The Jewish Roots of Our Faith, Part II

Clifford F. Thies

Clifford F. Thies is a professor of economics and finance at Shenandoah University, Winchester, VA. He can be reached at: <cthies@su.edu>.

"One jot or one tittle shall in no way pass from the law." (Matthew 5: 18)

Two things going together is merely a coincidence. But the mind is intrigued when three or maybe four things come into a certain kind of alignment. Here's an example of Jesus' use of a triplet.

For there are some eunuchs who were so born from their mother's womb; and there are some eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men; and there are some eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. (Matthew 19:12)

For some Jews, Jesus could not have been the Messiah because he had made of himself a eunuch for the kingdom of heaven. That is, he was not a husband and a father, two elements of being a "mench." But Jesus did not come to this world to be a mench, honorable though this would be for you or for me. He came to this world to be Emmanuel, God with us; to be, as the Son of God, offered up in atonement for sins, to fulfill the law, to reconcile man with God, and to set all things right.

Also there is the parallelism. This is when you say two things that appear to parallel each other and that, together, express a wonderful truth. Such are the beatitudes. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

Similarly, we can say, "Blessed is the man who is too busy by day to worry at night." And, "Blessed are those who are married who multiply rather than divide." Conversely, "Those who believe in nothing, will believe in anything." And, then there's the classic joke, "Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall not be disappointed."

Not Keeping the Sabbath
Jesus was accused numerous times of not keeping the Sabbath. In Mark 2:23-24, he and the disciples were criticized for gleaning grain on the Sabbath.

And it came to pass that he went through the grain fields on the Sabbath day; and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of grain. And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on the Sabbath day that which is not lawful.

I should point out that it was not unlawful to glean. Deuteronomy 23 :24-25 provides:

When thou comest into thy neighbor's vineyards, then thou mayest eat grapes to thy fill at thine own pleasure; but thou shalt not put any in thy vessel. When thou comest into the standing grain of they neighbor, then thou mayest pluck the ears with thine hand; but thou shalt not move a sickle unto thy neighbor's standing grain.

This passage from Deuteronomy indicates that it is permissable to glean. Not to go out into somebody else's fields and take food by the basketfull. But to satisfy your hunger. The Pharisees weren't criticizing Jesus for gleaning. They were criticizing him for working on the Sabbath.

The Pharisees of Jesus' day took the commandment against working on the Sabbath very seriously. So seriously, in fact, that-according to Jesus-they broke the commandments trying to avoid the possibility of breaking the commandments. They broke both the letter, as well as the spirit of the Law.

After he was accused of breaking the Sabbath, Jesus said, "Have ye never read what David did, when he had need, and was hungry, he, and they that were with him. How he went into the House of God in the days of Abiathar, the high priest, and did eat the showbread, which it is not lawful to eat but for the priests, and gave also to them who were with him?" (Mark 2:25-26)

Why did Jesus bring up the example of David? Was it simply that necessity allows the breaking ceremonial law? Or, was it also that Jesus was intimating that he, like David, was the rightful but rejected King of Israel?

And, then Jesus said, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." (verse 27)

The Talmud is a compilation of Jewish scholarship from about the first century before Christ, to about the second century after Christ, and was reduced to written form during the third century after Christ. In the Talmud, an unidentified rabbi is quoted as saying "The Law is for man, and not man for the Law." It is likely that this unidentified rabbi is Jesus. Because of this teaching, Jesus is sometimes called the first reform Jew.

Among reform Jews today, there are two major branches, liberal and conservative. Liberal reform Jews, or simply liberal Jews, do not consider the scriptures to be inerrant. They consider the scriptures to be works of great scholarship, and certainly deserving of consideration in forming opinions, but that's it.

Conservative reform Jews, or simply conservative Jews, consider the scriptures to be inerrant, but the truth we have by special revelation must be consistent with the truth we have by natural revelation. Natural revelation includes science, history and common sense. Indeed, the consistency of all knowledge is considered part of the Oneness of God. All that is true testifies to God. There is no contradiction between faith and science. If Jesus was the first reform Jew, he was the first conservative reform Jew.

