So as the reader can now surmise, it was not the Law itself with which Jesus took issue (despite Paul’s many subsequent & highly errant claims to the contrary – see “Jesus is the end of the Law” ~ Romans 10:4 et al), but rather the way in which the Law was being interpreted, taught, and applied. Those in power in the Jewish community (primarily “the Pharisees” in the texts, and yet also occasionally “the Sadducees” or “the scribes”) had manufactured a series of legal interpretations that gave themselves great prominence (“They do their deeds to be seen by others; making their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues; to be greeted with honor in the marketplaces, and to have people call them Rabbi. And yet no one is to be called Rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students. And call no one your father on earth, for you have but one Father – your Father in Heaven. Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one teacher – the Christ within … All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.” ~ Matthew 23:5-12) while simultaneously making any heartfelt spiritual connection with God quite difficult for the common man (“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, for you tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but you yourselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them … And woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, for you lock people out of the Kingdom of Heaven. You do not go in yourselves, and yet when others are attempting to enter, you stop them. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, for you cross sea and land to make a single convert, and yet make that new convert twice as much a child of Gehenna as yourselves.” ~ Matthew 23:4+13-15). These religious leaders would cite an interpretation of the Law that was either hypocritically lax for their own benefit or overly strict to another’s detriment and justify the same by essentially announcing “thus says the Torah” after every pronouncement. Jesus, on the other hand, wanted none of such capricious nonsense – claiming from the beginning of his ministry that he had come to “set the captives free” (Luke 4:18), and doing so by boldly speaking about (and radically exemplifying) a new Way in which the Law should be enlivened; a Way that constrained dysfunctional Old Testament rules by making them more lenient (e.g. Matthew 5:38-41 vs Exodus 21:23-24, Matthew 8:22 vs Deuteronomy 21:23, Matthew 12:8-12 vs Exodus 23:12, Matthew 15:11 vs Leviticus 11 et al) and a Way that expanded impotently lax Old Testament regulations by making them more consistent &/or more demanding (e.g. Matthew 5:21-22 vs Exodus 20:13, Matthew 5:27-28 vs Exodus 20:14, Matthew 5:43-44 vs Leviticus 19:18, Matthew 19:12 vs Genesis 1:28 & Deuteronomy 23:18, Matthew 20:24-28 vs Exodus 20:14 et al). And he did so calmly “with authority” (a la Matthew 7:29 & Mark 1:22 et al), essentially replacing the Pharisees’ harshly pious “Thus says the Torah according to us” with his own gently loving “So say I to you according to God” (see Matthew 5:21-48 – also Matthew 28:18).

Jesus had the courage to call out the arrogant hypocrisies of the Jewish religious elite¹ (“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees. You hypocrites! For you clean the outside of your cup and plate, while inside they are full of both greed and self-indulgence … Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees. You hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs; on the outside looking beautiful, while inside full of filth and the bones of the dead. So you also on the outside appear righteous to others, and yet inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” ~ Matthew 23:25-28) and thereby “rend the Temple’s curtain” (see Matthew 27:51), giving the common people a renewed access to the Divine.

Indeed where the religious elite demanded priestly mediation to communicate with God, Jesus proclaimed that “for all who knock, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-11). Where the priesthood felt that religious laws were to be inflexibly obeyed according to their own pre-established edicts & traditions, Jesus stated that “new wine is not to be put into old wineskins” (Matthew 9:16-17) and that “every scribe prepared for the Kingdom of Heaven must bring from his treasure both what is old and what is new” (Matthew 13:52). Where the religious leaders of the day honored the Pharisees as spiritual role-models, Jesus explained that true worship has nothing to do with such arrogant piousness – that we are instead to “humble ourselves as young children” (Matthew 18:3-4) and thus “do what they teach [i.e. uphold the essence of the Law], but not do as they do [i.e. enliven their own hyper-conservative and brazenly self-serving interpretations thereof]” (Matthew 23:2-3); that we like they should “clean first the inside of our cup [by loving the downtrodden in our communities and the enemies in our lives] so that the outside might thereby become clean thereafter” (Matthew 23:25-28 via Matthew 25:35-40 & Matthew 5:44-48). In essence, Jesus believed that we should spend our time & energy on enlivening the selfless Love that resides at the heart of the Law, and not waste our days selfishly striving to fulfill the ritual “jots & tittles” of the same.

And interestingly enough, there was an accepted religious precedent in Jesus’ day for this type of reformation within the Jewish community, with Old Testament prophets such as Isaiah, Amos, & Micah all having long since openly denounced any religious ritual or legal interpretation that was lacking in righteousness, humility, &/or advocating an open love for one’s neighbor (see Isaiah 1:10-17, Amos 5:21-24, & Micah 6:8 respectively et al). And in truth, this is essentially why “the prophets” arose in the first place – namely, to openly challenge the way Jews in the 8^th & 7^th centuries (BCE) were focusing on worshiping “properly” – thoughtlessly regurgitating mumbled litanies and blindly fulfilling ritual tenets instead of establishing & nurturing the richly ethical lifestyle that the Ten Commandments were designed to foster.

……………………………………………………..

Filed under: Jesus Christ, a most Holy Heretic by Scaughdt