Matthew 23
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel! “(Matthew 23)
“He broke the law!” I shouted at my friend, Samuel. “How can you follow such a man? I am not at all surprised that he was arrested, and now, he will get what he deserves.”
Samuel, upon hearing my rant, was downcast. You see, Samuel is a follower of Jesus of Nazareth. And I could tell that he was struggling with how to respond. Proudly, I thought that I had very cleverly put him in his place. I mean, how can he support someone who disrespects the law? To us Jews, the law is everything. And Samuel, as a good Jew, knows it. Our law has governed us for literally hundreds of years and we, at least some of us, take it very seriously.
But not Jesus, no, not him. There are reports of how he broke the Sabbath law, and of how he ate with sinners and tax collectors. He and his disciples did not wash their hands, a clear violation of our kosher law.
Woe Unto You, Scribes and Pharisees
James Tissot
“Jesus claims a higher law,” my friend quietly responded. “He places justice and mercy and faith above the details of the law. I saw him give sight to a blind man on the Sabbath. Was that wrong? He healed a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath, actually inside a synagogue in front of everyone. Jesus never hid what he said and did. He was always open and clear about his message of the Kingdom of God.”
“Well,” I replied, “that’s not all that he’s done. Let me say more and then you tell me how you can defend him.
“Yes, I have been told that he left our homeland, not once but several times, spending time with heathen people in Tyre and Sidon. He also went to the Decapolis, where allegedly, he drove demons into a herd of pigs! I mean, what could be a bigger violation of our kosher laws? He touches lepers, which makes him unclean! What’s worse, he spent several days in Sychar, in Samaria, eating with the local people and staying in their homes! He even excused a woman guilty of adultery, right in front of our magistrates, who were ready to stone her, ACCORDING TO THE LAW! And now, in our very holy and sacred temple, right here in Jerusalem, he disrupted the legal selling of sacrificial animals. Oh, and I almost forgot, he once healed an unclean woman who’d had a discharge of blood for twelve years!
“Any one of these violations would bring severe punishment. So, what do you have to say?
Can you defend any of these accusations? Can you?” I thought I really had Samuel backed into a corner and I admit I was very proud of myself.
For a moment, he was silent.
Then, he answered: “All of those things that you recited, all of them, are true. I cannot dispute a single one.
“But he stands up for the poor and the outcast and the neglected. He isn’t afraid to help a stranger. He is humble, but he boldly speaks the truth, a truth that, honestly has been forgotten in our nation for a long, long time. He speaks like our prophets of old, Elijah and Elisha.”
“Well, he won’t be able to do those things or publicly speak for very much longer,” I replied. “He has been arrested and he will be convicted and he will pay the price. I am sure that Jesus will be spending many years in prison for his violations.”
“No,” Samuel quietly replied. “He won’t. Jesus is not going to prison. You see, he has been handed over to the Romans. Our elders want the Romans to crucify him. They say that he blasphemed.”
“But wait,” I responded, “Blasphemy is not an offense of any Roman law. They don’t care about our laws. If Jesus has broken our laws, and I know that he has, he should be held to account by our own courts and punished by our leaders. Why were the Romans brought into this?”
“Our elders want it that way,” Samuel replied. “In fact, they are bringing Jesus to Pilate this very morning. They hope to convince Pilate to condemn Jesus and have him crucified. It’s all very troubling, and it’s very unfair. Somehow, they want to convince Pilate that Jesus broke the Roman law by proclaiming that he is a king and should be worshiped in place of the emperor. Then, he could be crucified as a common criminal.”
“Well,” I responded, “it should be obvious to anyone and everyone that Jesus isn’t a king. I mean, he’s just a peasant, a carpenter, from some obscure village in Galilee. Anyone can see that. Just the same, Jesus is guilty. And our law says that he must be punished. I mean, the law is the law and there are no exceptions.”
I said this, but I must admit that, in the back of my mind, something was beginning to trouble me. I mean, yes, Jesus did violate our laws, but not the laws of Rome. And yes, we can put people to death for breaking our laws, but we have never crucified anyone and I can’t imagine that we ever will. Something about this is beginning to sound very strange.
Samuel went on. “Jesus, you see, is opposed by many in our leadership. Pharisees argued with him, scribes disapproved of him, and our elders became concerned about the crowds who listen to him. And so, the opposition mounted to the point that they felt the need to take action against Jesus. They want him to be publicly humiliated so that his followers will fall away.”
“Well,” I went on, “I agree. He broke the law. The law must be followed to the slightest degree. There can be no exceptions.”
“But,” I continued, “I still can’t see why they took him to the Romans, and why they want him crucified. Help me understand.”
“It’s because Jesus spoke the truth,” Samuel replied, “even when he called out our elders for their hypocrisy. He would not change and submit to corrupt leaders. He spoke publicly about how they obey the small things in the law, but neglect the important parts about justice and mercy. He saw through their pretense of piety and challenged their love of our God and neighbor.”
“Well,” I responded, “I guess there’s nothing wrong with that. I mean, hypocrisy should be called out and so should corruption.”
As he taught, he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” (Mark 12)
I was beginning to have second thoughts. When Samuel told me that Jesus was to be publicly humiliated and executed, that seemed wrong to me. I mean, perhaps Jesus was just misguided. Perhaps his passion for the poor and forgotten overshadowed his respect for the law. I mean, it seemed that in many ways, his heart was in the right place.
“You need to decide for yourself, what to think about Jesus,” Samuel replied. “He never took credit for his miracles, always claiming that his love of our YHWH God led him in all that he said and did.
“For me,” he went on, “I follow Jesus because of his love. He loves the poor, the weak, the sick, and the sinners. Yes, sinners like me. Maybe even sinners like you. And for me, loving God and loving others are the most important parts of our law. In fact, love, God’s love for us is why we even have the law. Don’t you agree?”
I hesitated. This Jesus, the one whom Samuel follows, was getting under my skin. Yes, perhaps there is more to our life than just a blind obedience to every detail of the law. Perhaps Jesus is telling us that the law was meant to guide us in how to love, not how to judge and not how to punish.
Was I willing to admit it? Was I willing to see what Jesus meant when he said that the highest values of the law were “justice, mercy and faith”? Perhaps. What would you advise? Do you struggle, in your time, with these values? Do some put the law above all else? Does that hide their hypocrisy and corruption? I hope not. Let me hear from you. Because I am seriously doubting what I have grown up thinking and believing. And let me tell you, it’s not easy to admit that I may have been wrong!