Here we have the central confession of Jewish People since Moses, wrote down this command of God. The faithful Jewish people recite it twice a day. It was taught to children as soon as they could speak, It is what every Jew wants to utter immediately before death. It is engrained in every Jewish heart. It is pinned on their doorposts - the mezuzah You will find it placed in the tefillin worn during prayers. It is the core of Judaism in all its forms.

         The Shema has a very Jewish background and understanding that is not readily available to the Western mind. It is the understanding of this background: religious, cultural and traditional, that brings home the importance of the Shema and the consequences that obeying the command brought to the Jewish community.

When we consider Deuteronomy 6:4 we see it sit immediately with verse 5:

This is what follows the acknowledgement that there is only one God. All other gods around Israel, and indeed us, are false gods. There can be no part of the heart, soul, or might of the person that should accommodate another god. The heart of a believer in the one God, must be undivided.

This must never be seen as some abstract doctrine or concept. It is called to be a heartfelt commitment to the covenant and the God who was the graceful source of the favour bestowed on Israel as God’s chosen people.

This is vital truth that Moses writes and encourages the faithfulness of Israel to make sure it is passed on.

Note we, as parents, must pass onto our children the truth of God and, for Christians, His son. It is also a commitment to fill their whole day. ‘When you sit’ is those times at home: eating, leisure or study. ‘When you walk’ that is when you are out and about, travelling, ‘When you lie down’ is that time before sleep. ‘When you rise up’ is that time when you start your day. The commitment is 24 hours, 365 days – a lifetime.

         Let us turn to the cultural time of the Roman occupation. The people of Israel are under the rule of an Emperor. His titles include: Dominus — Lord — and Deus — God. The Jewish people would say the Shema faithfully and this was in direct violation of the emperor’s command, that he alone was the ‘Lord God’ of the Jewish people. Their action was a courageous act of obedience to their God, Yahweh, and a direct defiance of Rome. This denial of the emperor’s divinity would bring them into conflict with Rome. Rome was a polytheistic nation. They had many gods and their idols were in every town and city of Israel. That was an affront to the Jews. They had to decide between their Lord and the ‘Lord’ of Rome. The same conflict confronted Peter when he disobey the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem.

The defiance of Rome did bring consequences for the Jewish people. The Mishnah records Rabbi Akiva reciting the Shema as he was being tortured to death dying on the word echad — one.

“When Rabbi Akiba was taken out to be executed, it was the hour for recital of the Shema, and the executioners were combing his flesh with iron combs, while he was lovingly making ready to accept upon himself the yoke of the kingship of Heaven. His disciples asked: Our teacher, even to such a degree? He replied: All my days I have been troubled by this verse "With all thy soul" (Deut. 6:5), which I have interpreted meaning "Even if (God) takes your soul." But I said: When shall I have an occasion to fulfil the precept? Now that I have an occasion, shall I not fulfil it? He prolonged the Shema's concluding word, echad, ("one"), until he expired as he finished pronouncing it. A divine voice went forth and proclaimed: Happy are you, Akiva, that your soul departed with the word echad!” Talmud Berakhot 61b

This beautifully illustrates the true passion that the Jewish people had for the Shema and the covenant God from whom it was given.

When we turn to Jesus to see what he answered, when He was questioned about what was priority in the Mosaic commands from God.

This is a remarkable Jewish centred discussion between the greatest scholar of the Scriptures – Jesus and a Jewish Torah scholar. Note what Jesus does. He repeats the Shema but extends it to include a verse from Leviticus.

Then the Torah scholar says something remarkable,

 He refers to Psalm 51:18, that the love of neighbour ‘is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices’. This elevates the dual commands to a new level. Jesus’ response, is to indicate that the scholar is at the door of the Kingdom. Thus, Jesus links the greatest commands to an understanding of the Shema as the bedrock of what God wants – that is an undivided heart that sees embracing faith and grace, not sacrifice. As more pleasing to God. Note David does continue to say that we should lead sacrificial lives. For Christians that means a dedication to God in how we lay down our lives for others.

