Twenty Third Sunday, OT A

Love is the fulfillment of the Law.

Law and Love may sound antonymous and incompatible, even having nothing to do with each other. We often tend to define Law as ‘that which I have to do’ and Love as ‘that which I want to do’. If you look at those words from an earthly and secular point of view, t hen I suppose you could say that. But, Christ is not coming from a secular point of view and he indeed gave us both Law and Love; so what does this mean?

Ezekiel is declaring to us that we have been set as watchman over our neighbors. A watchman, in OT times, had the responsibility to keep watch over the town and warn the inhabitants of any impending dangers or disasters. We are watchman. We have been called by God to be those individuals who look out for others. If we see anything that is sinful, wrong or impending, we have the responsibility to warn them. If we do not live up to the call we have been given, we too will perish along with them. But, if we do warn our brothers and sisters about their sin, their unbelief or an impending danger looming their way – even if they do not heed, we will be saved.

The Gospel is giving us a procedure of how to deal with someone who has sinned against us. We need to first go to them in person. If this does not work then bring a few more witnesses along with you. If this doesn't work, then bring them before the church. If they still don’t listen to you and seek forgiveness, then let them be and God will take care of it – we have done all we can.

These two scripture passages, Matthew and Ezekiel, are challenging us and pushing us to follow a law of God that is not easy and is one that we hardly compare to love. Almost none of us like or prefer going and confronting others who have sinned, are in the wrong, believe something false or are in the midst of addictions. This can be extremely scary, embarrassing and difficult. How easy is it to just gossip about them or ask someone else to go talk to them? We all prefer it. But, these are not acts of love; these are not ways to follow the law of God.

We cannot live our lives isolated from others as in not caring about them or what they do. Upon our hearts, God has laid His law and gives us His love – we need to give it back to God by living accordingly. The more we know about the Law of God in our minds, the more the Love of God will burn within our hearts. The Law is not a parameter for which we live our lives, that is a too simplistic and sterile understanding. The Law of God is and needs to be our way of life. It needs to encompass us in every aspect. In doing so, we will see that law does not constrict us, but it frees us. We are shown a life by which we live freely in the Love of God.

The only way we can begin to experience the immensities of God’s Love is by beginning to accept His will and desires for our life. His Law will lead us to His Love.