Exodus 20: 1-4, 7-9, 12-20.
Psalm 19
Matthew 21: 33-46
Philippians 3: 4b-14
Introduction
The readings this morning come from the lectionary, a series of readings that cover much of the Bible over a five year period.
Non-Christian perceptions of Christianity often include what people can and can’t do. I’ve heard people say, ‘I couldn’t stand being a Christian, you’ve got to give up things.’ The media often cast Christianity negatively – ‘it’s about doing this or that, keeping rules.’ In other words, they see Christianity in terms of law – having to keep laws, and laws cramping our style, or telling us to do things we don’t want to, and the things we want to do we can’t.
The church plays into this stereotype when it concentrates on the keeping of rules or cultural practices as external markers of right behaviour and of relationship to God. In a previous generation it was things like attendance at movies, or dancing, or drinking. I wonder what it is today?
Exodus 20: 1-4, 7-9, 12-20
So the laws of God, which are contained in the Old Testament in the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch, are often regarded – even by Christians – as bad, harsh, repressive.
The Apostle Paul was very aware of the effect that the law has on our lives, and he discusses the relationship that people have with the Torah, the Jewish law, in Romans 7. In his letter to the church at Philippi, he describes his relationship with God not in terms of law, but in terms of knowing Jesus Christ. So this morning we’re looking at the role of the law, or Torah, and what it means to know Christ and follow him.
Have you ever been in a situation where there were no rules, no procedures, and what ruled was the survival of the fittest, or the biggest bully? It may have been something innocuous like waiting in a line to be served, when someone pushes in ahead of you, or it may have been something more serious. You may have been seeking justice or redress for some wrong that has been done to you, or seeking to obtain an important document, like a passport. How did you feel when you realised that people were not being treated on the basis of a fair and agreed procedure, but merely on the basis of what someone felt like doing at the time, to further their own interests? We feel scared, hurt and angry – and what’s worse, there’s no procedure to help us or protect us.
Societies without the rule of law end up being harsh and cruel, and exploiting the weak and vulnerable. Remember William Goldman’s Lord of the Flies, how an idyllic paradise without any laws descends into savagery and injustice.
So the law is good. Because we all don’t intuitively do what is right, the law guides us. It gives us ethical instructions to show us what is right and wrong. Should we kill others? Is it OK to steal? How can we live together cooperatively as a human society?
The law, or Torah, as summarised in the Ten Commandments, and given to Moses by God at Mount Sinai, answers these questions and more. It gives us some broad guidelines or parameters about how to order our lives, how to relate to God and how to live with others in society. Here are 4 of the commands.
The Ten Commandments
Positive affirmations behind the negative prohibitions
Negative commandment Positive affirmation Do not murder (Ex 20:13) Respect life Do not commit adultery (Ex 20:14) Be content in your relationship
Respect other people’s relationships
Allow people to belong to one anotherDo not steal (Ex 20: 15) Be content with what you have
Respect other people
Private property is legitimateDo not lie (Ex 20:16) Tell the truth
Be honest
Some of its commands are framed in negative terms – don’t murder, don’t steal – because they are clear and unequivocal. There is no debate. But underlying these prohibitions are various principles that can be positively expressed. Underlying ‘do not murder’ is a respect for life; underlying ‘do not lie’ is a preference for telling the truth and being honest in our dealings with others.
Psalm 19
The writer of Psalm 19 celebrates the law not just because it shows us how to live as individuals, or how to make society run more smoothly, but because it reveals aspects of God’s character, which are good and admirable. Also, the law has the capacity to change us, ‘converting the soul’. It makes us wise and transforms our character.
Paul takes up this argument in Romans 7-8, where he agrees that although the law is good and holy, he is more sceptical about its ability to change human nature. For Paul, this is something only God’s Spirit can do, made available through Christ.
The Jews delighted in Torah for they saw it as a window through which they saw God. It is mistake to think that the Jews were trying to earn their way to God’s favour by obeying the law. The spiritually wise Jew always knew that we cannot earn God’s favour and that his mercy to us is a gift, just as the law itself is a gift.
The purpose of the law, then, is to reveal God and draw us to God, and establish a society that practices the values and behaviour of God himself. The goal of the law is not to celebrate ourselves for keeping it, but to celebrate God, whose glory the law is intended to reflect.
Matthew 21: 33-46
Of course, not all Jews were as willing as the writer of Psalm 19, to have their lives reshaped by Torah. In the first century, Jesus found himself confronting the Jewish leaders over the issue of authority.
The immediate context of the story of the Wicked Tenants in Matthew 21 is the chief priests and elders questioning Jesus’ authority, because of his actions in the Temple. He had overturned the tables of the moneychangers and driven out the merchants, for their participation in a corrupt Temple economy that oppressed the poor and sidelined genuine worship of God.
The Jewish leaders questioned Jesus’ right to do what he had done and were concerned that he had disrespected the temple and God. Jesus, on the other hand, questioned them on their right to be called leaders, since they had a history of rejecting God’s representatives, they had set up a corrupt religious economy that made it hard for the poor to access temple worship, and they did not model virtuous lives for their people.