           Turning to Paul, who himself was also a scholarly Jewish teacher. He looks at the Shema in his letter to the Corinthians. Paul will use his Rabbinic skills, to show that it points to Jesus as the divine Son of God.

As outlined already, the Shema was at the heart of the confession of Jewish monotheism – the belief in one God. There are two divine names in the Shema: Yahweh and Elohim. In making the argument that Jesus is part of the echad, the oneness of God, and that Yahweh and Elohim is also the Adonia, Jesus. Through Him Paul, argues, all things exist. Again, a reference to the Jewish Scriptural understanding that God created all things. His argument is reflective of the Jewish John who also declares Jesus as Creator. (John 1). This is not just Paul making a clever argument.   Guided by the Holy Spirit, using his sophisticated Rabbinic skill, he refutes those who would challenge that Jesus did not fit into God’s prophetic plan. Jesus was indeed the promised Messiah who would become a human being to save the world. Jesus was at the heart of the great Shema. This is further confirmed to the Philippians:

The Jewishness of the Shema and Jesus as creator is not unusual, if the Scriptures are searched.

           The Shema ends, as we have  seen, with the word echad. Jewish scholars have long noted this and it reflected that the oneness of God, not a mathematical numerical singularity but a unity that contains relationship within itself. This is not the place for a prolonged description of this. The Zohar, a Jewish document, has this: 

“The Judaic notion of a world of Free Will (Talmud Berachot 33b) is deeply rooted in this concept, in the understanding that in creating life, the Eyn-Sof, or the Endless One, subdued the omnipotent, all-embracing Divine Presence for the sake of the realization of the Divine Will that there be other beings (Etz Chaim 1:1:2.)”

Whilst this quoted document is wrapped in other mystical ideas, it gives insight into that reality, that the echad of God was one in which the Messiah as creator is included. The document also has, a reference of Elijah's discourse in the Tikkunei Zohar that states: "Master of the worlds, You are One but not in the numerical sense..” and “The Mitteler Rebbe, Dovber Schneuri, elaborates that all of the Torah and mitzvot are included in the unity of the Holy One, and His presence in the world — expressed through the two divine names, Hashem and Elokim, together forming the inner relationship of God with creation.”

The New Testament and the whole idea of the Triune God sits comfortably into such Jewish thinking and explains how Paul himself reconciled the Shema with the creator Jesus. The Christian belief is not a departure from Jewish monotheism. It embraces the highest reality of the Shema. This is the union of the covenant of Israel with the Messiah, Jesus. That is, the unity of the Godhead is brought to Israel through their Messiah, as a means of reconciling the world to that great Triune God. This is echoed in the prophetic word of Zechariah:

Again, this is loudly echoed by Isaiah referring to the Messiah:

             This study shows us that the Shema is not just a religious formula to be repeated thoughtlessly. It is a heart felt prayer that the Jewish people prayed. It brings in a divine view of the created world. It is statement about covenant commitment. For the Christian, it is a statement that rejects anything else, be it a person or an idolatrous habit, and places the Messiah of God, Jesus, at the very heart of our faith.

             At the time of Jesus, when those faithful Jews turned to Him and, as Paul, seen Him as the centre of the Shema, they were courageous. Their willingness to proclaim such truth, could and did sometimes end in their death.  They went against the culture of Rome and refused to declare Caesar as their God. They were not departing from their Jewish faith, they were reaching out to its completion, by accepting Jesus as their Messiah, promised from the very start (Genesis 3:15). We who have been grafted in can also now rejoice in the Shema, as our own declaration of a God who has blessed us. In our reciting of the Shema, we are declaring an undivided heart for our God.

           Finally, The God who said ‘Hear O Israel, is the same God who said, ‘This is my beloved Son, listen to him’. We can now see that the Shema and the gospel are one constant call to hear, to believe, and to love God with all our being, and to love our neighbour as ourself.