be able to recite the more than 600 commandments that had evolved from the original Sinai covenant. The Ten Commandments which we know had given birth to many, many more. Jesus was known to break a few of these commandments in the course of his public life, especially the commandments that surrounded the observance of the Sabbath.

As Jesus answered the lawyer's question, those who had gathered around to hear Jesus' answer realized that he had turned the tables on his enemies. His answer is actually an accusation. While the scribes and the Pharisees and the Saducees and the lawyers were schooled in the Law and scrupulously observed the commandments, they had failed to miss the underlying motivation for obedience; namely, love of God and love of neighbor. Their observance of the commandments was motivated by their sense of self-importance and their desire to be considered "better than."

Why do we do the things we do? Do we keep the commandments out of fear of retribution or punishment? To do so reduces religion and, in some respects, our faith, to nothing more than an obligation. Our faith is about a relationship, not obligation.