Remember that the Sabbath was given as a sign of holiness, or separation (Exodus 31: 12-17). God freed the Jews from bondage in Egypt. There, the Jews were worked seven days a week, week after week after week. Studies of people who are worked so hard, whether in slavery, in concentration camps, or in POW camps, show that these people grow increasingly weak.

Not only that, people who are worked day after day after day, lose their orientation. To be fully human, we need a sense of time and place. We need patterns and rhythms. For God made the lights in the heavens for the counting of days, and of years. (Genesis 1 :14) The two great lights, the Sun and the Moon, and the five planets-or moving stars-visible to the unaided eye, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, define the week, and the weekly cycle of work and rest.

By saying that "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath," Jesus was affirming the intended universal blessing of the Sabbath. From Psalm 136, "To him who made the great lights." (verse 7a) "We give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good . . ." verse 1a).

Jesus Heals on the Sabbath
Immediately after being criticized for gleaning on the Sabbath, Jesus, entering a synagogue, got into trouble again-this time, for healing on the Sabbath. This would be one of several times that Jesus healed on the Sabbath.

The Pharisees, "watched him, whether he would heal him [that is, a man who had a paralyzed hand] on the Sabbath day, that they might accuse him." (Mark 3 :2)

The Pharisees were waiting for Jesus to heal somebody, so they could accuse him of breaking the Sabbath, the penalty for which is stoning. They knew he had the power to heal, and so was some kind of prophet. But their arrogance was so great, they were anxious to kill this holy man rather than reconsider their understanding of the Law. This is why Jesus said to them, "Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath, or to do bad? To save life, or to kill?" (verse 4)

"To save life." Meaning to heal on the Sabbath. "Or to kill." Meaning to murder Jesus by falsely accusing him of breaking the Sabbath.

In Luke 13:1 1-17 is another account of Jesus healing on the Sabbath:

And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And behold, there was a woman with a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no way lift herself up. And when Jesus saw her he called her to him, and said unto her, "Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity." (verses 11-12)

This time when he was falsely accused of breaking the Sabbath, Jesus said, "Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering.

And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?" (verses 15-16)

So, this time, Jesus appealed to common sense. If certain things are necessary to do on the Sabbath, like loosening an ox from the stall, then these things had to be allowed. And, you would be a hypocrite if you condemned others for doing similar things. The truth of this teaching was so obvious that Luke's Gospel continues, "And when he had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed; and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him." (verse 17)

In John 5:1-16 is yet another account of Jesus healing on the Sabbath. On this occasion, there was a multitude of people by a pool of water that, the Bible says, had healing power when an angel entered the water, disturbing it.

One of the people at the pool was an impotent and infirm man, who had been infirm for thirty-eight years. This man told Jesus nobody would put him into the pool when the water was disturbed, but somebody else always stepped in front of him.

Can you imagine how this man's plight affected Jesus? For years, this man was not let into the pool, but whenever the waters were disturbed, another would jump the line, taking his place. How selfish those people must have been. And, what little understanding did they have of God's love. So Jesus cured the man, and said to him, "Rise, take up thy bed, and walk." (verse 8)

A little later, certain Jews seeing this man carrying his bed, said to him, "It is the Sabbath day; it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed." The man, you see, was "bearing a burden," which is one of the things the Jews said was prohibited on the Sabbath.

Later that day, Jesus bumped into this man again, at the Temple. Jesus may have been on his way to the Temple when he bumped into him beside the pool. And the man, having been cured, may have gone to the Temple to praise God for his healing.

Jesus Attended Services
Where would you find Jesus on the Sabbath? You would find him at the synagogue or at the Temple. He regularly attended what we would call religious services. Let me refer to another occasion when Jesus "went to church." (Luke 4:16-30). In verse 16, we have:

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up; and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.

