Covenant, not Oaths

And anyone who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the one who sits on it. 

Matthew 23:22

In the Bible, the Father has stressed the value of covenant.  But the tendency for humanity is to take oaths.  Why is that, and why does Jesus discourage oaths (Matthew 5:37)?

Covenants require two people, each one fulfilling their part of that covenant.  As an example, read Deuteronomy 27-29.  On the one hand, the people are to fulfill the covenant by being obedient to His laws.  On the other hand God promises to appropriate blessings for that obedience, and curses upon violations of that covenant.  The nature of the "transaction" (a base version of the idea) is entirely dependent upon each other - interrelated even.

An oath, however, is invoked by a single person and introduces a burden of obligation on themselves that they may or may not be able to fulfill.  Of note, often the oath is sworn by someone or something that had neither considered, nor chosen to be involved.

All throughout the gospel, Jesus' teaching revolves around relationships - relationship with God and relationship with one another.  He values it.  He even requires it.  But relationships (healthy ones) are hard.  They require investment of something more than material possession.  It requires communication, honesty, integrity, love - investments that are the resources of the Kingdom of Heaven.  When these things flow within the context of covenant, they create bonds that are priceless in the eyes of the Father of the heavenly lights.

When there is no relationship, oaths feed into deception.  It's the deception that we don't need another to fulfill our dreams, commitments or desires.  It's the deception that we can do it on our own.  This is the very same deception that leads many down the road of religiosity.  It's the deception that we can "achieve" heaven on our own.  It's the deception that we can remain in control of our own destiny.  It's the yellow brick road that leads to a feeble man behind a feeble curtain.

But lest we be deceived we all have that capacity, even propensity, to go down that trail of tears.  We must be on our guard to avoid that road, and if we do find ourselves among those briars we must find our way back to the true but narrow road.  It's not who we are anymore for those whom Jesus has known (Matthew 7:21-23), but we often forget; we are saved, but also in the process of being saved (1 Corinthians 1:18, 2 Corinthians 2:15).  And if we must call on others to help us find our way back to that true road, all the better, for it calls us to enter into covenant - to enter into relationship.

We are not wired to stand alone, so every oath is vain.  We must plug in to the Network that is the Kingdom of God.  Oaths are the solvent that separate us - that isolate us - from that domain.  Covenant is the glue that bonds us to that domain.

Remain in covenant.

Crabs in the Pot

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to."

Matthew 23:13

For generations, possibly millenia, the religious leaders of Israel had been holding the Law over the heads of the people - dangling it by a bloody thread, using it as a means to control others.  Forgetting its purpose - a Fatherly contract of blessings and curses; a means of compelling all (including themselves) to depend on the God of All, for none could follow it in its entirety.

Here's a random thought: What if the people of Israel, including the religious elite, realized they could not adhere to this sweltering list of rules with a pure heart and cried out to God earlier on?  Would Jesus have show up at an earlier age under an earlier under a different set of circumstances?  But the question is moot, for "at just the right time when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly." Romans 5:6

Instead, human nature took over and the religious leaders used the Law and their propensity for corruption to oppress.  That was the system that had become entrenched in Jewish society, and nobody gave it another thought. Like crabs in a crab pot they pulled anyone who tried to relate to God into the boiling inferno with them.

And lest we judge this system as uniquely despicable, it replicates itself in all walks of society - not just religion.  In politics, in business, in bureaucracy,,, the list goes on.

But Jesus was about to detonate the entire system with one epic explosion - the event of His sacrifice.  And for the religious elite who chose not to embrace that sacrifice, their doom was secure.  In this Jesus declared their sad, unfortunate condemnation.

Doctrine vs Revel8tion

If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?

Matthew 22:45

When responding to Jesus' question "Whose son is the Christ?", the Pharisees seem to have responded without hesitation: "The son of David". (v. 42)  But Jesus countered with a further question: "If David calls him 'Lord', how can he be his son?" in referencing Psalm 110:1.  To whit, they did not answer - they seemed stunned at the question.

Often in culture, we are taught things that are not questioned; we simply take them at face value with no or even minimal teaching - from topics of evolution, creation, media news influence, societal traditions, and yes religious doctrine.  But we must go deeper if we are to have conviction with substance.  To answer that the Messiah is "the son of David" lacked just that substance.  To the Pharisees, the answer was a matter of fact based on accounts in 2 Samuel and 1 Kings.  But Jesus challenges them that there is something deeper than that of genealogy to this One to come.

If we go to the rest of Psalm 110, we find that deeper thing:

The Lord will extend your mighty scepter from Zion, saying,
    “Rule in the midst of your enemies!”
Your troops will be willing
    on your day of battle.
Arrayed in holy splendor,
    your young men will come to you
    like dew from the morning’s womb.
The Lord has sworn
    and will not change his mind:
“You are a priest forever,
    in the order of Melchizedek.”
The Lord is at your right hand;
    he will crush kings on the day of his wrath.
He will judge the nations, heaping up the dead
    and crushing the rulers of the whole earth.
He will drink from a brook along the way,
    and so he will lift his head high.

This hails the Messiah as much more than simply one of David's sons:  He is a priest like that of the mysterious Melchizedek - arrayed in holy splendor - who will rule in the midst of enemies.  This is precisely what Jesus did in his death and resurrection; He ruled in the midst of the frenzy of His enemies.  This is more than a son of David, and Jesus was challenging them to see this - to look deeper than their doctrine.

Look deeper into your beliefs, and challenge yourself to know why it is that you believe what you believe.