GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 12:33
Mere Ceremonies
Lois Frieze, a Bible school teacher, told her class that she never knew a time when she was not a believer. Her parents were church attendees, and her mother sang Christian songs to her and taught her Bible verses. In such a loving and nurturing family, the development of faith in Christ was natural. Still, there came a time when Lois made her own conscious decision to follow Christ. It would have been a dramatic event if she had rejected the lessons her parents taught her.
The scribe who inquired of Jesus about the most important command was raised in a society that honored Yahweh. He was likely raised by a priesty father. He had inherited the religious practices and faithfully participated in them. He was, after all, a scribe.
It seems, however, that there must have been a serious change in his thinking, for at the end of Jesus’ lesson, “And the scribe said to him, ‘Well said, Teacher. Truly, you said that He is one, and there is not another except Him. And to love Him with all one’s heart, and with all one’s understanding, and with all one’s strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.’” (Mark 12:32-33)
The scribe’s ceremonial practices may have become routine or habitual, and Jesus’ lesson led him to see all his activities in a new light. Burnt offerings and sacrifices were central to the scribe’s ceremonial practices, but it was as though he might have said, “Ahaw! Now I see. Without love for God and neighbor, all that is mere ceremony.” He never rejected the inherited customs, but they took on new significance.
A way to keep religious practices from becoming mere ceremonies is to see that the essence is devotion to the Father and to one’s neighbor.
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