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The Law - Part 3

8th June 2013

This is the third part of our study of:

Matthew 12v1-8
At that time Jesus went through the cornfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some ears of corn and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, "Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath."
He answered, "Haven't you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread - which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. Or haven't you read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple desecrate the day and yet are innocent? I tell you that one greater than the temple is here. If you had known what these words mean, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath."

It seems to me that most of the Christians I know try to think like Pharisees. We'd like to be able to say "The Bible says X, and X must mean Y, so we should do Z in every possible circumstance". Like Pharisees, we'd like to be able to work it all out in advance, and just follow what we've worked out. But Jesus won't let us. Soon after the confrontation we're studying, He said:

Matthew 12v11b
"If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out?"

He was saying that even the Pharisees didn't really believe what the Pharisees taught! They believed in keeping the Sabbath (as should we) and they taught that we should never work on the Sabbath but - even though they didn't admit it - they actually believed that in some circumstances they should work on the Sabbath. If a Pharisee's sheep had fallen into a pit, he'd lift it out. And quite right! There is, somewhere inside every one of us, an understanding that showing love - even to a sheep - is more important than keeping the letter of the law.

How many of us Christians don't really believe what we teach? Do we, like the Pharisees, look for rules in the Bible, and teach that these rules should always be obeyed? But we don't really believe that they should. And we don't realise this until a situation (like a sheep in a ditch on the Sabbath) arises to challenge our rule-based morality.

Jesus said, "I tell you that one greater than the temple is here." I think He was saying that the God of love is higher than the Law of God, because He continued, "If you had known what these words mean, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the innocent." He was quoting the Old Testament prophet Hosea (Hosea 6v6). The Pharisees should have known that verse - and that idea - just as we should. Of course God desires sacrifice (religious observance) but He's more interested in mercy. Of course God loves the Sabbath - that's why He invented it - but He's more interested in saving sheep! And he's more interested in healing the sick (see verse 9-13).

Jesus said that, although it could be argued that the disciples broke the letter of the law when they picked grain on the Sabbath, and although it's definitely true that David broke the letter of the law when he fed consecrated bread to his followers, they were all innocent. They were innocent because they were preferring mercy over judgment.

Jesus closes the discussion when he says "For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." If Jesus says that in some circumstances it's OK to break the letter of the law, then in some circumstances it's OK to break the letter of the Law. End of discussion. But we'd better know what those circumstances are.

So how do we know when it's OK? I'd need to write a book to answer that, but here are a few thoughts:

Let's consider two examples. I've heard all sorts of things excused on the grounds that they're "loving", including gross sexual immorality. But I'm sure God hates gross sexual immorality, so it must always be wrong. I've heard abortion excused on the grounds that it's loving to allow a woman the right to choose whether or not to continue her pregnancy, but I'm sure God hates the destruction of unborn children. However, there are occasions when an abortion is the only way to save a mother's life so, again, we need to be careful before we create an absolute law about it. Biblical ethics are not as straightforward as we'd like them to be.

How do we know what offends the heart of God? We can ask ourselves "What would Jesus do?" Would Jesus commit gross sexual immorality? Of course not! Would Jesus perform an abortion to save the life of the mother? I honestly don't know. Is there any other reason why He might perform an abortion? I can't think of one. And so on.

Perhaps you disagree with what I've written here, but I'm sure you can think of other examples to show that some ethical areas are less clear than others.

In order to know what Jesus would do, we must prayerfully study scripture, inviting the Holy Spirit to enlighten us through it, not merely to learn by rote the "rules" we find in it, but to discern the mind and heart of God. Otherwise, how can we answer the question "What would Jesus do?"? We must allow God's values to be formed in us, and pray that we will come to love what God loves and hate what God hates, in accordance with:

Jeremiah 31v31-34
"The time is coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them," declares the LORD. "This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbour, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the LORD. "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."

If we are truly born again as children of God, then we have received His Holy Spirit. If we will pray to be filled more and more with the Spirit, and if we will study His holy Bible, and if we try to discern the mind of God and walk in obedience to Him, prayerfully holding respect for Scripture and love for God and our neighbour together, then His grace will lead us, and He will forgive us when we get it wrong.

As sometimes we will.