CLOSE!...but no cigar

 Now a scribe thinks it’s his turn to quiz Jesus...                                                           “Which is the first commandment of all?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

He knows only too well that you can’t separate the commandments God gave Moses, so...how will this Galilean dude answer that one? (Mark 12:28-34)

Jesus wisely recites the Sh’ma: the foundation of the Jewish faith, that all Jews know since childhood!

“Hear O Israel (Sh’ma Yisrae’el):                                                                                     the Lord our God is one Lord                                                                                         And you shall love the Lord thy God                                                                                     with all your heart                                                                                                                       and with all your soul                                                                                                                               and with all your mind                                                                                       and all your strength”

  That’s not all Mr. Scribe, there’s a bonus for you!...

“You shall love your neighbour as yourself!”

The scribe unwittingly gives Jesus the Lord our God a big tick, only to hear....

                            “You are not far from the kingdom of God”

No wonder no-one dared ask any more
questions!                                                            

How would you rate yourself on that test?                                                    100%?

GOD of the LIVING

 

The Jewish leaders are desperate after their failed attempt to trip Jesus up over payment of Roman taxes.                    

Here come the Sadducees with their ridiculous poser: some woman outlives seven husbands, so whose wife is she after resurrection?...that SADDUCEES DON’T EVEN BELIEVE IN!

Is this the best they can come up with?... Mark 12:18-27                                               

Most of the Jewish aristocracy including high priests were Sadducees (Sad you sees!) so their religion was merely a ritual without faith in God of the living, the real God beyond the power of death.

Even their great patriarch Abraham believed in resurrection!...

‘He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received (Isaac) back as a type’

No wonder Jesus said: “You don’t know the Scriptures or the power of God”

So, do you?