One of the messages Jesus emphasizes over and over again is that God isn’t looking for us just to follow the rules (Mk 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23). Jesus is not the first to say this – many of the prophets had said the same. Hearing our first reading (Dt 4:1-2, 6-8) we can appreciate why this issue was a continuing matter of dispute. The foundational principle of Judaism, laid out by Moses was clear – follow God’s law – that’s what any believer must do. Who was Jesus to say otherwise.
Whether we consider Jewish law or Christian law or Catholic law we’re still stuck with this conflict. Many good people will emphasize “follow the law”, that’s what God expects of us. And for those who are naturally law abiding this seems very reasonable. It leads to a focus on ensuring that the laws are “correct”, the right laws, and very often to great concern that everyone should follow these laws – what’s the point of laws without enforcement.
The problem with this is that it’s very clear that Jesus taught something different. It was a huge challenge to the religious authorities of his time. That’s why they saw him as such a dangerous threat that it was acceptable to kill him. It’s a similar challenge to the religious authorities in our time. Our current pope doesn’t seem very concerned about this challenge but others certainly have been (and that in itself is a cause of conflict within our church). Perhaps even more important in some countries is that civil authorities feel a need and a right to impose laws based on views of what is acceptable to God.
So the conflict we are facing here is not some theological debate, or an exercise is biblical exegesis – it has a direct impact on the way laws are being created and enforced in many places. We’d better put some effort into understanding what Jesus was trying to tell us.
The key to Jesus’ thinking is to distinguish between internal motivation and external constraints. He puts no weight on external constraints. Even if you do the “right” thing based on external constraints, you obey the law because it’s the law (and you don’t want to risk the penalty of infringing it), that serves no purpose in building your relationship with God. A relationship cannot be founded on following rules – by definition it requires that the parties have a care and concern for each other which goes beyond anything we can get from a rule book.
So what then are we to make of the Law, or the fact that God gave his people commandments? We can’t just wave Moses away.
Jesus’ emphasis on what comes from within us is key. If we shift our focus from laws and law enforcement in the narrow sense it may also help us. There are many examples of “rules” that we use that cannot be treated simply as external constraints but require us to internalize them to be useful. One example is “rules” for healthy living. If we treat these as simply formulae to follow they might work but they will be very difficult to stick to. We have to absorb them and allow them to become part of the way we live – so we are not involved in a continuous battle over the amount of ice cream we eat, or the need to get more exercise than we really feel inclined to do. Those battles are exhausting and really hard to win on a long-term basis. We have to get to the point where our bodies adjust to not want so much fat or sugar, or to enjoy the exercise rather than suffer it. How we get to such a point can vary widely between people, which is why there are so many gurus offering advice on the best way to diet, etc.
There are plenty of gurus who seek to tell us how to develop our spiritual lives, and even more who would like to tell us which laws to follow. God’s commandments provide a good starting point, but unless we absorb them so they become part of our relationship with God, and their impact comes from within rather than without, then they won’t help us. Moses emphasizes that the people who will follow God’s law will be considered “wise and intelligent” (not docile and compliant – they aren’t just doing what they’ve been told to do). And it certainly won’t help anyone else to insist that we know what the best plan is (for dieting or for life) and all they have to do is follow the rules.