Suy
Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Tư tuần thứ 9 Thường Niên
Điều đã làm cho Chúa Giêsu phải
ghê tởm những biệt phái và giáo sĩ do thái đó là sự đạo đức giả của họ: vì họ dạy dân chúng một đường
nhưng họ lại làm một nẻo. Với Chúa
Giêsu, Ngài có tinh thần tự do, cởi mở, nhưng Ngài trực tiếp đối mặt và giải quyết tất cả
những tình huống tâm linh trong cuộc sống của con người bằng sự chữa lành tinh thần và thể xác, và đã dạy họ bằng những bài dụ ngôn của Ngài. Nhưng Ngài không bao giờ dùng luật pháp một cách cứng rắn để đe dọa bất cứ ai. Cái bằng chứng rõ ràng
nhất là thái độ của Ngài trong khi bị cám dỗ trong sa mạc. Ngài
khuyên bảo mọi người nên tiếp tục đóng thuế
để cho Caesar theo như pháp luật của quốc gia. Đối với Ngài thì tinh thần Luật của Chúa là yêu thương, vì thế nó quan trọng hơn là những quy luật, những nghi thức
bề ngoài như tẩy uế, làm sạch tay chân trước khi ngồi vào bàn ăn hay là những nghi thức thờ phượng của xã hội dân Do Thái bấy giờ.
Hơn Nữa, Chúa Giêsu hy sinh mạng sống của Ngài trong sự vâng phục và trung thành với Chúa Cha.Mười Điều Răn (10 điều răn) là nhu
cầu về đạo đức và là những mệnh lệnh
để dậy chúng ta biết yêu mến Thiên
Chúa và tha nhân đây là những điều luật cần phải siêu vượt và trổi hơn
cả mọi thứ.
Reflection SG 2016
Having
been instructed in the Jewish Torah and Rabbinical concepts of Law, the
disciples would have been surprised at many of Jesus’ sayings, deeds,
miracles/healings worked on the Sabbath etc. They needed to be reassured that
their Master was a law-abiding Jew. Jesus' basic attitude towards the Jewish
inheritance was fundamentally positive and sympathetic even though it included
some criticisms of pharisaical behavior that he considered harmful.
The whole of the Old Testament had
religious value for the Jewish/Palestinian Christians of the first century and
should continue to be respected in the new era inaugurated by Jesus,
What Jesus abhorred was hypocrisy:
teaching one thing and doing another. Jesus Himself was a free spirit who
directly confronted and resolved life situations in His healings and parables.
But He never took the law into His own hands — as evidenced by His attitude
during the temptations in the desert. He further paid His dues to Caesar,
according to the law. The spirit of the Law was far more important to Him than
the minute prescriptions of ceremonial cleansings and ritual worship of Judean
society. Eventually, He would lay down His life in faithful obedience to the
Father.
Ethical demands such as the
Decalogue (10 Commandments) and the command to love God and neighbour transcend
religion and time. They remain “till heaven and earth pass away.” With the
psalmist we pray: “I keep the Lord ever in my sight.”
REFLECTION
There was a Jewish law, which stated that should a man die childless, the next oldest brother was to marry the widow. The first child of this union would legally be considered the child of the brother who had died. The Sadducees, the priests of Jesus ‘day, use this law to build a fantastic story about a woman who married the oldest of seven brothers. The first brother died childless; the woman was taken as wife by the second brother, but he also died before she could conceive. And so with the rest of the seven, each of them died childless, after the woman had married each in turn.
There was a Jewish law, which stated that should a man die childless, the next oldest brother was to marry the widow. The first child of this union would legally be considered the child of the brother who had died. The Sadducees, the priests of Jesus ‘day, use this law to build a fantastic story about a woman who married the oldest of seven brothers. The first brother died childless; the woman was taken as wife by the second brother, but he also died before she could conceive. And so with the rest of the seven, each of them died childless, after the woman had married each in turn.
Why did they construct this story? The Sadducees didn't
believe in the resurrection, in life after death. Jesus did. So they figure that
if they spring this story on Jesus and then ask him, "If there is a resurrection,
which of the seven brothers will be the woman's husband?" Everyone,
especially the people, will see how ridiculous the ideas of resurrection and
immortality are.
To this, Jesus answers quite seriously, "When God spoke
to Moses, he identified himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, even
though the three patriarchs had long been dead," Jesus continues,
"God,
however, is the God of the living, not of the dead. If God is the God of the patriarchs, though they have died, they must still be living."
however, is the God of the living, not of the dead. If God is the God of the patriarchs, though they have died, they must still be living."
Scripture: Mark 12:13-17
Yesterday it was the Pharisees and
Herodians, today it is the Sadducees trying to trap him. These Sadducees,
however, are more worldly and relaxed; they only want to make fun of the idea
of a next life. They were a minority group in the country, wealthy landowners
and merchants, collaborators with Rome, minimalist in religion, rejecting the
teaching about angels and spirits, accepting as the word of God only the first
five books of the Scriptures. No rabbi had ever produced evidence of a
next life from those first five books. But Jesus managed to do so!
In this way: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are the most prominent figures in those
first books. In the second of those books God had proclaimed himself “the
God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob” (Exodus 3:6). If these
men are just dead, said Jesus, then God is reigning over a kingdom of death,
not a kingdom of life!
If
you believe only in death you see only death everywhere. Jesus, who is
“the way, the truth and the life”, calls us to believe in life. As far as
I know, no Sadducee is known by name in the New Testament; and the whole group
died out after 70 AD. It was consistent with their belief in death.
Like diet, it is important to pay attention to your beliefs, because you are
what you believe.
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