Delivered at Northside United Methodist Church in Greenville, South Carolina on June 2, 2024
I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.
Comments are always welcomed.
If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.
Comments are always welcomed.
If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.
The Spirit of the Law
Audio Version
At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. When the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not
lawful to do on the sabbath.” He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him or his
companions to eat, but only for the priests. Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath the priests in the temple break the sabbath and yet are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. But
if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.”
He left that place and entered their synagogue; a man was there with a withered hand, and they asked him, “Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath?” so that they might accuse him. He said to them, “Suppose one of you has only one sheep and it falls into a pit on the sabbath; will you not lay hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a human being than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the sabbath.” Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and it was restored, as sound as the other. But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.
Matthew 12:1-14 (NRSV)
He left that place and entered their synagogue; a man was there with a withered hand, and they asked him, “Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath?” so that they might accuse him. He said to them, “Suppose one of you has only one sheep and it falls into a pit on the sabbath; will you not lay hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a human being than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the sabbath.” Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and it was restored, as sound as the other. But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.
Matthew 12:1-14 (NRSV)
Give me words, I'll misuse them
Obligations, I'll misplace them
'Cause all religion ever made of me
Was just a sinner with a stone tied to my feet
It never set me free
Obligations, I'll misplace them
'Cause all religion ever made of me
Was just a sinner with a stone tied to my feet
It never set me free
From “More Like Falling in Love” by Jason Gray
One day, in 1866, Sheriff John W. Kirby formed a posse, and together they boarded a steamboat heading from Kentucky to Ohio and arrested Dr. Cyrus W. Farris on murder charges. Following the arrest, Sheriff Kirby was charged with violating the Act of Congress of March 3, 1825, which forbade the willful obstruction or delay of mail delivery. Dr. Farris was a postal worker, and, because he was arrested, the mail he happened to be carrying at the time was not delivered promptly. The case against Sheriff Kirby eventually reached the Supreme Court, and the court ruled unanimously in favor of the sheriff.1 2 Justice Stephen J. Field, who delivered the opinion of the court, stated that “all laws should receive a sensible construction” and that “general terms should be so limited in their application as not to lead to injustice, oppression, or an absurd consequence.”3 Basically, a law should not be written or interpreted in such a way that it will be applied in a ridiculous or unjust manner.
United States v. Kirby is an interesting case because it highlights the tension that occasionally exists between the way a law is written and the reason the law was passed. In other words, it highlights the tension between the “letter of the law” and the “spirit of the law.” The law that Sheriff Kirby supposedly violated was passed in order to ensure that mail was delivered in a timely manner. It was never intended to give postal workers total immunity.
It seems to me that some of the conflicts between Jesus and the other religious leaders of His day highlight a similar tension.
In the Gospel of Matthew, we read that one day, while Jesus and the Disciples are walking through a grain field, the Disciples pick some heads of grain and eat them, greatly offending a group of Pharisees who catch them in the act.4 What offends these Pharisees is not the fact that the Disciples have picked grain from a field that undoubtedly belongs to someone. According to the Book of Leviticus, Jewish farmers are forbidden to pick their fields clean and are required to leave the edges of their fields unharvested, so that hungry passersby, especially impoverished people and immigrants, can pick some food to eat.5 The Disciples' picking grain from someone's field would be considered gleaning and not stealing. What offends the Pharisees is that the Disciples have picked grain on the Sabbath Day.
The Jewish Law mandates the observance of the Sabbath Day. One of the Ten Commandments, as it is written in the Book of Exodus, states,
Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work – you, your son or your daughter, your male or female
slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.6
The Law prescribed a harsh penalty for people who failed to follow this commandment. The Book of Exodus states that “whoever does any work on [the Sabbath Day] shall be put to death.”7 In the Book of Numbers, we read that a man
who was caught merely gathering sticks on the Sabbath Day was condemned to death by stoning.8The commandment forbidding work on the Sabbath Day was to be taken seriously, so naturally it was necessary to define what constitutes work. Ancient rabbis counted thirty-nine melakhot or “categories of work” that the Law explicitly forbade on the Sabbath Day. Among these actions are reaping, threshing, winnowing, and various forms of food preparation.9 Scholar William Barclay points out,
By their conduct, the disciples were guilty of far more than one breach of the law. By plucking the corn they were guilty of reaping; by rubbing it in their hands they were guilty of threshing; by separating the grain and the chaff they
were guilty of winnowing; and by the whole process they were guilty of preparing a meal on the Sabbath day, for everything which was to be eaten on the Sabbath had to be prepared the day before.10
With simple actions that we would probably consider rather innocuous, the Disciples are guilty of multiple counts of violating the commandment to observe the Sabbath Day.
