2 Nov 24

Rev Gav

As Christians, what laws are we under?

If you are struggling to know what to do in any given situation, and are concerned with doing the ‘right’ thing, then simply go back to the two greatest commandments, for no religious, political, or social law can ever override them.

Mark 12:28-34

Sometimes people come to you and ask you a question to trip you up, and they are not really interested in the answer you give for its own sake, but to further their own political, social, or religious agenda. I remember once, being asked by a parishioner if I would marry a gay couple. The person asking the question was asking me, not out of a genuine interest in dialogue, but because they were a manipulative bully who held a conservative position. At the time I was under church law and not permitted to marry a same-gender couple, therefore if I answered, “yes,” they would use this as an excuse to have me fired from my church position, and if I said, “no,” they would use my authority as an excuse to continue to exclude members of the LGBTQIA+ community. How would you have answered?

The context of Jesus’ ministry was that the first five books of the Bible (called the Torah) were being interpreted in ways that were excessively demanding and restrictive. Adherence to the law had become an obsession associated with the Scribes, who acted like religious lawyers or ‘keepers’ of the law, and the Pharisees, who acted a bit like religious law police ensuring the laws were being worked out in practice. People were being ‘worn out’ by the heavy demands of trying to obey biblical laws imposed by the Scribes and Pharisees who used them to judge and exclude people from the Kingdom of God.

Enter Jesus, an itinerant rabbi, who was gaining a massive following with his unique interpretation of the law, and who deemed to hold a special status or authority regarding the law. You can see how this would set him up for a head on collision with, and possible conflict with, the Scribes and Pharisees — which it did.

Therefore, it should come as no surprise that Jesus was approached, on multiple occasions, by people asking loaded questions. Sometimes it was solely to trip him up and to be able to accuse him of being a heretic or worse, blasphemous, and sometimes it was out of respect and for a genuine interest in ongoing dialogue. Sometimes his answers left his questioners angry and furious, and sometimes his questioners left with changed hearts and minds.

In this particular story, recounted in Mark’s gospel, a Scribe, hearing Jesus contending with different groups, comes to Jesus and asks, “Which commandment is the greatest?” Now, this question had followed a whole bunch of questions which were designed to trip Jesus up, and we do not know if this Scribe was asking a genuine question or not, but a dialogue does ensue, and they do agree, and Jesus does tell the Scribe he is not far from the Kingdom of God.

Jesus sums up all the law and the prophets with the two greatest commandments: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength,” and, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” Jesus, as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew adds, “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” In other words if you imagine the two great commandments at the top, every other law or prophetic instruction, dangles below them.

Why this is important, is that none of the laws that dangle below, trump the two greatest laws. In other words, whatever religious, social, or political legal dispute you are having on the ground, it has to be viewed in the light of the two greatest commandments, and this is exactly how Jesus operated.

According to the Scribes there were over 600 ‘lower’ religious laws, if we can call them that. They were thought of as a collective ‘whole’ and therefore, if you broke one law you broke the lot. It was further complicated by the idea that, as God was interested in community and not just individuals, it was imperative that the whole community kept the whole law.

The problem was, and is, that laws were written in specific contexts, applicable to the community at specific times and in certain phases in its formation, and that the context was and is continually changing. It was an almost impossible task to pin the community down to a specific set of laws, and there was a continuous ongoing debate about how the laws applied in new and shifting landscapes.

Jesus, through his life, death, and resurrection, took the religious law, completed it, and owned it, and during his ministry, continually confronted it where others had used it to override the two greatest commandments, and where it was being used to exclude, marginalise, oppress, belittle, or dehumanise others.

Christians are people who follow and trust in Jesus Christ. We do not look to the 600 lower laws — the Mosaic, Deuteronomic, Levitical laws — for purity and holiness. We look to Jesus Christ. What Jesus did, he did for all humanity for all time. We are no longer under the law of sin and death. As the Apostle Paul writes in Romans 8, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.”

You are not born sinful and baptism is not a washing away of sins. You are made clean and pure in and through Jesus Christ, and over and over again, Jesus told people, “Your faith has saved you,” not your obedience to practices, customs, or traditions. For example, baptism is a symbol of what is going on in the hearts of the believer, and in the case of baby baptism, in the hearts of the parent(s) and carer(s). Baptism as a following of the law or tradition, without trust in Jesus Christ, means nothing. Baptism is not something ‘done’ to you. In this sense, babies who are baptised are only members of God’s community if the parents who make the promises are working out their faith in Jesus Christ, and in due course, if the children themselves work out their baptism in faith and trust.

A Christian saying they are ‘safe’ because they are baptised is no different to the Jews who told Jesus they were ‘safe’ because they were descendants of ‘Abraham’. Jesus told them that he would set them free from being enslaved to such ideas, and that is the point. We are free, and the gospel really is good news.

Today, if you feel beholden to rules and regulations, if you are bound by church traditions or practices that you have been told you have to obey, or if you are ‘worn out’ by the heavy demands of trying to obey biblical laws imposed by people who use them to judge and exclude you from the people of God, then hear the words of Jesus:

“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

And if you are struggling to know what to do in any given situation, and are concerned with doing the ‘right’ thing, then simply go back to the two greatest commandments, for no religious, political, or social law can ever override them. They both contain one common word, and that word is ‘love’ — to love God and to love others. Go! Be a people who love, and as Jesus reminded the Scribe, you will not be far from the Kingdom of God.

Amen.