Brief synopsis of the readings: Speaking to Moses in the book of Exodus, God instructs him to tell his people not to oppress strangers as they were once slaves in Egypt. They are also never to wrong a widow or orphan for God will hear their cry. Neither are they to charge exorbitant interest on a loan to a poor person nor take his coat as collateral. Matthew’s Gospel recounts the Pharisees still trying to trip up Jesus. They asked him which is the greatest Commandment. Jesus responded that we are called to love God completely, and then love ourselves and our neighbors. “The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
In the 1980s management consultant Tom Peters wrote In Search of Excellence. In explaining how customer service often suffers from management inertia he once stated: “I don’t know how to make this complicated enough for you.” It’s a great line and makes the point that we sometimes try to make simple things more complicated than they need to.
When studying Scripture I often thought about this. While we often point to the Ten Commandments there are actually 613 commandments in the Old Testament. They cover everything from dietary rules to how to dress (Leviticus 19:19 prohibits wearing a garment made of different kinds of thread). The kinder part of me acknowledges that most rules have a reasonable origin story, that they made sense at one time. The more cynical part of me still hangs on to the belief that some people just plain like making rules and some of them have quill and paper.
And even to this day most religions claim scholars who study so much that they’ve become experts in even the finest parts of the law. I swear I’m not receiving kickbacks from Amazon but in James Michener’s book The Source you can read about an argument over whether an observant Jew can wear a removable gold tooth on the Sabbath. Is it an adornment that calls attention to yourself or is it a tool needed to chew food?
Not surprisingly the Pharisees were one such group who knew the 613 laws inside and out and in their foolishness they thought they could use this knowledge to trap Jesus. Either they could show that Jesus wasn’t as smart as he thought he was or they could force him to choose 1 of the 613 which would lead to an argument in the crowd as no single commandment would garner universal agreement.
Yeah, they probably need a new plan. As I’ve said before if there’s one mission statement of Jesus is that the last shall be first and the first shall be last. In other words God cares a great deal about the treatment of those who can’t advocate for themselves. That’s certainly what we see in the first reading from Exodus. Widows, orphans and aliens weren’t necessarily the poorest but they were the least protected by the law. Their ability to care for themselves and make a secure living were greatly limited and they often depended on the kindness of others. Again and again in both Testaments we are reminded that whatever wealth or status we enjoy was not always there and the poverty we (or our ancestors) experienced may well return.
Likewise debtors. Regardless of the reasons, they entered into a contract with another person and were obligated to repay the money. But the terms may not be equal and repayment may become overly burdensome, particularly if the interest rate dwarfs the loan. But this passage from Exodus prohibits charging any interest and we found ourselves on a collision course as soon as the Middle Ages when what we now know as the banking system developed. Nobody who holds money can make a living without interest so what are we to do?
Eventually we decided there is a difference between loans and loan sharks, between interest and exorbitant interest. And I think this holds the key to today’s Gospel.
In one sense, Jesus answer to the Pharisees’ question is simple: love God, love yourself, and love your neighbor. All those 613 commandments do indeed depend on this. So why make this complicated?
Well….it does get complicated. Modern practices like banking and modern technology like health care can throw us into confusion and sometimes despair. Today do we love the Jews or the Palestinians? And if we are called to love both, which side do we aid? Doing nothing does not appear satisfying as this will simply allow slaughter. Using an old preacher’s trick I intend to raise this quandary without giving a simple answer.
Like it or not we live in a world that is complex, populous, and perilous. And like it or not Scripture doesn’t give us quick and easy answers; alas, that’s the burden of being adults who worship a trusting God.
Many of the 613 commandments don’t encompass our lives today. A passage in the Acts of the Apostles (10:9-16) tells us that we no longer need to follow dietary laws, and even a cursory reading of the first five books of the Old Testament tells us that we no longer need guidance over our treatment of slaves or cattle.
Likewise the command to love God and each other begins and guides discussions over modern dilemmas but doesn’t fully complete them. We count ourselves as pro-life but how do we deal with a high risk pregnancy where the baby almost certainly will not survive and may take the life of the mother? If we lend to someone at a set interest rate but find later that his fortunes have gone down and ours up, where we could easily forgive the loan without burden; are we required to do so?
Clearly we can’t ignore what Scripture tells us but instead of looking backward, let’s look forward. Like it or not we worship a God that allows us to find our answer. We pray, we discuss, we argue, we disagree. And then we pray, we discuss, we argue, we disagree. Eventually we pray, we discuss, we agree. And then we move onto the next issue. Because that’s how the authors of the Old Testament did it.
I guess that’s one way we can make it complicated enough for ourselves.