Tahillim (Psalms) 110:1 Adonai says to my Lord, "Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool"
When the crowds heard how he taught, they were astounded; but when the P'rushim learned that he has silenced the Tz'dukim, they got together, and one of them who was a Torah expert asked a sh'eilah to trap him: "Rabbi, which of the mitzvot in the Torah is the most important?"
He told him, "'You are to love Adonai your G-d with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength.' This is the greatest mitzvah. And the second is similar to it, 'You are to love your neighbor as yourself.' All of the Torah and the prophets are dependent on these two mitzvot."
Then, turning to the assembled P'rushim, Yeshua put a sh'eilah to them: "Tell me your view concerning the Messiah: Whose son is he?"
They said to him, "Davids."
"Then how is it," He asked them, "That David, inspired by the spirit, calls him 'Lord,' when he says,
'Adonai said to my Lord, 'Sit here at my right hand until i put your enemies under your feet.'"
If David thus calls him 'Lord,' how is he his son?" No one could think of anything to say in reply; and from that day on, no one dared put him to another sh'eilah.
The religious leaders, for the past several segments of the Holy Week story, have been under a deserve barrage from Yeshua over the content of their hearts. It started as them challenging what he did, and, by the time we reach this famous segment, they are throwing any trick question they can at him in a desperate attempt to defend their honor and rank. I would love to have been one of the onlookers in what the scripture says is a growing crowd. We have Herodians still nearby, priests, P'rushim, Tz'dukim, all against Yeshua, and Yeshua is winning. At least he is winning the tests, but is he winning their hearts? The rest of the story makes it doubtfull.
Now pulling another trap, the P'rushim try to get Yeshua to raise one commandment over another in Importance. Likely they were thinking that he would pick one of the ten commandments out as a foundation. The P'rushim where masters of this. Their whole life is wrapped up in the study of the mitzvot. But in doing this, they take a great gamble. They have been frustrated by all other questions posed so far, and if Yeshua were able to best them here, in their home court, so to speak, then there would be no defence left.
The P'rushim were takes not only with knowing the law, but with defining it. They helped people keep the main laws by making countless rules about those laws. Trying to help people understand what true obedience looks like, the defined more than six hundred and thirteen laws. You can see the problem with these people spesifically wanting one command to be over another. Its like asking the President to pick one state of the union to run the whole country; sure some may fit the task better, but in the end they are all equal.
The segments of the old testament Yehsua sites are not actually part of what was considered Torah Law. D'varim (Deuteronomy) 6:5 "And you are to love Adonai your G-d with all your heart, all your being and all your resources." This is part of a famous prayer of Israel. שמע ישראל הי אלוקינו הי אחד. Sh'ma Yisra'el! Adonai Elohenu, Adonai echad [Hear, oh Israel! Adonai our G-d, Adonai is one]: and you are to love Adonai...
This is something they would have read and known and prayed daily. Not just the priests and Torah teachers, but everyone. This passage of scripture is, for lack of better term, the motto of the nation and people of Israel. They said it every day, and where completely unaware of the depth of the meaning of the words they spoke. Moments before, Yeshua nails the Tz'dukim about their lack of understanding in the area in which they were supposed to be experts, and now he challenges the very patriotism of the same group.
Yeshua takes another step, following the pattern of the P'rushim. He established one law, but then further defines it by establishing a second law. This was the practice of the P'rushim, and Yeshua, using something very near and familiar, uses their own system, the one they were using to trap him. The second law he cites comes from levitical law: Vayikira (Leviticus) 19:18 Don't take vengance on or beat a grudge against any of your people; rather, love your neighbor as yourself; I am Adonai. This citation comes from the part of the law specifically geared towards the cohanim, P'rushim, and Tz'dukim. This citation was not nessesarily an attack, but it was definitely personal.
An interesting point is that the Bible, the Torah, assumes that we love ourselves. It's not a problem for mankind to think to little of ourselves. Yeshua correctly identifies the heart of true obedience. See, he is being asked about a law, which means, in order to pull out one of most importance, he has to define what the most important form of obedience looks like. It is not the law that is in question, but the actions that that law dictates. The brilliance is in the use of a non commandment to define what real obedience looks like. Love G-d, love others. The entire law watered down and obedience defined.
The last point he makes has an interesting application to the modern church. Following the gospel and the road of salvation, a believer is to repent and place their trust in Yeshua for salvation, but then, as we have seen before, they are to be new creations. The obedience Yeshua asks of the church and all believers is to Love G-d and love others before yourself. What makes this interesting is Yeshuas assertion that the ENTIRE OLD TESTAMENT LAW is included in those two. That is to say, once a person has repented, their desire should be to forsake their sin and keep the commandments of Yeshua, and Yeshua commands here that we follow the Torah! Freedom in HMeshiah does not mean freedom from these two greatest commandments, but the freedom to keep them without condemnation for when we fall.
Finally, in the last exchange that Yehsua has with the Cohanim until the trial. Yehsua poses to them the question of the Messiah. Long story short, the P'rishim don't understand the Messiah. Of course we know that Yeshua was both human and divine. The P'rushim don't understand the concept of the G-d-man. They could not comprehend what the messiah was, and thus they missed the message altogether.
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