Meditation on Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 19-20
First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown
Pastor Karen Crawford
Oct. 8, 2023
I don’t know how old I was when I first heard about the 10 commandments. Did we learn about them in Sunday School? Maybe it was Vacation Bible School.
When was the first time you heard about the Ten Commandments? I remember learning about them when I was young, before I really understood what they all meant! Some of the Commandments are definitely for a mature audience, aren’t they? I can just hear some of Kathy Seymour’s class on the drive home from church, “Mommy, what’s adultery?”
I do recall that I had to know the Ten Commandments, along with the Apostle’s Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer for my Confirmation in the Lutheran Church. Did you have to know those, too?
Martin Luther, a priest and professor of Theology at Wittenberg University, was big on Christian education for children. Long before Sunday School programs, he wrote the Small Catechism, also known as Luther’s Little Instruction Book. This 1529 publication was a guide for fathers to teach their children and servants the essentials of the Christian faith. This was one of Luther’s most influential works—even more influential than his 95 Theses that he nailed to the door of the Wittenberg Church on Oct. 31, 1517.
I opened Luther’s Small Catechism yesterday, and what did I find on the first page of Section 1? The Ten Commandments and a simple but not childish explanation of each one. It was an attempt to make them understandable for all ages and help us apply them to our daily lives. The explanations begin with a question, “What does this mean?” as if a parent is speaking with a child.
For example, “The First Commandment: You shall have no other gods. What does this mean? We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.”
Each explanation after the First Commandment begins with, “We should fear and love God so that…” Meaning, our love for God will lead to our obedience to God’s commands.
Moving on to the “Fourth Commandment: Honor your father and your mother. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not despise or anger our parents and other authorities, but honor them, serve and obey them, love and cherish them.”
“The Fifth Commandment (is) You shall not murder. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not hurt or harm our neighbor in his body, but help and support him in every physical need.”
Are you wondering what he will do with the Sixth Commandment, “You shall not commit adultery?” “What does this mean?” he begins. “We should fear and love God so that we lead a sexually pure and decent life in what we say and do, and husband and wife love and honor each other.”
The Ten Commandments that Moses receives on Mount Sinai is a highpoint for God’s prophet in the wilderness journey. God has sustained the Israelites with bread from heaven and water from a rock. The Lord has been with God’s people, not only rescuing them from their Egyptian enemies through the crossing of the sea on dry land but saving them from an attack by King Amalek’s forces at Rephidim in chapter 17.
A low point is coming. A really low point—when Moses descends the mountain and discovers that the Israelites, losing patience while waiting for him, urge his brother, Aaron, to melt down their jewelry and make a golden idol for them to worship, thereby breaking the most important Commandment of all, “You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth.”
But in Chapter 19, before the Lord gives Moses the Commandments—the sum of which, Jesus will say, are LOVE of God and neighbor—the Lord assures Moses of the Lord’s continuing love and care for the House of Jacob. “You have seen what I did to the Egyptians,” God says to Moses, “and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation.”
French lawyer John Calvin, writing after Luther as an exile in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1559, saw the foreshadowing of Christ in the Ten Commandments and the other laws of Moses. He writes in his Institutes of the Christian Religion how Peter “neatly turns the saying of Moses, teaching that the fullness of grace that the Jews had tasted under the law has been shown forth in Christ: “‘You are a chosen race,” says 1 Peter 2:9, “a royal priesthood.’” (350) Calvin writes that the Law was given “not to restrain folk of the Old Covenant under itself, but to foster hope of salvation in Christ until His coming.”(349)
In the Commandments, we see the righteousness of God! And, at the same time, it is as if we are looking in a mirror that “discloses our own sinfulness,” Calvin says. (354) The fulfillment of the law, no matter how hard we try, is impossible for us! (353).
That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to live in obedience to them, with God’s help. Christ tells us in Matthew in the Sermon on the Mount, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.”
Jesus teaches his followers that it isn’t enough to know the commandments and be able to recite them, like some of us did for our Confirmation. It isn’t enough to know OF them and say we believe in them. We have to live our lives in a way that reveals our faith and obedience to them. In John 14:15, Jesus says, “Anyone who loves me will keep my commandments. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”
In this age, when every day, we watch the news and learn of such terrible, hateful, and violent things happening in the world, the Ten Commandments—the sum of which are love of God and love of neighbor—are more important to live out than ever!
My favorite story of Jesus that reveals his attitude toward the commandments is the account of the rich man or rich young ruler in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. You know what I am talking about? In this story, Jesus teaches us what love is, what love does, with a large helping of God’s grace, as if we are taking a college course called, “Love 101.”
If you don’t remember anything else from today’s message, but the Ten Commandments are God’s Love 101 for the faith community, and the story of the rich man and Jesus, then you have all that you need. You can leave church today equipped to love and do God’s will.
Here goes….
17 As he was setting out on a journey,” begins the account in Mark 10, “a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. You shall not defraud. Honor your father and mother.’ ” 20 He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” 21 Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” 22 When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.
23 Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 They were greatly astounded and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?” 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”
Let us pray.
Holy One, thank you for your Ten Commandments, given to Moses and passed down to us, through all the generations, to give shape to your community of faith. Thank you for showing us love and grace and teaching us how to love you and our neighbor by living in obedience to your Word. We thank you and praise you for having a plan, from the foundation of the world, for sinful human beings who would not be able to keep all your commandments, no matter how hard we try. Thank you for giving us your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ, the perfect fulfillment of your Law, through whom you have made all things possible to those who believe. Amen.
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