2-2-17 - The Spirit of the Law

This Sunday’s gospel puts us front row at one of Jesus’ training sessions for his new disciples. After the "salt and light" chat, he switches gears: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.” 

Since Jesus seems often to argue with the standard bearers of the religious Law, we might conclude that he supersedes the old revelation or “testament.” But I doubt Jesus would divide the holy scriptures into “new” and “old” the way we have. He articulates a continuity that frustrates our neat categories. Jesus seems to critique the way the Law has been interpreted, not the Law itself. He accuses the Pharisees and other leaders of being heavy-handed and hypocritical in their expectations of people, emphasizing the letter of nitpicking rules while ignoring the spirit behind the whole of Torah.

Mostly, he pulls back the camera for a big picture view. When religious leaders want to stone an adulterous woman, he doesn’t talk about the law that permits her execution. He shows it is wrongly administered; he indicts the accusers for ignoring their own sinfulness. When attacked for healing on the Sabbath, he reminds his detractors how they act when families or possessions are at risk. Over and over, he suggests that it is in interpretation that the leaders get it wrong.

The Law of the Lord was intended as gift, and instead became distorted and extended as an instrument of judgment – often wielded by people who weren’t nearly as compliant as they expected everyone else to be. None of us immune to this – we hope for wiggle room in some areas, while in others we expect people to toe the line.

What are your “good and bad” issues? In what areas do you have high expectations of behavior from others – and from yourself? These may be the same areas in which high standards were expected of you by someone else, a parent or teacher or friend. One way of identifying those areas is by noticing what causes you to become indignant or self- righteous. Are you being invited to be more merciful?

And what are the issues about which you feel more lenient? What do you think God is saying to you about those areas – has God lowered standards, or do you just more fully understand God’s grace in those places?

We always have to hold in tension God’s righteousness and God’s mercy – we can never fully grasp how those two irreconcilables go together. But, happily for us, they do. Jesus did not seek to abolish the Law – only to show that no one is righteous enough to keep it, let alone hold it against others. Until he came along.

Jesus’ gift was to fulfill the demands of the Law in such a way that we are set free from its condemnation – and thus free to live fully into the Love at its heart. Let's try that on.