Did Jesus contradict himself?
I had a heated debate with my students when we discussed the words of Jesus in today’s Gospel. One of the seminarians said, “Jesus is contradicting Himself; sometimes He seemingly ignores the Law, like when He healed on a Sabbath or didn’t wash His hands before eating, and now He stresses that He did not come to abolish it.” Another student agreed but added, “Or Jesus never said this. Matthew, a Jewish scholar, might have put this on the lips of Jesus.”
In the end we had to clarify what Jesus means when He speaks of “the Law.” The “Law” is basically what we call the Ten Commandments. Jesus never ever abolished them. They were and still are valid until today, as our catechism clearly teaches. But during His time, these Ten Commandments had multiplied into hundreds of commandments and laws with countless sub-laws and sub-commandments. It was like a beautiful garden with a few selected flowers that had become an impenetrable jungle.
Whenever Jesus “violated” a Jewish law, it was one of those countless additional laws but never one of the Ten Commandments. They were not given by God to make life more difficult but to help us live a God-pleasing life and reach our eternal destiny. Jesus does not want us to be legalistic when it comes to laws given by humans. But He wants us to be faithful to the 10 basic God-given commandments. And behind them we should always see a loving Father God. Pope Benedict XVI said in one of his homilies, “Christianity is more than and different from a moral code, from a series of requirements and laws. It is the gift of a friendship that lasts through life and death.... The Ten Commandments are first and foremost a ‘yes’ to God, to a God who loves us and leads us, who carries us and yet allows us our freedom” (8 September 2007).
Unfortunately, it is some of the Ten Commandments that are violated by the same people who call themselves Christians. Fr. Rudy Horst, SVD
REFLECTION QUESTION: Do you keep God’s Law out of fear or because you understand it as a sign of God’s love and care for you?
Lord, too often I try to avoid violating small rules and think I am a good person. But when I go to confession I have to confess that I violated the more important God-given commandments.
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