Reading the Ten Words
Last week, using the work
of Rob Bell in “Velvet Elvis” I explored the notion of Jesus the Rabbi, who did
not teach one of the accepted yokes or collection of teachings on what was
allowed (loosed) or not permitted (bound) by the Torah. These yokes were based
on the teaching of a great rabbi, who was cited at the beginning of any
teaching offered by a rabbi – he taught under the authority of that rabbi.
Instead Jesus offered a new teaching (yoke) on the Torah, and radically, gave
his disciples and us in the church the responsibility and authority to also
determine new understandings of what the scriptures meant. This work of creating
new yokes is not done, it is ongoing, and will continue on into future. And
that it involves us. All of us need take all of scripture seriously, be engaged
in understanding the big picture of scripture and engaged in determining yoke
of Jesus for today. And when we are asked by what authority we do this, we can
confidently say we do it under authority of Jesus, our rabbi.
The trouble with all this
is that we are often not really sure how to understand the Torah, to Law of
Moses. It feels very legalistic and not very merciful or generous.
This week we hear the Ten
Words, or Ten Commandments. I wonder how we read them. Rules that are to be
obeyed to earn God’s pleasure. Rules to be obeyed so as to not incur God’s
judgement. I wonder how many of us read them as a primary means by which God
and God’s nature is revealed to us. And yet that is exactly how the Ten Words
in particular and the Torah as a whole are to be read.
The trouble is we bring our preconceived images of
God to reading these passages. And if we think of the God of the Old Testament as
a judge, then we can easily read all this as very legalistic and judgemental. Howard
Wallace offers this alternative way of reading Torah and the Ten Words in particular,
“It is easy to slip into a presumption of legalism,
or sound negative or moralistic. But such is not the intention of these
commandments. They were given so that people may live fully together and before
God. They were not given so that people may be worthy to come into God’s
presence. On the contrary we have noted that they are given after God liberated
his people from Egypt and led them in the wilderness. Law or torah in the Old
Testament is always a way to live in the presence of the gracious God who first
comes to us in our despair and need. They are also a reminder that living in
the presence of this God brings responsibility toward God and toward all God’s
creation. Law or torah was a way of helping God’s people live such a life. The
torah was not dismissed by Jesus who lived as a faithful Jew (Matt 22:37-40;
Mark 12:28-34). Nor can we dismiss the ‘Ten Words’ as no longer relevant. Their
content argues otherwise, and our commitment to discipleship, with its
implication of discipline, also demands otherwise.”[1]
I invite you to take this
understanding of Torah as a mean of responding to “the gracious God who first comes to us in our despair and need” to the
other readings we hear today. The yoke of Jesus is easy. Unlike the pharisees
and scribes who saw a legalistic framework, he presents Torah as the means of
God’s compassion, mercy, generosity and
love. May we join the psalmist in his hymn extolling its virtue.
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