A Wise and Discerning People

We read from the fourth chapter of Deuteronomy today. Deuteronomy is the summing up of the law by Moses just before the Israelites are allowed to enter into the promised land and take possession of it. Remember, Moses is not allowed to enter but gives the leadership to Joshua. But before they can enter, Moses goes over a few rules and regulations. Actually he reminds them of the covenant. They are to be God’s people and God will be their God. Therefore they were to live by the law. The law was God’s gift to them so that they could live together as God’s people and to show the world the wisdom and strength of God. Here, in this text, we learn that God’s people do not live for themselves. God’s people live for others. In fact, as we have seen time and time again, when the Israelites lived for themselves they got into trouble. 

A careful reading of our text from Deuteronomy and from Mark does show a contrast. Those things that the Pharisees and scribes accuse Jesus’ disciples of not doing are in the law as recounted in Deuteronomy. Technically, then, they were correct and the disciples were wrong. Although the disciples were probably not doing anything different than most people of their day. Without running water they would have to draw water from a well, it would be difficult to always wash their hands (and pots and pans and such) all the time. That is not Jesus' point though. His point is that the Pharisees and scribes were following the law for the wrong purpose. They were using the law to set themselves apart from everyone else as the true followers of God. Which is the opposite of what our text from Deuteronomy called them to do. Their actions were not to show how religious they were; how perfect they were in God’s eye. They were called to live life so that others saw God through them. They were to be a wise and discerning people, not a foolish and self-righteous people. Therefore Jesus gave them a lecture about what makes for a clean and holy life.

That life is touched upon by James. As you may know, Luther did not like James. He thought that James supported works-righteousness. That may be because he was trying to reform a church that emphasized works-righteousness too much over the gift of salvation. James is talking to people who seem to have gone the other way. It seems they believed that, since they were saved, they did not need to do anything else. Like the Pharisees and scribes they saw faith as personal and set themselves apart from the world. James is telling them that they were to be beacons of God’s salvation. They, just like the Israelites, were to show the world the love of God in Christ Jesus by their words and deeds. We  too are called to be a wise and discerning people showing and sharing God’s love.