"As his custom was." Jesus' custom was to go to the synagogue on the Sabbath. And what did Jesus do on this Sabbath at the synagogue? He read from the book of Isaiah.

In the typical synagogue service, the rabbi of the synagogue would read from the Law, or the books of Moses. After his reading, he would give a "drahsh," or short commentary. Following this, an honored guest would read from one of the books of the prophets. Jesus, being given the privilege to read from the book of Isaiah, was such an honored guest. And here is what Jesus read,

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord . . . (verses 18-19)

Jesus stopped right exactly there, at "the acceptable year of the Lord," and did not complete the verse from Isaiah, which goes onto "the day of vengeance," because the day of vengeance" would come later. Continuing,

And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister [or, rabbi], and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears." And all bore him witness and wondered at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth. (verses 20-22)

But the people could not stand this teaching. "Is not this Joseph's son." (verse 22) In other words, who does Jesus think he is? Why he's Joseph's son. Who is he to proclaim that he is the Messiah?

And at that point, they sought to take hold of him, to cast him off a cliff (verse 29), which was an accepted form of execution for blasphemy. But Jesus "passed through the midst of them." (verse 30) Jesus passed through the midst of them because it was not yet his time to be offered up. But then, on a later occasion, his time did come, and he offered himself up like a lamb.

From Whence the Sabbath Restrictions?
We have already read the commandment concerning the Sabbath. It does not have the same absolute prohibition of work found in the work-prohibition for Yom Kippur. So where did the Pharisees derive their many rules and regulations concerning the Sabbath?

In part, they derive their rules and regulations from the instructions God gave Israel during the time of wandering in the desert. For example, the prohibition against gleaning on the Sabbath is derived from the prohibition against gathering manna on the Sabbath. "Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none." (Exodus 16:23) But the instructions God gave Israel during the time in the desert were not indicated to be permanent.

In part, the Sabbath restrictions derive from what is called "the oral tradition." Supposedly, some of what God revealed to Moses was written down, and another part was passed on by word of mouth, from one generation to another, until-centuries years later-certain rabbis finally wrote it down. But, for what reason did God not have the whole of the Law written down by Moses? He ran out of ink?

To the contrary, it pleases God that we know the Law, so that we can give our consent to it. Thus, when Moses gave the Law, he

. . . came before the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the Lord commanded him. And all the people answered together, and said, "All that the Lord hath spoken we will do." (Exodus 19:7-8)

The Law was then written down, on two tablets. Why two tablets? There are two theories. The first theory as to why there are two tablets is God writes big. The second theory is that the Ten Commandments is a contract, with one copy for each party to the contract.

When you see the two tablets, with the first five commandments on one tablet, and the second five commandments on the other tablet, you are seeing the front of the first tablet, and the back of the second. And, why are both tablets put into the Ark of the Covenant? To signify that God is with his people.

Whatever the reason for God writing the Ten Commandments on two tablets, he did write them. Therefore, any person of reasonable intelligence can know what the Law involves, and can, if he chooses, accept the Law.

Another explanation for the work-prohibitions of the Pharisees is that they "build a fence around the Law." The prohibitions forbid not only that which is sinful, but that which might be sinful, even to the point that they prohibit doing good when that would risk doing bad. But this degree of risk-aversion would be paralyzing.

We should not be paralyzed by a continuing fear of sin. Instead, we should be empowered by the assurance of salvation. Jesus' atoning sacrifice not only freed us in the negative sense, freed us from sin; it freed us in a positive sense, it freed us to do good. Thus Paul, in his letter to the Romans (8:12) writes,

For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but we have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

And, James (1:26) puts the same idea this way, "Whosoever looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth in it, he being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed."