Jesus tells the story of a vineyard owner having problems trying to collect the produce from his vineyard. The representatives he sends are beaten up or killed. Finally he sends his son to get the produce, but he too is killed.
Jesus is retelling a story from the prophet Isaiah about a vineyard owner (God) whose tenants (Israel and Judah) do not produce good fruit, but only bad grapes, like social injustice and corruption. Jesus’ retelling is about a line of rejected prophets culminating in the rejected Son. We read this story now in terms of Trinitarian theology. We recognise Jesus as the Son. However, the Jewish leaders or any Jews for that matter, would not have understood Yahweh as having a Son. Jesus’ point is that disrespect is not about overturning tables, but people who mouth the words of God but do not keep his laws or understand his character. The Jewish leaders – not the Jews as a whole – were not open to God’s correction. They were illegitimate leaders who were soon to be by-passed by God.
It is a statement by Jesus of what would soon happen to him in his crucifixion, at the hands of the Jewish leaders, and the fall of Jerusalem that would occur as punishment for the leaders’ unfaithfulness. Jesus indicates that their leadership would be passed to others, to a new community of faith founded on Jesus himself. From that foundation stone comes both a fruitful people – when the church does what God requires – and judgment.
Philippians 3: 4b-14
The Apostle Paul was also a Jewish leader. In a very personal section of his letter to the church in Philippi, he tells us something of his background and his credentials as a faithful Jew. The context of this section is that he is confronting Jewish-Christian missionaries, as he had done in Galatia, who were insisting on circumcision for new male believers. For these teachers, faith in Christ was necessary but had to be accompanied by adherence to the Torah. Paul uses their reliance on circumcision to talk about the futility of relying on the flesh and ourselves. The effect of this reliance is to completely undercut the new thing that God has done in Christ, and our response of faith. The law still has a purpose, but this is to make us aware of sin and provide the context in which Christ would come.
The principles of the law – respect for life and truth – are still important, but those aspects of the law that are ethnic markers of the Jewish people, like circumcision, are not universal. In Australia, the Torah’s principles, not its ethnic markers, have been influential in our legal and institutional framework.
Paul is not big-noting himself or being proud, but establishing his credentials, his right to enter this debate, by telling his readers that he was born a Jew and not a proselyte; observing Torah through circumcision and daily practice; from the tribe of Benjamin – the territory of which bordered the Holy City of Jerusalem; a Pharisee – member of a sincere, respected and devout branch of Judaism. He even fought against the new Christian sect, regarded by the Jewish leaders as illegitimate. So he was a faithful and blameless Jew. Blameless does not mean sinless, but it does mean that Paul was observant in the law’s provision for dealing with sins.
However, despite all his faithfulness, he sees that One greater than the law itself is here. On the Damascus Road, when he came face-to-face with the risen Christ, just as Paul fell to the ground, so did his religious resume. Now he is rotting in prison, but he is full of joy, for he has found this person, this same Jesus that he used to persecute, and it is a prize, a treasure – that cannot be taken away.
Paul does not say that Torah is rubbish, for he still loves the law, but he does question his response to the law, and his understanding of it. He now realises that Christ provides a righteousness from God that the law never could. There is a status and acceptance before God that Christ gives that the law cannot. Despite Paul’s knowledge that the law is holy (Romans 7:12) and its value in showing us what sin actually is, he knows that there is still an element of his own righteousness and effort in his observance of the law, and that the law is powerless to change human nature. The law is ultimately not able to change the tendency in people to resist the law’s commands. For Paul, this is something that can only be achieved by the Spirit of God working in our lives.
Paul’s goal now is to know Christ. He wants to gain Christ, to be found in him and to become like him in his death – these all suggest a complete identification with the person and character of Christ, but also his teaching and way of life, and any sufferings that may arise from being a follower of Christ.
Paul links knowing Christ with the power of his resurrection. For a modern audience in a sceptical society, belief in the resurrection may prove difficult, but I think we can have confidence that Jesus really did rise from the dead, and not just in the disciples’ minds. Paul reminded the Corinthians that if Christ is not raised then our faith is useless. For those interested, NT Wright’s book The Resurrection of the Son of God is valuable reading, although at 750 pages, it’s a solid piece of work.
It seems odd for Paul to talk about Jesus’ resurrection before his death, but he is not just talking about the fact of Jesus’ resurrection, but the power of the Holy Spirit, who raised Jesus from the dead. This same power is available to us as well, and we need it in order to become like Christ in his death.
Paul knew what it was to suffer for the sake of Christ, for he experienced it in his missionary journeys. Lashes, beatings, unfair trials, imprisonment. ‘Sharing in his sufferings’ doesn’t primarily refer to all the hard things that happen to us in life, but to hardships that occur as a consequence of being a follower of Jesus. This is undoubtedly more pronounced in some other countries, where followers of Jesus suffer persecution, discrimination, imprisonment, torture and death. But we too may find we are mistreated, misunderstood, slandered or worse, because of our faithfulness to Jesus.
