You Are Not Far From the Kingdom of God - Mark 12:28-34

By now, most of you know that I love the Gospel the Mark. Most of the time, I find Jesus’ words in this Gospel to be thought-provoking and inspired. But today, in the twelfth chapter of Mark’s Gospel, I find Jesus a tad cryptic and, frankly, even a pinch snarky. I imagine Jesus giggling secretly about his final quip in this conversation, knowing that it might very well confound his listeners. Indeed, the text tells us that no one dared to respond to him again. I get the feeling that Jesus gets a kick out of these interactions, not unlike Yoda or Mr. Miyagi, or that baboon from The Lion King. 

Just one chapter ago, Jesus and his disciples arrived in Jerusalem with great fanfare. And almost every moment since, Jesus has been absolutely beset by theological and scriptural challenges from local religious leaders. They are unrelenting. But, Jesus is a formidable debate partner. He answers them with confounding facts. He answers them with parables. And today, he answers them with a powerful pronouncement. The scribes and Pharisees and Sadducees have been bickering back and forth and Jesus ends the argument by saying, “you are not far from the kingdom of God.”

At first, I found this response bewildering. Sure, Jesus may have simply been naming the scribe as the winner of the debate, but it also feels like he is answering a question he wasn’t exactly asked. In the verses leading up to today’s passage, Jesus cursed the fig tree, told the parable of the wicked tenants, and told us to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s. These are complicated teachings, and it’s not surprising that the religious leaders have questions and disagreements. I have them too, and when I enter into theological dialogue with Jesus, I crave concrete answers. I resist what feels like the guessing game where Jesus tells me if I’m getting warmer or colder.

I decided to take my curiosity about this passage to a dear friend who always offers me a perspective I had not considered before. In fact, I start most of my sermon preparation by reading the lectionary passages aloud and praying about them with her. I was confident she could help steer me in the right direction. To my surprise, she recommended that I listen to a podcast about…Harry Potter. Now don’t get me wrong, I love Harry Potter. But I couldn’t believe that a podcast featuring two bookworms dissecting children’s literature could reveal something to me about Jesus’ teaching in the temple in Mark’s Gospel. I was so very wrong.

The podcast is called “Harry Potter and the Sacred Texts,” and the episode I listened to centered around a Jewish practice called Havruta. Havruta, sometimes pronounced “Chavrusa,” is an Aramaic word that means “friendship” or “companionship.” It’s a practice of studying the Talmud, which is the Torah and its supplemental literature, in which two people unpack and debate a particular passage together. Both children and adults can participate in Havruta. Partners should be evenly yoked in education and skill, and two friends who are prone to fits of laughter should not be paired together. 

Havruta is one of the main styles of study in Yeshivas, which are Jewish educational institutions that focus on scripture. But as with everything else in the 21st century, Havruta has gone virtual, as well. If you don’t live near a Yeshiva or synagogue, you can be paired with a study partner online! The standard procedure is that the pair take turns offering up a question about the text and a potential answer. Then, they can challenge their partner’s answer or come up with new ideas based on their exchange.

I really love the practice of Havruta for several reasons. First, I respect and admire that Jewish people have known for centuries that there is a certain spiritual magic that can happen between two people with a common goal centered around God. In our tradition, we feel the same way about the sacrament of marriage. We, too, trust that God works in a particular and beautiful way in covenantal relationships between two people. 

I also love that Havruta does not assume one, true, right answer about a passage of scripture. That’s not the point. The practice of the study is far more important than the outcome. The host of the Harry Potter podcast, describes it this way: “the idea is that it isn’t any one answer that is right, but it is the aggregate of all the answers that are right. And… we can really just go on and on because there’s an endless depth to these things.” This is so beautiful to me. It reminds me that there is an endless depth to God and an endless depth to what we are capable of learning about God during our short time on earth. And this doesn’t have to be frustrating, it can be life-giving. 

The more I read and thought about Havruta, the more I realized that the spirit of Havruta is all around us this week. First of all, it’s in our Gospel passage. We tend to ascribe such animosity and evil intent to the Pharisees and Sadducees in the Temple, and such cunning to Jesus, as though their interactions are simply a game of cat and mouse. But what if these chapters are depicting a kind of Havruta, two or three people unpacking the scriptures together and challenging each other to think critically and creatively? 

I read that a Yeshiva hall full of Havruta pairs can often be quite noisy with the sounds of dozens of people debating about scripture at the same time. I imagine that the Temple in ancient Jerusalem was likewise boisterous and filled with the sounds of different kinds of religious conversations. Perhaps these exchanges between Jesus and the leaders of his community are holier than I realized. 

I also see the spirit of Havruta at work in our reading from the book of Ruth. Naomi gives Ruth permission to go and live the life she chooses, the freedom to go where she wants, do what she wants, and be with whom she wants. But Ruth chooses a different path. She seems to say to Naomi, I could go through all the trials and tribulations of life and try to make meaning out of them on my own, but I would rather do it with you. Ruth is somehow already keenly aware of the power of covenantal relationships between two people, whether they are prayer partners, a married couple, or even just good friends. 

In my own life, I realized that the very practice that started this whole journey, calling my friend talk about sermon ideas, is a lot like Havruta! And at the end of each of these examples, at the end of every faithful debate about theology or scripture or the hard work of being human, even if no satisfactory conclusions are reached at all, Christ tells us, “you are not far from the kingdom of God.”

In the face of the endless depth of the divine, any and all work that we do to better understand God and ourselves, especially in faithful relationship with another person, is deeply sacred. It’s kingdom work. We can go around and around in circles trying to understand why we’re here, what to do with our lives, or what this week’s sermon should say, and we may never get any closer to the answer. But we will get closer to the Kingdom of God on earth, to the holy union God seeks to have with us. 

I suppose I was a little too quick to judge Jesus as cryptic and snarky in the Temple today. He may not be trying to confound the authorities with clever quips after all. Instead I think he is proclaiming a hopeful, Gospel truth. He is reminding us all that the hard work figuring out who we are and how to live faithfully is the sacred work of the Christian tradition, especially when we engage in that work in relationship with others. So, the next time your struggle with scripture leaves you scratching your head in frustration, just remember, “you are not far from the kingdom of God.” Amen.