Considering the importance that has been placed on the commandment to observe the Sabbath Day, the strictness with which it has been enforced, and the work that has been done to define what is and is not permissible on that day, it makes sense that the Pharisees are appalled by the Disciples' flagrant violations of their Law. They confront Jesus, saying, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath.”11
Jesus defends the Disciples to the Pharisees by appealing to their knowledge of their holy scriptures. Specifically, He reminds them of instances in which people seemingly bent or broke the rules of their religion out of necessity and were not considered guilty for doing so.12 First, He calls to mind an episode from the First Book of Samuel in which David, the military leader who would later become Israel's most beloved king, took sacred bread from a place of worship. David and his soldiers would not normally be permitted to eat this particular bread, but they were famished, and the sacred bread was the only food available at the moment.13 Next, Jesus points out that, even though the Law forbids work on the Sabbath Day, priests have always carried out the duties prescribed for them by the Law on the Sabbath Day. For example, in the Book of Numbers, we read that there are offerings presented on the Sabbath Day, to which the priests will have to attend.14
Jesus then heads to the local synagogue, where there happens to be a man with a deformed hand. Trying to entrap Jesus, the same Pharisees ask Him if He thinks the Law of their religion permits acts of healing on the Sabbath Day.15 In their eyes, acts of healing are off limits on the Sabbath Day, like harvesting and preparing food. Medical attention may be administered only if a person's life is in immediate danger. The man with the deformed hand is clearly not in such dire straits.16 Jesus responds to the Pharisees by appealing not to their knowledge of scripture but to their reason. First He asks them rhetorically, “Suppose one of you has only one sheep and it falls into a pit on the sabbath; will you not lay hold of it and lift it out?” Next He proclaims, “How much more valuable is a human being than a sheep!” From these two points, He reasons, “So it is lawful to do good on the sabbath.”17
Jesus proceeds to heal the hand of the man in the synagogue, and the Pharisees who are present, perceiving Jesus as a threat to their religion, proceed to conspire against Him.18
Jesus seems to have a rather cavalier attitude about the Law of His religion, at least in the eyes of the Pharisees. I would like to suggest that Jesus is not flouting the Jewish Law, as the Pharisees doubtlessly think, but is instead trying to teach them something important about their Law and about biblical instructions in general. The Pharisees, as they are portrayed in the Gospels, strive to follow the Jewish Law to the letter, and they expect other people to put forth the same effort. Jesus, on the other hand, evidently wants them to look past the letter of the law and to consider to the spirit of the law.
Consider why God would command God's people to observe the Sabbath Day in the first place. The Ten Commandments, which include 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.19 Just a few months earlier, they were rescued from slavery in Egypt. In Egypt, they were treated not as human beings but as machines, and merely asking for a break would be rewarded with a heavier workload.20 God never wanted the people of Israel to treat each other or anyone else the way they were treated in Egypt, so God gave them the Sabbath Day. The Sabbath Day was a gift to God's covenant people, intended to uphold their humanity and to remind them that they were worth more than what they produced.21
The Sabbath Day does not exist to prevent something that needs to happen from happening. It does not exist to ensure that an animal that falls into a ditch on that day remains trapped and vulnerable until the following day. It does not exist to prevent hungry people who do not already have something ready to eat that day from obtaining something to eat. 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. As Jesus says to the Pharisees in Mark's version of the story, “The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath.”22
When the Pharisees accuse the Disciples of breaking the Law by picking grain on the Sabbath Day, Jesus says to them, “If you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.”23 This is not the first occasion Jesus has urged the Pharisees to contemplate this saying.
