[Rom. 7:15-25a; Mt. 11:6-9, 25-30]
Grace to you and peace. Amen.
“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Law and Gospel.
It’s a technique of studying and preaching the Scriptures that has proven its great worth over the centuries. It helps us to navigate our way through the texts and clarify its messages for us. It’s a way of letting the texts tell us where we are in relation to God and to each other.
The Law organises society.
The Law confronts us with our sins.
The Law explains and admonishes us how to conduct our lives.
The Gospel assures us of God’s forgiveness, God’s love, God’s care and engagement, all of God’s promises come true.
To put it in another way,
The Law is binding, restrictive.
The Law is obligatory.
The Law is confrontational.
The Law calls to responsibility but it more often than not is also a burden.
To be under the Law is to be under constant scrutiny, constant judgement.
The Law requires constant work, constant improvement. The Law requires perfection, and that just isn’t feasible, it’s impossible for human beings to attain. It risks becoming a very self-centred enterprise, all about our own achievements.
It can potentially be soul destroying.
In his letter to the Galatians (chap. 3), St Paul equates the Law to slavery, to an imprisonment.
And then Paul utters this sigh of relief, he sees a way out,
“Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
God has sent Jesus, the Anointed, to be a new kind of Master.
In Jesus, there is a new covenant, a new connection, a new calling.
All the rules and regulations have a new context, a clearer context.
The burden is light.
The Gospel sets us free, it restores us to new life; sin doesn’t have the final say any more.
This doesn’t mean that the Gospel is a free-for-all.
Jesus said to the adulteress,
“...neither do I condemn you. Go, and sin no more.” (Jn. 8)
The Gospel never looses sight of our raging, egomaniacal, insatiable human condition. The Gospel isn’t naive. The Gospel is a realist.
But thanks be to God, our relationship with God is restored.
And what about our relationship with others?
What will we be to our neighbours?
Law or Gospel?
Do we regulate their lives?
Do we point out their mistakes?
Do we tell them how to live, how to behave?
Or do we offer Good News?
Will we offer second chances? Or will we re-hash old mistakes and prevent our brothers and sisters from moving on?
Will we try to see things in the right context? Or will we blow things out of proportion, will we zoom in on their imperfections, their flaws, their idiosyncrasies?
How do we look at others? What do we see when we look at others, a work in progress, or a child of God?
When we speak of sin, are we willing to speak of forgiveness also?
Will we treat others as we expect God to treat us?
When was the last time we said to someone, ‘I will not hold it against you, try and do better next time’?
Law and Gospel.