Lent: Day Nineteen

Jesus said to his disciples:

“Don’t assume that I have come to sabotage Moses’ set of rules or the prophets’ teachings. I haven’t come to sabotage Moses’ set of rules! I’ve come to complete them. Amen! I’m telling all of you that from now, until the end of the world, not even a single dot over an ‘i’ or even a crossing of a ‘t’ will be changed or ignored in Moses’ set of rules until each one of them has been completed. So anyone who breaks even one of the least important of these rules, and teaches others to do the same, will be the least important person in the Kingdom of Heaven. But whoever follows them, and teaches others to follow them, will be called the greatest of all in the Kingdom of Heaven. (As Matthew Tells It, The New Peace Treaty: A New Translation of the New Testament)

Moses' "Law" is summed up in the Ten Commandments. Jesus repeats these commandments often to disciples, and would be disciples alike. When the Rich Young Man comes to Jesus asking what he must do to inherit eternal life, Jesus tells him to keep the commandments. When He assures Jesus that he does, Jesus tells him to sell all he has and give the money to the poor. Jesus tells the Rich Young Man to give all that he is and all that he has in the service of God, not just blind obedience to rules, but to what the rules stand for. He followed the "letter of the Law" but did he know the heart of God that beats within the Law?

The teaching of the Prophets are teachings about justice, sacrifice, generosity, and taking care of the needy, the poor, and the powerless. Jesus has not come to undo that teaching. Jesus came to fulfill the teaching of the prophets, to express and enact God's care to the poor, the sick, the needy, the powerless, and the see God's justice be established.

Anyone who would undo either the Commandments--don't murder, don't steal, don't covet, don't bear false witness--or who would undo the teachings of the prophets--justice, care for the poor, protection and care of the powerless, giving your hearts to God, not just your offerings--may still make it into the Kingdom of Heaven, but they will be in the lower-classes of heaven--the least important.

Many who are the most important now, will be least important then. Good business may make bad discipleship. The up and in may find themselves down and out in the Kingdom.

Jesus came to bring the Commandments and the teaching of the Prophets into their most fully visible and complete form. Jesus embodies both the Law and the Prophets. I cannot follow him without accepting both the Law and the Prophets and doing my best to fulfill them, just as Jesus did.

As a disciple of Christ, do I keep the Commandments and encourage others to keep them? Does my life embody the Commandments and "teach" others about them? Am I concerned about justice and the needs of others, or do ignore them in favor of what I think if need and for what I want? Am I on the path to greatness in the Kingdom, or to becoming least important?