One day, Jesus called a tax collector named Matthew to follow Him as one of His disciples.24 Calling this particular person was a strange choice on Jesus' part, because, as a tax-collector, he would have been hated by the Jewish people not only as a crook but also as a traitorous collaborator with the Roman occupation. That evening, while Jesus was enjoying dinner with Matthew and some of his fellow tax collectors and other so-called “sinners,” some Pharisees approached the other Disciples and asked them why their teacher would associate with such people. Overhearing the Pharisees' question, Jesus said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”25
Twice, when Jesus has clashed with the Pharisees, He has quoted the Book of Hosea, in which God says through the titular prophet, “I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”26 The Jewish Law prescribes a number of different animal sacrifices that are to be offered as acts of worship to God on different occasions. Some are offered on specific holy days; others are offered to atone for wrongdoings; and others are simply offered out of gratitude. Some people evidently believed that, as long as they fulfilled their ritual obligations to God, how they lived and how they treated other people didn't really matter. Prophets like Hosea fought back against that idea.
To prioritize mercy over sacrifice, as Jesus urges the Pharisees to do, is to prioritize the needs of one's neighbor over the rules of one's religion. Associating with traitorous, thieving tax collectors might be discouraged in Jesus' religion, but Jesus understands that even so-called “sinners” need someone who will befriend them and bring out the best in them, in the same way that sick people need a doctor to bring them back to health. Preparing food on the Sabbath Day might be forbidden in Jesus' religion, but Jesus understands that hungry people need to eat, regardless of what day it is.
Jesus will explain His understanding of the Law and of all biblical instructions most directly shortly before the end of His earthly ministry. At one point, after His arrival in Jerusalem, a number of His detractors will start asking Him very loaded questions in the hopes of incriminating Him.27 One scholar will ask Him which commandment in the Law of their religion He considers the most important. First, Jesus will quote a particular part of the Book of Deuteronomy known as the Shema,28 saying, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment.” Next, He will quote the Book of Leviticus,29 saying, “And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” Finally, He will say, “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”30
With this statement, Jesus will reveal the spirit of the law in regards to all Biblical instructions. Biblical instructions do not exist merely to be followed and enforced. They exist to prevent harm and to promote love for God and one's neighbor.
Jesus has the utmost respect for the Law of His religion, but He understands how important it is to know not only what it says but also why it says what it says. In the Sermon on the Mount, He said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.”31 To “abolish the Law” is to undermine the Law through misinterpretation, but to “fulfill the Law” is to properly interpret the Law so that people can better understand it and follow it in the way God intended.32
Quoting one of the Ten Commandments, Jesus said,
As followers of Jesus, we are not called to simply follow the rules we read in the Bible and to try to force everyone else to do the same. We are called to love as Jesus loved. Sometimes love will require us to bend or break the rules, as Jesus did when he healed a man on the Sabbath Day. Sometimes love will require us to go above and beyond the rules, as Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount. As followers of Jesus, when we approach any ethical matter, we need to consider how harm can be prevented and how love can be shown.
Far too often, Christians are guilty of acting like the Pharisees, as they are portrayed in the Gospels, or even worse. Far too often, when confronted with complicated situations, Christians lazily quote Bible verses without taking into consideration why the verses were written in the first place. Far too often, Christians apply biblical instructions in ways that are detrimental to other people. Biblical instructions, according to Jesus, exist to help us to love God with everything that we are and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. That said, any prohibition in the Bible is meant to prevent harm. If we fail to keep in mind the reasons that biblical instructions exist, we run the risk of using them in harmful ways, and any harmful use of Scripture is a misuse of Scripture. If we really want to follow Jesus, then we must learn to read Scripture as He read it, keeping our focus on love.
Amen.
