The Kingdom of God
Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, “Which is the first commandment of all?”
Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment.
And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
So the scribe said to Him, “Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He. And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
Now when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
Mark 12:28-34
When we recite the Apostles' Creed, we usually say the lines “born of the Virgin Mary“ and “suffered under Pontius pilot“ with nothing in between. In doing that we skip over the time that Jesus spent on earth and his ministry to those who are fortunate enough to hear him in person.
During his time on earth, Jesus declared the establishment of the Kingdom of God. He repeated this phrase again and again, and he often began parables with "The Kingdom of God is like . . ."
What Jesus was saying was that there was a new way of thinking about God and a new hope for all of humankind. The Kingdom of God was at hand, and Jesus was inviting us to be a part of it.
His words to the scribe in this story are important. The scribe shows a depth of understanding of what Jesus was saying that was unusual for his day. It was obvious from the scribe's words that he had discovered something new and unique about Jesus. Jesus compliments him by saying that he is "not far" from the kingdom.
The question for us, then, is how far are we from the central message of Jesus's ministry?
