The letter of the Law ~ reflex on Lk 11:47-54

Jesus addresses the Scribes and Pharisees in one of the Pharisees’ own homes; as always, he goes right to the heart of the situation, and brings the issue right to them. The role of these leaders was to guide the Jews in Palestine closer to God and keep their zeal burning, but they had drifted very far from this mission.

While the Scribes had the very important task of preserving what we now know as the Old Testament, they had become hyper-focused on petty man-made minutiae. For example, lifting or carrying was forbidden on the Sabbath; but rather than focus on keeping the Sabbath holy, they focused the Fourth Commandment on how to “not work,” arguing tiny details (Can you lift a lamp from one place to another? Does a tailor commit a sin if he goes out with a needle in his robe? Can you lift your child on the Sabbath? You cannot lift more than the weight of a dried fig, or enough milk for one swallow, or enough honey to put on a wound, or enough water to moisten an eye-salve, or enough ink to write two letters of the alphabet… and so on, endlessly). They specified 600+ commands nearly impossible for most to follow.

They became experts in the Law, but also in weaving in loopholes which only they could understand and exploit, and then prided themselves on their exacting attention to the externals, condemning the vast majority of Jews who could not keep up with these external regulations. The regulations and traditions they had added became more important than the Law itself; they preserved the letter of the Law, but lost the spirit in many ways.

This is what Jesus is confronting in the many interactions he has with them. They accuse Jesus repeatedly of violating the Law – gathering grain or healing someone on the Sabbath, for example. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus declares that the righteousness of the scribes is not enough to get anyone to Heaven. He repeatedly strikes at their sense of superiority and arrogance. As he nears the end of his life, his tactics to shake them out of their complacence become more intense, as he condemns them for their hypocrisy and their refusal to show any true understanding of the Law and the prophets. Jesus’ strong criticism does not rise from any loss of patience or personal offense; in his steady love, he is determined to get their attention so they don’t miss what is right in front of them. It is a “tough love” approach to gather them into the Kingdom.

Wherever there are man-made rules, there is the risk of becoming Pharisees, judging righteousness by outward adherence. The lesson for each of us in Jesus’ words against the hypocrisy of the scribes is that God wants more than outward acts of righteousness. He wants an inward change of heart that is constantly yielding in love and obedience to Christ.