Heavenly Father, we ask for your guidance and wisdom as we come together to reflect on today’s readings. May your Spirit open our hearts and minds to the truth of your love and grace through Jesus Christ. Amen.

Something you may not know about me is that I love watching reality TV! My favourite show of all time is Survivor. I am such a mega fan that in 2023 I took the family away to Fiji and we stayed on Mana Island where they have shot the American version of Survivor since 2016.

The other day I watched season 2 of another similar survival reality show called Outlast. In it there was a contestant that went to another team and attempted to betray his own team. When his plan backfired, he went back to his own team with his tail between his legs. By all accounts his team had every right within the rules of the game to vote him out, and he would lose his chance at a share of 1 million dollars. It was a huge surprise when this did not happen. Instead, a Christian contestant pulled him aside and gave him another chance. In a private interview the Christian contestant said: “I aint gonna lie, I was disappointed, I was sad. But me being man of God, I did try not to judge, I just give him the benefit of the doubt. Even though I don’t want to, I believe in forgiveness. That’s just the way of my life man”.

Today’s passages from Mark 12 and Hebrews 9 reveal two core truths of our faith: the call for us to love God and others with our whole being; and the assurance of a new covenant established through Jesus. These two scripture readings remind us that while God’s law calls us to love deeply, Jesus has made it possible for us to experience that love fully and share it freely.

In Mark 12, we find Jesus responding to a question from a scribe who asks, “Which commandment is the most important of all?”. Jesus replies with clarity and simplicity. According to Jesus the first and greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And the second, Jesus says, is to “love your neighbor as yourself.”

This answer brings together all of the commandments, all of God’s law, into a single, unified focus: love. But Jesus isn’t calling us to a superficial love; rather, He’s calling us to a total commitment of heart, soul, mind, and strength. This love for God is meant to be all-encompassing, engaging every part of our being.

Jesus doesn’t stop there. He adds that loving our neighbor as ourselves is an inseparable part of loving God. The love Jesus calls us to is relational—it moves outward, extending to others. To love God truly is to love His creation and the people He has placed around us.

If we’re honest, loving like this—fully and selflessly—is difficult. The focus of our hearts are divided, our strength breaks, and we struggle with selfishness. We may want to love God and others completely, but we often fall short. The reality is that the law alone cannot make us capable of fulfilling these commandments.

This is why we need Jesus. In Hebrews 9, we find a powerful picture of how Jesus, as our high priest, entered into the “Most Holy Place” and offered His own blood for our redemption. He didn’t enter by means of the blood of goats and calves, as was done in the old covenant, but by His own blood, securing eternal redemption for us.

In Hebrews 9:11-15, we see that Jesus is more than just an example of perfect love; He is the mediator of a new covenant. Under the old covenant, people could draw near to God, but it required continual sacrifices and ceremonies to cover their sins temporarily. But Jesus’ sacrifice is final and complete. As the mediator of this new covenant, He brings us into a direct relationship with God, cleansed from our sins.

This close relationship, this indwelling of Jesus in our hearts, is crucial for our salvation. Calvin puts it this way: “We must understand that as long as Christ remains outside of us, and we are separated from him, all that he has suffered and done for the salvation of the human race remains useless and of no value for us”.

Jesus’ sacrifice cleanses our consciences, not just outwardly, but inwardly. He takes away the guilt and shame that separate us from God and from each other. Through His blood, we are set free—not only to love God fully, but to live in a way that reflects that love to others. Jesus bridges the gap between us and God and fulfills the requirements of the law on our behalf.

What does this mean for us practically? It means that loving God and loving others is now possible through Jesus. He empowers us to love beyond our human limitations. His Spirit dwells within us, giving us the strength to love as He has loved.

Thinking back to the contestant in the Reality show who had tried to betray his team, and who was saved by a Christian display of mercy and forgiveness – you might wonder what happed to him? Spoiler alert: The love he experienced changed his whole game and he became the hardest working person in his team. And the cherry on top, was that in the final challenge for the million dollars the team needed someone who could use a compass and read maps – and guess who could – the man that had tried to betray them and that they chose to show love to and forgive!

With Jesus as our mediator, we are no longer striving to earn God’s favor; we are invited into a relationship of grace. This grace transforms our approach to the Greatest Commandment. We love not because we have to, but because we get to. The love we show to God and to others becomes an overflow of the love we have already received from Him. In Mark 12, Jesus reminds us that love is the fulfillment of the law, and in Hebrews 9, we see that He is the fulfillment of our need for redemption. Jesus has done what we could not do for ourselves, and He invites us to participate in His love, empowered by His Spirit.

Let us go forward, then, with hearts transformed by this new covenant. Let us strive to love God with all we have and to love our neighbors as ourselves, knowing that Jesus has made a way for us. May our lives reflect the love we have received from Him, and may we bring glory to God as we live in the light of His grace.

Lord, thank you for the gift of your Son, who calls us to love and empowers us to live in love. Help us to live in the freedom of this new covenant, sharing your love with everyone we meet. Strengthen us, guide us, and be glorified in all that we do. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.

Notes for kids talk:

Tricks – did I trick you?

Leaders angry – Jesus showed how fake they were

316 laws in the Old Testament

Jesus not tricked – showed mastery by summing them all up in 2

What we can’t do, he was able to do. Not tricked by Sin