Jesus of Nazareth: What He Wanted, Who He Was

We can probably make more progress on this difficult question only if we compare the way Jesus dealt with other parts of the Torah. He has no thought of eliminating the Sabbath commandment, but on occasion he subordinates it to the proclamation of the reign of God. Nor is he thinking of abrogating the fourth commandment, but when necessary he subjects it to the requirements of the reign of God. And he does not intend to abolish the temple cult, but he can subordinate it to the necessity of reconciliation (Matt 5:23-24). In the same way, we can say that Jesus was not thinking of declaring the Torah of clean and unclean false and outdated. At any rate, he commanded the leper he had made clean to show himself to the priest, in accordance with Leviticus 14, and to present the sacrifice prescribed for cleansing (Mark 1:44). Nevertheless, here again we must say that Jesus had already touched lepers without the least hesitation. Apparently he always acted with great freedom. And Mark 7:15 is really formulated in very radical and basic terms. So is this, after all, an unsolvable problem?

Probably the solution is to be sought in the same direction as in the case of the prohibition of divorce. Ultimately, Jesus appealed to God’s creative will: “So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate” (Mark 10:9). When Jesus asserts that nothing outside a person is unclean but all uncleanness comes from the human heart, the creation account could also be in the background. There we find, six times, “God saw that it was good.” And then, when God rests on the Sabbath and creation is finished, “God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good” (Gen 1:31). If the world and everything in it is made good, and if the coming of the reign of God will restore God’s original good creation, then where the reign of God is accepted nothing can be unclean. Uncleanness, then, comes about always and only through the evil that emerges from human hearts.

If Jesus thought that way, he did not simply abolish the Old Testament Torah of clean and unclean, because it too is intended to create a holy people for God in the midst of the distorted and damaged creation. In that case he placed every command regarding clean and unclean under the sign of the good creation and brought the Torah of clean and unclean into the right light by articulating the creative will of God. We might say that then he would have been clarifying the Torah through the Torah.

A New Law?

Did Jesus abolish the Torah and, as a new lawgiver, establish a new law? That is the question with which this chapter began. The philosopher and martyr Justin saw it that way. Many great theologians after him saw it that way too. But we can see how questionable that idea is from the very fact that in that case the Torah is torn apart: its moral demands have not been abrogated, only its ritual laws!

But a great deal more speaks against this position, including Matthew 5:17: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” Romans 3:31 likewise speaks to the contrary: “Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.” Finally, every sampling that has been made in this chapter speaks against it. Jesus does not abrogate the Torah or abolish it; he does not replace it with a new Torah; he interprets it.

But he does not interpret it as the scribes do. He does not cling to the letter. He seeks the original will of God behind the letters. He sees the Torah as a whole and therefore also reaches back to the first chapters of Torah to find there the creative will of God. He sets forth the center of the Torah: the commandment about the uniqueness and sole rule of God. And by his message of the reign of God now coming he endows that commandment with historical urgency. He places the whole Torah in the light of the reign of God and subordinates all commandments to God’s reign. He combines the principal commandment with that of love of neighbor from Leviticus 19, and in doing so he gives the Torah its center or, better, he finds its center. First and last, his concern is the will of God, and he knows how easily even religious people can use external performance of the law to avoid the true will of God. And Jesus teaches all that with ultimate authority—like someone who himself stands in God’s stead. “At Sinai it was said to the congregation of Israel… but now I say to you.”

It is understandable that Jesus has repeatedly been seen as a “new lawgiver,” but he was no such thing. He spoke about the one and only law of God, but he enunciated it as something fully new.