Every generation of Christians, as well as every individual disciple, has to grapple constantly with the central question of Mark’s gospel: who is Jesus?
Seeds
First Reading: Deuteronomy 6:2-6
The Shema, as it’s called, is the heart of Jewish spirituality. It emphasises the uniqueness of God, and the call to love him with total devotion. It is a command to love. In the first part of the passage, though, Moses also praises fear of God. How do fear and love correlate in this context, and what does it mean for us?
The passage here argues that keeping all the laws and commandments will bring great blessings. This is challenged by the grim realism of books like Ecclesiastes, and St Paul’s reminder that failing in one small part of the law is the same as transgressing it all. Even Jesus told the rich young man that he had further to go, even though he claimed to have kept all the commandments throughout his life. What hope is there, then, for those of us who fall and sin? The hope is in Jesus, who (as we will see over coming weeks) is able to save and sanctify to the uttermost.
Psalm: Psalm 17(18):2-4,47,51
The Shema calls on us to love the Lord, who is here called “my strength”. We love the Lord by the Lord, in a sense; he gives us the strength and the grace to be able to, more and more deeply. We aren’t in this alone.
Notice that the Lord is said to be worthy of all praise, followed immediately by “when I call I am saved from my foes.” The word “because” isn’t there, but it can perhaps be implied. The foes that are referred to were understood by the Fathers as spiritual enemies and sin; when we call, the Lord saves us with the salvation won for us in Christ.
Second Reading: Hebrews 7:23-28
Spend a moment pondering the logic of this part of the passage: “it follows, then, that his power to save is utterly certain, since he is living for ever to intercede for all who come to God through him.”
The passage here reminds us that Jesus is high priest not by the Law, but by the “promise on oath”. God swore by his own self, that is yet another reason why Jesus’ high priestly ministry is so utterly certain and secure.
Gospel: Mark 12:28-34
Jesus’ encounter with this scribe is different from his usual encounters with the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus did not see group identity in such a way that negated the individual; he engaged with the scribe as a person and saw his heart.
Notice how the scribe referred to Jesus as “Master” yet we are not told he was one of Jesus’ disciples. How many people are on the journey into the Church, but not yet within it, but who are nevertheless “not far from the kingdom of God.” Are we mindful of them? Do we reach out to them?
Does Jesus denigrate the importance of sacrifices in this passage, even though he would go on to offer himself in sacrifice, as Hebrews has been unfolding for us? I think it is more that Jesus looks to the motivation for sacrifice, acknowledging the wisdom in the scribe’s words that loving God is of supreme importance. It must be because that is the goal and motivation of sacrifice itself: to demonstrate love and to enable a relationship of love to be built by the dealing with sin. A sacrifice without motive, without love, is no sacrifice at all.
Sapling
Every generation of Christians, as well as every individual disciple, has to grapple constantly with the central question of Mark’s gospel: who is Jesus?
Throughout history there have been trends that swing like a metronome between his real humanity and his real divinity, often emphasising one side so much that the other is distorted or forgotten.
It seems to me that we’re in a period of history where the metronome has swung towards the side of Jesus’ humanity. Books are written on his very human life; what did he look like? What did he wear? What did he eat? Films are produced that explore his emotional life and his interactions with his disciples.
As a culture we’re comfortable with an earthy and thoroughly human image of Jesus, and we feel that it’s the most accessible face for Jesus to wear as we interface with the secular world.
We must be careful, though, not to lose sight of the lion that is shrouded behind the image of the lamb. Hebrews helps us with that. Let’s just remind ourselves of the attributes of Jesus that this short passage lists: holy, innocent, uncontaminated, beyond the influence of sinners, raised up above the heavens, and one who remains forever.
It’s true that those attributes put distance between us and Jesus, it makes him – in the word Hebrews uses here – “ideal”.
“Idealistic” is not a word that’s particularly in favour today. Idealism or even the related word ideology are seen as unrealistic, not pragmatic, of no earthly use.
But not in this instance. Hebrews is making the point that Jesus is of the only supreme and lasting (key word!) importance precisely because he is an ideal. He is utterly real, stable, and solid again precisely because he is an ideal.
Jesus, in a way that nobody else ever could, perfectly fulfils everything needed to repair the brokenness of the world and of ourselves, and to repair it permanently and absolutely. How could anything be more pragmatic than that?
The divine face of Jesus, the one the chosen disciples glimpsed at the Transfiguration, doesn’t erase the human face of Jesus, rather it shines from it; we can’t separate the two. The Jesus that we’re comfortable with and who is approachable and relatable is the ideal Jesus Hebrews is describing. There’s no disconnect.
What does that mean? It means that a great gulf between us and God has been bridged in Jesus. Take the first attribute that Hebrews lists: holy.
If you want an image of pure holiness, you can’t look anywhere better than Isaiah chapter 6: the great vision the prophet has of the Lord (St. John tells us that it was the Son) surrounded by seraphim – exalted angelic beings who have to shield their own faces from the glory of the Lord’s holiness, and who exist so close to it that they burn with its fire.
That’s the divine, ideal face of Jesus.
We might be frightened by that, intimidated perhaps, or simply don’t think it’s at all relatable or useful. But Hebrews again has a vital point to make: “his power to save is utterly certain” because he lives forever.
So this divine face of Jesus is totally pragmatic because it’s the anchor of our hope, the wellspring of our confidence. Nothing in the Christian life – no act of charity, no concern for the environment, no stand for justice – makes any lasting sense without this holy Jesus raised up above the heavens. Let’s ponder that today, as we come into his presence.
Fruit
