Excitement and endurance.  Those two words captured the ethos of Wheeler family vacations when I was a child.  Mama would wake us in the predawn hours while the rest of the world slept.  The world is so different at that hour.  So quiet, so expectant. Sleepily we stumbled into the Ford Galaxy 500 and fled the suburbs and the city before the traffic noticed we were going. 

My sisters immediately went back to sleep, but “Barry,” my faithful furry friend, and I remained vigilant.  Taking it all in.  Trying to savor every moment of our adventure.  The sunrise, the waking world, breakfast at Howard Johnson’s along the way were all heralds of adventure. But it did not take long for predawn excitement to give way to the test of endurance. 

Bill Wheeler clearly identified with the tortoise in Aesop’s famous fable.  Slow and steady wins the race!  Even before an energy crisis drove down speed limits, my dad drove 55.  He was never in a hurry.  He loved the ‘scenic’ route.  We were eager to see the ocean.  He intended to see everything along the way.  

He was s self-consciously slow driver, but he was also steady.  And by ‘steady’ I mean we never stopped.  Never!  Not for unscheduled bathroom breaks, not to stretch our legs, not even for a little carsickness.  Unless we needed the ER, on we rolled.   And as endurance unfolded into impatience a collective cry began to arise from the back seat, “Are we there yet?”  After all the soil had turned sandy.  Spanish moss began to appear in the trees.  We had counted all the Volkswagen Bugs.  And we could not find a word that began with ‘X’ on any billboard.  Surely, we were getting close!

Travel is a good metaphor for life.  Philosophers, muses, and inspired authors have all made this connection.  In the ancient language of the Old Testament the world “to walk” never simply means ‘pedestrian travel.’  It always conveys the idea of life’s journey.  And in Mark 12, in the midst of a grueling day of constant conflict between Jesus and the religious establishment, an honest inquirer emerges. From among the scribes comes a question not designed to ensnare but to ask directions for life’s most important journey. 

Mark reports the scribe’s question and response.

“Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” -Mark 12:28-34

We sometimes reflect positively on this passage.  At last, a scribe who is “not far from the kingdom of God!”  But then we realize, “wait! he has not arrived.” “Not far from the kingdom” is not “in the kingdom.”  It is not sufficient merely to understand that it is not rite and rubric but wholehearted love for God that saves.  Without grasping the person and work of Christ and experiencing the grace of God, the demand for wholehearted love of God becomes another impossible work and inevitable failure for fallen man, unaided by the regenerating work of the Spirit.

Jesus’ follows his answer to the scribe’s question with a question of his own.  A question whose answer provides the key to knowing and loving God wholeheartedly.  Jesus does not abandon this sincere scribe on the road, somewhere not far from the kingdom of God.  But graciously gives him the most important direction he needs to arrive at his destination.  Is your attempt to love God in every area of life a frustrated work?  Or a grateful response to the grace of God in Christ?

Join us as we examine Mark 12:27-38 and consider Jesus’ answer to our question, “are we there yet?” on the journey of faith.  We meet Sundays at 10:30 am on the square in Pottsville, Arkansas right next to historic Potts’ Inn for worship.  Get directions here or contact us for more info.  Or join our livestream on YouTube.