Select excerpts from A.J.Jacobs book, "The Year of Living Biblically"

In preparation for my upcoming sermon series on the Sermon on the Mount ("The Upside Down Manifest0") my friend has lent me this book. It's very charming and funny, and honest without the venom associated with guys like Hitchens, Dawkins, Pullman and Dennett.

It has always interested me to read authors from the "outside" as they describe what see us doing and believing on the "inside." I hope you can enjoy these selections too, as I did.

A.J.Jacobs – The Year of Living Biblically

The section on the New Testament

 

254 The first Big Issue is this: If I’m going to switch my focus to the New Testament, should I continue following all the rules of the Hebrew Bible? In other words, should I keep my beard and fringes? Or should I break out the Gilette Mach3 and order shrimp fajitas?

 

After asking this question to pretty much every Christian expert I meet, I’ve come to this definitive conclusion: I don’t know.

 

You can find a small group – a very small group – of Christians who say that every single Old Testament rule should still be followed by everyone. The ultralegalist camp. They quote these words from Jesus found in Matthew 5:17-18:

 

            Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets. I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.

 

Jesus is God, but he affirms that the laws of the ancient Israelites still stand.

 

On the other side of the spectrum are those Christians who say that Jesus overrode all rules in the Old Testament. He created a new covenant. His death was the ultimate sacrifice, so there’s no need for animal sacrifice – or, for that matter, any other Old Testament laws. Even the famous Ten Commandments are rendered unnecessary by Jesus.

 

Consider Matthew 22:37-39, in which Jesus is asked by a lawyer what is the great commandment of the law.

 

Jesus responds:

 

            You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all of your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it,  You shall love your neighbour as yourself.

 

Some Christians say all of the other eight commandments flow from those two. You love your neighbour, so you don’t lie to him. You love your neighbour, so you don’t steal from him. The Old Testament is important historically, but as a moral guidebook, it has been superseded.

 

And then there’s the vast middle ground. Most Christians I met draw a distinction between a)moral laws and b)ritual laws. The moral laws are the ones such as those found in the Ten Commandments: no killing, no coveting, and so forth. Those we still need to follow. Ritual laws are the ones about avoiding bacon and not wearing clothes of mixed fibers. Jesus made those laws obsolete.

 

What does obsolete mean? Is it a sin to keep a beard and avoid shellfish? Or is it just unnecessary, like wearing sunscreen indoors? Ask ten people, and once again, you’ll get ten different answers. But most seem to say, go ahead, wear that sunscreen. It won’t hurt. You need to accept Jesus, but you don’t need to shave the beard.

 

Which is a relief. I want to keep the beard. I’m not ready to give up my rituals. That would feel like I ran seventeen miles of a marathon. So unless there’s a contradiction in the laws – for instance, the literal interpretation of eye for an eye contradicts the literal interpretation of turn the other cheek – I’ll follow both Old and New.

 

My second Big Issue is this: As a Jewish person, how do I treat the issue of the divinity of Christ?

 

For the bona fide literal New Testament experience, I should accept Jesus as Lord. But I just can’t do it. I’ve read the New Testament several times, and though I think of Jesus as a great man, I don’t come away from the experience accepting him as savior. I’ve had no road-to-Damascus moment yet.

 

I could adopt the cognitive-dissonance strategy. If I act like Jesus is God, eventually maybe I will start to believe that Jesus is God. That’s my tactic with the God of the Hebrew Bible, and it’s actually started to work. But there’s a difference. When I do it with the Hebrew God, I feel like I’m trying on my forefathers’ robes and sandals. There’s a family connection. Doing it with Jesus would feel uncomfortable. I’ve come to value my heritage enough that it’d feel disloyal to convert.

 

Which naturally leads to this quandary: If I don’t accept Christ, can I get anything out of the New Testament at all? What if I follow the moral teachings of Jesus but don’t worship him as God? Or is that just a fool’s errand? Again, depends whom you ask.

 

…Most evangelical Christians would say that simply paying attention to Jesus’ moral teachings is missing the point. The central message of the Gospels is that Jesus is God, He died for our sins, and He rose again on the third day.  You need to accept Him.

 

The emphasis on faith is a key difference between modern Judaism and current evangelical Christianity. Judaism has a slogan: deed over creed. There’s an emphasis on behavior; follow the rules of the Torah, and eventually you’ll come to believe. But evangelical Christianity says you must first believe in Jesus, then the good works will naturally follow. Charity and kindness alone cannot save you.  You must, as the saying goes, be “justified by faith.”

 

Here’s an email I got from a conservative evangelical Christian I contacted. He runs a website that tries to reconcile science with biblical literalism. He wrote:

 

            It is through being in Christ and following Him that we become transformed. Unless one takes this step, one cannot be truly transformed. So, after your year is over, you will go back to being a man who finds purpose in weird projects and writing assignments. Becoming a follower of Jesus Christ is much more rewarding.

 

In short, I got schooled.

 

263 (In his meeting with Tom, a young theological student A.J. meets at Jerry Falwell’s church. Tom says:)

 

            “It’s OK to follow his teachings. It can make you a better person,” he says, “ But it’s not enough. You need to accept Him, to be born again. I got saved when I was a freshman in high school,” Tom continues, “I was a good Christian already. I went to church. I acted as morally as I could. I had accept Jesus here.” Tom points to his head. “But not here.” He points to his heart. “ I was off by twelve inches.”

 

He talks so passionately, so intensely, with such freedom from irony, I feel myself becoming unanchored. Perhaps to counter this, as a defensive measure, I bring up the gay issue…

 

272 I bought the Purpose-Driven Life (book) today…when I got home and start to read it, the first thing I notive is that Warren has copyrighted the phrase “purpose-driven”..but then I see that, in fine print, it says that Warren gives away 90%  of the …profits. Now I feel small..it reminds me that I have to finish my own tithing for the year…as with that first tithing in September, I feel a mixture of God’s pleasure and my own pain. But I think, or hope, I felt less pain than before. It comes back to the idea of surrendering. I still haven’t been able to surrender my spirit or emotions, but I have at least surrendered some of my bank account. I have to embrace the surrender.

 

But I won’t say another word about it. I’ve already violated Jesus’ teaching: “When  you give alms, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by men.”

 

275 There’s a beauty to forgiveness, especially forgiveness that goes beyond rationality. Unconditional love is an illogical notion, but such a great and powerful one.