Matthew 22:34-40--The Greatest Commandment

​Matthew 22:34-40 English Standard Version (ESV)
LISTEN:  https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/esv/Matt.22.34-Matt.22.40
The Great Commandment
34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

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We see the conspiracy that has formed as different players who didn't really get along are all suddenly working together to bring down Jesus--a "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" situation if you've ever seen on.  The word "lawyer" here may not necessarily mean someone who is an expert in the law of society that argues his case in front of a judge and/or jury, but an expert in the Law of God and probably taught it or explained it to others.  This is a young man unlike many in the Sanhedrin (the ruling council made of of mostly Pharisees and Sadducees), so it seems like they didn't want to tip their hand immediately that this man was one of them because he didn't look like them and he was "wise beyond his years."

I don't really know what answer the man expected Jesus to reply with that would have tripped Jesus up, but he asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was.  Instead of quoting form the Decalogue (the Ten Commandments), Jesus quotes from the books of Deuteronomy and Leviticus to give both of these commandments (Deut. 6:5 and Lev. 19:18).  We know from parallel passages that this man tries to justify himself by asking, "And who is my neighbor?" and Jesus tells the Parable of the Good Samaritan.  Since that parable isn't included here in Matthew, we will get to it later when it is covered--just know this is the context of that parable.

Jesus said that if we could follow these two commandments perfects, we would keep the whole law of God and and that all of the Law and the Prophets (the entire covenant that God had with His people until then) hung on only these two verses..  We don't see it here but the lawyer left smarting from this and it made the Pharisees just want to come back with yet another volley of attacks.  We'll look at that salvo next time.