January 6, 2011 – Mark 12:28 - 13:13

The 2 Commandments of Christ. To love God and to love neighbor. For the longest time I was always a little confused by this because we are told to follow the 10 Commandments and this seems to change that. It was only recently in really looking at the 10 Commandments that you realize Christ doesn’t change them at all. Here is a reflection I did on the 10 Commandments so I won’t go into that again. http://milk169.blogspot.com/2010/09/september-14-2010-exodus-20-ten.html#links The first 4 are all covered in Loving God. The next 6 deal with loving your neighbor.

I wondered why this person questioning Jesus did not become a disciple or was not made an Apostle. It just seems that he ask a question, believes Jesus answer as correct, Jesus compliments him, it just seems like someone who would be a good influence on the Apostles. It makes you think about why Christ picked the 12 that He did. Was it similar to the reasoning behind sending fewer troops into battle in one of the stories in the Old Testament. Judges 7 – “The LORD said to Gideon, "You have too many soldiers with you for me to deliver Midian into their power, lest Israel vaunt itself against me and say, 'My own power brought me the victory….By means of the three hundred who lapped up the water I will save you and will deliver Midian into your power. So let all the other soldiers go home." God picks the weak to topple the strong.” He picks those that are uneducated and untrained in order to show God’s power is what makes them strong. So this scribe, even if he was close to the Kingdom of Heaven, may have been said to preach and convert based on His own knowledge and strength, whereas a poor fisherman, in order to stand in front of the Jewish leadership and preach to them would need to rely on God alone.

And to go right along with that we have the teaching about the scribes seeking seats of honor. Christ needed the humble to be able to teach true love. This teaching of humility leads right into the lesson from the poor widow. It is so hard for us to give sometimes. Time, money, energy, anything, to something where we may not see a return. Even with our youth group sometimes, we put for efforts and do not always see results and sometimes you wonder if it is worth it. We have to keep in mind that God’s way is not always clear to us. The work, time, energy you put into something may not bring about visible results or the results that you intended, but God is working in you, if you are striving to do His will. As Christians, we should not be a results orientated people. The results are in God’s hands. If God wants something, it will happen without our help or completely in spite of our help. We are not, or should not, measure things based on results, but how much we are striving to do what God’s will is. If that is our goal, the rest is in God’s hands.