Missional Jesus, plain and simple, didn\u2019t follow the rules. And here\u2019s something to think about: there is very little difference at the phemenological level between the Torah and one\u2019s interpretation of the Torah. So, even if we say, \u201cJesus didn\u2019t really break the Torah; he broke only the interpretation of the Torah,\u201d we are really fudging. Why? Missional Jesus, plain and simple, didn\u2019t follow the rules. And here\u2019s something to think about: there is very little difference at the phemenological level between the Torah and one\u2019s interpretation of the Torah. So, even if we say, \u201cJesus didn\u2019t really break the Torah; he broke only the interpretation of the Torah,\u201d we are really […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1757],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-missional-jesus"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nBecause our interpretation of the Torah is equated with the Torah. The Pharisees around Jesus thought he broke the Torah. But Jesus thought he was \u2014 on the contrary \u2014 revealing the heart of the Torah.
\n1. Missional Jesus distinguished the love of Torah from the Torah of love. The 613 prohibitions and commandments may have been there due to \u201cplenary inspiration\u201d but they weren\u2019t all equal and they weren\u2019t equally normative.
\n2. For Jesus, the law was here to help humans and not to hinder them.
\nHere\u2019s our text for today, from Matthew 12:1-8:
\nMatt. 12:1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. 2 When the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, \u201cLook, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath.\u201d 3 He said to them, \u201cHave you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him or his companions to eat, but only for the priests. 5 Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath the priests in the temple break the sabbath and yet are guiltless? 6 I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. 7 But if you had known what this means, \u2018I desire mercy and not sacrifice,\u2019 you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.\u201d<\/em>
\n3. Missional Jesus permitted his disciples to pluck grain on the sabbath; Pharisees didn\u2019t. Missional Jesus did because they were doing God\u2019s work and it is God\u2019s work to feed humans.
\n4. Missional Jesus knew that the general holiness of the Temple\u2019s food was protected but if humans needed food, then those in need could \u201ccommon-ate\u201d that food by eating it as food for sustenance. So David and his companions.
\n5. Missional Jesus summons his followers to know the difference.
\n6. Missional Jesus knows that mercy \u2014 the second half of the Jesus Creed<\/a> \u2014 is the heart of the Torah.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"