Church of the Holy City

The Law of the Lord Is Perfect

The Law of the Lord Is Perfect
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
March 11, 2012

Exodus 20:1-17 John 2:13-22 Psalm 19

We heard the Ten Commandments this morning. These Ten Commandments sum up God’s law. When we hear these Ten Commandments, we can think of them as a bunch of do’s and don’ts. We can think of the law of God as a list of rules of conduct that we must adhere to. We can think of the law of God as a list of things to do and things not to do.
But consider the words of the Psalmist. The Psalmist tells us that the law of the Lord refreshes the soul. We don’t often think of the Law of God as refreshing. But God’s law is refreshing. God’s law cleanses the soul. God’s law purifies our hearts. God’s law leads us into heavenly innocence and joy. These things are refreshing indeed.
The law of God does give us behavioral guidelines. It teaches us to have compassion, to love God, and to love our neighbor. The law of God guides our footsteps and points the way to God and to God’s kingdom.
But God’s kingdom is a kingdom of joy. God’s kingdom is not a dismal place where someone is watching over us to make sure we obey each and every rule God has laid down. No. God’s kingdom is a place where everyone loves everyone else. God’s kingdom is a place where everyone puts God first, not their own will. God’s kingdom is a place where everyone is trying to make everyone else happy. What great happiness and joy such a place is! So the Psalmist is right on when he says that the precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart. God’s precepts point the way to His kingdom, and His kingdom is a place of joy. Whether we experience it here, or after we transition over to the other side, when heaven is in us, we are in joy.
When we consider the things that make us truly happy, we will find that most of them are not material, or physical. There is much truth in the old saying, “The best things in life are free.” What can compare with friendship? Let’s consider a Mercedes car and the gift of a loyal friend. Each time we see our friend, we enjoy his or her company. And when we are apart, we think happy thoughts about them. When we are in trouble, our friend helps us. And when we rejoice, our friend shares in our rejoicing. It’s a very lonely and sad life without friends. Let me elaborate on this idea with a story from my school days. This story is about my dissertation defence. In order to complete a Ph. D. degree, a person has to write a book-length thesis called a dissertation. But that’s not the end of it. A committee of professors reads this dissertation and for a couple of hours drills you on every imaginable aspect of what you’ve written. If you pass this verbal examination, then you get your Ph. D. Well when my turn came, I planned out the whole thing. I reserved a hotel room near my favorite bar, so that after the examination I could go out and celebrate and walk to the hotel room from the bar. Well I went into the conference room where my dissertation committee was waiting for me. They kicked me around for about an hour and a half. Then they told me to leave the room so they could deliberate. After about fifteen minutes they called me back into the room. Now they were all smiles. They shook my hand. They congratulated me. I passed! I then proceeded to go to the bar to celebrate. I started drinking with the intention of getting really plastered. There was only one problem, though. I didn’t bring any friends with me. Many of my friends had already graduated and moved away. Furthermore, I was in Florida when I finished writing my dissertation and took the train up to Virginia where my interview took place. I was all alone. What happened was I just got drunker and drunker all alone. Nobody else in the bar cared about me or that I had just passed my Ph. D. oral exam. Instead of the celebration I thought I was going to have, I just got drunk all alone. It wasn’t a celebration at all.
Now I’m in a foreign country. I’ve only lived here for five years. And yet I have people who do celebrate with me when I am happy. I have people who help me when I am in need. I have people who care about me. Foremost among these people is the love of my life, Carol. Here in a foreign country that I’ve only been in for five years I have more than I did in my homeland drinking the night away in that bar after my dissertation defense. For that I thank this church and my friends in the program of AA–both spiritual enterprises. True friends are just one of the many spiritual gifts that the law of God gives us when we and others are following it.
