²⁸ One of the teachers of religious law was standing there listening to the debate. He realized that Jesus had answered well, so he asked, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

²⁹ Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. ³⁰ And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ ³¹ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”

³² The teacher of religious law replied, “Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth by saying that there is only one God and no other. ³³ And I know it is important to love him with all my heart and all my understanding and all my strength, and to love my neighbor as myself. This is more important than to offer all of the burnt offerings and sacrifices required in the law.”

³⁴ Realizing how much the man understood, Jesus said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” And after that, no one dared to ask him any more questions.

Mark 12:28-34

Dear God, I love these stories where someone in Jesus’s time who has a vested interest in seeing him discredited has an open enough mind to consider that they might be wrong about him. It’s one of the things I love about Nicodemus in John’s Gospel. In the end, at the crucifixion, he sacrifices everything to care for Jesus’s dead body–just when it looked like all hope was lost. This story shows a teacher who probably had some legit concerns about this man everyone was calling the Messiah so he thought he’d throw out a test to see where his heart was.

I heard someone quote someone else as having said, “It is hard to change a person’s mind when their income depends on them not changing it.” I hope that I will be willing to change my mind when (not if) I’m proved to be wrong about something, regardless of what it costs me. Regarding politics, I’ve see people who will bend over backwards to defend their president regardless of the flaws or mistakes (and I’m talking about presidents from both sides of the aisle). I asked one woman once to name the top three things she disagreed with her preferred candidate on, and she couldn’t think of one. She couldn’t allow herself to go there. I think her idol required her to believe in them 100% or her world would fall apart.

Father, I didn’t mean for this to become a politics prayer, but it is a reminder to me that I must make you my God. And you alone. It’s what Jesus said in this, after all. And then I must love my neighbor. I must love them well. Help me to do this. Help me to count everything else as worth nothing to me, but only if I might finish the race and complete the task you’ve given me: The task of testifying to the gospel of your grace. (Acts 20:24)

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen