Mark Chapter 12 Verse 28

• I love this word for “well.” It literally means, “beautifully, excellently, rightly, with no room for blame, nobly, honorably, commendably.” So much wrapped up in that little word, “kalos” in the Greek…and so this scribe marvels at the person and power of Jesus…well beyond, “a-ha,” well beyond, “I get it, that makes sense,” and right into willingness to hear the truth…
• The hunt is off for the moment. Known unknowns…the questions set aside for a minute…the weapons of fear lowered and Jesus is simply beheld.
• That’s what happens to us by the way when we just let the temporary things of this world just fuzz into the background for a moment…maybe fade to black for a second…and spotlight Jesus in our hearts and minds…and the result…this scribe, comes to Him. Personal interaction. One could say, “relationship…”
• But notice, one scribe? Recall the scribes were the first to question Jesus as He stood in the temple all the way back in verse 27 of Mark Chapter 11. This one has been watching. He has been listening. The day and the night have come and gone and he has come back looking for Jesus. Seeking Him out. And now after seeing Jesus offended, attacked, challenged and insulted…yet responding in utter wisdom, extra-terrestrial love and truth…this one scribe steps forward…out of the thousands.
• Sucker question after sucker question had come and gone…finally, a real question…how refreshing! It truly is! Why? Because it is rooted in courage and humility! Both so very encouraging!
• But this question…so good! “Jesus, I am a student of the scriptures…I know them front and back and yet even in the scriptures, nothing as excellent as You. What is the most important thing?” That question oozes with submission to Jesus…why? Because the scribe presumes that Jesus has the answer!! Faith has been found! This is awesome!!

Mark Chapter 12 Verse 29

• We forget that first part don’t we? We jump right to, “love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength…” but man we would be wise to remember…that we are to first know the Lord. How can we love Him who we have not known? I spent years thinking I was ok with God because in general I thought myself a good person but what I didn’t know…what I didn’t understand…primarily because I wasn’t willing to ask the question…is what does God require of me.

• Religion tells you it’s the checklist…the do’s the don’ts…the rites the rituals…but God has commanded of me something very simple…to just know Him. That comes before all else…simply that I would know Him. Open my heart to Him. Understand who I am…a created man, fallen and dark because of sin and yet He has put His love for me on public display, that He would give me His all, trade His own Son for me, to give me a home with Him…to face that…in all its truth and implications and reject a life of sin…and call upon Him to intertwine with my spirit! Make me a new creation.

• New thoughts, new priorities, new likes, new dislikes, new motivations, new eyes, new energy, new knowledge, new strength, new life!!! All of that comes not with trying but with simply knowing Him!!!

• But how? How do we get to know Him? He has said, so many times, through His Word! Not just hearing but keeping it man…the lessons of the Bible and of God cannot be learned through memorization…they are only learned through activation!!! Listen, apply, follow, press in to Him…the Lord is ONE! One meaning one God but also look…singularly everything! All the answers. All the comfort. All the truth. All the love. All the power. All of the reality of what’s really going on in my life, in my marriage, in my career, in my life, in my moment….I love that!

• And check this out! That word for One in the Greek is “echad.” Boooooring. Hold up! Literally that means, “compound unity!” There is a word for absolute singularity and that word is, “Yechad,” but even in the Shima of Deuteronomy which Jesus is quoting from we see the word given in the compound unity! WOW!

• Why is that so important? Because the Bible wreaks of the Trinity man! Three in One! And even in the Trinity is hidden the depth of God’s love! That God loves you so much that He gave His Son…and sent His Spirit…what more is there? What more can He do but call out to you? He has poured out all that He ever had for me…and I am so selfish man…I am so dark…and yet He sees that and still does all of this! His love is incomprehendable…and yet absolutely apprehensible.  

Mark Chapter 12 Verses 30 – 31

• So love is all of it man! No greater commandment. It’s the oldest, the original, the one without a beginning…it simply always was…God is love you see. Hate had a beginning. Pride had a beginning and both will have an end. Everything, anything apart from love…is a fantasy…all that remains…is love.
• In another gospel Jesus would say, “Hang all the law and the prophets on this.” That is if you love God and love each other, all of the commandments, all of the teachings of the prophets, you will not be not be in danger of breaking them…your heart’s desire will be to overcome them! It will be your joyful habit man! It won’t even be hard, it will be “second nature.” What a profound thought!
• “Hang all the law and the prophets on these,” Jesus said and therefore know this…the law, the prophets, the Bible, the truth as I mentioned briefly before is not something to learn intellectually. They are not things that you can strive to attain in terms of understanding…they are to be revealed! Revealed by God Himself through a love relationship with you. And that is why we say, “Get ready!” Get ready when you get saved, when you walk closely with God the Father through the sufficient blood sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ, THE ACTIVATION, the Bible is about to COME ALIVE to you!
• Why? Because you’ve gotten to the original. The real thing. You’ve arrived at love man…He no longer is up there, out there, over there teaching and leading and calling and guiding you from the outside…He is now within you…intertwined with your wiring man…and the result, the fruit the Bible would say? Love. And with that comes capacity, competence, capability, compassion, joy, peace, kindness, patience, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. All that is the definition of freedom man! Life and life abundant as Jesus promised in John 10! Love is the key…the key to the Kingdom as it were!

Mark Chapter 12 Verses 32 – 34

• Awesome! Jesus is so well pleased with him. So refreshed by him. And Jesus looks at him and says, “Welcome home son! You are not far.” What is the opposite of far? I know what you’re thinking…, “near!” But what about right smack dab in the thick of it!? What about precisely tap dead center!? Isn’t that the opposite of far as well?
• This one scribe, out of thousands…courageous…honest with himself…that even though he has experienced much, learned much, an expert at life in the eyes of the people, he is honest enough to know he is not god…that he doesn’t know everything…not even close…and in that honesty he is able to recognize something, someone greater than himself…exceedingly more great…

• Wonderful counselor, mighty Father, prince of peace and Jesus’ response to faith like that…welcome home…to where you are supposed to be…