The Greatest Commandment: When Faith Gets Confusing
We like lists. They keep our lives simple and ordered. We LOVE them when it comes to our faith. Throw the 10 Commandments on the wall and call it good. The problem is following Jesus isn’t a formula. It’s a relationship with the God of Heaven and Earth. And that means it’s complicated. But the Greatest Commandment makes things a lot more simple, and I’ll prove it to you in less than 10 minutes.
One day a Torah-teacher – an expert in the Law – asked Jesus a question: which is the “greatest commandment?” Jesus answered by quoting Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18: “Love YHWH with all of your heart and soul and mind,” And “love your neighbor as yourself.” This is Jesus 101.
But, have you ever wondered why this Scribe asked this question in the first place? Doesn’t it seem a bit odd? Aren’t all of the commandments important? What is this ranking all about, anyway? The answer is found in the Jewish principle of “pikuach nefesh.”
The Ox in the Ditch Paradox
The Torah is a religious minefield. Its regulations and requirements are extensive, and impact every area of Hebrew life. And it’s not unusual to find commandments that could conflict with each other.
One of these possible conflicts is the “Ox in the Ditch Paradox.” The Torah commands the Israelites to assist if they ever see their neighbor’s ox stuck in a ditch. This is a “mitzvot” – an opportunity to do good as we learned in yesterday’s episode.
Another commandment is the prohibition on working on the Sabbath. We’re all familiar with that.
But what happens if you see your neighbor’s ox stuck in a ditch on the Sabbath? If you help the ox, you’re breaking the Sabbath. But, if you keep the Sabbath, you’re breaking the commandment to help your neighbor. So, which is it?
What Is “The Greatest Commandment?”
Over the centuries, the rabbis solved this dilemma by ranking the commandments. Obviously, some were more important than others. The goal was to have this system in place for whenever a conflict between commandments presented itself. This idea is still present today in the rabbinic principle of “pikuach nefesh.” In English, this means “to save a life.” Rabbinic Judaism teaches that all of the other commandments in the Torah can be ignored if it’s necessary to save someone’s life. Life always wins. It’s a good rule.
When the Torah Teacher asked Jesus what the “greatest commandment” is, he was asking Jesus what His order of the commandments were. First, Jesus answered by quoting the Shema: the pledge of allegiance in the Jewish world. Next, He quoted what many other rabbis taught was the second most important commandment: to love your neighbor as yourself.
Now, most other rabbis would continue on with further commandments that they believed took priority over others. Not Jesus. He stopped there. He told the Torah Teacher that everything else in the Hebrew Scriptures comes under those two commandments. For Jesus, that was the list. He would have called it His “Yoke.”
My Yoke Is Easy
In Jesus’ day, there were many rabbis, and they all had their own interpretation of Torah and the right way to obey it. Some were very strict. Others gave their disciples a lot of latitude. This interpretation was called the rabbi’s “yoke.” Imagine an ox plowing a field with a yoke around its neck. It could be either heavy or light.
When a potential disciple wanted to understand what a rabbi’s yoke was like, they would ask them what the “greatest commandment” was. The rabbi would share their ranking of the commandments to that potential disciple. This is important. Because if a disciple chose to follow a specific rabbi, they were agreeing to that rabbi’s “yoke.” Is this starting to sound familiar?
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke on you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and my load is not hard to carry.” (Matthew 11:28-30 NET)
Jesus yoke is pretty simple. Wherever we’re faced with a difficult situation and we aren’t sure how to handle it, we simply need to ask ourselves, “What would Jesus do?” His answer is always clear: Love God. And love others. The rest is just details.
