“Christ among us, showing justice”
Exodus 20:1-17; John 2:13-22 (March 3, 2024)
Did you ever see the movie: The Ten Commandments? Made in 1956, starring Charleton Heston as the Hebrew Moses and Yul Brynner as the Egyptian Pharoah, it’s one of the most famous movies of all time. It continues to be played on network TV every year around Passover and Eastertime.
That movie offers us an iconic image of Moses leading the people out of slavery in Egypt. And later receiving the commandments etched in stone on the mountain of God.
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All through this Lenten season we are talking about Covenants. These ten commandments represent the terms of God’s covenant with the people of Israel.
The stone tablets are placed in a box, called the Ark of the Covenant. That box is kept in the most holy place in the house of meeting. Which is to say, this covenant is at the very heart of Israel’s life with God.
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To put these commandments in context, our passage begins with this reminder: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”
The commandments are given to a people who’ve been saved from a miserable existence as slaves. They’ve crossed the waters of the Red Sea. They’re headed for a new and promised land. Now they’re reminded who God is, and who God intends them to be.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Synagoga_Hartmanice_04.jpg" width="232" height="78" />Notice the commandments are given to a people already saved. A people who are already in relationship with God. A people who are now being instructed in the shape of their new God-given life.
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And the first thing they’re told, the very first commandment they’re given, is: “You shall have no other gods before me.”
This is meant to be an exclusive relationship. In much the same way that we enter a marriage. Once you’re committed to that other party, there’s no fooling around. No, it’s you and God, God and you – in a loving, faithful relationship that will last your whole life long. (And beyond, actually. But that story is for another day.)
In the wilderness, before they enter the promised land, the people of Israel are getting to know this God of their ancestors. It is a kind of honeymoon time, if you like, when they begin to build a life together.
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So what does that life look like? Well it’s the exact opposite of what they’ve experienced under Pharoah. God’s freedom is as far from Pharoah’s slavery as you can imagine.
The commandments begin with a focus on God: “No other gods before me. No idolatry, no graven images. No bowing down to anything or anyone that is not God.” God alone is to be served.
It is, writes OT scholar Walter Brueggemann, an affirmation that the world – [their lives,] our lives - are under new governance, a new regime that is contrasted with the brutalizing regime of Pharaoh.”[1] The old order of things is finished. A new way has come.
All through history there have been rulers just like Pharoah. But the Reign of God is different. The reign of God brings emancipation and freedom. The reign of God brings fulness of life.
So, instead of having to produce bricks on demand, seven days a week, God instructs us to keep the Sabbath. The LORD took six days to make heaven and earth, and on the seventh day God rested.
So go ahead, take a break! Your body needs to rest. You need to get out of the rat-race of constantly producing and consuming, day after day, world without end. That is not a healthy way for any of us to live.
No more slavery, says God. No more forced labour and exploitation. No more concentration of wealth in the hands of one powerful ruler. God rules, not Pharoah. No more taking advantage of these ethnic non-Egyptians. All people matter to God! Wow, this really is different, isn’t it?
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And what follows is a whole list of things about how we are to treat our neighbour. How to love and respect one another. Not stealing. Not always looking over our neighbour’s fence and wanting what they have for ourselves.
Not killing one another when we have our differences. We are so quick to retaliate. We build up huge stocks of armaments – the more powerful, we think, the better. It's madness, isn’t it – the suffering and destruction we bring?
Humanity has built enough nuclear weapons to destroy everyone on the planet several times over. And the blasphemous part of it is we actually talk about using them! Who do we think we are?
The commandments we read this morning point in a different direction. They teach us to honour and respect. To care for our neighbour.
Do not bear false witness! In other words, speak the truth. It sounds so simple. But our propaganda machines thrive on distortion, bending the truth, moulding it to serve our own desired end.
Keep these commandments, says Moses to the people, so that you might live well in this new land. “For I am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me.” Yes, we are all familiar with this. The mistakes of one generation having consequences for those who follow.
But listen to this: Here is a God who “shows steadfast love – covenant love – committed, faithful, enduring love, to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.”
Four generations of consequence. A thousand generations of blessing for those who live God’s way! You see, there is no comparison.
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The commandments point to life. What did the Psalmist say? They are more to be desired than gold. Sweeter also than honey. “The ordinances of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.” (Psalm 19:9-10)
Our sermon title this morning is “Christ among us, showing us justice.” I find it helpful to think of justice as more than rigid adherence to a rule of law. Rather justice points to the goal of every law and every commandment: That we might live in right-relationship with both God and neighbour.
The commandments, in and of themselves, do not have the power to create those kind of relationships. But they describe what those relationships look like.
Some of you have been part of our Lenten Bible Study, where we’ve been looking at the Lord’s Prayer. And it strikes me that, there too, we find this same two-fold division. The first part of the prayer focusses on God. Just like the first few commandments.
And then the prayer turns to us and our needs – for things like daily bread and forgiveness. In the same way, the second half of the ten commandments turn to various aspects of neighbour-love. How to live with one another in ways that are just, righteous and good.
Relationship with God. Relationship with neighbour. Both of these matter deeply. When these relationships are broken or distorted, there is no justice. And we do not have abundant life.
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Which brings us to our Gospel reading. I want to mention it briefly. Because, as you know, Jesus came so that we might have life, and have it abundantly!
When Jesus went into the temple, he created quite a stir. He made a whip out of cords and drove out the animals and the people selling them. He overturned the tables of the money-changers. Why would he do such a thing?
Jesus was determined that nothing, absolutely nothing, should get in the way of our relationship with God?
Those animals occupied the outer court of the temple, the place reserved for non-Jews, for Gentiles. Is God’s house not a house for all people?
And what if the business of buying and selling and making sacrifice became an end in itself? Getting in the way of God, instead of leading us to God? “Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” said Jesus.
“Christ among us, showing us justice.” Christ among us, bringing right-relationship with God and people. He comes that we might have life, and have it abundantly.
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Now, back to the commandments. Can they bring us life? No.
We need a power beyond that to fundamentally change us from the inside out. A power to forgive our sins, and set us right, and make us part of God’s new creation. We need the cross and resurrection. We need God’s holy, life-giving Spirit.
But these Ten Commandments can show us what that new life looks like! They can remind us of what’s important in our living with God and others.
They teach us about God’s justice. A justice that goes far beyond rule-keeping, as good and necessary as those rules may be.
They teach us about relationship. Right-relationship. Where God alone is worshipped. And where each and every person has their needs met, and more than met, with generosity and love.
Pharoah’s old rule is finished. A new life lies before us. And we, like the children of Israel, are invited to enter a new and promised land.
This too is the journey of Lent, as we shift our loyalties from Empires of old and turn to the beloved community of God’s people. Love for God. And love for neighbour, living together in the Reign of God. May it be so! Amen.
[1] Walter Brueggemann, “Strategies for Staying Emancipated,” March 04, 2018. http://day1.org/8145-walter_brueggemann_strategies_for_staying_emancipated, Accessed Mar. 1, 2018.