Most Jews did not accept Jesus as messiah, which of course caused conflict between Jews and Christ-followers in the first century. And some Christ-followers of Gentile background saw no need of the defining practices and precepts of Judaism; Christ was enough, they thought. The denunciations in today’s Gospel reflect the conflict.
Jesus himself as a devout Jew appreciated the purity laws and customs. But he was also convinced that God’s presence in the community was no longer exclusively in Temple and Torah but in himself; he was the human face of God. If people wanted to “see God,” they could look upon him. If people wanted to hear the voice of God, they could listen to him teaching.
How then did Jesus interpret the ancient traditions that regulated the holiness of the people? As a new Moses, he went back to the origin, reinterpreting the law-giving on Mt. Sinai and recapturing its spirit. We can certainly assume that the first reading from the Torah reflects Jesus view: “So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you.” The point of Moses’ teaching is that the people live happily in the land. “Land” had a wider meaning for Jews of the time than for modern people, for life’s necessities came from the land – from the crops and the animals that fed and clothed people. To live in accord with God’s dictates meant that God’s blessing would come upon the inhabitants of the holy land.
Obeying God’s commandments given through Moses enables us today to be wise, and reminds us that God dwells with us. “You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!’” For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is whenever we call to him? And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today?”
In our day, we have the opportunity to meet the Lord through observing the Ten Commandments and Jesus’s own teaching and example – daily prayer, participation in the Eucharist, caring for others especially the poor. Early Christians and many of their Jewish neighbors summed up the moral life by practicing the great triad of religious practice – prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. That remains our challenge today.