What Comes First?

From Mark:

The scribe said to him, “Well said, teacher.
You are right in saying,
He is One and there is no other than he.
And to love him with all your heart,
with all your understanding,
with all your strength,
and to love your neighbor as yourself
is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding,
he said to him,
“You are not far from the Kingdom of God.”
And no one dared to ask him any more questions.

Two things about this passage: I always focus on the second "great" commandment: To love your neighbor as yourself. That's easy enough to wrap your brain around, if not always to put into action. But what does it actually mean to love God with your whole heart, mind and soul? I always had this vague sense that God, omnipotent creator of the universe, really wasn't looking for any special adulation from the likes of me. And how does one actually demonstrate that extreme devotion? It's no wonder people resorted to sacrifices and offerings—at least it was a tangible display.

That's something I'm going to work on, think on, and pray on. For now, I'm thinking that truly acting on the second commandment is a good way of pursuing the first. And I guess I'd add to that that perhaps loving God with all we have is a reflection of the way God loves us; he is telling us that this is the way he loves each one of us—with all that he has (which is a lot). I've always believed (perhaps heretically, I'm sure some might say) that part of what gives God his power is the devotion of all of us. A community of believers united in prayer and faith glorifies God and makes him that much more visible and tangible in our world. So our utter devotion reflects his.

The second thing that strikes me here is that after Jesus acknowledges the wisdom and understanding of the scribe who asked the question: Which is the first of all the commandments? no one "dared" ask any more questions. What struck these listeners dumb?

I'm sure biblical scholars would unpack this more gracefully than I could, but I'll try to puzzle it out. For one thing, I imagine it would be somewhat awesome, in the true sense of the word, to hear Jesus tell the scribe: You are not far from the Kingdom of God. Those are the words of a prophet. Is he identifying himself as some kind of ambassador to God's kingdom? Is he making a prediction that God's promises to the Jews are going to be fulfilled? Or perhaps it's a more dire prediction? Are they afraid what he might say next, if they question him further?

Or is it just that there's not much more to say? Jesus boiled down 600-plus statutes and laws from Hebrew scriptures into two simple thoughts. This is the kind of question, I'd imagine, that would have been the subject of endless debate, yet Jesus and the scribe agree almost instantly. It must have been surprising, to say the least, to hear this carpenter-teacher challenge the established laws. But maybe it was satisfying, too.

Despite the straightforward nature of this narrative, it was a tough one for me. Anyone have any better thoughts?