I have been journalling for a while on a scripture verse or passage, and a friend encouraged me to start a blog.  Here it is.  I am no professional theologian, but just another beggar looking for bread.  I encourage healthy discussion and appreciate the rabbi who stated “Come on people! Somebody disagree with me!  How can we learn anything if no one will disagree?”  Of course pleasant disagreement is preferable.  Thanks.

But why is the blog titled “Swallow No Camels”?  It’s from the first post:

Matthew 23:23-24

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!

Gnats and camels are both on the list of living things that are not food (Leviticus 11:4 and Leviticus 11:20-23).  Jesus humorously paints a picture of someone straining their water to make sure there were no gnats in it so they don’t accidentally break the law, but then swallowing a whole camel.

This verse falls in the middle of a bunch of woes.  Jesus was pointing out the problems of the Pharisees.  They were tithing even the herbs in their gardens, just as commanded in Lev. 27:30 and Deut. 14.22.  Jesus doesn’t condemn them for doing this, rather he accepts it as he does all parts of the law (“These you ought to have done”).  The problem was that they ignored the “weightier matters”.  As a Jewish Rabbi, Jesus used the principle of ‘heavy’ and ‘light’ commandments.  He uses the light/heavy contrast several times in his sermon in Matthew 5, for example comparing adultery (considered a ‘heavy commandment’) with looking at a woman with lust (a ‘light’ commandment) or comparing murder with anger.  Jesus, while admitting the idea of the weight of the commandments, says the result of breaking either is the same; it makes you “liable to judgment” (Mt 5:22).  He began this section of the sermon saying “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”  (Mt 5:19)  All laws are to be kept, but some are weightier than others.

So what did Jesus call the heavier or ‘weightier’ commandments?  Justice, mercy, and faithfulness.  He was echoing the prophet in Micah 6:8.  “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”  We all get on soapboxes at times and rail against things that bother us.  The organized church at times picks out certain sins and rants on and on.  If the church becomes known for this rather than for our justice, mercy and faithfulness, then we  go into the ‘blind guide’ category.  If our daily lives are not full of these heavier things, then listen carefully, you may hear the sound of camels laughing.