Many generations of Jewish theologians attempted to define exactly the number of commandments contained in the Torah, but some of them supposed that there were commandments which expressed the very foundation of the faith. Thus one of the scribes decided to ascertain the opinion of Jesus and thus get a clear idea of the views of the Galilean Teacher.
"Teacher," he asked, "which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"
"The greatest is," answered Christ, "Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one God, and love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the second: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets."
This is the breathtaking height to which Christ calls men.
The law considered only one's tribesmen and co-religionists to be one's "neighbors." But Christ did not limit our understanding of the term with such narrow boundaries. When a scribe asked Him, "Who is my neighbor?" in place of an answer, He told of a Jew, ambushed by thieves. Weakened by his wounds, he lay on the side of the road and watched bitterly as a priest and temple servant indifferently strode past him. Least of all did he expect sympathy from a Samaritan who rode by after them. Could this foreigner and heretic really be better than the priest and the Levite?
But this one stopped, and not asking about anything, helped the suffering man: he bound up his wounds, took him on his mule to a hotel and paid for him in advance.
"Which of these three," asked Jesus of the scribe, "do you think, proved neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?"
"The one who showed mercy on him," the scribe had to answer.
"Go and do likewise."
Christ got the scribe himself to come to the conclusion that one's "brother" or "neighbor" could be any person.
He also gradually brought His followers to a new view of the heathen, one that was unusual for them. Thus, He did not hide His joy when He discovered the Greeks were seeking an audience with Him, and on the eve of His sufferings Christ said that His Gospel must be "preached as a testimony to all peoples."
When a Roman, an officer of the garrison at Capernaum, asking Christ to heal his servant, said that but one of His words would suffice, Christ observed, "Not even in Israel have I found such faith," and then added, "I tell you, many will come from east and west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness." These words sounded a challenge to those who considered only Israelites worthy of God's love.
The rejection of "outsiders," no matter how we dress it up, is an instinct which people can only overcome with the very greatest effort. The Gospel unequivocally calls us to fight against national exclusiveness, and in that manner to continue the preaching of Amos, and John the Baptist.
―Son of Man, pp. 62–67