When Jesus taught his disciples about the Hebrew scriptures, he said that he had come to fulfill the law. And yet, he was often accused of breaking God’s law, as when he healed on the Sabbath, or allowed his disciples to harvest grain on the Sabbath because they were hungry. Both healing and picking grain were considered work, and the Sabbath is for rest, according to how the law was interpreted at that time. Jesus gave a different interpretation: that the Sabbath was made for people, and not people for the Sabbath. He emphasized different parts of the scripture in order to fit his time and place.
In his book Way of Blessing, Way of Life, theologian Clark M Williamson describes the Jewish tradition of halakha, which is “a process of interpreting and reinterpreting the law. Over time, old laws become irrelevant or fail to respond adequately to the voice of the vulnerable other in a new and different context. So each generation reinterprets its obligations. Halakha explicitly recognizes that God who gives the law also transcends it, and that no law is ever final. It is not fundamentalist with regard to the law.”
This is an important reminder to us of our heritage from the Jewish tradition and from the example of Christ. God’s law is made for human righteousness, and especially to protect the vulnerable. When God’s law becomes a barrier to wholeness, or when it is used as a club to hammer any group of people, then it is time for a faithful reinterpretation.
Sometimes we worry that we shouldn’t be in the business interpretation. We think that we ought to respect the words as they are written, and that any human interpretation is putting our thoughts above God’s. In fact, human interpretation has always been a part of God’s method of revelation. There is no such thing as a reading that is free of interpretation. Let us continue to interpret carefully, boldly, and faithfully.
