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Jesus & the Ten Commandments HOMILY PREACHED ON LENT 3, MARCH 19, 2006 The Ten Commandments formed the basis of our moral system, but at their beginning
they seem to have been a “property code,” * I’d never thought of them that way. The first four
commandments deal with God: “I own you, I paid for your liberation from Egypt, so you can’t
have any other gods.” Don’t even think of trying to making a model of me, because you can’t.
Whatever you make will be a lifeless, dishonest idol. As my property you are not to swear to an
agreement falsely using my name. Nature is just order, and you can count on that; history is
where I work, so respect time, take care how you use it. Passover was near, Jesus in Jerusalem found people in the temple selling cattle, sheep, and doves, money changers at their tables. Making a whip, he drove them out of the temple, including sheep and cattle, poured out the coins of the money changers, overturned their tables, told those selling doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!”The temple was God’s house, and they’d turned God’s ‘property” into a market. Now, selling sacrificial animals and birds was supposed to be for the convenience of the people coming from all over the place – making their trip easier, faster, less troublesome not having to carry birds or herd animals along the way. An outer porch had been built onto the temple specifically for that purpose, but Jesus saw dishonesty in what they were doing – making a commercial venue on the very porch outside the most sacred place in the Hebrew religion. He was offended at the abuse of God’s property! The third resurrection sentence from our Order for the Burial of the Dead reminds us of our relationship with God: For none of us has life in himself,All that we are is of God; all that we have is God’s - and you really can’t take it with you! Even our behavior belongs to God. But look what Jesus did: in a total breakthrough he transformed this relationship to God and to each other. You see, those Commandments had been excellent in a nomadic time: the words were very direct: Don’t kill, don’t steal. Jesus turned them to their positive, transformed ownership into a LOVING EMBRACE, A FATHER’S LOVE; not “we are the Lord’s possession,” but GOD, YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER LOVES YOU. Don’t fear him, LOVE HIM WITH ALL YOUR HEART, SOUL & MIND. He taught that the Sabbath Day was to help us, not enslave us. Don’t kill became LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOU LOVE YOURSELF; No adultery became FORGIVE THE ONE CAUGHT IN ADULTERY; don’t steal became JUSTICE IS THE MINIMUM EXPRESSION OF LOVE; don’t be a false witness became, THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE; do not covet became GIVE THANKS AND TRUST IN GOD TO PROVIDE ALL YOU NEED. In that new light the challenge is this: God loves all those other people, all those other children with the same love he loves you. What haunts me more than anything is to see a father nearby or far away, working as hard as he can, his eyes looking painful because he can’t make enough to provide food for his children, affluent people such as we indifferent, passing them by. They are all God’s children, and we can make a difference. I can look objectively, sometimes with sadness, at pictures of hungry children, orphaned from the tsunami, freezing from the earthquake in the mountains of Pakistan, orphaned by AIDS in Africa or by war in the Sudan, but when I put the face of my children and grandchildren onto them these children become real, human and personal, and they touch my heart. That’s when my hand moves to our checkbook. God’s children, and God cares for them through us. When we catch the vision we can make a difference, no longer property, no longer in debt, but loved. “All things come of Thee, O Lord, and of Thine own have we given Thee.” Amen Copyright: Ernest W. Cockrell
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