Who wants to be in God’s kingdom when Jesus comes? Do we hear anyone saying “No”? Silence? Is the question too difficult to answer? As we meditate on this simple, yet most profound question, think about why Jesus said, “You are not far from the Kingdom” [Mark 12 v.34] to an unnamed “scribe” [v.28] who had heard his rebuttal of the Sadduccees [v.18-27] for refusing to believe in the resurrection.

This scribe asked Jesus, “What commandment is the most important of all?” and Jesus told him [v.29-31] to which the scribe responded, “You are right teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbour as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” [v,33]

It is this response that leads Jesus to say the words above. Within the lifetime of many listening, Jerusalem and its temple would be destroyed, there would be no place where they could make sacrificial offerings, which, as is so often stated by the prophets, were usually not offered with the right attitude of heart.

Our thoughts on this led to a meditation, first on the oneness of God, that there is no other, no competing gods. As Paul puts it in a letter, “one God and father of all, who is over all and though all and in all.” [Ephesians 4 v.6]. We must see this as far more than a theological statement, but many fail to!

The central focus of our thinking must be on the kind of love we have for the one and only God, the creator and originator of all life. In our thinking on this there must be special times when our relationship with God involves all our heart, such thinking must be done with all our understanding and strength of mind. In really doing that, we will regard all other people (for all are our “neighbours”) with a readiness to be of service to them whenever there is a need. What greater help to give, than to help them to become “not far from the kingdom of God.” But until we are in that position ourselves, we cannot do this.