Vicar's Voice - 15th Sunday after Pentecost 2024
Jesus said to his followers, “Don’t even begin to think that I have come to do away with the Law and the Prophets. I haven’t come to do away with them but to fulfill them. I say to you very seriously that as long as heaven and earth exist, neither the smallest letter nor even the smallest stroke of a pen will be erased from the Law until everything there becomes a reality. Therefore, whoever ignores one of the least of these commands and teaches others to do the same will be called the lowest in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever keeps these commands and teaches people to keep them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven."
- Matthew 5:17-19 Common English Bible
These verses have been used by biblical literalists and authorial intention Bible theologians and scholars for centuries to justify positions on whether or not followers of Jesus should be accountable to the statutes of the Hebrew Scriptures. They've also been a plumb line by which Paul's address of law, soul, and flesh are interpreted.
I have recently been filtering my scripture readings with a "Red Letter" filter. Some might have "Red Letter Bibles," which have the words of Jesus in RED. What I appreciate about this filter is that it draws my attention to what the Gospel Evangelists attribute to Jesus. It forces me to consider those words first, as the words that the Gospels assert were said by Jesus. Before I move to Paul, or the Old Testament, or even commentaries or theological reflection, I have to start with Jesus. I am, after all, a Christian, not a Paulist or member of another faith tradition.
Jesus SAYS in this passage from Matthew that the law is still relevant to our lives. Recalling that he asks us to love God and love our neighbor, the laws of Moses help to provide guardrails for those relationships. We must remember that Jesus was Jewish, that he was raised in a community that asserted faith, that he heard the scrolls read to him, and that he engaged in practices that reminded him of his religious identity.
He also was a reformer, changing the way that those scriptures were understood in the context of focusing on the mutuality of loving God while loving neighbor, or by loving neighbor through the love of God. He says explicitly that it is essential that we maintain a relationship with our Judaic foundation, or as my sister says, the fruitful "wisdom of the ancients."
But Jesus also recognizes that the incomplete following of the Mosaic law does not negate us from the community. He says that if we don't follow them, we are least in God's kingdom: but still a part of God's kingdom. The failure, either intentionally or through neglect, to follow the letter of the law does not remove us from the faith family. It may demand an explanation or understanding of how or why we don't follow particular statutes. But we better be clear about why we have chosen to be who we are and do what we do. In many ways, I have found that following Jesus' mandate of the greatest commandments (love God and love neighbor) shares the way I follow Moses' commandments. If a commandment causes me to not show love to God or neighbor, I will likely not follow that commandment or will modify how I follow it.
This is the messiness of Christianity - we come from Judaic roots, our Savior was a Jew, and our practices are shaped by the writings of the Apostle Paul. But we still must follow the examples and teachings of JESUS. I am grateful to be in a denomination of Christianity that recognizes that messiness, but also keeps me in God's kingdom!
In God's Peace,
Fr. Shawn