But what about the Mercedes? I haven’t forgotten it–although my story was so long some of you might have forgotten about it. If we have the good fortune to buy a Mercedes, we may feel happy with it for a little while. When it’s really new, we may think about it with glee when we are away from it. But it won’t be long before the thrill of a new purchase wears off. In fact, it will wear off pretty quick. And you know what will happen then? We will only feel happy when someone else says to us, “Hey, nice car.” Our happiness with the Mercedes will depend entirely on someone else’s evaluation of it. And even when they say, “nice car,” it isn’t as if we’ve done anything. They aren’t complementing us. What has the Mercedes to do with us except that we have a title for the car with our name on it.
So the Psalmist is right when he says that in keeping the law there is great reward. He is talking about the spiritual treasures we get like friendship. The Psalmist says further that God’s laws “are more precious than gold, than much pure gold.” The rewards we get from keeping the law far exceed any other reward we can find in this world.
Jesus came into the world as the Word incarnate. This means that all the good and true teachings of the Bible were embodied by Jesus. Another way to say this is to say that Jesus was the law in the flesh. Therefore He demonstrated what the law means by the life He led. He showed forgiveness. He showed compassion. He showed love. He showed us the ways of God, which are the heart of the law.
This is why Jesus was so zealous to cleanse the temple. Cleansing the temple symbolized Jesus cleansing our souls. This is what the law does for us. This is how the law is refreshing–it refreshes our soul. In order to understand the symbolism of Jesus cleansing the temple, we need to consider a few things about the temple in Jesus’ day.
The temple symbolized God’s presence on earth. It was a holy place. At the temple, God and man met. The temple was different from our churches. In the temple, people didn’t gather to worship and sing hymns or listen to preachers. Rather, they would bring an offering for the priest to sacrifice to God. This offering was either an animal or grain. The priest would then sacrifice the animal and cook it over a flame, or roast the grain on behalf of the individual. The priests would eat the food that was cooked themselves. God would get the portions of food that were burnt up in the flames.
In Jesus’ time, the temple would sell animals for sacrifice at a profit. These transactions were a healthy business and the temple was making money off the devotions of the Jewish people. The temple had become a business institution run for profit.
The holiness had gone out of the temple. The temple was impure. God’s dwelling on earth was corrupt. The temple needed to be purified. The temple needed to be restored to its holy state as a symbol of God’s connection with humanity. As God incarnate, Jesus was intimately concerned with the symbol of God’s presence on earth–the temple. When Jesus cleansed the temple He performed a highly symbolic act. Cleansing the temple symbolized the power of Jesus to cleanse our souls. The temple was seen as the place where God came down to reside with humans. The temple was supposed to be a connection between God and humans. Driving out the priests who were profiting by the trade in the temple was an act of purification. God’s connection with humanity had been restored when the temple was cleansed. This symbolizes how Jesus cleanses each and every one of us. It is Jesus who restores our souls. It is Jesus who drives out the impurities that would block God from flowing into our hearts and into our thoughts. We can grow up with dysfunctional and limiting ways of dealing with others. We can have mistaken thoughts about the world and our place in it. We can be too attached to things that benefit us only and we can long for recognition from the world. Things like this interfere with care and mutual concern for our fellows. Things like this can interfere with our love and worship of God. We need Jesus to drive out these thoughts, desires, and behaviors so that God’s great love for everyone can be our own. Just as Jesus purified the temple, so He must purify us.
These things are driven out when we reflect on the life of Jesus. We change and grow when we look at how Jesus lived and the things He taught. This is what I mean by saying that Jesus is the law in the flesh. Jesus embodied the law, lived it out, and taught us about it. So it is, in fact, the law that is cleansing us. Jesus as the law in the flesh is opening up the windows of our soul to let in the refreshing spring air and sunlight of new birth. So the Psalmist is right when he says, “The commands of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes.” God’s laws enlighten. They make us bright. So let us welcome into our hearts the law of God. Let us recognize how much it can do to and for us. And when our heart shines with a holy brilliance, let us thank the Lawgiver, and say with the Psalmist, “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.”