Notes:
Considering the importance that has been placed on the commandment to observe the Sabbath Day, the strictness with which it has been enforced, and the work that has been done to define what is and is not permissible on that day, it makes sense that the Pharisees are appalled by the Disciples' flagrant violations of their Law. They confront Jesus, saying, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath.”11
Jesus defends the Disciples to the Pharisees by appealing to their knowledge of their holy scriptures. Specifically, He reminds them of instances in which people seemingly bent or broke the rules of their religion out of necessity and were not considered guilty for doing so.12 First, He calls to mind an episode from the First Book of Samuel in which David, the military leader who would later become Israel's most beloved king, took sacred bread from a place of worship. David and his soldiers would not normally be permitted to eat this particular bread, but they were famished, and the sacred bread was the only food available at the moment.13 Next, Jesus points out that, even though the Law forbids work on the Sabbath Day, priests have always carried out the duties prescribed for them by the Law on the Sabbath Day. For example, in the Book of Numbers, we read that there are offerings presented on the Sabbath Day, to which the priests will have to attend.14
Jesus then heads to the local synagogue, where there happens to be a man with a deformed hand. Trying to entrap Jesus, the same Pharisees ask Him if He thinks the Law of their religion permits acts of healing on the Sabbath Day.15 In their eyes, acts of healing are off limits on the Sabbath Day, like harvesting and preparing food. Medical attention may be administered only if a person's life is in immediate danger. The man with the deformed hand is clearly not in such dire straits.16 Jesus responds to the Pharisees by appealing not to their knowledge of scripture but to their reason. First He asks them rhetorically, “Suppose one of you has only one sheep and it falls into a pit on the sabbath; will you not lay hold of it and lift it out?” Next He proclaims, “How much more valuable is a human being than a sheep!” From these two points, He reasons, “So it is lawful to do good on the sabbath.”17
Jesus proceeds to heal the hand of the man in the synagogue, and the Pharisees who are present, perceiving Jesus as a threat to their religion, proceed to conspire against Him.18
Jesus seems to have a rather cavalier attitude about the Law of His religion, at least in the eyes of the Pharisees. I would like to suggest that Jesus is not flouting the Jewish Law, as the Pharisees doubtlessly think, but is instead trying to teach them something important about their Law and about biblical instructions in general. The Pharisees, as they are portrayed in the Gospels, strive to follow the Jewish Law to the letter, and they expect other people to put forth the same effort. Jesus, on the other hand, evidently wants them to look past the letter of the law and to consider to the spirit of the law.
Consider why God would command God's people to observe the Sabbath Day in the first place. The Ten Commandments, which include 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.19 Just a few months earlier, they were rescued from slavery in Egypt. In Egypt, they were treated not as human beings but as machines, and merely asking for a break would be rewarded with a heavier workload.20 God never wanted the people of Israel to treat each other or anyone else the way they were treated in Egypt, so God gave them the Sabbath Day. The Sabbath Day was a gift to God's covenant people, intended to uphold their humanity and to remind them that they were worth more than what they produced.21
The Sabbath Day does not exist to prevent something that needs to happen from happening. It does not exist to ensure that an animal that falls into a ditch on that day remains trapped and vulnerable until the following day. It does not exist to prevent hungry people who do not already have something ready to eat that day from obtaining something to eat. 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. As Jesus says to the Pharisees in Mark's version of the story, “The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath.”22
When the Pharisees accuse the Disciples of breaking the Law by picking grain on the Sabbath Day, Jesus says to them, “If you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.”23 This is not the first occasion Jesus has urged the Pharisees to contemplate this saying.
One day, Jesus called a tax collector named Matthew to follow Him as one of His disciples.24 Calling this particular person was a strange choice on Jesus' part, because, as a tax-collector, he would have been hated by the Jewish people not only as a crook but also as a traitorous collaborator with the Roman occupation. That evening, while Jesus was enjoying dinner with Matthew and some of his fellow tax collectors and other so-called “sinners,” some Pharisees approached the other Disciples and asked them why their teacher would associate with such people. Overhearing the Pharisees' question, Jesus said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”25
Twice, when Jesus has clashed with the Pharisees, He has quoted the Book of Hosea, in which God says through the titular prophet, “I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”26 The Jewish Law prescribes a number of different animal sacrifices that are to be offered as acts of worship to God on different occasions. Some are offered on specific holy days; others are offered to atone for wrongdoings; and others are simply offered out of gratitude. Some people evidently believed that, as long as they fulfilled their ritual obligations to God, how they lived and how they treated other people didn't really matter. Prophets like Hosea fought back against that idea.
To prioritize mercy over sacrifice, as Jesus urges the Pharisees to do, is to prioritize the needs of one's neighbor over the rules of one's religion. Associating with traitorous, thieving tax collectors might be discouraged in Jesus' religion, but Jesus understands that even so-called “sinners” need someone who will befriend them and bring out the best in them, in the same way that sick people need a doctor to bring them back to health. Preparing food on the Sabbath Day might be forbidden in Jesus' religion, but Jesus understands that hungry people need to eat, regardless of what day it is.
