You Have Heard it Said, But...
Matthew 5:21-37
You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times,
BUT...
Jesus says this quite a few times in today’s Gospel. You
have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, BUT...
You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times,
BUT today I’m going to tell you something very new and different.
Jesus is talking about Scripture, about the Torah. He’s talking about interpreting the
meaning of the words of Scripture.
We are still in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is teaching his followers the fundamentals of being
his disciples.
And one of the practices that will characterize their life
together is interpreting, re-imagining the meaning of Scripture. One of the practices that Jesus will
undertake with his disciples is seeking new meaning in old texts.
Jesus’ words are both groundbreaking and very, very traditional. The particular interpretations of the
Law of Moses, the Ten Commandments, that Jesus proposes are certainly new. But in the process of reinterpreting
the meaning of Scripture, he follows in a LONG tradition of rabbinic practice.
For us as Christians, Jesus’ particular interpretation is
important, of course. And this
passage is difficult. That’s
important work, but it’s a sermon for another day.
Today I want to focus on the fact that Jesus is also saying to his disciples: We are people who continue in this
tradition of interpretation. By
his words and actions Jesus affirms the important practice of reinterpreting
Scripture.
As some of you know, this is midrash. The rabbinic practice of midrash is the
reinterpretation of the words of Scripture, particularly the Torah. It has been a part of Jewish life for
centuries and continues into modern times. It’s a creative process, rich in embellishments of the words
of Scripture.
It’s very important to remember that this process of
creative interpretation begins from a point of deep, profound reverence for the
Scriptures. The rabbis who create
the midrash are steeped in and love the ancient words of Scripture.
In last week’s Gospel reading Jesus said: For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth
pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law
until all is accomplished (Matthew 5:18). Not one stroke of a letter of the Torah will pass away.
Writing about this verse, one scholar says:
[This verse] appears to many commentators as so conservative
that they have difficulty attributing it to Jesus…. There is, however, little difficulty in ascribing the
statement to Jesus once we recognize that it expresses the universal view of
first-century Jews. A “high” view
of the inspiration of Scripture was held by all, since God was seen as the
ultimate author. The Sadducees,
the Pharisees, the Essenes, and other sects, including the Jesus movement,
disagreed vigorously about how various passages should be interpreted and applied,
but there was no disagreement at the theoretical level. The shared assumption of the rabbis and
the authors of the New Testament is that “Scripture cannot be set aside” (John
10:36, NEB), because “all scripture is inspired by God” (II Timothy 3:16). This theoretical “fundamentalism” did
not inhibit innovations in interpretation that in fact departed radically from
the strict letter of the law. Many
of the prescriptions of the Mosaic code had become dead letters by the first
century, including the majority of death penalty rules (Douglas R. A. Hare, Matthew: Interpretation Commentary).
A deep, fundamental reverence for God as the ultimate author
of Scripture leading to radically innovative interpretations of Scripture’s
meaning. This is midrash.
A little more about midrash, for those of us less familiar
with the tradition. From an
introduction to midrash:
In the Bible, [the Hebrew word that is the root of Midrash]
is used to mean inquiring into any matter, including occasionally to seek out
God’s word. Midrash responds to contemporary problems and crafts new stories,
making connections between new Jewish realities and the unchanging biblical
text.
The type of midrash most commonly referred to (as in, “There
is a midrash which says…”) is from the collections of midrash aggadah…. Midrash aggadah may begin its
exploration with any word or verse in the Bible. There are many different
methods of interpretation and exposition.
Written by rabbis both steeped in Bible and absorbed by the Jewish
questions of their time, works of midrash aggadah often occupy the meeting
ground between reverence and love for the wording of the fixed text of the
Torah, and theological creativity (From My Jewish Learning).
Some of the midrashim are very creative.
Rabbi Iscah Waldman, teaching about midrash (HERE), uses the
example of Cain and Abel. Why did
Cain kill his brother Abel?
Scripture doesn’t tell us.
Perhaps, one midrash says, they argued over clothing. Cain wanted what Abel had. The murder was motivated by greed. Or perhaps, another midrash says, each brother
was born with a female twin. Women
don’t get much press in the Bible, so we don’t know about these women. But maybe covetousness or sexual
rivalry led to fratricide.
But, which story is more correct? Which of these midrashim is the right interpretation of what
happened?
Both. Midrash is a literature that allows for multiple
interpretations. It is a kind of poetry that demands that we explore every
shade of God’s intended meaning. While one might argue, logically, that the first
midrash did not agree with the second … that is the very point!
The goal of the rabbis was, precisely, in the exercise of
“drashing”, seeking and finding meaning in, the text, to come up with their own
interpretations. Each one adds something new to the mix, bringing out small
details that [bring theological insight to] the basic questions of human
nature.
It seems to me that Jesus’ hyperbole in today’s Gospel… Jesus’ highly exaggerated statements
about the consequences for failing to follow even the smallest intent of the
law… or the instruction to pluck out an eye or cut off a hand if
it causes you to sin… Jesus’
hyperbolic language fits into this poetic, creative exploration of the meaning
of Scripture that characterizes midrash.
Midrash is the meeting point of tradition and change. It is the process of connecting the
Scriptures to contemporary life and issues.
And Jesus teaches his disciples that midrash is good.
Today we might learn from the ancient rabbis both their deep
reverence for Scripture and the free-wheeling eagerness and creativity with
which they explore new meanings for these ancient texts.
In Jewish tradition, one depiction has particular verses of
the Torah cry out, “darsheni” –
“interpret me.” The ancient rabbis were only too happy to oblige (Rabbi Waldman).
We should be, too.
