Most of us know the law isn’t merely a standard of behavior, a rulebook telling people how to act. It’s meant to protect lives, rights, the very core of justice. At least that’s the idea. The law is meant to work for the people, not act as a weapon so the elite can stack power and benefits for themselves. It shouldn’t be used to oppress and burden others. We like to believe no one is above the law. But let’s be real…

We like to believe it…but we know some do live above the law.

It gets deeper than that. How about those who are elected to make laws but hold the process hostage for their own benefit of power? Can you smell that in election ads? We’ve got wars that are entrenched, a political system that refuses to compromise for the sake of those who voted them in, personal relationships where people think they should get to control others. Shoot, even in some churches you’ve got leadership twisting commandments, picking and choosing and amending what they want the Scriptures to say. Commandments? Laws? Hold the other guy accountable but don’t apply it to me is the reigning premise.

You Think?

If there was one thing Jesus couldn’t stand, what he fought most vehemently against, was that kind of hypocrisy. Consider it only a problem in our day and age? Swap out the clothes, culture, social norms, and technology, and you’ll find first century Israel dealing with the same nonsense. Powerbrokers were crushing those who had no wherewithal to fight it. In his final days before the cross, Jesus unloaded on its biggest offenders with a feral vehemence that burned. Click Here. (Matthew 23:1-36) It isn’t pretty.

Uh, God, shouldn’t we deal with everyone in love? Because your son sounds heated, not so loving here, just saying.

The Attack

Hearts and flowers this is not. But make no mistake, rooted in love, Jesus’ diatribe does many things.

See, Jesus wasn’t just talking with the Pharisees. He was talking to his disciples, the crew he’d spent three years training. Sure, there often was a crowd around, and this day in the Temple was no different. But his crew was the focus. And knowing what would happen before the week was out, Jesus wanted to make sure they (and we) got it, understood what mattered.

Having tangled too many times with the religious leaders, particularly the Pharisees, Jesus tells the disciples, in short, “Practice what they preach, but don’t do as they do.”

That’s wild when you think about it.

Interestingly, Jesus’ teachings and theology were pretty close (not all, but close enough) to how they interpreted the Scriptures. Fine. Learn from them. But be careful. Jesus was majorly frustrated because these guys loved looking holy more than living holy. They puffed themselves up over their status and credentials while completely missing the heart behind the law.

Actually, Jesus did not have a problem with the law. He’d made that clear when he gave that talk on a mountain. “I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or writings of the prophets…I came to fulfill it.” (Matthew 5:17) The law stands as is. They couldn’t get him on that.

But where these religious rulers got it wrong was in how they didn’t exemplify the love of God in the law. In other words, they used it to attract attention to how pious they appeared so as to maintain their religious and political power and status, not a holy relationship with God.

At their request, no less, Jesus had just summarized the law as Loving God with everything you’ve got, and Love Your Neighbor as you love yourself. That’s it.

Real obedience isn’t just following rules. It’s loving God by submitting all parts of yourself to trust His design and loving people enough to reflect his heart. What’s more, you can’t love God without loving your neighbor (and your enemy), again in connections which uphold the divine. The whole point and purpose of the law was relationship. Relationship with God and relationship with others.

“The greatest among you must be a servant.”

Here Jesus says it all. By taking the standpoint and mindset of one who lives in service to God and others, love is not just occasionally expressed but lived out. Real greatness looks like serving.

It finds its life not in the tolerance of going along to get along, let everybody do their thing.  “Whatever, do you,” is the watered-down version of love. Real love raises people higher through elevated expectations and standards. It pushes us toward who God created us to be, God’s vision of divine image and creation. With truth and mercy, it is the utmost criterion for justice and Godly expression of love.

Here’s the catch. Can anybody pull this off on her or his own? If you do the next right thing, create a fantastic mission statement to live out, or sell all you have and give to the poor, will it be enough? Can anybody really satisfy God’s purpose and help other persons in theirs?

Look around. Don’t you think if you could, if anybody could, you/we would have done it by now? Humanity often fails at this, and honestly, we fail big. Over and over.

God Knows.

And Jesus knew it. That’s why, at the end of this chapter, Jesus cried over Jerusalem. The city God loved kept pushing away the very love that could heal it, wouldn’t allow God’s love in their lives.  (Matthew 23:37-38)

The only thing left to do was to lead by example. Serve. Love. Carry the cross. And that’s exactly what he did.

All people, then and now, do not perfectly keep the law, but by accepting Jesus’ love, live above the law in the grace of God.   

Because Jesus fulfilled what we never could.

Matthew 23:1-12  

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The Trouble with Jesus: Considerations Before You Walk Away by Constance Hastings

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