Perspective: The Spirit of the Law

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The Spirit of the Law

Then [Jesus] said, "The Sabbath was created for humans; humans weren't created for the Sabbath."

Mark 2:27 (CEB)

If everything comes down to love
Then just what am I afraid of?

From "Hope Now" by Addison Road

In the Gospels, a major point of contention between Jesus and the religious leaders of His day is the matter of how one should observe the Sabbath Day.  One of the Ten Commandments states, "Remember the Sabbath day and treat it as holy.  Six days you may work and do all your tasks, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.  Do not do any work on it..."¹  Observing the Sabbath Day is extremely important to Jesus' people.  Religious scholars even went so far as to compile detailed lists of actions prohibited on the Sabbath Day.²  Jesus and the religious leaders clash because they have different ideas about what is appropriate to do on the Sabbath Day.

In the Gospel of Matthew, we read that, on one Sabbath Day, some religious leaders catch some of Jesus' disciples picking wheat to eat.³  Harvesting and preparing food are among the actions forbidden on the Sabbath Day.⁴  Any food eaten on the Sabbath Day is to be gathered and prepared ahead of time.  To the religious leaders, these disciples are in violation of the commandment to observe the Sabbath Day, so they confront Jesus about His disciples' behavior.  Jesus responds by appealing to Scripture, recounting instances in which people break religious rules out of necessity and are not considered guilty for doing so.⁵

Later that day, Jesus goes to the local synagogue, where there happens to be a man with a deformed hand.  Trying to entrap Jesus, the religious leaders ask Him if He thinks the Law of their religion permits acts of healing on the Sabbath Day.⁶  In their eyes, acts of healing are off limits on the Sabbath Day.  Medical attention may only be administered if a person's life is in immediate danger.⁷  The man with the deformed hand is clearly not in such a situation.  Jesus responds to the religious leaders by appealing not to Scripture but rather to reason.  First He asks rhetorically, "Who among you has a sheep that falls into a pit on the Sabbath and will not take hold of it and pull it out?"  Next He proclaims, "How much more valuable is a person than a sheep!"  From these two points, He reasons, "So the Law allows a person to do what is good on the Sabbath."  Jesus then proceeds to heal the hand of the man in the synagogue.⁸

I think that these confrontations between Jesus and His detractors highlight the importance of understanding the spirit of the law as opposed to merely knowing the letter of the law.

It is important to consider the context in which rules are made.  The Ten Commandments, including the prohibition against working on the Sabbath Day, were given to the people of Israel while they were camped at the foot of Mount Sinai.  Just a few months earlier, they lived as slaves in Egypt.⁹  There, they were treated not as human beings but as machines, and merely asking for a break would be rewarded with a greater workload.¹⁰  The Sabbath Day was a gift from God to the people of Israel.  It upheld their humanity and reminded them that they were worth more than what they produced.¹¹

The Sabbath Day does not exist to prevent something that needs to happen from happening.  It does not exist to ensure that animals that fall into pits on that day remain trapped.  It does not exist to prevent hungry people who do not already have something ready to eat that day from being able to obtain food.  It does not exist to prevent people in need of healing from being healed on that day.  It does not exist to make people's lives more difficult or more complicated one day per week.  The Sabbath Day exists to prevent people from being dehumanized and exploited.

Later in the Gospel of Matthew, we read that one day a religious scholar with ulterior motives asks Jesus which commandment in the Law of their religion He considers the most important.  Jesus replies, "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, and with all your mind.  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: You must love your neighbor as you love yourself."  Interestingly, Jesus then says, "All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands."¹²  Jesus is telling the religious scholar that every instruction in their Scriptures is a derivative of the commandments to love God and to love their neighbors.  He is essentially revealing the spirit of the Law.

A lot of Christians act as if the instructions in the Bible exist merely to be followed and enforced.  Jesus teaches us that the instructions in the Bible exist specifically to help us to love God and to love our neighbors.  This means that any prohibition in the Bible is meant to prevent us from harming our neighbors.  If we fail to keep in mind the reason that the teachings in the Bible exist, we run the risk of applying them in harmful ways.  If we really want to follow Jesus, then we must read Scripture as He reads it and put our focus on love.


Notes:

1. Exodus 20:8-10 (CEB)
2. William Barclay.  The New Daily Study Bible: The Gospel of Matthew, Volume Two.  2001, Saint Andrew Press.  pp. 25-26
3. Matthew 12:1-2
4. Barclay, p. 25
5. Matthew 12:1-5
6. Matthew 12:9-10
7. Barclay, p. 34
8. Matthew 12:11-13 (CEB)
9. Exodus 19:1-20:21
10. Exodus 5:1-18
11. Rob Bell and Don Golden.  Jesus Wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for a Church in Exile.  2008, Zondervan.  p. 34
12. Matthew 22:34-40 (CEB)

The painting featured in this perspective was painted by Ferdinand Oliver around 1840.