22:34,35
The questions continue to come. Having seen the drubbing the Sadducees got the Pharisees got together to discuss what to do. They were experts in the Law, or so they thought, so one of their experts was ready to test Jesus. The Sadducees considered themselves to be men of the world, and they were shown not to be half as clever as they thought they were. The Pharisees thought themselves experts in the Law, they too would find they did not know as much as they thought they did. We should watch out whenever we start to think ourselves wise in our own eyes (Prov 3:7; Isaiah 5:21).
22:36-40
The supposedly killer question was to ask Jesus what the greatest commandment was. Quite why this was supposed to trap Jesus is something of a mystery to me. Maybe they considered Him to be against the Law, so were hoping He would say something against the Law. However, this was doomed to failure, especially as Jesus, being God, was the true author of the Law! So Jesus quotes two commandments which sum up the whole lot. Love the Lord with all you have (Deut 6:5), and love your neighbour as yourself (Lev 19:18). The Pharisees had lost all focus of what the Law was about, seeing it as law upon law, getting lost in details, especially the myriad of details that they themselves had added. We should always have a clear view of the big picture.
It is interesting that Jesus says “the second is like it”. Loving God and loving our neighbour are intrinsically linked, a point that is a key part of 1 John.
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