THE Rev. Jeremy Thompson, of St John’s Lee, looks at Mark 12 vs 28-34:

How are we to solve all the world’s problems? What can be done about immigration and refugees, modern day slavery, climate change, corruption, drugs; the list goes on. Some of these issues are particular to our day – internet fraud and so on, but most are common to every age and every culture across the world.

The oppression of one group of people by another has been happening for millennia. The abuse of children has been going on for generations. Our misuse of nature’s resources has been going on since before we learned to dig coal. And the sale of mind changing drugs has been going on since we realised chewing bark or eating mushrooms made us feel good.

There is something about the human condition that lends itself to injustice, corruption and exploitation. It seems an intractable question. So what is to be done?

Jesus knew well the human condition. He was not shielded from the injustice, corruption and exploitation of his own day. The Jewish religion had worked hard to develop a code of laws designed to lead people away from ‘sin’ and towards a life of ‘virtue’. Asked by a teacher of the Law which was the most important, Jesus reduces The Law to its bare essentials, and, at the same time, proposes the solution to all the world’s problems – love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and strength and soul. And love your neighbour as yourself.

Were every person to live by these commandments there would be no war, no slavery, no people trafficking, no drug wars, no terrorism, no…