31B21.       Deuteronomy 6:2-6.    “Fear the Lord, your God, and keep” “all his statues and commandments.”  This means that we must treat God as God, the infinitely Almighty, and do everything he tells us to do without exception.   The Hebrews of that time did not believe in an afterlife.  Their reward was to be in this life by having an exceptionally long life.  Also the reward for their fidelity to God was a prosperous life in this world.  To be God’s People meant to have him as the one and only Lord of their lives to whom they gave themselves totally and to no other in any way.  He was everything for them and nothing else was anything.  This is true for us too as Christians.

Mark 12:28b-34.   “Hear, O Israel! The Lord God is Lord alone!” Give God the place he deserves in our lives!  May our God be the Almighty Gracious One of every moment we live in the here and hereafter!  Life is all God; death is everything else!  All the external rituals, both Hebrew and Christian, must be permeated with the presence of God and never just actions that are just external and are not filled with the giving over of ourselves to God.  To love God is to belong to God from the very depths of our beings.  Our bodies, the world around us and the devil lay claim to us every of moment of our lives.  We can never rest from the struggle that is required to belong to God and God alone.

Hebrews 7:23-28.  Jesus “is always able to save those who approach God through him, since he lives forever to make intercession for them.”  Jesus offered sacrifice for sins “once for all when he offered himself” on the cross.  Jesus is at once and at the same time, the priest who offers the sacrifice, the sacrifice itself which is he himself and the altar upon which the sacrifice is offered.  Through Jesus’ humanity, God has redeemed us in his suffering and death on the cross.   Jesus continues his heavenly priestly work daily in each and every one of us.