I do pastor magic here — linking King Arthur and Leviticus. Do I win?
Matthew 5:38-48; 1 Corinthians 3:10-23; Psalm 119:33-40; Leviticus 19:1-2,9-18
I rather enjoy reading. I almost always have at least one book that I’m working my way through at any given time. It’s a great way for me a wind down before I go to sleep, and I have a great time getting to know the different characters, as well as the differing styles of all the writers. The latest book I’m re-reading is T. H. White’s The Once and Future King. If you haven’t read it, you really ought to. It’s a retelling of the Arthurian legend, based primarily on Le Morte d’Arthur written in the 15th Century by Sir Thomas Malory.
The most interesting part of The Once and Future King is its overriding theme — Might does not make Right, instead Might ought to serve Right. And so, through the course of the book that becomes Arthur’s mission. Once removing sword from stone and becoming king, he immediately sets off creating the Knights of the Round Table and, over the course of the book, attempting to set the knights of England on the path of Right – not what whoever was strongest thought was Right, but Right in the eyes of God.
In a related way that only a pastor attempting to put together a sermon would see, God is doing something similar with the people of Israel in Leviticus, and even the rest of the Law. Up until Exodus 20, the people of Israel had no law. Early in their history they were a small tribal group looking to a man named Abraham as their leader, father, and ancestor, depending on when in time we’re talking about. By the time of Jacob, this tribal group had grown significantly, as he had twelve sons who each had families of their own. Yet to this point, their legal system was likely something as undefined as “don’t hurt the clan”.
Things would have changed for the Israelites when under Egyptian rule. Egypt had a very well-defined legal system, and over the course of 300 years the Hebrew people would have gotten rather used to it. Then, when they left Israel and became a wandering tribal group, there would have been no laws of their own, having been accustomed to Egypt’s just kind of always being there. So God gave them some. From Exodus 20 until the end of Numbers is the legal code of ancient Israel, defining what was Right in God’s eyes. Then, just to make sure they have it, Moses gives them a summary of the Law for the entire book of Deuteronomy.
Now, all of Israel’s law can be boiled down to two basic things. Love God and love neighbor. When you look at all the laws, they all have something to do with one or both of those things. In our reading from Leviticus, we have several examples of this: leave some grain behind in your field for the poor; don’t steal; don’t lie; don’t swear falsely by God’s Name; pay your employees on time; don’t be cruel to the blind or deaf; be an impartial judge; don’t slander. They make sense.
Unfortunately, over the course of about a millennium and a half, a switch happened in thinking about the law, similar to what happened in The Once and Future King. For Arthur, his own son used the law to trap him into arresting his wife and best friend, Guinevere and Lancelot, for treason. For the Jews, instead of being an example of how to properly love God and love neighbor, the Law became, in a way, the people’s god. It was more important to follow the law to the letter, as opposed to doing what was right. The overarching theme of loving God and loving neighbor was buried under specifics. Jesus talked about this in a number of places — specific instances where the Law was used to oppress and not to bring life.
In this section of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is reminding people of the original purpose of the Law. The law says to love your neighbor. We even read that part from Leviticus. But the interpretation became, love your neighbor and hate your enemies. Jesus, on the other hand, taught that everyone was your neighbor, and so a person ought to love their enemies and pray for the ones who are against them. It’s not good enough just to love people who love you back, even heathens and sinners do that, but those who follow Jesus should behave differently — we should behave as God behaves.
Now that is where things get interesting. Who does God love? Does God love people who are good? Does He love people who are evil? Does He love people who are in between? Does he love his friends? Does he love his enemies? Or perhaps a better question, is there anyone God doesn’t love? That’s why the whole law can be summed up with love God and love neighbor. Our actions ought not be motivated by laws, or even ethics or morality, but instead motivated by love — the kind of love that sends an only son to earth for the sake of the whole world.