The Law's True North Text: Mark 12:28-37
Introduction: The Doorstep and the Door
We live in an age that is drowning in ethics and starving for truth. Our culture is obsessed with the second great commandment, or at least a sentimental, distorted version of it. Be kind. Be tolerant. Love your neighbor. This is the great mantra of our day. But they want to do this while taking a sledgehammer to the first and great commandment upon which the second depends entirely. They want to love their neighbor without loving God. They want the fruit without the root, the building without the foundation. And the result is a sticky, sentimental humanism that has no anchor, no authority, and no ultimate meaning. It is a house built on the sand of public opinion, and the tide is coming in.
In our text today, Jesus confronts a man who is the very best that this kind of religious humanism can produce. He is a scribe, a student of the law. He is thoughtful, intelligent, and sincere. He is not like the boorish Sadducees or the hypocritical Pharisees Jesus has just finished silencing. This man gets it. He understands that the heart of the law is not in the ritual, but in the heart. And for this, Jesus pays him one of the most startling compliments in all of Scripture: "You are not far from the kingdom of God."
But we must feel the weight of this. "Not far" is a terrifying place to be. It means you are on the doorstep, but not in the house. You can see the light under the door, you can hear the music from the feast, but you are still on the outside, in the dark. What is the one, final, non-negotiable step that separates the doorstep from the inside of the house? What is the difference between being "not far" from the kingdom and being "in" it? Jesus does not leave us to guess. He immediately pivots from the question of the greatest commandment to the question of the Christ's identity. And in so doing, He shows us that you cannot truly keep the first commandment until you know who God is, and you cannot know who God is apart from the Son. This passage shows us that the law points to love, and love points to Christ.
The Text
And when one of the scribes came and heard them arguing, he recognized that He had answered them well and asked Him, "What commandment is the foremost of all?" Jesus answered, "The foremost is, 'HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD; AND 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.' The second is this, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' There is no other commandment greater than these." And the scribe said to Him, "Right, Teacher; You have truly stated that HE IS ONE, AND THERE IS NO ONE ELSE BESIDES HIM; 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 HIMSELF, is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices." And when Jesus saw that he had answered thoughtfully, He said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." After that, no one would dare to ask Him any more questions.
And Jesus began to say, as He taught in the temple, "How is it that the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David? David himself said in the Holy Spirit, 'THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD, "SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, UNTIL I PUT YOUR ENEMIES BENEATH YOUR FEET."' David himself calls Him 'Lord'; so in what sense is He his son?" And the large crowd enjoyed listening to Him.
(Mark 12:28-37 LSB)
The Great Summation (vv. 28-31)
The scene is tense. Jesus has just dismantled the Sadducees' flimsy argument against the resurrection. A scribe, who has been listening in, is impressed. He sees that Jesus is not just another street-corner debater; He handles the Word of God with precision and authority. So he asks the ultimate question.
"What commandment is the foremost of all?" (Mark 12:28)
This was a common debate among the rabbis, who had catalogued 613 specific laws in the Torah. Which one held the key to all the others? Jesus answers by quoting the Shema, the central confession of Israel from Deuteronomy 6.
"The foremost is, 'HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD; AND 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.'" (Mark 12:29-30)
The foundation of everything is theological. Before any command to do, there is a declaration of who God is. "The Lord our God is one Lord." This is a declaration of war against the pagan pantheons. God is not one among many; He is the one and only. He is absolute. And because He is the one, absolute Lord, He requires our absolute, undivided allegiance. This love is to be all-encompassing. With all your heart, the seat of your affections and desires. With all your soul, your very life, your being. With all your mind, your intellect, your thoughts. And with all your strength, your physical abilities, your energy, your resources. There is no part of you that is to be held back. Every faculty is to be oriented toward Him. This is the definition of worship.
Then Jesus adds the second, which is inextricably linked to the first. It is not a separate, competing loyalty.
"The second is this, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' There is no other commandment greater than these." (Mark 12:31)
This is from Leviticus 19:18. The second commandment is the necessary overflow of the first. It is the visible evidence that you are actually keeping the first. If you truly love God with everything you are, you will inevitably love those who are made in His image. You cannot say you love the artist while despising his paintings. John tells us plainly, "If someone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar" (1 John 4:20). The modern world wants to snip the second commandment away from the first and treat it as a free-floating principle of niceness. But it cannot work. Without the vertical command to love God, the horizontal command to love neighbor collapses into either sentimentality or tyranny.
