Mark 12:28-44
Dear RTB’ers,
Three story items from our short reading today and I could comment long on any one of them. But for your sakes, I’ll make them short. First, the greatest commandment: Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 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. (vv. 29b-31) Yes, we read this (shortened) version every Sunday, but even so it never fails to hit me personally. If you’ve been with RTB for a while you’ve heard this before – these are the Bible verses that brought about my “born again” experience in May 1975, fifty years ago next month. I’ll share the longer version of this conversion tomorrow at our RTB gathering, but for now suffice to say that I was working toward the second of these greatest commandments, pretty much ignoring the first. The Holy Spirit set me straight and the rest, as they say, is history.
The second story item today is Jesus’ teaching on the Christ being the Son of David. I have posted on this item in the past and will not repeat that, but if Jesus’ teaching on this matter is confusing to you, send me a note and I’ll find that longer post.
Finally, our third story item, the widow’s mite… Again, I’ve commented before, but it’s worth a mention here. There are probably millions of Christians out there who have difficulty with tithing, thinking that it’s a bit of a challenge to pledge ten percent of their income to their church budget every year. But tithing is the least of four Biblical injunctions on giving. Consider: first, the widow’s mite, what we read today; second, “first fruits”, an Old Testament command, that the Israelites bring the first fruits of their harvest to the Lord – not knowing if there would be more “fruit” down the road; and third, the story of “the rich young ruler”, an item we read recently. Jesus asked him to give away all that he had and follow Him. The biggest of all the Biblical commands on giving… Each of these three items make tithing a much smaller demand.
Good lessons for today. See you tomorrow, I hope!
Blessings!
See also: