First commandment of all

In the last few days of His earthly life, Jesus Christ goes to the temple in Jerusalem and the leaders of the temple gang up on Him.

"First we saw the priests and the scribes, then we saw the Pharisees and Herodians. They're his enemies and they're trying to catch Him in His words; trying to find a way to accuse Him.

"Now, the night before He dies they gather false witnesses because they couldn't successfully get anybody to catch Him in what He actually said. So they had to produce some fake news; some false accusations. It's interesting, Christ asked them ONE question and they all ran to the hills, but He answers their questions every time.

"You're seeing the impact that Christ's ministry has had on the vain religious leaders of the nation Israel. They're coming to Him with their hypocritical questions; they're not really concerned about what's going on, and Christ answers them.

"When Matthew describes this, chapter 22 says, [34] But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together.

[35] Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,
[36] Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
[37] Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
[38] This is the first and great commandment.
[39] And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

"Now, Mark says He answered them well. In other words, He shut them up.

"This one lawyer, though, his question, Mark 12 says, [28] And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all?

[29] And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:
[30] And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
[31] And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.
[32] And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he:
[33] And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.
[34] And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him any question.

"Now, there's two things about that question. One, it goes to the heart of the real issue.  He's not asking about the technicalities, or the Pharisees and scribes--they're mad at Christ because He's gone into the temple and taken away their worship; He's insulted their religion.

"This guy, he cuts right to the chase, 'What's the real issue here?' It's a heart issue so he goes beyond all the external stuff and he's not being flippant. He demonstrates the real true nature of the law.

"Notice verse 34. The only time they asked Christ any questions after this was to mock Him and falsely accuse Him.

"He didn't just nail them on every one of their questions, He embarrassed them and put them to silence. Now Jesus is going to turn the tables and He's going to ask. 

Mark 12:35: [35] And Jesus answered and said, while he taught in the temple, How say the scribes that Christ is the Son of David?

"Notice how Matthew says this in Matthew 22:41: [41] While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them,

[42] Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The Son of David.
[43] He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying,
[44] The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool?
[45] If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?
[46] And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.

"He shut them up and now they're over in the corner talking about Him. He doesn't ask His question across the room. They're over on the other side of the room. He just walked right over there, 'You all through? I got a question for you guys.' "