It becomes clear that
Jesus is insisting that those to whom He is directing His discourse, perhaps
along with those within range of hearing Him, have not been faithful to the
true purpose of the law, which was (among other things) to mark Israel out as
God’s covenant people, so that they could be a light to the nations in
reflection of their God’s glory, in a way that would cause all peoples to want
to seek out and know and serve the Creator God of Israel.
Through His parables
and their explanations, as provided in the Gospel narratives, Jesus indicates
that the Pharisees and the experts in the law (with the people that they
represented and influenced in tow) had been unfaithful to the purpose of the
law, using it dishonestly and inappropriately.
It appears that many men of influence used the law as a way to keep
Israel separate from all nations and to block those who found themselves
outside of the covenant due to nothing more than race, ethnicity, or national
origin, from entering into the covenant so as to enjoy its blessings that would
be had by keeping to the way of being human prescribed by what was understood
to be Israel’s divinely given law. When measured against the big picture
of Scripture and Israel’s story, this would have clearly run contrary to the
Creator God’s promise to Abraham, which included the blessing of all peoples
through his seed, presumably in the same way that Abraham himself was believed
to have been blessed by his covenant God.
The law had been, for
Israel, an astounding gift of God’s grace.
It was taken to be a revelation of the expectations of a people’s god, showing
them how to live and how to by truly human, with this standing in striking
contrast to the capriciousness and seemingly arbitrary expectations of the gods
of the people that surrounded Israel. By its very receipt, the tribal
nation of Israel was blessed above all peoples, receiving direct revelation
from their God, with the knowledge of how to serve and please Him, and by
extension how to serve the whole of the creation and humanity.
As a sign of their
acceptance of the law, and the grace and beneficence of their God that was signaled
by that law, Israel was given covenant markers that consisted of not worshiping
idols, of reverencing God’s sanctuary, honoring the Sabbaths, and the
continuing rite of circumcision, which, along with a trusting allegiance to the
Creator God (faith), was the original covenant marker that had been required of
Abraham and his household. These would
mark them out and delineate Israel as the Creator God’s chosen people---chosen
for the purpose of representing their Creator to His creation.
By Jesus’ day, these
covenant markers had been reduced down and were primarily demonstrated in the
keeping of food and purity laws, honoring the Sabbath, and bearing the mark of
circumcision. Reverencing the sanctuary
was fairly commonplace (perhaps even overdone), and, at least as it would appear in the historical
records, idolatry was not an issue in the Israel of Jesus’ day. These
three things (purity laws, Sabbath-keeping, circumcision) were commonly
referred to in that day as the “works of the law,” were representative of what had
previously been a slightly different list, and now stood for living according
to their God’s law.
A person could hold
to many traditions, customs, and laws, but if one was not holding to these main
things, the powers-that-be generally presumed that such a person was outside of
the covenant. Consequently, said person
was looked upon as a sinner---perhaps even as less than human. Ironically, not living up to the requirements
of the covenant did indeed, when measured against the purpose of the law and
its relation to the covenant and its God, did mean that one was less than
human, but Jesus’ response to those that were holding some as such surely
indicates that He did not share their particular application and interpretation
of what constituted the bounds of true humanity.
No comments:
Post a Comment