MARK 12:28-34
‘You are not far from the kingdom of God’ (v. 34)
The man who met Jesus in this text is identified as one of the ‘teachers of the law’ (v. 28). One translation calls him a ‘legal expert’ (CEB),but the Message translation is probably more helpful when identifying him as a ‘religion scholar.’ He was a man well versed in the Jewish Scriptures and religious traditions and he was impressed with how Jesus had handled a debate with the Sadducees concerning the resurrection (v. 18-27).
In the short conversation he has with Jesus it becomes clear that he had a good and correct understanding of the Scriptures and that he knew that faith should be expressed not primarily in religious rituals, but in love to God and love to neighbour. For this Jesus commends him and then goes on to proclaim ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God’ (v. 34).
This scholar joins with other people we meet in the New Testament who were close to the Kingdom: The rich young man (Mark 10:17-25) who only lacked one thing and King Agrippa, who himself exclaimed that Paul was close to convincing him to become a Christian (Acts 26:28 MSG). They were all close, but not quite there.
Paul, speaking to King Agrippa, makes it clear that the question is not whether you are close or far away, but that you arrive, that you actually enter the Kingdom.
No matter where we are in relation to the Kingdom of God, we have one thing in common: To arrive we need to move in the right direction from where we are just now and that is the lesson we can learn today: Whether close or far away from the Kingdom the important thing is that we are moving towards the kingdom, the reign of God, all the time.
To ponder: What will it today mean for me to move closer to the kingdom and the reign of God?