Ten Ten

When I talk of finding The Law to be the best way of understanding The Cross, I mean it in the broad brushstrokes and in the detail. So, for example, the Ten Commandments can be read in all sorts of ways - but if the previous post has any merit, and if The Law is supposed to point us to the Saviour and to the cross, have you ever stopped and tried to see the Top Ten as something Jesus fulfils on Good Friday?

1. "No other gods before me". Not self. Not anger. Not power. Not the way things are. Not comfort. Not 'My Way'. All these things are put in their place by the Saviour on the cross.

2. No idols. Not Caesar - "the system". Any system - for the Jews it was the religious system that they wanted to preserve that stopped them seeing the God who had come to save. Again, not self. In many ways this is simply the first one repeated. But Jesus strips bare the idols of the world as he is put on a pole and lifted up.
Note - the punishment for sin is given a limited shelf-life; the reward for righteousness is never-ending. Mercy shines out from the cross.

3. Blasphemy. All around the cross, God's name is abused and spattered with filth and mud. Jesus? With his own name being pelted with muck, he sings to God a Psalm of praise (Psalm 22) and cries "Father forgive!".

4. Sabbath. Two things. His work was done on day six; on the seventh he rested in the tomb, before beginning a new world of re-creation on the first day of a new week. But second - do note that this command makes everyone equal in the sight of God. This is no "rest for the rich", whilst the poor keep them comfortable. Everyone gets the same here. By God's command. Everyone is on a level playing field at the foot of the cross.

5. Honour your parents - that you may live long. Well, Jesus takes care of his mother's needs (with John) and praises his Father's name. But live long? Oh yes; eternally.

6. No murder. At the cross, the place of death? But Jesus uses it to bring life: if he comes down, it is indeed a place of death, but for us this becomes a gate to life eternal. Indeed no murder - just gift.

7. No adultery. Isreal commits one last act of prostitution, Hosea-like selling herself to Rome, Gomer's last fling. But Jesus takes on his people's mantle, their role, their calling, their unfulfilled faithfulness, and the faithful Son remains true to his first love.

8. No stealing. Satan steals hearts and minds. Jesus frees them. Satan tries to steal his life; but there is no theft here - this is freely given, and will be freely taken up again. To have kept what was rightly his, that would have been theft - the robbery of our eternity; but that was not on Jesus mind. He was keeping The Law.

9. No false testimony. Oh, it abounds from the religious men who bought it in order to bind Jesus to two planks of wood and keep him there till he bled to death. But Jesus is silent: no true testimony either from him in this place about those people - for his true words would be their condemnation, and the Son of Man came not to condemn the world but to save it.

10. No coveting. "When you come to your kingdom - remember me!" How he must have longed for that moment. But it was not a selfish longing. Glory is no glory when kept alone. It is to be shared, not stored. He gave it away. He gave everything away.

Now, I'm not saying this is the only way to read the Ten Commandments. But I am saying that The Law always works like this: it points us to Jesus. So when we have problems with it, one of the first things we have to do is wrestle with it in this context: "what is this passage trying to tell us about Jesus?" And then we work from there.

And by the way, I'm using the Deuteronomy 5 version, which goes on over the chapter line to have Moses sum it up in these words (Dt 6.5): "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." Not a bad summary, familiar from something Jesus once said. Amazingly, straight from The Law.