34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:34–40 (ESV)
“And the hits just keep on coming.” This phrase, used in many different art forms, can mean one good thing follows another. However, it can also sarcastically refer to one negative thing after another is happening. For example, “I had a flat tire yesterday, then I had an accident with the car, and then my car insurance company cancelled my coverage. And the hits just keep on coming.”
Jesus faced one opponent after another during His Passion Week. First it was the Pharisees (Matt. 21:45-22:22). Then the Sadducees came to trick Jesus (Matt. 22:23-33). Then, the Pharisees again tried to entrap the Lord according to today’s text. And the hits just kept on coming.
After hearing that Jesus silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees gathered together. While not initially and explicitly stated, the sense is the Pharisees gathered together in order to again try to entangle Jesus in His words (Matt. 22:15).
One of these religious leaders, an Old Testament lawyer by occupation, asked Him a question. He did so, the text explicitly says, in order to test Jesus. To test, (πειράζων; peirazon) means to try to trap or to catch someone in a mistake. It means to obtain information to use against an individual. Often times, this is what lawyers do.
The lawyer asked, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” One biblical scholar tabulated there are 613 commandments in the Old Testament Law. The obvious question, seemingly unanswerable, would be which commandment was the most important?
“The question asked by this law-expert was one that could be expected from him and from the men he represented. The rabbis, devoted to hair-splitting legalism, carried on lengthy debates about the commandments, arguing whether any particular one was great or small, heavy or light. See Matt. 5:19 and 15:1ff. It was natural, therefore, that they often debated the question, “Which—of the 613 commandments, 248 of them positive, 365 negative—was “the great,” here in the sense of a superlative, “the greatest,”one,” explains Dr. William Hendriksen.
Jesus correctly answered, ““You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment.” This statement was taken from the daily Jewish Shema, or confession, found in Deuteronomy 6:4-8.
4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.” (Deuteronomy 6:4–8 (ESV)
Jesus then quoted from Leviticus 19:18 concerning the second greatest commandment. “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus then stated, “On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” The entire Old Testament hangs on these two commandments.
The word for love (Ἀγαπήσεις; Agapeseis) is a self-sacrificial love of the will. It is a kindness based on a decision of the will for the long-term, and not an emotion of the moment. It is the love husbands are to have for their wives (Eph. 5:25). It is the love believers in Christ are to have for one another (I John 4:7-11).
“Despite attempts to interpret passages like Matthew 5:17 otherwise, today’s passage indicates that Jesus does not abrogate the Law when He fulfills it. He would not single out passages from the Law as God’s greatest commandments if He wanted to eliminate all principles found in the Mosaic code. Also, Jesus’ answer reveals that love is primarily an action, not a feeling. The commandment to love is an order to do something; thus, we are to love others, serving them even if we do not feel like it,” states Dr. R. C. Sproul.
However, we must not ignore the obvious and glaring irony found in today’s text. Jesus correctly answered the Pharisees’ question. There is not even a hint the religious leaders objected or disagreed with Jesus’ answer. Yet the irony is the Pharisees stood before the very God they claimed to love with their entire being. They were so close to God, and yet so far.
Have a blessed day as we seek to love the LORD and our neighbors. This we must do as believers in Christ even when the hits just keep on coming.
Soli deo Gloria!
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