NOTES for Mar 12:28-34

This is a rare Gospel passage in which a scribe is shown in a favorable light. He asks his question without any trick, genuinely wishing to receive an answer. After hearing it, this man keeps what was said in his heart and draws so profound a conclusion that the Lord Himself tells him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” This scribe grasped Christ's good news that love is greater than burnt offerings and sacrifices.

It seems that for the Gospel's scribe, the question of the hierarchy of the commandments ceased to be purely theoretical, an occasion to sharpen his mind and try to catch Jesus out. For him it became a question of changing his whole life according to the importance of those commandments.

The Lord expects us to be faithful and to love Him and those whom He has placed beside us, our neighbors. But how often we forget this, especially when those neighbors have thoroughly exhausted our patience! It is easier to observe rules and norms while closing our eyes to the fact that by doing so we violate the commandment of love; it is easier to offer a sacrifice to the invisible God than to show mercy to a badly behaved teenager or an unpleasant-smelling homeless person.