Teacher, which commandment in the Law is the greatest? It appears that the religious leaders were really determined to remove Jesus from their midst. Even after failing to trick Jesus in entangling himself in speech (last Sunday’s Gospel reading), they were not yet ready to give up. They remained hopeful that Jesus would sooner or later have a ‘slip of the tongue’ and make it easy for them to bring accusations against him. They remained on the lookout. In today’s Gospel reading, the Pharisees take over from the Sadducees and their plan is to have Jesus “prove” himself. They had for long doubted Jesus’ authenticity as a rabbi. Anyone who would continuously show a disregard for the laws and traditions of his community (healing on the Sabbath, healing within the confines of the synagogues, letting his disciples pick corn on the Sabbath, and making blasphemous statements such as calling God his father and telling people their sins were forgiven) could not be a real rabbi. And so, they put forth to Jesus a question that a true son of his community was expected to be familiar with: the greatest commandment.
The greatest (first) commandment was part of the Shema prayer (‘Hear O Israel…’), a prayer that was the centerpiece of the daily morning and evening prayer of the Jews. It was a prayer that was to be taught by the fathers to their children and made the central piece of their lives (cf. Deuteronomy 6:4-9). Of course, Jesus knew the prayer and he rightly answered the question. But Jesus did not stop there. He decided to embellish his answer by adding a second commandment. While this combination of the two commandments was already provided for in their tradition and was as a matter of fact expected (cf. Leviticus 19:18), its emphasis by Jesus was not without a reason. Jesus knew why the Pharisees had asked him about the greatest commandment.
But he also knew that many in the crowd had gathered to listen to his teaching and such were genuinely interested in how he was to answer the question. It was to the benefit of those who were genuinely thirsty for the Word of God that Jesus joined the second commandment to the first. He was aware that those in the crowd had knowledge of the greatest commandment. He was also aware that they might not have paid much attention to how the command to love God was to be applied in real life. The ‘second’ commandment that he added is the expression or practical application of the ‘first’ one. The love of God can only be faithfully carried out in the love of the neighbor. For as St. John rightly reminds us, God can only be loved through the loving of one’s brothers and sisters (cf. I John 4:20). The command to love God could not be separated from the command to love one’s neighbor for the one is realized in the other. The command to love God and the command to love one’s neighbor are complimentary and the one cannot be observed without the other. This was not something new that Jesus was saying. It was right there as part of their tradition (cf. First Reading). It had simply been ignored.
Although to the Jewish people the term “neighbor” was restricted to “fellow countrymen,” Jesus in his teachings used “neighbor” to mean all people, especially the vulnerable ones (foreigners, widows, orphans, the poor). In joining the second commandment to the first, Jesus was reminding the religious leaders that it was not enough to have knowledge of the law. It was equally important to apply that law to daily living. Jesus had observed how the religious leaders related to their ‘neighbors.’ He had observed how the poor and the vulnerable were neglected and abused. Yet, these were the people that God specifically commanded to be loved. The command to love the poor and vulnerable by acting charitably towards them was enjoined by God to the people of the covenant as a way of showing gratitude to God. For God had acted with charity and compassion towards them when they were suffering as aliens in a foreign land. This is why to love God by loving one’s neighbor is the greatest commandment.