GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 12:30
The Pledge
Alice and I like to retell the story of our wedding, which we had rehearsed with our pastor, Rev. R. D. Shaw, on Friday night before the Saturday ceremony. We went through the duties of the ushers, the bridesmaids, and the groomsmen. We even practiced the entire ceremony, so we were ready. On Saturday evening, the church was full of well-wishers, and the ceremony began. Everyone remembered their role, the bride made her entrance, everyone stood, and we were at last before the pastor. He began the ceremony, and all went well until he turned to me and said, “Claude, repeat after me.” I followed him line for line until he said, “I there unto plight thee my troth.” Yeah, that’s what he said: “troth.” I’d never heard that word before, but I couldn’t very well ask him to repeat it or explain its meaning at that point in the ceremony before the audience. So I did the best thing I could think of and said, “I plight me my throat!” I know the pastor heard the mumble, for he smiled and continued with the ceremony. Alice has never let me forget that I plighted my “throat.”
Since that wonderful evening, I’ve discovered that “troth” is an Old English word meaning faithfulness, truth, or belief. It is essentially an archaic form of the word truth, and the words share the same root. Well, by extension, plighting my “throat” has meant the same thing.
When a scribe, likely out of sincerity, asked Jesus what he considered the greatest or most important commandment, he was asking a question the scribes certainly debated. The scribe was asking something about a living issue in Jewish thought and discussion. Some scribes taught that Moses had received 613 commandments on Mount Sinai. Other scribes argued that Habakkuk had reduced all the commandments to one: “The righteous shall live by his faith” (Habakkuk 2:4).
For the inquiring scribe, Jesus repeated Deuteronomy 6:4-5: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” Jesus’ paraphrase was: “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.” (Mark 12:30) Jesus added “with all your mind” to the ancient commandment—an important new dimension. Is it possible to serve the Lord with one’s heart, soul, and strength, while allowing one’s mind to wander to this alien idea or that alien idea? Hmm. Jesus brought that into line by adding it to the list of pledges for the truly committed believer.
It’s possible to imagine the scribe, who surely knew Moses’ writings intimately, blinking at the new dimension—the mind. But like the groom standing before the bride, the pastor, and the audience, he did not ask Jesus to repeat or explain himself. Nevertheless, Jesus’ addition is an important element for the committed believer.
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