The Thoughtful Scribe (vv. 32-34)
The scribe's response is remarkable. He doesn't just agree; he understands the theological implications.
"Right, Teacher; You have truly stated that HE IS ONE... and to love Him... and to love one's neighbor... is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices." (Mark 12:32-33)
This man has seen past the externals of religion. He understands what the prophets had been saying for centuries, that God desires "mercy and not sacrifice" (Hosea 6:6). He knows that the rituals and ceremonies were worthless if the heart was not right. The burnt offerings were just so much burning meat if they were not accompanied by a heart that loved God and a life that loved neighbor. This is high-level spiritual understanding. He is right on the cusp of the New Covenant.
And Jesus acknowledges this. He sees the man's thoughtfulness, his sincerity. And He gives him this tantalizing, terrifying diagnosis.
"You are not far from the kingdom of God." (Mark 12:34)
Why only "not far"? Because understanding the law, even understanding its true spiritual intent, is not the same as entering the kingdom. The law is a perfect standard, but it has no power to enable us to keep it. The law is a mirror that shows us how dirty we are, but it is not a bar of soap that can make us clean. This scribe had an accurate diagnosis of the human condition and the divine requirement. He had an excellent understanding of the disease. What he lacked was the cure. He was standing at the door, but he had not yet knocked.
The Question That Opens the Door (vv. 35-37)
The conversation with the scribe ends, and we are told that "no one would dare to ask Him any more questions." Jesus has silenced all His opponents. So now, He asks a question of His own. This is not a change of subject. This is the answer to the unspoken question of how one gets from "not far" to "in."
"How is it that the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David? David himself said in the Holy Spirit, 'THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD, "SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, UNTIL I PUT YOUR ENEMIES BENEATH YOUR FEET."' David himself calls Him 'Lord'; so in what sense is He his son?" (Mark 12:35-37)
Jesus quotes Psalm 110:1, a foundational Messianic text. The setup is this: Yahweh (THE LORD) is speaking to David's Lord (my Lord). Everyone agreed that the Messiah would be the son of David, his physical descendant who would sit on his throne. But here, David, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, calls his own future son "my Lord." How can a father call his distant son his master? How can the great king of Israel bow to his own descendant?
There is only one possible answer. The Messiah must be more than a mere man. He must be a human descendant of David, yes, but He must also be divine. He must be both David's son and David's Lord. He must be the God-man.
Conclusion: From Law to Lord
And here is the key that unlocks the entire passage. This is the step the scribe had not yet taken. You cannot fulfill the first and great commandment, to love the one Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, until you know who that one Lord is. And He is Jesus Christ.
The scribe was "not far" because he knew the law. But to get "in" to the kingdom, you must know the Lord. The standard of the law, to love God perfectly, is an impossible one for fallen sinners. None of us has ever done it for a single second. The law's purpose is to crush us, to show us our sin, to make us cry out for a savior. The law leads us to the end of ourselves.
And at the end of ourselves, we find Jesus, David's Son and David's Lord. He is the only one who has ever kept the great commandment perfectly. He loved His Father with all His heart, soul, mind, and strength, every moment of His life. And He loved His neighbor as Himself, so much so that He laid down His life for us, His enemies. He fulfilled the law on our behalf.
The entrance to the kingdom is not achieved by redoubling our efforts to love God more. The entrance is through faith in the One who loved God perfectly for us. It is by confessing that Jesus is David's Lord, that He is God in the flesh, and by trusting in His finished work on the cross. When we do that, we are united to Him. His perfect record of law-keeping is credited to our account. We are brought from the doorstep into the house, not because we were good enough, but because He was.
The crowd enjoyed listening to Him. It was a good show. But the gospel demands more than enjoyment; it demands surrender. The question Jesus asks the scribes is the question He asks each one of us. Who is Christ to you? Is He just a great teacher, a son of David? Or is He your Lord? Your answer to that question determines whether you will remain "not far" from the kingdom, or whether you will enter in.