(Oct. 23) Sunday Snippet

Matthew 22:34-40

The Pharisees who had attempted to one-up Jesus last Sunday by approaching him with a question about taxes, hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, we find this Sunday that they are eager in getting together again to find out what Jesus has to say about another question.  They’re desperate to see Jesus make a mistake.  They want to make him look like a radical who doesn’t have roots in the past.  They want him to appear to defy tradition, trying only to please the crowd.  They want to find some way to discredit him.

So the Pharisees select one of their number one students; one of their ace academic’s.  They send him into the ring with yet another question; not so much a trick question in the way the two previous questions were.  But, still, the Pharisees wanted to know… was Jesus for or against... they wanted to know what he thought and how he would respond so that they could figure out what theological school of thought his training came from, who his teacher was, where he got his education. 

Many of the Sadducees and Pharisees, unfortunately, saw The Law as an arena for debate, as a boxing ring where theological fights are settled, as a drag race where highly flammable words fuel the need to win.  As one writer said, “One of the major struggles of religion at that time was legalism. The problem with legalism is that the focus is on following laws instead of on imitating God.”

They had taken the 10 commandments and the first 5 books of the Bible and came up with over 600 rules and regulations that they determined had to be followed in order to please God.  The thing that made it even more confusing, other than having over 600 laws to follow, was the religious teachers couldn’t even determine which of the laws were the most important to follow.

We, in a sense, have fallen into the same trap today. Many people look at the church and God as being solely concerned with keeping rules and regulations.  And when this happens the rules and regulations become the focal point of our faith instead of being in relationship with God.

…So Jesus’ reply wisely moves the question about legalism of laws “out” of the arena of human argument and debate, and back to the Old Testament arena of covenant relationship.  Jesus’ reply moves the question about Law; about “rules” to follow to a fuller understanding about “love.”

Jesus wants them (and us) to understand at least one thing about his teaching, at least one thing about his parables, at least one thing about his life, at least one thing about the law – about all the 600 plus rules in the Jewish tradition – that at the heart of all those rules, there is ONE task for every human being – that is – to fall in love with God.