The Torah and the teaching of Jesus
If we have understood the
great ideas underlying the teaching of the Pentateuch, we shall have no
difficulty in understanding the summary of the Law given in Deuteronomy 6:5 and
quoted by Jesus in Mark 12:28-31. We shall also be able to understand the words
of Jesus given in Matthew 5: 17 'Do not think that I have come to do away with
the Law of Moses and the teachings of the prophets. I have not come to do away
with them, but to make their teachings come true.' We shall also be able to
understand that many pious and serious Jews at the time of Jesus had lost sight
of the great principle of Deuteronomy 6: 5 and become so involved in the
detailed observance of the Law that they could no longer teach others how to
love God. St. Paul tells us in his letters to the Romans and the Galatians how
his study of the Law had taught him what sin was, but had not shown him how to
be freed from sin. We read in Mark 7: 1-23 how Jesus was confronted by the
Pharisees over a matter of ritual uncleanness and then taught the people around
him that what makes a person really unclean before God is evil thought and
intention.
At a meeting of the early
Church, held by the apostles in Jerusalem in A.D. 49, it was agreed that the
Gentiles who accepted the teaching of and about Jesus Christ should not be told
that they must follow the detailed teaching of the Law but that they were
expected to live according to the principles of moral living which the Law
required. We have seen that the whole aim of the Law was the maintenance of a
holy and loving relationship with God, but it was possible to follow the detail
and fall very short oflove in thought and intention. The word 'love' is a very
deep and profound word with many shades of meaning, but the kind of love
referred to in Deuteronomy 6: 5 may be described as total commitment and total
faithfulness.