God, a lawbreaker: a radical thought.
God, I place you, dare I, on the judgment seat, the ultimate judgment seat. I have found you to be guilty of law breaking. I accuse you of breaking the law.
How can you, the perfectly righteous judge of all, be guilty of breaking your own law? How is it even possible that you could break the law considering you are without sin?
I thought you were rule maker, not rule breaker, so what were you thinking? A momentarily slip up? A slight bend in the rules? Intending rules for some and not for others? Biased in your rule keeping duties? Partial, instead of impartial?
To find you guilty would label you God, hypocrite! Unable to be trusted to be judge of all! Or judge at all!
And me heretic!
The theology of my religious upbringing teaches that the 10 commandments you gave Moses are laws to live by. But complicated by inconsistencies in the Bible, they (my religious teachers) have declared it okay to moderate certain laws like, for example, the Sabbath. In this case, to set the scene of my accusation, Saint Paul said somewhere that Christians met on the first day of the week, making it legal that Sundays became our new holy day, or the new Sabbath. So then they say that it’s about principle; we have a day different to the rest of the week where we stop our work, rest and recreate, and think upon God.
We make excuses for breaking the law when things from the Bible do not work out literally, and yet where it pleases us, we continue to say that other things, and laws, are literal and need to be literally kept, begging the question, can we really take the bible literally? And does explaining the law as principles to live by instead of strict law, really cut it? To do so, would declare chaos as the new commandment.
But that’s me, that’s humanity, we make excuses, we moderate things, we change laws because we are lawbreakers by nature, and we can’t live out the law, to the letter of the law, because it is impossible for us to do so. And so what to obey, and what not to obey becomes confusing. What is literal law and what is not is far from simple. But what happens when God, you God, fails to be God?
Was it too much for you too, God? Cannot even God, infallible, unable to sin, God, keep your own rules? How destabilizing! How can I continue to believe that “shall not the judge of all the earth do right?” when you have not done right?
Speak for yourself God. Defend your position, for this is the case I accuse you of.
There was a woman, a Jewess, a recipient of the Law of God to the Israelites, caught in adultery. This law, your law, declared that an adulteress was to be stoned to death. You said regarding adultery, “thou shalt not commit it”, (this a 10 commandment law, not just an everyday of the week government or national policy, or societal bi-law) so, why then did you break your own law, completely absolve the woman, declare her who was found guilty, not guilty, and furthermore, let her go without any form of punishment?
Do you lower yourself, the righteous judge, to our standards and argue that the Jewish law was for the establishment of the nation, or for the church or society of the day, and not necessary for now, or some such excuse like our theologians do who say of the laws that some no longer apply?
Is it that you can break your own law, but we as humanity should keep them? Are you a “do as I say, not do as I do” kind of God?
Was it a moment of pity, a rush of compassion, mercy, and deep love – your known weak spots – that led you to let the team down, and give way to feelings? I mean, we are your team, those of us righteous Christians who stand up for you. You’ve given outsiders, the unchristian, the of-the-world, cause to ridicule you. You have definitely given us cause to have to try and explain your actions, excuse you, rally to try and rewrite or retranslate scripture, because we have to uphold who you have said you are. It is our duty to do so, isn’t it?
Is your argument that you alone see the heart, so you alone are the only one who can judge correctly, giving you the right to keep or break the law as you see fit?
This woman was, to be fair, a victim of the Pharisees, those of whom you said burden the people with their laws, but, she was “found in the very act”. Caught in the middle of the deed. Dragged out before she could escape and the evidence be lost. That she were a victim is incredibly horrific, in being made to stand before you and the crowd and her accusers. Perhaps not given the dignity to fully dress, but rough handled before you, showing her to be the unclean in body and in spirit lowest of the low person she was. And that she were a ‘test’ to see how you would respond is a case of mistreatment for sure – but – not guilty?
Then in exhibit number two, I give you the actual scriptural account of being guilty of breaking the Sabbath. Healing a man on the Sabbath when it were you who said nothing was to be done by way of work on this day. You allow, in yet another case, this rule to be broken by your disciples, who harvest wheat as they walk the fields, picking it, and eating it.
Further evidence reveals you let the unclean touch you, and you carry on your day as if they hadn’t, when clearly the law says that you should ceremonially wash yourself and exclude yourself for a time.
Then, as if its ok, your followers on queue seem to adopt your stance and Philip, for example, breaks the law. He speaks the good news to the Eunuch, who is on his way to the temple to worship, which is forbidden of him in Jewish law. Philip baptizes him and sends him on his way as a new follower of Jesus, his very body becomes the very temple of God (this man who’s being – castrated, without gender, effeminate, gay – was as contentious particularly amongst your people, the Jews, in his day as it is still in ours).
What say you?
You let Saint Paul represent you,
“Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,”and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law”. Romans 13:8-10
Ah love. That obscure notion. The thing that muddies the water on every circumstance. Love that overlooks but is held in such regard for the one it beholds.
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Oh God, how I am so glad that you are a lawbreaker. Because, “let him who is not guilty throw the first stone”. There were no stone throwers on that day where the woman was made to stand before Jesus. There was no one, not guilty. On this day you revealed what had always been, but was hidden by our obsessing nature of rule keeping and blame toward those who don’t, that love is the higher law, the highest law of all.
There is a song that has accompanied these thoughts today. It is sung in churches as a declaration about who you are. It’s lyrics say,
Way maker/Miracle worker/Promise keeper/Light in the darkness/Our God, that is who you are
To this declaration of your character, I add law breaker.
Without you being law breaker, I would be condemned, wallowing in inability to get out of the mess that brokenness and sin has caused.
But you are
Love maker/Law breaker/Mercy keeper/Grace in the darkness/Our God, that is who you are