Many of you will know that I try to talk to people who don’t come to church. I love to try and find out: What do they think? What do they believe? What questions are they asking?
One issue I encounter fairly regularly, as a barrier to the Christian faith, is the Old Testament. It seems a number of people find the Old Testament difficult. Perhaps the Old Testament half of the Bible is one of the things that puzzles you. If we’re honest, most of us who are Christians find it hard from time to time as well.
What do you do with those ethical instructions that jar with a modern culture? Things like: Don’t mix different kinds of fibres in your clothing. Commands like that don’t fit in a modern age, let alone a post-modern one.
What do you do with those narratives that sound so brutal. Those episodes in the Old Testament that seem filled with apparently needless violence, and that don’t seem to fit with a God of love?
What do you do with a text written for a culture that is so different from our own? Abraham and Lot wander around with their flocks and herds, but then they have to go their own way because their herdsmen are quarrelling over grazing rights. That story might chime with a nomadic culture in parts of Africa, Arabia, Nepal or Peru, but it doesn’t sound like it has much to do with Great Britain in 2011.
Have you ever heard an Old Testament reading in church that makes you wonder? When the reader says “This is the word of the Lord”, are we allowed to respond: “Really?” instead of “Thanks be to God”?
To many people, the Old Testament is at best out of date, and at worst something less than Christian. If that is the case, and especially if it is a barrier that keeps a number from the Christian faith, might it not be better if we side-lined it? We might not have to rub it out entirely. We could just play it down. Not mention it too often. A bit like the embarrassing relative – not invite it to too many of our parties, and hope we all have a happier time as a result.
You’ve got to admit – it’s tempting! As followers of Jesus, of course, we have to ask how he would like us to treat the Old Testament. We are under his authority. And he tells us that in the gospel reading we had this morning. Jesus says three things about the Old Testament, and one follows from the other.
The Old Testament Points to Jesus
The first thing Jesus says is this: The Old Testament points to Jesus. The Old Testament points to Jesus.
Verse 17: Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them. The Law and the Prophets is the way the Jews of Jesus’ day would refer to the Old Testament.
Jesus is saying we are not to think that his coming abolishes the Old Testament. That word “abolish” is the word they used for the demolition of a building. You know those scenes you’ve seen, where a great block of flats has explosives placed throughout, and the whole thing comes down like a pack of cards in sixteen seconds. Jesus is saying that we should not think he did that to the Old Testament.
When used of a written document, that word “abolish” meant “repeal”. You’ll remember the Great Repeal Bill that the coalition government planned when they took office, that would unwind lots of the legislation that Labour had brought in. That’s not what he did with the Old Testament either. Jesus didn’t treat it as the ideology of the previous regime to be unwound just as soon as he can.
No he did not come to abolish it. Neither did he come to leave it exactly as it was. He came to fulfil it. The Old Testament points to him. It’s about him. He fills it full. It’s like an empty glass that Jesus fills to the top.
Jesus is saying that it’s not just the Old Testament prophets who looked to the future. The whole Old Testament is inherently forward-looking. It’s an incomplete book. It’s staring ahead of itself, looking for the one who will complete it.
That person is Jesus. The whole Old Testament points to him. And now he has come, we can read it with its full meaning. We can read of the institutions, like the monarchy and the temple, knowing the one they foreshadowed. We can read the promises, knowing the one who kept them. We can read the teachings, knowing the teachings of the one they anticipated. We can read the narratives, knowing the story of the one they paved the way for. The Old Testament points to Jesus.
So ask this question: Who is the Old Testament about? Answer Jesus. Remember the story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, after Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus walked with them, and he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. Or remember the story of the Ethiopian eunuch, riding in his chariot after visiting Jerusalem, and reading part of Isaiah. He invites Philip into the chariot with him to explain it to him, and we’re told that “beginning with this Scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus.” It’s about Jesus.
So who has the authority to interpret it? Well that’s Jesus too. Jesus does not leave us the option of thinking that there’s some great conflict between him, his mission, and his teaching, and that of the Old Testament. The two are in harmony. The Old Testament pointed to Jesus.
But does that mean that, now Jesus is here, we don’t need the Old Testament anymore? When I was at college, I would save each revision of an essay as a new file on my computer. I now have lots and lots of essay drafts on my computer. I could delete them. Now the final copy is done, I don’t need the temporary drafts. Is the Old Testament like a series of essay drafts? They pointed to Jesus, and now he’s come, so they are redundant?
Well, let’s ask him!
The Old Testament is Permanent
Here’s the second thing, then, that he tells us about the Old Testament. The Old Testament is permanent. The Old Testament is permanent.
Verse 18: For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
By the way, Jesus starts with: Truly, I say to you. This is not something I’m making up. It’s what Jesus says to me, and it’s what Jesus says to you. At this point, I’m as much under authority as you are; this is his teaching, not mine.
And what he says is that the Old Testament is permanent. It’s as permanent as the heavens and the earth. For as long as this world order exists, the Old Testament still stands.
And notice how comprehensive he is. He doesn’t say that the general gist of the Old Testament contains a few good truths about God worth holding onto. He doesn’t say that there are some good insights there if you know where to look. He says that not an iota, and not a dot will pass from the Old Testament. The iota and the dot were the tiniest marks in the alphabet. Like the dot on an i, the stroke on a t, and the tail that distinguishes a lower case j from a lower case i. The Old Testament is permanent, says Jesus, and it’s permanence is down to the smallest mark on the page.
