‘On these hang the Law and the Prophets’

Some of Jesus’ statements in the Gospels stand out vividly, but their full force is somewhat vitiated because they are often only quoted partially. His statement in response to the Pharisees’ question, ‘Which is the greatest commandment?’ (Mt 22.36) is a significant case in point.

Christ’s answer to that question in his twofold summary of the Law in its entirety is masterful: ‘“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbour as yourself”’ (Mt 22.37-39). It is pithy and to the point. It comes straight from Scripture (Dt 6.5; Lev 19.18) and is therefore definitive. And, since it summarises God’s moral law in its full compass, it shows the cohesion that exists throughout its 10 individual ‘words’. But the most penetrating element of Christ’s response to these experts in the law is the one part that is rarely quoted. It is the fact he punctuates his answer with the words, ‘All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments’ (Mt 22.40). And it is this comment (which for his audience must have felt like something ‘from left field’) that constitutes the punch line of what he wants them to grasp.

Despite their professed expertise in the law of God, these men had apparently forgotten the semantic range of the language of law in the way it is used not only in the Hebrew Bible, but also in relation to it in terms of its internal divisions. And therein lies the twist in Jesus’ words.

These men had approached him in what Matthew suggests was a succession of stage-managed questions about the interpretation of Old Testament laws with the intention of wrong-footing Jesus and providing a pretext for legal action against him. But their attempts had failed spectacularly. Indeed, if anything, they were counterproductive, serving only to deepen the admiration of the crowds of ordinary people who were listening. To the point that, by the end of the exchange, Matthew says, ‘…from that day on no-one dared to ask him any more questions’ (Mt 22.46). But out of all the answers Jesus gave that day, his little gloss about the ‘Law and the Prophets’ would surely have been the one that would linger in the minds of any thoughtful listener.

He was, of course, using this expression in the sense the Jews routinely used it to designate the entire Hebrew Bible. ‘The Law’ referred to the Torah [the Pentateuch, or Books of Moses] and ‘the Prophets’ to the rest. (Even though there were variations on this theme – sometimes using a tripartite designation – this expression would have been immediately recognisable.) So, even though the Torah was labelled as ‘Law’, its Jewish readers knew it was not just made up of law and laws in the narrow sense. Rather, it was ‘teaching’ or ‘instruction’ that included law. And it did so in a way that demonstrated the inter-connectedness between God’s rules and his redeeming grace in salvation. And it is this subtle, but significant detail concerning the semantics of law in Scripture that makes it so significant, not just for Jesus’ original audience, but also for all who hear his word today.

The problem for the Pharisees, Sadducees and Teachers of the Law who pursued Jesus throughout his earthly ministry was that, although they regarded themselves as ‘Bible men’ in their zeal for Scripture, their reading of the Bible had become skewed by their hermeneutical instincts. In their minds ‘law’ had taken on dimensions that were disproportionate to the way it is presented in the Old Testament. So even though they would never have dreamt of denying the importance of grace as necessary for salvation, their natural inclination was to see salvation in its relation to law.

Given the wider context to Jesus’ words at this point, against the backdrop of wave after wave of questions about the law and its observance, it would have been fascinating to have been in the crowd that day and have watched the facial expressions of the more astute listeners present. Jesus’ shift from using ‘law’ in the sense of ‘divine command’ to its designation as part-for-whole of divine revelation in its entirety, is little short of breath-taking.

Quoting Walter Bauer, F.D. Bruner paraphrases what Jesus says in this way: ‘The whole Bible, then, “hangs” from these two commands “like a door on its hinges.”[1] This briefest of summaries of the moral law of God (that was in itself merely summarised in the Decalogue) provides a crucial entry point into Scripture as a whole and the gospel that forms its core.

At the most basic level, this two-sentence summary of God’s key to order in creation immediately exposes the root of its disorder. If no honest human being can claim to have fulfilled even the second of these commands – ‘to love one’s neighbour as oneself’ – then the first is way beyond their reach. With one sentence, therefore, God condemns our race to death.

If that were the sum total of the significance and function of Law in Scripture, Jesus’ words would be bleak. But, upon closer inspection of the revelation of God’s Law within its setting of the Torah, notably in Exodus 22, it is clear that the words which condemn are actually prefaced by words of grace and salvation. The God who gives the Law is the same God who has provided redemption from its penalty.

As we follow through the expositions of law that follow in the Books of Moses and the way the law is handled in the rest of Scripture – ‘the Prophets – we cannot help but see how closely it is intertwined with gospel. Even when the prophets were fulfilling their function as ‘God’s Barristers’, prosecuting Israel for its lawlessness, the promise of grace and God’s call to repentance are never far away.

All of this to say that the distinctive wording of this summary of the Decalogue – couched in the language of love, rather than of prohibition – leads us to the very heart of the Bible’s message. God does not call people to slavish obedience, but to loving devotion. Just as God’s own Son in human flesh found delight in obeying his Father’s will, so too for those who are God’s children through grace.

In that sense Jesus was uniquely able to describe the two-line summary of Law as the hinge on which the whole Bible turns, because those two lines converge perfectly in him. He is the one who has kept the law and fulfilled all righteousness. And in doing so, all the way to Calvary, secured redemption and provided the ability for all who trust him to follow God’s commands in union and communion with him.

 



[1] Bruner, F.D. Matthew Vol 2 (Word Publishing; Dallas) 1990 p. 799

 

Mark Johnston