Patrick Comerford
Lent began three weeks ago on Ash Wednesday (5 March 2025), and this week began with the Third Sunday in Lent (Lent III). The Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Harriet Monsell (1811-1883), founder of the Community of Saint John the Baptist.
Later this evening, I hope to take part in the choir rehearsals in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:
1, reading today’s Gospel reading;
2, a short reflection;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
Matthew 5: 17-19 (NRSVA):
[Jesus said:] 17 ‘Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfil. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.’
Today’s Reflection:
Which are the least of the commandments? And if we ask that question we might ask to which is the greatest of the commandments.
In Jewish law, there are 613 commandments, precepts or mitzvot. They include positive commandments, to perform an act (mitzvot aseh), and negative commandments, to abstain from certain acts (mitzvot lo taaseh). The negative commandments number 365, which coincides with the number of days in the solar year, and the positive commandments number 248, said to be the number of bones and main organs in the human body (Babylonian Talmud, Makkot 23b–24a).
The number of tzitzit or knotted fringes of the tallit or prayer shawl worn by pious Jews at prayer is connected to the 613 commandments: the Hebrew numerical value of the word tzitzit is 600; each tassel has eight threads (when doubled over) and five sets of knots, totalling 13; the sum of these numbers is 613. This reflects the idea that donning a tallit or prayer shawl with tzitzit reminds the wearer of all 613 Torah commandments.
Later this week (28 March), we read how once, when a Scribe wants to know which of one of these 613 commandments is the most important (Mark 12.28–34), Christ offers not one but two commandments or laws. But neither is found in the Ten Commandments (see Exodus 20: 1-17 and Deuteronomy 5: 4-21). Instead, Christ steps outside the Ten Commandments and quotes from two other sections in the Bible (Deuteronomy 6: 4-5, Leviticus 19: 18).
The first command Christ quotes is the shema, ‘Hear, O Israel, …’ (verse 29), recited twice daily by pious Jews. The shema is composed from two separate passages in the Book Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 6: 4-9 and 11: 13-21), and to this day it is recited twice daily in Jewish practice.
Christ links this first commandment to a second, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself’ (verse 31). Once again, he is not quoting from the Ten Commandments; instead, here he is quoting from the Book Leviticus (Leviticus 19: 18).
Christ combines these two precepts into a moral principle, linked by love. But he is not the first, nor is he the last, to do this, nor is this combination unique for the Scribes or the Pharisees.
Hillel the Elder (ca 110 BCE to 10 CE), who was asked a similar question, cited this verse as the most important message of the Torah. Once, he was challenged by a gentile who asked to be converted if the Torah was explained to him while he stood on one foot. Drawing on Leviticus (Leviticus 19: 18), Hillel told the man: ‘Do not do to anyone else what is hateful to you: this is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn’ (Babylonian Talmud, Shabbath 31a).
The Scribe agrees with Jesus and elaborates. Both precepts are much more important than all the burnt-offerings and sacrifices in the Temple (verses 32-33). For responding in this way, Christ tells this Scribe that he has answered wisely and is near the kingdom of God (verse 34).
The Irish-born theologian Professor David Ford sees these two commandments as the key, foundational Scripture passage for all our hermeneutical exercises. David Ford was born in Dublin, and from 1991-2015 he was the Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge.
Speaking once at the Dublin and Glendalough Clergy Conference in Kilkenny [2012], he was asked about some of the hermeneutical approaches he outlines in his book, The Future of Christian Theology (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011). He said that if the two great commandments are about love, and God is love, then no interpretation is to be trusted that goes against love.
He reminded the clergy present of Augustine’s great regula caritatis, the rule of love. If love is the rule, then the ‘how’ of reading scripture together is as important as the ‘what.’ In The Future of Christian Theology he says: ‘Anything that goes against love of God and love of neighbour is, for Christian theology, unsound biblical interpretation.’
In other words, the two great commandments provide the key to understanding all the commandments, and ‘whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven’ (Matthew 5: 19).
Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 26 March 2025):
The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Towards Reconciliation and Renewal’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a programme update by the Revd Canon Dr Carlton J Turner, Anglican Tutor in Contextual Theology and Mission Studies and Deputy Director of Research at the Queen’s Foundation, Birmingham.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 26 March 2025) invites us to pray:
Lord, we ask for a Church that is willing to repent for its historic injustices. May we seek forgiveness and work towards healing and justice for all.
The Collect:
Almighty God,
whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain,
and entered not into glory before he was crucified:
mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross,
may find it none other than the way of life and peace;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post Communion Prayer:
Merciful Lord,
grant your people grace to withstand the temptations
of the world, the flesh and the devil,
and with pure hearts and minds to follow you, the only God;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
Eternal God,
give us insight
to discern your will for us,
to give up what harms us,
and to seek the perfection we are promised
in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yesterday’s Reflection
Continued Tomorrow
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
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