Therefore, all such things as you wish men might do to you, so do to them as well; for this is the Law and the prophets.
-Matthew 7:12 (DB Hart, emphasis mine)
I don't mean to be a stickler.... but here's where a guy, per divine ordinance, gets stoned for picking up sticks on the sabbath:
Then the Lord said to Moses, "The man must surely be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp." So, as the Lord commanded Moses, all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him with stones and he died."
-Numbers 15:35-36 (NKJV)
Here’s where Paul affirms the love of neighbor hermeneutic:
For the whole Law is summed up in a single utterance to wit: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
-Galatians 5:14 (DB Hart)
Here's a blessing being pronounced upon infanticide:
How blessed will be the one who grabs your babies and smashes them against the rock!
-Psalm 137:9 (NET)
Back and forth we go. So my question is.....really? Do unto others is the Law and the prophets? Am I reading the same Law and prophets?
I mean, I could understand if he said, "While the ultimate goal of the Law and prophets is to form a moral world in which people are loving others as themselves (as instituted through sacrificial and ceremonial laws, etc) much of the Law and prophets prescribe what happens in the event that you don't." Or more crudely, "the Law and prophets are about loving your neighbor as yourself. And if you don't, we will kill you."
That is a much different that saying that "do unto others" is the Law and the prophets. Doing unto others as they would do unto you unless they do something wrong or are in some way unworthy would be a pretty big asterisk.
I realize that there are ways to spin all of this, to salvage Jesus's words in the historical-critical sense (not an allegorical sense) of the text and make them perfectly compatible with the Golden Rule. I happen to think that this is where things have the potential to get really, really dangerous. The rationalizations. The twisting of language to sound pious.
"To tolerate sin is not loving at all."
"God is loving, but He is also holy."
"We don't get to choose what 'good' is."
"Sin is very serious."
These include some truth. They just don't resolve the issue at hand. It's difficult to equivocate around doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. Stoning a person is not doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. Not in any meaningful sense. Any moral imperative is lost in pure equivocation.
So I don't see these resolving the issue at hand for several reasons, not the least of which is the immediately prior verses in the Gospel of Matthew:
Or is it not the case that no man among you, if his son should ask for a loaf of bread, would give him a stone? Or, if he should also ask for a fish, would give him a serpent? If you, therefore, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in the heavens give good things to those who ask him.
-Matthew 7:9-11 (DB Hart)
Jesus doesn't present some inaccessible understanding of "doing unto others as you wish them to do unto you." It is as plain as a man giving a gift to his son. At least for Jesus, a so-called "total depravity" has not snuffed out the ability to recognize a "good gift." He appeals precisely to this recognition.
So I'm back to my original questions:
Really? This is the Law and the prophets?
My tone is not to be misinterpreted here. It's not one of cynicism (well, not only cynicism!) but of wonder.
What is Jesus's hermeneutic? How does he interpret? How can 'I' as individual and 'we' as a collective learn this hermeneutic in a deep and formative way?
Two main points then:
One, whatever theories exist as to the nature of the Biblical texts, they need to be fully informed by this vision of Law and prophet as love your neighbor as yourself. And not in a twisted and inaccessible way, but in a way that does justice to the simple kindness of a parent giving a gift to child.
And two, I don't think it's possible to understand Jesus without wrestling with his hermeneutic. To Jesus, each iota and serif is only truly 'fulfilled' when viewed through the lens of the law of love. Any other 'fulfillment' is to miss the point.
Do not think that I came to destroy the Law and the prophets; I came not to destroy but to fulfill. For, amen, I tell you, until heaven and earth shall pass away, not a single iota or single serif must vanish from the Law, until all things come to pass.
-Matthew 5:17 (DB Hart)
When all things come to pass, when humanity is roused from sleep and caught up in the life of God, this fulfillment will be manifest precisely as love of neighbor, and love without mixture.
Love does not work evil against the neighbor; hence love is the full totality of the Law. This moreover, knowing the time: Now is the hour for you to be roused from sleep, for our salvation is nearer now than when we came to faith."
-Romans 13:10-11 (DB Hart)
May this 'fulfilling' invade the present.
