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Texts: John 8:7,8
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On a late night talk show, the host interviewed people in the street and asked them questions about the Bible.
"Can you name one of the Ten
Commandments?" he asked two young women. One replied, "Freedom of
speech?"
The interviewer said to the other, "Complete this sentence: Let he who is
without sin....". Her response was, "have a good time?"
Another was asked if she could say the Lord’s Prayer. He started, "Holy
Father, full of grace…or something like that".
Then the interviewer turned to a young man and asked, "Who, according to
the Bible, was swallowed by a whale?" The confident answer was,
"Pinocchio."
We can have a bit of a giggle at answers like this but the underlying reality is not funny at all. A large percentage of people, even those who claim to be "Christian" in the broadest sense of the term, really don’t have much of an idea what the Bible has to say. It is sad to find out that the Ten Commandments are virtually unknown by a vast number of people.
No wonder there is so much moral confusion in our society. Where once people had a basic set of guidelines to help them make moral decisions, today these guidelines are unknown. Family break up, stealing, murder, abortion, lack of respect for other people’s property, failure to care for people, adultery, are daily occurrences and we hardly blink an eyelid when we hear of these things. That’s not to mention the total disregard for God and misuse of his name.
There’s no getting around it. The Ten Commandments are rules. And it seems that it is part of our human nature to want to rebel against rules; to break them if we can get away with it. We all know that speeding is breaking the law, but we do it anyway. In fact, it doesn’t matter what rule we break, we often think that we are justified in doing so if we have a very good reason. The speeding rules, any rules, become a humbug when we forget that they exist for our protection.
Parents make rules for their children, not because they want to be mean and nasty, but because they love their children. They want to protect them from things that will hurt them. When they say that 8.30 is bed time they want to make sure that their child’s energetic young bodies and minds get plenty of rest. When they insist on their child going out with friends and not alone, it’s to ensure their safety. Sometimes a child might feel that their parent’s expectations are restrictive and unreal, but that doesn’t change the fact that mum and dad have said this because they love their child very much. The rule is a gift of love to their child.
This is the way God's rules should be viewed.
They are a gracious gift from God. Because of his love for us, he wants to guide
and protect us.
He is like a loving parent who wants nothing but the best for his children.
He wants them to be safe and to live happily.
He wants them to enjoy life on this earth and avoid all those things that will
bring unhappiness and danger into their lives.
Even in the Garden of Eden where life was perfect and full of bliss, God set one rule, "Don’t eat any of the fruit from that tree in the middle of the Garden". God didn’t make this rule because he wanted the fruit from the tree for himself. It was a rule God made out of love for his creation. It protected the perfect and happy life that he had given Adam and Eve. As we know, they began to think that God was unfair banning the fruit from that tree, and so couldn’t resist trying out the "forbidden fruit". And immediately their perfect and innocent life ended.
In the first reading today, we heard again the commandments that God gave to Moses and to the people of Israel on Mt Sinai. This was one of those occasion when God himself wrote down a message for his people, We read, "When God had finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two stone tablets on which God himself had written the commandments." (Exodus 31:18). More literally, the text says that the two stone tablets "were etched by the finger of God".
The Hebrew word for "Law" is Torah. For Israel Torah didn't just mean a set of rules that were to be followed. They showed the way to be walked. Torah is perhaps better translated as "The Way" or more literally in Hebrew, "the finger pointing the way". Through the law, God was lovingly pointing the right direction that would enable his people to live safely and happily. For the Old Testament people, the Torah was much wider than the Ten Commandments; it included the first five books of the Old Testament.
These rules were proof of God's loyalty and love, and they were received with thankfulness and praise. The Old Testament people talked about what a delight it was to study the law of God (Psalm 1). This law was not a burden for the Old Testament believer; it was "the finger pointing the way" to a happy life with God and his fellowman. The law is there to help us love God and show how to love one another.
But because we are people who can’t keep
rules of any kind let alone keep God's rules perfectly as he requires, the Bible
points out that we are in deep trouble. How can we have a relationship with God
when we keep on disregarding his way of living?
How can we ever expect God to help us, protect us, guide us and answer our
prayers through all the days of our life when we keep on ignoring the finger of
God pointing to God's will for us?
How can we ever hope to get to heaven, God’s perfect place, when God's rules
point out to clearly that we aren’t perfect? Only perfect people go to heaven.
Because we are sinful, often our best
intentions are sidetracked. If we take the time to reflect on all the
commandments, we would soon realise that we are hopeless at keeping them
perfectly as God demands. Browsing through the catechism and read Luther’s
explanations, we quickly realise that we have too often adopted the ways of the
world rather than the ways of God.
It is not just our actions that are judged, but our attitudes.
Not just our hands, but also our hearts.
Not just our words and works, but our thoughts, desires, imaginations, and
motivations.
As we revisit the Ten Commandments, we will see that we need God's help if we
want to be a friend of God and to have any chance of eternal life.
God's finger wrote the Ten Commandments and turning to the New Testament we find the finger of God writing again. The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law brought to Jesus an adulterous woman. "The Law demands that she be stoned to death", the religious leaders said. "What do you think, Jesus?" Jesus didn’t say anything but he bent over and wrote something on the ground with his finger. Then he said, "Whichever one of you has committed no sin may throw the first stone at her." Then he bent over again and wrote on the ground again.
No one really knows just what Jesus wrote on the ground with his finger that day, but I can tell you what he wrote on to the heart of a hurting woman who stood before him ashamed of her sin. Through his Son, Jesus Christ, the same God who etched his law into stone with his finger – this time etched ‘grace’ on the stone hard hearts of the religious leaders and wrote "forgiven" on the shame filled heart of the woman!
There is a story that one night Martin Luther went to sleep troubled about his sin. In a dream, he saw an angel standing by a blackboard, and at the top of the board was Luther’s name. The angel, chalk in hand, was listing all of Luther’s sins, and the list filled the blackboard. Luther shuddered in despair, feeling that his sins were so many that he could never be forgiven. But suddenly in his dream he saw a pierced hand writing above the list these words: "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin." As Luther gazed in amazement, the blood flowed from the wounded hand and washed the blackboard clean.
God did for us what we cannot do for ourselves. God took his obedient Son, and he nailed him to a cross for you and me. God made Jesus our sin. He was made the idolater, the blasphemer, the despiser of God’s Word, the disobedient child, the murderer, the adulterer, the thief, the liar, and the coveter. As he hung dying on the cross, he carried every sin, from the smallest to the greatest failure to live God’s way, and took on himself the punishment that we deserve. He died to make us perfect, God’s saints.
Remember seeing Winston Churchill raise two fingers during the days of World War 2 – two fingers to make a "V" for "Victory". God has raised two fingers. With the first finger, he etched in stone his will for all humanity and pointed to the way of a happy and peaceful life. With the second finger, he has written the word "grace" on our hearts. Together they are "V" for victory. "We have complete victory through him who loved us!" (Rom 8:37).
During this week rummage through your cupboards and drawers, and find your copy of Luther’s Small Catechism and read again the Ten Commandments and Luther’s explanations. As you do so, remember that the Commandments are not words made up by someone in ancient times but words from the hand of God himself. Our failure to live up to God's ways is obvious. And as you bow in humility and repentance for all your failures, remember the hands that were nailed to a cross for you. Hold out your hands and let God pour into them his grace and forgiveness. Yes, indeed, "We have complete victory through him who loved us!" (Rom 8:37).
© Pastor Vince
Gerhardy
St Luke's
Lutheran Church, Nambour - 6th
October,
2002
E-mail: gerhardy65@hotmail.com
