The Perfection of the Law
Epiphany 3 – January 26, 2025
Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10
Psalm 19
1 Corinthians 12:12-31a
Luke 4:14-21
Many people don’t like to talk or think about law. For some reason many see law in a negative light. I don't know why that is. The law actually is a good thing. It’s what makes our lives livable because it is a stabilizing factor in our society. In fact law is the foundation upon which we build a society. Without law there is only chaos and anarchy. I know that some who dislike the law claim that we live in a democracy and should be able to do whatever we want. But that’s not correct. The traffic laws are an example. You stop at a red light and go at a green light because it prevents you from having an accident with another. The same is true about robbery and murder. I cannot just take what is yours because I want it or kill you because I dislike you. (Not that those things don’t happen, but, when they do there are consequences.) I bring this up because law is the subject of our psalm today. The psalmist here is extolling the beauty of the law – a gift from God to all of creation.
We see that understanding of the law in our text from Nehemiah. This event happened after the return from Babylon. Remember what we learned last week about how this was a difficult time in the life of the people who had returned from Babylon. Did this reading happen because of the difficulty? Did the leaders attribute the difficulty of rebuilding to the people’s lack of understanding or fulfilling the Law and the reading was to remind them how they were to live? We don’t know for sure. Although the story is suspect in that it tells us that the reading took place from “early morning to midday” a very long period of time to read the book of Deuteronomy. That may be an indication that this story was oral tradition before it was written down and an indication of how important the writer saw this story to be, reminding the reader of the importance of keeping the Law. That importance, as I said above, was to put into place a stable society so that the people could live together as a community. Although, later in Nehemiah (chapter 13), it seems the law was used to tear families apart, which would not be God’s desire.
This brings us to realize that, like any gift from God, the Law can be used to separate people instead of making a coherent community. That is what much of the tension between Jesus and the Sadducees is about. They made the Law an end in itself and not as a gift to build community. They used it to separate themselves – the true followers of God – from ordinary people who were unable to keep the Law. Jesus, by choosing to read a passage from Isaiah, gives the true use of the Law – to call God’s people to a life of service taking care of all those who struggle: the poor, the captive, the blind, and those who are oppressed. Pretty much those who were viewed by Jesus’ listeners as not deserving help.
Paul talks about God’s gift in a different way in our reading from First Corinthians. There, in a well known image, he speaks of God’s people as the Body of Christ. He is doing so because, it seems, the Christians in Corinth were arguing among themselves who was the greatest and doing so by boasting of their specific gift from God. By reminding them that just as all the parts of the body have a part to play so it is with the community. Instead of trying to prove that you are more important in the community than everyone else, use the gift that you have to build up the community. For, as we will see next week, the true gift is love. God’s gift of love given to us through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Love that is not to be hoarded but to be shared. That is how we are able to take care of those whom society disregards and removes from their midst. We, who understand what it means to be welcomed where we do not belong because of sin, are called to welcome those who society tries to cast off. It is not an easy task but together as the body of Christ we can do it because we have God’s love on our side.