Week 2 Wednesday

I liked Prof. Bolger's point today that Jesus stood against (in some ways) the high culture of his day. The Preisthood and teachers of the Law were seen in ancient Palestine as elite, educated and authoritative. However, we find in the Gospels that these members of society often looked down upon and oppressed the working class. In this context Jesus turned Judaic culture upside down by siding with the poor. Jesus said things like, the first will be last and the last first. But Jesus went even further than just altaring how people viewed social structures. I believe Jesus was subversive to the Mosaic/OT traditional understandings of ethics and morality. Jesus often said things like, you have heard it said, "An eye for and eye and a tooth for a tooth." But I say.....Therefore, I think Jesus was more than just the fulfillment of the Law. I think Jesus was a reformer of the Law. In Mark 10, Jesus countermanded the Torah by saying the only excuse for divorce is adultery. The Pharisees pointed out to Jesus that Deuteronomy 24 says that a man may divorce his wife if he just finds something objectionable about her. Jesus countered saying that Moses (not God) allowed arbitrary reasons for divorce because the people were belligerent. So the question becomes: was Deuteronomy 24 God’s Word or Moses’ word? Jesus was inferring that Moses did not communicate the ideal or the real will of God in this matter. Thus, I think Jesus confronted the Judaic culture (which was a mixture of God's incomplete revelation and the traditions of men) with a clear and wholistic revelation of God's will.