Jesus on Holiness vs. Justice (Midweek Message)

Jesus on Holiness versus Justice

Fr. Tony’s Midweek Message

July 8, 2020

In Matthew 22, the Pharisees, impressed that Jesus has silenced their own opponents the Sadducees, send a student of the Law to ask him an important question of Law, what later rabbis would call halakhah.  They want to get a read of what drives Jesus, and how he reasons about scripture.  They ask him a question they would often ask each other, “Of all the 613 commandments in the Torah, (365 ‘Thou shalt not’s’ and 248 ‘Thou shalt’s’), which is the most important?  What is the heart of the Law?   What should we use as a first principle of interpretation so that we can prioritize and order all this mass of teachings in the Law?”

The initial answer Jesus gives is not all that unusual.  He quotes from the Shema‘, the credo of Judaism that is recited every morning and evening in prayers: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might” that is, “you shall be faithful to him with all your will, life, and might.”  Other rabbis had also pointed to this central passage as the heart of the Law.  Jesus says that this is “the first, the most important commandment.” 

But then Jesus, without being asked, adds, “and a second commandment is on par with this first one: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  On these two commandments depend the entire body of scripture.” 

He is quoting an obscure portion of the Leviticus Holiness Code, “You shall  not take vengeance against, nor bear any grudge against your kin, but you shall love your neighbor as you do yourself:  I am the LORD”  (Leviticus 19:18).   

We often don’t realize that this juxtaposition was first made by Jesus, something completely new.  We do this because Luke places this second part of Jesus’ answer also on the lips of the young lawyer seeking to justify himself in order to suss out just how Jesus understands the term “neighbor.” (The story of the Good Samaritan is the answer.)  Though a generation later rabbis were to identify what we would call the golden rule as the heart of the Law, they do not quote Leviticus 19 as the heart of Law, link its use of the verb “love” with the use of the verb “love” in the Shema‘ , and say that this second commandment is “on par with” the first. Jesus puts these two commandments on equal footing, and in so doing bridges a great divide in the tradition of the Hebrew scriptures. 

Walther Bruggemann, in his magisterial Theology of the Old Testament, points out that throughout the Hebrew scriptures, one finds two great thematic threads. On the one side, there is the holiness of God, the separateness of God, calling for a striving for purity and ritual holiness by God’s people, for being special and set aside for God’s service.  “You shall be holy for I am holy,” we read in Leviticus, and there follows hundreds of detailed rules setting boundaries and defining categories to help achieve holiness.    On the other side there is striving for justice, for treating people, especially the marginalized, decently and fairly. 

The two themes often seem in opposition.  The priests and the Law tend to talk a lot about purity and holiness.  The prophets tend to talk about dealing with others justly, especially those most in need.  For Samuel, Amos, Isaiah, Micah and others God says things like:  “I expect obedience, not sacrifice.” “I hate your sacrifices because you mistreat the widow and the orphan.”    “All I really ask of you is to treat the poor fairly, and to walk humbly with me.”  For the priests and teachers of halakhic law, however, God says things like, “You will be Holy for I am Holy, says the Lord.”  “You shall not pollute the land with impurity, or I will destroy you.”  “You shall drive out pollution from among your midst and separate yourself from uncleanness.” 

Bruggemann says that the two traditions are both important and mutually corrective. The boundaries established by the Law are what define and preserve the People of God, and allow ethical monotheism to flourish.  But if holiness is not tempered with the call for social justice, it becomes empty ritual, a mode of oppression, and dies.  On the other hand, calls for social justice in the absence of an authentic call to holiness rapidly degenerate into the most obvious self-serving form of interest-group politics. 

In Matthew 22, Jesus says the heart of scripture is both faithfulness to a holy God and taking care of one’s fellow human beings.   And he uses a text right from the middle of the Holiness code itself (Lev. 19) to counterbalance the over-emphasis that he saw being placed on holiness at the expense of justice.  

It is very important to note that in the Gospels, whenever social justice is placed in conflict with ritual purity and Jesus is asked to decide between them, in every single case he opts for social justice.  For him, justice trumps purity and holiness every time.   That’s why he bases his ethics not so much in fear of avoiding contagion and contamination from the unclean and impure, but rather in communicating and embodying God’s compassion, love, and healing, which he sees as contagious rather than impurity.  Reread the parable of the Good Samaritan:  for Jesus, goodness and love are the great “super spreaders,” not evil and impurity.  And they are the way to welcome God’s Reign, where the conflict between holiness and justice is resolved. 

Grace and Peace,

Fr. Tony+