Knowing Christ also means obeying his teaching. The apostle John wrote ‘this is how we know we love him, if we obey his commands’ (1 John 2:3) and that ‘whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love’ (1 John 4:8). This includes loving others. Jesus finishes his Sermon on the Mount by stating that what counts is not merely engaging in God-talk, but doing the things that God requires. This includes loving our enemies, forgiving one another, being generous, not loving money and seeking justice.
Knowing Christ also means engaging in the mystical practices of prayer, Bible reading and a daily awareness of his presence, and being connected to a community of God’s people.
How we cultivate our knowledge of God has been answered differently by Christians throughout history, and we probably answer it differently ourselves in various times and circumstances.
In his book Streams of Living Water, Richard Foster identifies six Christian traditions throughout history, emphasising different aspects of what it means to know God.
The contemplative tradition has emphasised devotional practices such as prayer, meditation, the reading of scripture and practising the presence of God. The aim is to keep alive the passion of our love for Christ, but there is the danger of becoming introspective or neglecting our involvement with the outside world.
The charismatic tradition emphasises the need to rely on God, rather than our own strength, and to nurture the fruit and gifts of the Spirit, but unless we have a way of regulating our experiences, our understanding can become overly subjective.
We can find support for all these traditions in the life of Jesus, the witness of Scripture, the history of the church and our own experience. We remember that Jesus said ‘apart from me you can do nothing’, ‘thy word is truth’, ‘be holy as I am holy’ and that James wrote ‘true religion is this – to look after the poor and widows.’ We recall Isaiah’s words that the true fast is to lose the bonds of injustice. We read of Jesus spending whole evenings in prayer We note the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins’ words, ‘the world is charged with the grandeur of God.’
How do we know Christ?
Different Christian traditions answer that question differently.
Tradition Emphasis Strength Weakness Contemplative Prayer First love Other worldly, neglects acts of service Holiness Virtue Personal transformation Legalism, rule bound Charismatic Spirit Reliance on God Trivialisation/anti-intellectualism, neglects justice Social Justice Compassionate Shalom – right relationships in society Ignores spiritual needs Evangelical Word Personal commitment to Christ; Biblical authority Endless doctrinal disputes; majoring on the minors Incarnational Sacramental God is among us Idolatry – eg. Worship of creation
We can get an idea of our preference in the language we use. We may ask ourselves or others, ‘what has the Spirit been revealing to you?’, ‘what have you been learning from the Word?’ We may focus on developing personal qualities such as forgiveness, or on fighting structural injustice.
We may find our personalities and talents predispose us to particular traditions, but all are useful in helping us to imitate Christ. We don’t have the option of choosing one and ignoring the rest. For example, ‘I don’t need to read the Bible. I just serve the poor, and that’s all that is needed.’ Perhaps there is an area that we have neglected, and to which we need to give more attention.
Knowing Christ is something that happens not only in a moment of time, but something that needs to keep on happening. The 16th century Anabaptist Hans Jenck said that ‘He does not know Christ who does not follow him in life.’ Accepting Christ into our lives is not enough. As Paul said, we have to be found in him, so that if we are ever caught by surprise, we will not be living anywhere else but out of a close union with Christ.
Paul’s words provide a challenge to us, to experience that same intensity of joy and purpose in our relationship with Christ. I have known people who when asked to speak about their Christian experience, discuss church politics or points of doctrine. Important as these are, I am reminded of a friend I knew in my early days as a Christian. When asked how he was going, he would speak, without any kind of spiritual pride, about how wonderful it was to know God, to commune with him each day. About the new things he was learning about God’s character.
I feel to this day that there are times I forget the truth of his discovery. It’s the same discovery that Paul had made. It’s the discovery, in Jesus words, of treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid, then in his joy he sells all that he has and buys that field. That discovery is the kingdom of heaven, Jesus himself. When we are stressed, busy, distracted, we can easily reduce our Christian lives to our set or laws. We tick certain boxes, which could include things like Bible reading, church attendance, or just being a nice person. All these things are important, but let us remember to keep knowing Christ and following him. Let us be careful not to love the practices of faith, or theology, or the church, more than the One to whom these things point.
Our ways of doing this will all be unique, for we have different ways of understanding what it means to know Christ, but Paul’s words to the Philippian church remind us that our relationship with Christ means to follow him, to walk in his shoes, to live lives consistent with his teachings and life, to embrace the kind of sacrifice and self-giving love that he embodied. This way we can be confident, as Paul was, that God will raise us up one day, as he raised Christ.
Paul is amazing, irrepressible. He’s in gaol, near the end of his life, but he’s always keen to know more, to experience more of God, to serve Christ more fully. Paul’s approach should shake us out of any complacency.
Like Paul, we can be sure about some things – God’s righteousness comes through faith in Christ, not from our own achievements; Christ really was raised from the dead, and knowing him is our lifelong pursuit that becomes a reality as we imitate his life.
Like Paul, let us also remember that we haven’t reached our goal, and let us never be so certain in our understanding of how God works that we don’t allow him to keep intruding into our world.
Wouldn’t it be great if when people were assessing the claims of Christianity, rather than saying, ‘there’s all these do’s and don’t’s’, they said, ‘but I would have to live more like Jesus.’
Amen.