There is an extraordinary drawing power in the words of wise people.  Jesus greatly exceeded human wisdom, and became a magnet for those who hated Him; yet they could not get Him out of their minds.  His stunning responses to trick questions evoked the admiration of the crowd (Mark 1:22) and fascination by His enemies.  Although it is not clear whether this Rabbi was genuine or cynical, he came with an assumption - that some commandments were more important than others. The assumption was, of course, wrong.

Every religious philosophy, outside of Christ, works on the basis that you can get better - if only you have enough information and moral muscle (Mark 10:17).  In order for this delusion to be credible, there has to be a hierarchy of commandments - weighted towards the ones that are easier to keep.  That was exactly what the supplementary teaching of the rabbis had created over the years.  It was those rules which condemned Jesus when He healed on the sabbath (Mark 3:2) and provoked Jesus' condemnation of their whole harsh system of micro rules while ignoring any relationship with God (Matthew 23:13-29).

The concept that any broken commandment (however apparently insignificant) is an absolute barrier preventing any fellowship with a holy God, would make every religious system impossible.  But it is the truth (Romans 3:23).  That is why we need Jesus as our sin-substitute (2 Corinthians 5:21).  Only in Christ is every commandment as important as the others, and every sin equally offensive to God ... but then, only in Christ is there a wonderfully effective remedy for such sin! (Romans 5:1)

Our relativistic world likes to demonise rare antisocial behaviour and smilingly ignore common sins.  The commanding voice of God, through the Scripture, seems stunningly silent as the church ignores its obligation to proclaim the truth.  This is not just important for the personal salvation of our friends, but also to bring communities back to the covenant of God's grace.  People who do that are called prophets: many of them, like John the Baptist, were silenced (Matthew 14:3-12) ... but that just proves that their message was doing its job.  Isn't it about time that we spoke up for the truth – not only about God's wrath because of our sin but also His loving mercy in providing a way to be forgiven?