Jesus will explain His understanding of the Law and of all biblical instructions most directly shortly before the end of His earthly ministry. At one point, after His arrival in Jerusalem, a number of His detractors will start asking Him very loaded questions in the hopes of incriminating Him.27 One scholar will ask Him which commandment in the Law of their religion He considers the most important. First, Jesus will quote a particular part of the Book of Deuteronomy known as the Shema,28 saying, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment.” Next, He will quote the Book of Leviticus,29 saying, “And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” Finally, He will say, “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”30
With this statement, Jesus will reveal the spirit of the law in regards to all Biblical instructions. Biblical instructions do not exist merely to be followed and enforced. They exist to prevent harm and to promote love for God and one's neighbor.
Jesus has the utmost respect for the Law of His religion, but He understands how important it is to know not only what it says but also why it says what it says. In the Sermon on the Mount, He said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.”31 To “abolish the Law” is to undermine the Law through misinterpretation, but to “fulfill the Law” is to properly interpret the Law so that people can better understand it and follow it in the way God intended.32
Quoting one of the Ten Commandments, Jesus said,
You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, “You shall not murder”; and “whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.” But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and
if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, “You fool,” you will be liable to the hell of fire.33
Quoting the very next commandment, Jesus then said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his
heart.”34 Jesus is not replacing the commandments or making them more difficult; He is instead revealing God's will behind them. The letter of the law states that we must practice enough self-control that we do not kill the
people who make us angry, but God's will is that we love people so that we don't even harbor malice toward them. The letter of the law states that we must practice enough self-control that we uphold our own marriage covenants and
respect the marriage covenants of other people, but God's will is that we love people so that we don't even objectify them.As followers of Jesus, we are not called to simply follow the rules we read in the Bible and to try to force everyone else to do the same. We are called to love as Jesus loved. Sometimes love will require us to bend or break the rules, as Jesus did when he healed a man on the Sabbath Day. Sometimes love will require us to go above and beyond the rules, as Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount. As followers of Jesus, when we approach any ethical matter, we need to consider how harm can be prevented and how love can be shown.
Far too often, Christians are guilty of acting like the Pharisees, as they are portrayed in the Gospels, or even worse. Far too often, when confronted with complicated situations, Christians lazily quote Bible verses without taking into consideration why the verses were written in the first place. Far too often, Christians apply biblical instructions in ways that are detrimental to other people. Biblical instructions, according to Jesus, exist to help us to love God with everything that we are and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. That said, any prohibition in the Bible is meant to prevent harm. If we fail to keep in mind the reasons that biblical instructions exist, we run the risk of using them in harmful ways, and any harmful use of Scripture is a misuse of Scripture. If we really want to follow Jesus, then we must learn to read Scripture as He read it, keeping our focus on love.
Amen.
Notes:
- Wikipedia: “United States v. Kirby”
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Skyd4ze67fI
- https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/74/482/
- Matthew 12:1-2
- Leviticus 23:22
- Exodus 20:8-11 (NRSV)
- Exodus 35:2 (NRSV)
- Numbers 15:32-36
- Wikipedia: “39 Melakhot”
- William Barclay. The New Daily Study Bible: The Gospel of Matthew, Volume Two. 2001, Saint Andrew Press. p. 26
- Matthew 12:2 (NRSV)
- Matthew 12:3-6
- 1 Samuel 21:1-6
- Numbers 28:9-10
- Matthew 12:9-10
- Barclay, p. 34
- Matthew 12:11-12
- Matthew 12:13-14
- Exodus 19:1-20:21
- Exodus 5:1-18
- Rob Bell and Don Golden. Jesus Wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for a Church in Exile. 2008, Zondervan. p. 34
- Mark 2:27 (NRSV)
- Matthew 12:7 (NRSV)
- Matthew 9:9
- Matthew 9:10-13 (NRSV)
- Hosea 6:6 (NRSV)
- Matthew 22:15-33
- Deuteronomy 6:4-9
- Leviticus 19:18
- Matthew 22:34-40 (NRSV)
- Matthew 5:17 (NRSV)
- Lois Tverberg. “What Does It Mean to ‘Fulfill the law’?” En-Gedi Resource Center.
- Matthew 5:21-22 (NRSV)
- Matthew 5:27-28 (NRSV)
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