When Jesus Won’t Stay in His Place

Jesus answers questions about the law, then asks one of his own — and suddenly everything no longer fits.

By the time Matthew gets to 22:34-46, everyone is tired of Jesus. Or maybe it’s more honest to say that everyone is tired of not being able to win with Jesus. They have taken their shots. They have tried political traps, trick questions and public challenges. Each attempt was carefully designed, and each one fell apart in real time. Now the Pharisees regroup. One of them, a lawyer, steps forward with what sounds like a safer question: “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” (v. 36).

It is a good question. A real question. The kind of question religious people have been arguing about forever. If you have 600-plus commandments floating around, you are going to start ranking them. You are going to ask which ones matter most. Which ones carry weight? Which ones can you not afford to get wrong? For a moment, it feels like we might be back on familiar ground: Scripture, law and interpretation. The kind of terrain where everyone knows how to talk.

Jesus...