This Sunday, the lectionary focuses on the Ten Commandments. As I studied for my sermon, I began to think about all of the hullabaloo in the news today over these ancient laws and I wondered if legislators really understood what they were forcing upon the walls of their classrooms. Did they understand the culture surrounding these laws? Did they see how the ten were part of a larger story of transformation? Did they read all the other laws that build upon and help interpret these rules? Did they view these commandments through Jesus’s hermeneutic of love?
I find it interesting that this reading in Exodus is paired with Matthew’s story of the wicked tenants. I always wonder what the RCL committee had in mind as they chose scripture, because I might have paired the Ten Commandments with Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. But instead, they use a story about some tenants who killed the owner’s son.
But isn’t that what we do when we take God’s commands and use them to harm and oppress people? Jesus taught that the entire law hung on commands to love God and love our neighbors, and yet we focus on justice over mercy and law over grace. How do we reconcile our reading of the law when Jesus tells us that whatever we do to “the least of these” is what we also do to him? Are we guilty of killing the owner’s son?
My guess is that the Philippians also struggled with the law because Paul needed to tell them how zealous he was for it before he met Jesus. I find it interesting how the same people who post the law also teach a freedom from the law. At least, this has been my experience. But Paul was not ditching the law, he just learned to interpret it through Christ’s hermeneutic of love. Paul’s rigid zealousness for obedience was now rubbish to him in light of Christ’s grace and mercy and love.
The laws are good, but they need to be handled with care. We miss the greater message when we reduce God’s word to ten simple dos and don’ts and we are wrong to think these bullet points represent all of God’s teaching on how to relate with God and other people. Only when we use God’s law in light of God’s love will we truly understand these ancient commands.
Definitely something to ponder.
Grace and peace
Parson Larson, 2026
