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Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies John 11:25 |
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| Archived Manna: | |
Dear
Friend,
If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning (we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for make it a habit. Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day. And remember that today’s manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow; tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning. Wednesday, April 15, 2026
Today's Passage : Today's Passage :Jesus, the Scribes, and the Law [2] Bible Verse: Matthew 12:9-14 "He went on from there and entered their synagogue. And a man was there with a withered hand. And they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—so that they might accuse him. He said to them, “Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And the man stretched it out, and it was restored, healthy like the other. But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him. Matthew 23:23-24 (ESV) Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel! Matthew 5:17-20 (ESV) Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. " Message:
The second Scripture quote above may seem to make very little sense, but it is sensible enough once explained. Jews were required to tithe in kind. A herdsman with cattle, for example, would be required to give a percentage of his new calves to the Temple; a wheat farmer, a percentage of his wheat crop. Jesus here refers to the fact that the Pharisees would go to the ridiculous technical extreme of pulling ten percent of the leaves from a little herb bush (cumin or dill) in their garden, as part of their tithe. Yet they (or at least some of them) would turn a blind eye to frauds and mistreatment of the poor and weak.
Similarly, they criticize Christ for healing a human being on the Sabbath, because it violates their oral laws interpreting the Sabbath commandment; yet they will pull their own sheep out of a ditch.
Jesus was not contradicting the law of Moses when He did and said these things; He was contradicting the manmade law of the Pharisees. Christ did not abolish or relax an “iota” (the tiniest bit) of the Law.
So, keeping as our starting point that Christ did not abolish the law, why are we not sacrificing sheep or building temples? For certainly, the Law of Moses requires it. The answer lies in the word “fulfill”; one might also say that much of the Law was “satisfied” or “completed” by Christ.
The easiest example are the laws regarding sacrifice to atone for sin. Christ was the perfect sacrifice, final and sufficient to atone for the sins of the entire world. (Hebrews 10:1-10) The laws about sacrifice have been satisfied or fulfilled, not abolished.
Sodom, Corot
Burning of Sodom (detail), Corot
The other way in which we do not follow the letter of the Law of Moses is when Christ transformed it. For example, the law requiring the death penalty for adultery is “still on the books,” as they say. So why do we not execute adulterers? Because part of the gift of grace from God, the forgiveness of our own sins, was that we forgive the sins of others. (Matthew 6:22) We are expected to have learned that the penalty for sin is death; but it is for God, not us, who will judge adultery, and He — not us — will decide whether to impose the penalty or grant forgiveness.
Another set of laws was transformed by Christ; the most notable example is the Jewish law regarding impurity. Rather than being made unclean by what we touch or eat, we are now made unclean by what we do or say: “It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.” (Matthew 15:11)
This brings us to the primary reason for our discussion of Christianity and the Law of Moses. The lightning rod for the transformed aspects of the Law was circumcision. It visibly marked a Jewish man as one obedient to God and a participant in the covenant of Moses. Christ did not abolish the law of circumcision. But instead of undergoing minor surgery, being marked where other people can see it, Christian men (and women) must be “circumcised in their heart” where God can see it:
“But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.” (Romans 2:29)
It is impossible to appreciate, or even understand, the Pauline epistles without a grasp of these concepts, so don’t gloss over this, no matter how unsavory it appears to the modern mind. Some of Paul’s greatest doctrinal moments involve intense discussion of law and circumcision, and unless one grasps the meaning and significance of it, it makes utterly no sense.
Meditation : Prayer : Now to him who by his power within us is able to do far more than we ever dare to ask or imagine — to him be glory in the Church through Jesus Christ for ever and ever, Amen. |
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