The desire to achieve one of those ‘gotcha’ moments can often be very obvious, as we watch the news and read our media. It is easy to see when people are lining up the arguments and the debate is getting pointy and you just know something is going to happen, as provocation and deliberate abuse is wound up tightly, ready to explode. It can feel like active theatre, watching from the sidelines as the protagonists argue out the points and we watch the outcome and critique the answers. We see it on chat shows, in Parliament’s Question Time; and, in many circumstances it turns unkind and dangerous very quickly, depending on the unwillingness to be held accountable. Sometimes, giving witness to what is happening also carries risks. Those who stand as witnesses and refuse to be silenced can be arrested, imprisoned, with or without trial, at the whim of leaders and governments, particularly when humour is not part of the context. Chaos often feels close and possible.
Similar debates happen on a smaller scale, when we want to win a point with a friend, with our parents, or a neighbour. I read recently the explosions of rage and violence we see often come from places of deep grief which have not been processed and made manageable within someone’s life, instead they are unacknowledged and deeply buried. It means our lives can be upended over very small triggers catching us unawares. Chaos appears quickly, while taking a long time to dissipate and we wonder how this is part of God’s kingdom, God’s work.
So here we are, reading Matthew’s gospel, focussing on the questions being asked of Jesus, as his enemies, those who disliked him, kept circling, trying to catch Jesus out as he publicly preached, taught and attended the Jerusalem temple while everyone watched. The stakes were becoming higher, and people were less likely to back down. Chaos felt possible. No-one wanted to concede defeat, and while Jesus is not looking for the arguments, he certainly wasn’t walking away, even as he tried to provide room for his attackers to think and shift perspective. As we have journeyed through Matthew’s gospel, in recent stories, initially it was the Pharisees with the Herodians, enemies who joined together to trap Jesus, then the Sadducees had a go at him, and now the Pharisees have come back again for another attack.
What is striking in all these debates, is the Jesus we hear speaking is not meek, mild, polite or persuaded by their arguments, he is not fearful of chaos. He is not trying to keep their peace. He is prickly, knowledgeable, not backing down, and is clearly a ‘disturber of their peace’ as he challenges, gives awkward answers, refusing to answer directly while speaking into the culture of the time. In many countries today, with this sort of profile and behaviour he would be in trouble.
As we listen to the question posed on this occasion, his opponents are seeking to trip him up on the 10 commandments, an invitation to challenge Moses’s relationship with God, a temptation to deny Moses’ prophetic role, God’s law, and his faith. Deuteronomy (34:1-12) tells the story of Moses’ death, as he climbs up the mountain so God can show him the land to which he has walked with his people and hearing he will not be entering.
Moses’ knows his own mortality and he dies in peace with God. God has brought Moses a long way from Egypt, a perilous birth with uncertain survival, into a royal household, then losing it all through murder and a hasty flight to escape any consequences; then his encounter with God, and going back to Egypt to become God’s ‘disturber of the peace’ of the Egyptians and his people; helping his people to escape from slavery, surviving years of wandering and conflict; and finally, the establishment of a new order, the beginning of a new season. What a life! An unfolding of a profoundly prophetic movement from order into chaos and then new ordering. We see the same pattern with Jesus and it is no wonder the pharisees use Moses as an example to challenge him.
The Jews have found a balance of survival within the Roman Empire just as they had done with the Egyptians, this time keeping to themselves, and despite the many attempts at revolution against Roman colonisation of their land, none have succeeded. Then Jesus emerges, with many of the same prophetic characteristics as Moses, and the establishment want to resist the shift into chaos and the new order he is promising. They can see what is coming and they don’t want to go there, with all their disbelief. The lawyer’s sharp question over the prioritising of the ten commandments was undoubtedly tricky. Jesus’ reply was so clear we repeat it in our worship to remind ourselves:
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. ‘This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. (Matt. 22:37-40)
Love is God’s call for all of us; to love God and to love our neighbour. No ifs, no buts, no wriggle room. We are called to be ‘disturbers of the peace’ as Moses and Jesus prophetically demonstrate.
Today the world feels chaotic. The ‘good old days’ which I hear many talking about, when people were polite, there was no social media, we had time to think and plan, has long gone. We are in a different season and God’s prophetic times are among us; we too are called to be ‘disturbers of the peace;’ to be so scandalously profligate with God’s love there can be no pretending God is not with us; to share God’s love, forgiveness, hope, peace, justice and joy with our neighbours. There is nothing more counter-cultural than this message today. We are not called to hate, divide, abuse or to start wars, but to give witness, standing in solidarity, sharing God’s love. Like Jesus, we are not called to placate the establishment, or the empire’s rulers and principalities, not to look for those ‘gotcha moments’ or sow chaos, but to truly know God in our hearts, souls and minds and the inescapable reality and peace of loving our neighbours.
The Lord be with you.