Wednesday of the First Week of Lent

Readings: Jonah, 3:1-10, Luke, 11:29-32

The Ten Commandments

It is sometimes supposed that God’s commandments are a bit like the instructions found in the manual of a car: follow the directions and you will have a car that runs well and lasts many years. Ignore the instructions, or worse act against them, and the car will break down and cease to be of any use. God’s commands show men the way they should act in order to flourish as human beings and live long, happy lives. As the Psalmist says, “Trust in the Lord, and do good; so you will live in the land, and enjoy security” (Psalm 119).

Now this is a helpful way of beginning to understand Law, but sometimes it can draw people into the thought that the laws of God are merely directed towards man’s flourishing as a natural creature on Earth. Of the Ten Commandments it is only the fourth to tenth that really matter in the practical here and now. Is this true? Should Christians obey the Law only so that they might flourish in this life?

In today’s Gospel Jesus condemns the people of Israel as “an evil generation”? Why might this be so? When it comes to observing the Law it would be difficult to say the Jewish people of Jesus’s day were not deeply committed. St Paul described himself as he was before his conversion saying “I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers” (Gal 1:14).

The Jewish People observed the Law and sought a Messiah who would bring them freedom from the Romans, they hoped for earthly flourishing. In His Parable on the Wicked Husbandmen Our Lord tells the Jewish leaders that, after they rejected many messengers, the custodians of the Father’s vineyard would spurn even the Son who was sent to them. The evil generation Jesus condemned was one that sought Earth’s goods first, and gave little actual thought to God for His own sake.

In the season of Lent Christians follow Jesus through his earthly mission towards Calvary. As the Son of God gave Himself up on the Cross for love of the Father and love of man, Christians seek to imitate Him by, like the people of Nineveh, taking up penances and fasting. However, it can’t be a merely following of rules, as if what God wanted and men needed was a matter of ticking boxes. The Crucifixion was the supreme expression of a vivifying love that animated every aspect of Jesus’s being.  Through the gift of Faith God puts that same love into human hearts. In Lent, Christians seek to become more Christ-like: that is, to advance in this God-given love for His sake with no thought for themselves. By their faith Christians gain the hope not only that “God may yet repent and turn from his fierce anger” (Jon 10:3) but  even more that they might “abide in the Son and in the Father” which is Eternal Life (1 John 2:24-25).