Monday in the Seventeenth Week of Ordinary Time, July 27, 2020

I had an especially busy day yesterday and did not get a chance to write on the Gospel for today.  Please find below a recent thought that occurred to me on Jesus and the Law:

The story of the Pentateuch is the story of the Law.  God creates the world for the sake of man, the end point of his physical creation.  He creates a people from a descendent of the original man.  He then gives his law to the people, and with it the land promised to them in order to live out this law.  The New Testament might be seen as the sending of the New Law, the Logos.  God prepares a people for his New Law through John the Baptist.  The people of the New Law will be led into the Promised Land of heaven where they shall live it out forever.  Certainly, Matthew saw Jesus as the new Lawgiver, the new Moses, as well as the true son of David.

When Jesus told Peter that he would head his “Church”, he was already breaking with the Jewish structure of religion.  In the Jewish mind the world consisted of the Jews and the Gentiles.  The Jews centered their religious life around the temple.  The synagogues served as unofficial though important gathering places where the Law was heard and discussed, but rabbis were not officially appointed and the worship offered there was minimal.  Establishing a “Church”, an ekklesia, was a startling act that would have provoked serious questions as to what the Lord intended.  Appointing the fisherman Peter as its head was just as remarkable.  Peter probably could not read Hebrew as would a rabbi, who would read the Law.  And why would Jesus appoint him at all?  Was not Jesus the head of this Church?  Did he anticipate his own Death as so imminent that he had to make this preparation to carry on his teaching?  Matthew shows Jesus at once speaking of his own suffering and Death, which would make perfect sense after naming Peter his successor in this way.  Peter’s sharp reaction to Jesus making this practical provision in light of his coming Death shows that Peter took him very seriously and literally.  The announcement had burst upon him and he was filled with alarm.  The Lord’s equally sharp rebuke assures Peter that he knew exactly what he was doing, and in essence tells him and the others to prepare for it in a way more emphatic than if he had merely elaborated on it: it is God’s will.