The Shema
For Jews, the greatest commandment is known as the Shema. "Shema, Israel, Adonai Elohayou Adonai Echad." Behold, oh Israel, the Lord our God the Lord is One Lord." This commandment is written above the doors to every synagogue. The complete commandment is found in Deuteronomy 6:4-5:

Hear, oh Israel, the Lord our God the Lord is One Lord. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

And here is what Jesus answered when he was asked which is the greatest commandment. From Mark 12:28-30:

And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, "The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Isreal, the Lord Our God the Lord is One Lord; and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength; this is the first commandment."

Then, Jesus added, quoting Leviticus 19:18, "And the second is this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." And the scribe, in reply, said "and to love his neighbor as himself is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices," possibly referring to Psalm 51:16-18 or to Micah 6:7-8.

But, then, Jesus did an un-Jewish thing. He said, "Thou art not far from the kingdom of God," (verse 34) implying that he, Jesus, was the final arbitrator of God's Law. Thus, Mark's Gospel continues, "And no man after that dared to ask him any questions."

The Good Samaritan
A second time Jesus got into a discussion of the greatest commandment. This other time, the roles were reversed. Jesus asked the question, and the other person answered. Luke 10:25-28:

And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tested him, saying, "Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" He [Jesus] said unto him [the lawyer], "What is written in the Law? How readest thou?" And he [the lawyer], answering, said, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself." And he [Jesus] said unto him [the lawyer], "Thou hast answered right, this do, and thou shalt live."

Of course the lawyer gave this answer. Every educated Jew knows these are the greatest commandments. But, then, the lawyer, seeking to justify himself, said, "And who is my neighbor?" (verse 29). It was at this point that Jesus taught the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

The parable concerns a man left half-dead by thieves on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho (verse 30). A priest walked by, and passed him on the other side of the road (verse 31). So too did a Levite pass the poor fellow on the other side of the road (verse 32). Why did the priest and the Levite pass on the other side of the road? Because if they had come into contact with him, they might have become ceremonially unclean. This would have made them, for a time, unfit for Temple duty, for which duty they were probably on the road going to Jerusalem. (see Leviticus 22: 1-7)

But then came along a Samaritan, a man of a tribe of people who were inhospitable, if not out rightly hostile to Jews. And this Samaritan took pity on the man lying half-dead alongside the road, and took care of him. (verses 33-35) Then Jesus asked the lawyer, "Which, now of the three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves?" And, the lawyer said, "He that showed mercy." Jesus replied, "Go, and do thou likewise." (verse 36)

Most commentaries on the Parable of the Good Samaritan that I have heard, say it means we are to consider everybody to be our neighbor, and this is a good teaching. But, remember that Jesus taught the Parable of the Good Samaritan not only to define who is our neighbor, but in the context of what is the greatest commandment. Between ceremonial law and love of neighbor, love of neighbor is preeminent.

If you pass a man half-dead along the road on your way to church, you don't say, I have to go to church, and leave the man lying alongside the road. You stop and help your neighbor.

Was it merely a coincidence that Jesus used a Samaritan to answer the question "Who is my neighbor?" Not at all. On his way to Jerusalem, Jesus had just passed through Samaria. (Luke 9:51-56) Along the way, he had sent messengers ahead "into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. And they did not receive him . . . " (verses 52b-53a)

Jesus knew he was going into Jerusalem to be delivered up. Luke's Gospel says "he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem." (verse 51b) I think this means Jesus was being courageous. Luke's Gospel says the disciples did not understand his prophesy of being delivered up, but it also says they "feared to ask." I think they knew.

When the Samaritan village turned Jesus away, two of his disciples asked Jesus to "command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them." But Jesus rebuked them, and said, "For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." (verse 56a)

Jesus used a Samaritan to answer the question, "Who is my neighbor," because he turned the other check. They insulted him. But he did not reply with violence. Instead, he offered himself up in atoning sacrifice for them and for all mankind.

Jesus wants us to be like the Good Samaritan when, the truth is, we are like the bad Samaritans.

In this was manifested the love of God toward us, that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.(I John 4:9-10) ?