And nothing passes from it until all is accomplished. Lots of things the Old Testament promises and looks forward to we’re still waiting for. So that’s why it’s permanent.
Jesus makes his point with a word play on that little phrase “pass away”. Until heaven and earth passes away, not even the smallest detail of the Old Testament will pass away.
Not many things are this permanent. Empires and civilisations come; empires and civilisations go. Who knows, maybe one day, Great Britain will be covered with wild forests? Perhaps some Peruvian archaeologists will discover Britain, and excavate London under the forest canopy. There’ll be gasps as they find ruins of old bridges, of palaces, of churches.
What Jesus is saying is that, even if one day we are as much a relic of the past as the Incas are today, the heavens and the earth will still be there, many of the things promised in the Old Testament will still be awaiting their final fulfilment, so even then the Old Testament will remain the word of God. That’s how permanent it is.
So, yes, the Old Testament is about Jesus. But that does not mean we can scrub it like an old essay draft. Jesus is relevant right up to the end of time. And so until the end of time, the Old Testament continues to be relevant, and more to the point it continues to be the Word of God. The old prayer book has a wonderful phrase for this, when it calls the Bible, “God’s word written”. It remains so until the end of time.
But we may still ask: Is its permanence just that of a historic record? Its purpose now is to tell us what used to be. So we read it with a quaint interest in a bygone age, but its detailed instructions are no longer applicable?
Well, once again, let’s ask him:
The Old Testament is to be Practiced
Because that’s the third thing Jesus tells us: The Old Testament is to be practiced. The Old Testament is to be practiced.
Verse 19: Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
He’s already used one wordplay. The Old Testament is as permanent as the world. Now he uses another. If you think you’ve found a commandment that is small enough that it doesn’t need to be practiced, you are wrong! It isn’t small – you are small. When someone thinks that part of the Old Testament can be ignored because it’s little, the only little thing is that person. That’s what Jesus says.
Even worse than thinking you can ignore bits of the Old Testament is teaching others that they can ignore it.
But then turn it round. The Old Testament is to be practiced, obeyed and taught.
At which point we mustn’t forget where we began. Jesus didn’t come to abolish the Old Testament, but neither did he come to leave it alone. We don’t keep the Old Testament as pre-Christian Jews, but as New Testament Christians; we practice and obey it as Scripture that has been fulfilled by Jesus. But practice it we must, rather than ignore it. The Old Testament is not “their Scriptures”, or “the Jewish Scriptures”. They’re our Scriptures. Or simply “the Scriptures”. The living and enduring word of God.
Well let’s apply this. Jesus is telling us that the Old Testament is something we are to practice and to teach, and certainly not to side-line.
This gives me my orders. As I plan the teaching and preaching programme for this church, Jesus is telling me to feature the Old Testament prominently. Today, we are looking at the New Testament, which is Scripture too, but we mustn’t stay here too long.
And actually, anyone with any responsibility for the public reading and teaching of Scripture, is under the same orders. In house groups, youth groups, children’s groups, and Bible studies, the Old Testament is to be practiced and taught.
In terms of the number of words, the Old Testament is about three quarters of the Bible. We wouldn’t claim to love and honour another human being if we ignored a principled three quarters of what they said. If the whole Bible is “God’s word written”, neither may we shrink it to a quarter of its size.
As Christian Scripture, as fulfilled Scripture, as permanent Scripture, the Old Testament is to be practiced.
Worked Example
So what do you make of that reading in Leviticus? That is where the Old Testament precludes eating shellfish!
Well in a discussion with his disciples, Jesus declared all foods to be clean. The rest of the New Testament bears that out: The dietary restrictions of the Old Testament are not binding on Christians.
So does that mean that chapter is abolished? Well not exactly! The reason why the Jews had to avoid eating certain foods was because they were a distinctive nation, God’s chosen people, so their behaviour had to be different from those around them.
The people of God are no longer a distinct race. The death of Jesus broke down the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile. And with that change comes the end of the food laws that marked out that nation.
So that chapter of Leviticus points to Jesus, as the one whose death would break down those barriers and distinctions. And yet that chapter is permanent; it remains the word of God. We need to hear it read, and to learn about Jesus through it. And it’s permanence is not just as a record of how things used to be; that chapter is to be practiced and obeyed. But we obey it as fulfilled by Jesus.
When Jesus declared all foods clean, he explained that the real issue is not the food we eat, but the selfishness in our hearts. So as the people of God, gathered from every nation, we serve a holy God just as they did. They had to be a distinctive nation, which included not eating lobster; we have to be a distinctive people, which means avoiding any attitude of heart that leads to selfish and damaging behaviour towards others.
Something like that. Perhaps Jesus is saying, in Matthew 5, that we need a full sermon on that chapter sometime so that we can work out what it means to obey it.
Conclusion
For now, we are those who follow Jesus. He is our Lord and Master. He tells us what to do.
And one aspect of that is telling us what to do with the Old Testament.
We’re not to throw it in the bin. We’re not to side-line it. We’re not to treat it like a relic of a past age. Jesus wants us to read it, to let it point us to him, and then to obey it – and that is what he wants us to do until the day he comes back.