What does it say that if you say "The Big Ten" the first thing that will come to many people's minds is college football? Today we are going to look at the original big ten, the ten commandments.
The Israelite slaves have successfully fled their Egyptian slave masters with the intervention of God Himself and are now camped at the base of Mount Sinai. And from the mountain comes Moses with the commandments of God inscribed into stone by God Himself. This is serious business.
There will be other commandments, ones like do not mix meat and dairy, don't wear garments of two different fabrics and so forth, commandments just for the Israelites so they stand out distinct among the people of the world. But these ten are different. They are universal. And they are non-negotiable.
These are not the ten suggestions, though we tend to treat them as such. We come up with all sorts of creative reasons to get around them sometimes while claiming to be following the spirit of them. I can take these things from my employer because they don't pay me enough. I can move in with my boyfriend or girlfriend because we want to make sure of things before we get married. We negotiate with them in our minds all the time as if our response to them is some form of compromise, but the truth is it is a one sided dialogue because we just aren't listening.
We ask ourselves what is the minimal thing we have to do to be in compliance. We tell ourselves, I have never killed anyone, but Jesus tells us if we have every hated anyone we are just as guilty. Luther in his small catechism helps us see that the big ten isn't just about the least we should do, but about cultivating a way of thinking that asks what is the excellent kind of life, how can we do the best we can do?
Take his explanation of the fifth commandment, "Thou shalt not kill. What does this mean? — Answer. We should fear and love God that we may not hurt nor harm our neighbor in his body, but help and befriend him in every bodily need in every need and danger of life and body." (Small Catechism)
It sounds great if we really think about it. Imagine a world where everyone looked out for... well everyone. But the more common message you will hear in our world today is about the oppressiveness of religion and commandments in general. That commandments don't really originate with God nor reflect any given foundation to our lives but were created by men in power to keep people under their power. The critical progressive movement sees these as the Israelites fleeing one form of slavery to only fall into a moral slavery. If that were so, one would think that a commandment against murder would be somewhat counterproductive. Unjust use of force and threat to livelihood and life has always been a favored tool of the tyrant.
Yes the world would be a much better place if we didn't kill one another, if we didn't lie about one another, if no one stole from each other but actually helped one another have what we need to live, if marriage was honored and families were stable... if people recognized the love of God and relished in it.
For the first thing God said when given the commandments, "I am your God."
God didn't give these commandments as a burden or a test. These are family rules. God sees each human person as His child. We were created to be in relationship with Him and we were created to be in relationship with one another. Jesus summed the big ten up with the words Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and strength and love your neighbor as ourselves. There is no escaping that human life is corporate life. Imagine a world where these were actually followed. How much better would your life be if your neighbor loved you so much he followed them? But why should he when we ourselves don't? And we know as a corporate humanity we don't follow them so we need laws to protect us from each other.
So yes, the big ten, the Law as we call it, was given as a guard. We use the word "guard" to refer to its role in corporate civic society, that these are to inspire our legal frameworks. Used to our nation acknowledged the importance of the big ten in the foundation of western legal and ethical systems. But for some time we have stopped pretending to be inspired by them in our culture. We can now work seven days a week. We can terminate the life of human beings without blame if they are unborn. Marriage is redefined and unnecessary, you can just live together and few think anything about it. And who really expects the public, the media, the politician to honor the eighth commandment and speak only truth about each other. We live in a society consumed by greed and coveting.
So we say at least Christians should follow them, and yes these are a guide, a word we use for their role for the Christian. But we follow so poorly. And so they also stand before us like a mirror. When we don't look away, don't shade our eyes with self-justifications for behavior, our heart and spirit stand stark naked in front of the mirror and it isn't always pretty. We haven't loved our neighbors as ourselves. We've hedged with God's Law. We've bent it, tried to negotiate with it, justified our twisting of it, even ignoring of it.
So what can be done? St. Paul I think explains it the best for us in Romans chapter three.
19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus...
Truth be told we are unable to keep the law well enough to be justified in God's sight. But God is about family. God is about love. And so He sent His own Son to rescue us from ourselves. He is the only person since Adam and Eve who fulfilled the law perfectly, and so He stood in for us, He took our place. He gave His life to pay for our disobedience that we may be forgiven, restored, and renewed. We'll never keep the law perfectly, but now with the help of the Holy Spirit we may do better than ever. We go to heaven because of one reason only -- the grace of God. He forgives us. But while we live, He also helps us to be ... well neighborly, to be a bit more like a loving family. How can we best say thank you to God for saving us for all eternity, by loving those He loves -- our fellow human beings. It can never earn us heaven, but it can make this place a little bit better until He returns.
