“THE TEN COMMANDMENTS”
Saint Luke 11: 29-36
Lent Midweek 1: 22 February Anno Domini 2018
Father Jay Watson SSP
The Reformer puts the Decalogue—The Ten Commandments—as the first of the 6 Chief Parts of the Catechism. He, and we, start with the Law because that’s always where we are thanks to Adam…thanks to all that you’ve done today.
Lex semper accusat: The Law always accuses. Yes. The Commands of God are good because they are from God Who is the definition of Good. The two tables are bad to you because you are sinner by nature—unclean. A bacterial infection views an antibiotic as bad, but it’s really good. A surface tumor views the scalpel as bad, but it’s really good.
You need to be killed; your “old Adam” needs to be killed before The Life breathes His Life back into you.
The Law confronts not generic, fungible, evil…floating in the aether. The Law confronts actual evil in actual people. This is an evil generation. They all are. Evil is prideful and wants to be impressed and wowed by power and awesome glory. Pharaoh actually delighted that he was important and powerful enough to have Moses call down the plagues. Devastation or not, Pharaoh was a player—huge—he mattered, in his own evil mind. As Milton has Satan say: “I would rather rule in hell than serve in heaven.”
The only sign that The Lord gives to this evil generation is the sign of Jonas the Prophet. Saint John calls our Lord’s Miracles “Signs” in his Evangel. The only sign that sinful flesh needs or will get is the sign of the Prophet who tried to get away from God.
The First Table of The Law, Commandments 1-3 are, as Jesus summarized, “thou shalt love The Lord, thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” [Mt. 22.36] Jonah did not do this. He broke the Law and The Lord killed him…and Graciously only killed him metaphorically and temporarily. Swallowed by a great monster from the deep to symbolize being devoured by death and the grave itself. Being in the belly of the fish—pointed to Christ being in the “belly” of the tomb of Joseph. After having been “slain” by the Law the Prophet was spit out onto dry land hearkening to when Satan and death could no longer hold Jesus in darkness, but when He burst forth from the tomb. Grace always triumphs over sin. Good News always trumps Law.
The Queen of the South was a sinful pagan at one time, condemned by the Law. Later she became a sinful follower of The Lord saved by His Grace which gave her faith; faith to believe The Lord had satisfied the Law on her behalf.
That Queen, the people of Nineveh, the reluctant Prophet, and you all—daily do not love God perfectly; daily do not love your neighbor as yourself, which is the second table of The Law. Need I go through each specific Commandment…adultery, fornication, slander, lukewarmness, theft, hatred…or can we all confess that we are sinful and unclean and deserve nothing but wrath and condemnation. The Law kills us dead. The Commandments curse us to hell.
But as low and filthy as death is; as horrific and terrifying as hell is; and as much as those two Tombstones of Torah crush the sinful parasite in your core to death; Jesus Lives. Even in Lent Jesus Lives, the Victory’s won. Death no longer can appall you.
The First Chief Part of The Catechism is only the first part…Jesus is the second, the final, the everything.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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