Shema: Living Jesus Out Loud

I love watching Jesus at work. In Mark 12:28-34 we can see a Pharisaic scribe testing Jesus, and, in response, Jesus turns the tables of history.  Jesus begins in vv. 29-30 by quoting Deut. 6:4-5, known as ‘the Shema’, which is the Hebrew word for ‘hear’ - the core cry of the OT law and religion. 

“Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”

This is what all Jews would chant as their confession of faith, their core value. It summarized their way of thinking. At the heart of their identity, it would be recited every morning and evening as part of the pious Jew’s prayer. It still begins the service every Sabbath in every synagogue of the world. 

Hear, O Israel. Listen up, people of God! Hear and remember. Remember that you are my covenant people, that I am your God – the God of your forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Remember that I am the God who fulfils the promises I made with you as part of our covenant. Hear, O Israel. 

…the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Yahweh, the Great I AM, is the one and only God. There is no other. He is – and there is only one of Him. He is not a pantheon of gods, He is not a multiplicity – one god for this, and another for that. He is not like any of the gods that were and are worshipped by surrounding nations. He is not to be mixed up with them, like a Buddhist Jesus, or Jesus, your spirit guide.  He is unique, unrivalled. He is one.  

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (as Mark adds) and with all your strength.  Love Him with all your heart: the seat of the will and the emotions, love Him to the core of your gut. Love Him with all your soul:  with every breath, your very life. Love Him with all your mind: with every thought, with the way you understand and look at things.  Love Him with all your strength:  with all your energy and resources.

The writer is simply saying, love God with utter devotion, unconditional surrender.

Then others will know that the Lord our God, the Lord is one.  They will know by our whole devotion, our surrender without reserve, our allegiance, our affection, our living Jesus – God revealed to us in man – living Him out loud. 

And Jesus, quoting Lev. 19:18, says, ”Love you neighbour as yourself.”  The practical application of Deut. 6:4-5.  First, always first, is loving God.  Then, out of that reality, we love others.  We can love because He first loved us.  Sound familiar?  Love for God should never stop short of loving others.  And loving others without truly loving God, is just a clanging cymbal. 

In one stroke, Jesus has condensed the 613 laws of the Old Testament into two supreme laws.  Love God.  Love others.

It reminds me of a doctor friend who’s spending herself for a community of poor, writing scripts, praying for the women, travelling to the slum despite 45 degree heat, choosing not to advance her own career, living Jesus out loud to others.  The Shema, extended NT mix!

For more information visit www.pioneers.org.au       
or see Pioneers of Australia Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/#!/pioneersau
               

Next blog: Living Jesus Out Loud in the Heart of Africa