Matthew 22:34-46 - The Chief Commandment & a Vexing Follow Up Question
22:34When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 37He said to him, “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38This is the greatest and first commandment. 39And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” 41)Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question: 42‘What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son, is he?’ They said to him, ‘The son of David.’ 43He said to them, ‘How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying, 44 “The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet’ ”? 45If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?’ 46No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

Background: It was common in Jesus’ day for faithful Jews to argue about the law. How was it to be interpreted? How was life to be organized in order to faithfully keep it? Opinions abounded. In general, there were two schools of thought. 1) The Pharisees believed that the law should be expanded and articulated to cover all possibilities. 2) Others, particularly followers of Rabbi Hillel believed that the law should be reduced or honed to its basic fundamental principles. Once when Rabbi Hillel was asked to state the whole of the law while standing on one foot, he stood on one foot and said “What you yourself hate, do not do to your neighbor. This is the whole law; the rest is commentary.” In today’s passage, Jesus picks up on that theme and turns it from a negative statement into a positive one. He also links two dominant schools of thought together. Many argued about the relationship between love of God and love of neighbor. Did one detract from the intensity of the other? Jesus links these two great loves and in essence says, “loving God obligates us to love neighbor.” Later in today’s text, the Pharisees who have listened to all of this, through out a question about Messiah and how he will come into the world. The context is still confrontation and testing by the authorities. It is not entirely clear here whether the questioner presents the question in a neutral context. He does not address Jesus with the traditional title of respect, but at the same time he may genuinely want to hear what Jesus has to say.

Word study
Vs. 34 – Pharisees and Sadducees– These were members two of the most important religio-political parties in Judaism. They were highly respected and influential. They disagreed on a number of matters of scripture interpretation, notably on whether or not there was the possibility of an after life. The Pharisees said, “maybe.” The Sadducees said, “no way.” In the previous debate the Sadducees had tried to trap Jesus in what they saw as the illogic of a belief in the afterlife. His logic silenced them resoundingly.
  They – the Pharisees
  Lawyer – (nomikos) This word is only used here in Matthew. It refers to a professional theologian, a doctor of the Law.
Vs. 36 – Teacher – most scholars see this word as an insincere title.
  Greatest - lit. chief. The question was one of priority. How does one begin to live out the law? It is possible that they were laying another trap for Jesus here. There was a wide school of thought that held that all commands of God were equal and equally binding. After all, who are human beings to decide and rank them? In all the rabbis counted 613 commands in total. It is also possible, though less likely, that the lawyer was really trying to understand how to place his priorities.
Vs. 37 – You shall love…. – This is the Shema from Deuteronomy 6:4. Pious Jews recited these words each morning and evening. To link the Shema to the chief commandment was a way of saying that people were to get their lives consistent with their worship.
  love – agape – active benevolent giving to others without expectation of return, not rooted in emotion but in God’s love. It also carries the notion of commitment.
  Heart – the inner life, the center of personality and will…to love with all the heart means to let God direct ones thinking, dreaming, desiring, and willing.
  Soul – hb. Nephesh, a complex Hebrew concept rendered here in Greek. It means something like vital principle. The nephesh is what makes someone a living creature. Nephesh is what makes one unique, celebrates life, indeed is life itself. To love God with all the nephesh is to love God as life.
  Mind – in Hebrew thought this concept of knowledge or intellect would have been understood in the concept of heart. Jesus probably adds this Greek concept to help his non-Hebrew audience understand that love of God includes the mind. A part of the call to love God with the mind is to be an honest thinker and a critical thinker. We are not expected to check our brains at the door in order to love God.
Vs. 39 – like – this second commandment is like but not identical to the first.
  neighbor – This second scripture comes from Leviticus 19:18. Unlike earlier Hebrew thought, neighbor does not just refer to one’s immediate clan. Jesus uses this word to include all people, including one’s enemies.
  As – in the same way that….active seeking of the good of.
Vs. 40 – hang – the image is of a door on its hinges.
Vs. 41 – asked – this wonderful word means to inquire, to seek an answer, to demand, to desire or to question something. The picture here is of Jesus earnestly desiring to understand how they are thinking and what is important to them.
Vs. 42 -44 – Messiah – The word here in Greek is Christou, from which we get our title for Jesus Christ. It means anointed one and was, at the time of this interchange, a way of talking about the coming Messiah who would save them and restore Israel to righteousness and self-governance. I love the way this is worded in the Greek text. Literally, Jesus says, “What seems right to you concerning Christou? Whose son is he?” Perhaps Jesus wants to see which theological strand of the faith they adhere to. Perhaps he wants to see what they may be ready to learn. They answer with the traditional view that Messiah will arise from the house of David. Jesus then pushes them a bit to see if they can imagine something bigger than they have dreamed.
Vs 46 – No one dared to ask him another question – Jesus has posed a question to them that has pushed the limits of their understanding and comfort zones. They are so dumbfounded they can’t ask any more questions.

Questions for Reflection
1. Do you think that all of God’s commandments in the Bible are of equal weight? If so, how do you deal with those you ignore (tithing, dietary laws, not judging for example)? If not, how do you decide which ones you must obey, and which are no longer relevant?
2. In this text Jesus does not do away with any of the Law. Rather he seems to give a relative weight to Love. At the same time, he says that Love is like an umbrella law. Everything else springs from it. In other words, if we love, all the rest of the Law takes its rightful place. How do you think that obedience relates to love?
3. It can be hard to talk about loving God when God is so mysterious, other and beyond us. How do you experience loving God? How do you act on that love?
4. What does it mean in your daily life for you to love your neighbor? Who do you think of as neighbor? Does anyone fall outside that category in your mind and actions? How do you organize your life around daily loving?
5. Can you think of a time when your faith was pushed out of your comfort zone with a new question or idea? What was that like? How did you feel? Did you react positively or negatively?
6. The Pharisees are thunderstruck by Jesus’ question and logic. So much so that they are afraid to ask any more questions. Can you think of a time when you experienced something similar? What happened next?