Jesus and the Law
The ethical teaching of Jesus may now be summarized under five points.
5.1. The Presence of the Kingdom. On the question of Jesus’ expectation of the future, Schweitzer was radically mistaken. But modified forms of his thesis are still with us. Too much attention continues to be paid to the notion that for Jesus the kingdom was focused primarily on some event or events subsequent to the initial proclamation recorded in Mark 1:15. Those who hold this view, of course, will always find deep embarrassment in fitting ethics into their scheme; but that has not stopped them from futurizing the kingdom, even at the expense of robbing Jesus’ ethics of their ultimate basis. Jesus, on the other hand, taught that entry into the kingdom was synonymous with entering the life of discipleship–of submitting to the demands of the God who is king. His ethics are dominated by the central burning conviction that God’s rule is now actively present in the affairs of individuals, kings and nations.
5.2. The Priority of Character. For Jesus ethics are to some extent realistic and pragmatic. Those who freely receive God’s gifts must (1) show them in outward acts, and (2) pass them on to others, lest they become stagnant and die. But ethics are also the fruit of character, a claim which many of the Pharisees, with their exclusive emphasis on outward acts, could not accept. The rewards which Jesus promises are not extrinsic to human character, but point to the building up of a personality which would ultimately be at home in the presence of God.
5.3. The Rediscovered Spirit of the Law. The Law of Israel was understood by Jesus as a gracious provision, given not only by a sovereign king but by a loving Father. To obey his Law meant to be in conformity with the purposes which are built into creation. Jesus, like Paul after him, understood that a rigid obedience to the Law, because of corrupting influences (selfishness, nationalism, pride), had failed to achieve God’s primal purposes. Therefore, those who would obey God’s will and respond to his love must go behind the letter, back to the Law’s original intention.
5.4. The Redefined People of God. What we call the gospel of Jesus was not in the first instance a new religion. It was a call to the nation of Israel, asking it to believe that God’s power is always breathtakingly fresh, always ready to break into their history, always an outgoing and transforming power reaching into the lives of those who need help. But in order to receive that power they must also accept a radically different interpretation of what it meant for them to be the chosen people. Going back to the prophecies of Isaiah 40-66, he reminded them of God’s kingly reign. Rather than privilege, they had been chosen for responsibility; rather than authority and glory, they had been chosen for service and suffering; that through them God’s kingly power might reach out into the world, overthrowing the forces of evil.
It is in this context that some of Jesus’ most powerful ethical statements are to be understood, particularly those which concern love. Rather than hating their national enemies and exulting in their ruin, the Jews were to love them and ask God for their well-being. Instead of avoiding their corrupting contamination, they were to become their friends. And, in perhaps the most uncomfortable statement of all, they were to content themselves with the benevolent administration of Rome. To make friends with Caesar did not mean that they could not also give to God a full and uncompromising obedience.
5.5. The Personal and Communal Dynamic. Finally, too much distinction has been made between the personal and the social in the ethics of Jesus. For him ethics were surely personal, insofar as they flow from each individual’s relationship to God. But ethics must also be incorporated into the community of God. If the majority of God’s people had not responded to the challenge, Jesus would work through a remnant, as God had done so often in Israel’s history. Through Jesus–and subsequently through his followers, whether Jew or Gentile–God’s promise to the nations would be fulfilled. The community Jesus founded may be understood truly as a “church,” but only if that term is seen as a community of men and women in whom Jesus is personally present, who put one another before themselves and through whom God’s redemptive power can reach out into the world, driving out evil and drawing all into a body of individuals who are willing to put themselves under his kingly sovereignty and fatherly love.
~ Hurst, Lincoln D. “Ethics of Jesus,” in Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, ed. Joel B. Green and Scot McKnight. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1992.
