Greatest Command: Bud or Bud Light

It is often called “The Great Commandment” and it can be found in Matthew 22. I recently took our entire church staff through this important passage. It begins with Jesus being tested in verses 34-36, but this was actually the third attempt at testing Him by the religious leaders. The first attempt happened back in verses 15-17 and was initiated by the Pharisees who sent one of their disciples to make the inquiry. The question was political in nature regarding if it was lawful or not to pay a poll tax to Caesar.

The second attempt in testing Jesus occurs in verses 23-33. This time it was by another religious group called the Sadducees who did not believe in a future resurrection. They asked a theological question based on an absurd scenario. If a woman remarries after her husband dies, and this happens 7 times, whose wife will she be in the resurrection?

That brings us to the third attempt to test Jesus that results in Jesus giving the Great Commandment. This time it is the Pharisees who are again behind this test and who again gather together to plan their strategy and trap. This time they send one of themselves, a lawyer who would have been an expert in the Mosaic Law, to question Jesus. And why do they give another try at trapping Jesus? They do so according to verse 34 because they heard that Jesus’ answer had silenced the Sadducees. You would think that the Pharisees, who believed in a resurrection, would have thoroughly enjoyed Jesus’ answer to the Sadducees. So why do they come to their assistance? They do so because in spite of their major differences, what they had in common, a hatred of Jesus, took precedent.

Now what was their question to Jesus that they thought would be fool-proof in trapping Jesus. This third attempt is another theological question. They asked, “Which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Now you need to understand that the Rabbis of that day saw 613 commands in the Mosaic Law which they believed corresponded with the 613 separate letters in the Hebrew text of the Ten Commandments as given in Numbers. They then divided these 613 commands into groups. First they divided them into affirmative commands and negative commands. Affirmative commands were ones that required you to do something. They saw 248 affirmative commands, one for every part of the body as they knew it. Negative commands were ones that required you to avoid something. The Rabbis saw 365 negative commands, one for every day of the week.

They then went further and divided these 613 commands into what was called “heavy” and “light” commands. I guess you could call these “Bud Commands” and “Bud Light Commands.” Heavy commands were seen as binding commands. These commands had to be obeyed and there was no wiggle room involved. Light commands were less binding and could possibly by overlooked depending on the situation. The problem was that there was no anonymity among the Rabbis regarding which laws were heavy and which were light resulting in great debate. So the question, “Which is the greatest commandment,” was debated often with very little agreement. So no matter how Jesus answered, he would alienate a large group of people. In my blog tomorrow we will see exactly how Jesus does answer.