Outgrowing the Disciplinarian

Galatians 3:23-29 (esp. v24)

The Law was a disciplinarian, a pedagagos: an educated, trusted and benevolent slave whose sole task it was was to watch the little children of the house and make sure they didn't get into trouble, and provide some basic moral guidance. This slave was still ultimately a servant of the children, even though she commanded them in their infancy and childhood.

Paul is being literary here (he takes the analogy and runs with it in following verses), but it serves his point well. The Law (or religious laws) was (were) set up to guide us, to serve us, not us to serve it. The holiness of the Law was not holy in itself, but in the moral guidance it provided and the devotion it nurtured within us. It was an instrument of God, not God godself. And in Christ we have seen a glimpse of God-godself. Once we have outgrown the pedagagos, we have no use for such a disciplinarian - we can continue to honor her service and advice, but we will never go back under her charge. And sometimes, we may see fit to violate her once-helpful commands and rules. Part of becoming an adult, after all, is recognizing the complexity of moral choices, and the multiplicity of possible actions and consequences - far beyond the face-value simplicity of children's stories, and more layered and contradictory than children's strategies for resistance, justice, fairness and so on. (Even though those principles and lessons are still valuable, and continue to inform our choices and ideals.)

I wonder if most Christians realize what Paul is saying here - that the Law is superceded by Christ. We can no longer use the Levitical or Deuteronomical laws to exclude people or beat people up inside themselves. Christ is the rule; Christ is the law. And Jesus said precious little about "homosexuality" or cohabitation or premarital sex. If anything, Jesus' ethic of radical love and inclusion of the marginalized (by us?) should command our embrace of these troublesome (to us) populations. The Law no longer commands Christians - but some Christians haven't gotten the memo yet. Some Christians believe the Law still serves to further exclude people already on the margins. At the same time, these Christians ignore the commands of Jesus for economic and social equity and justice, protection of the widow and orphan, hospitality to the poor and the foreigner. It is as if they take the worst - most petulant - of the Law and abandon the best - the grace and mercy - of Jesus. (While at the same time singing hymns that repeat "grace and mercy" - but what they mean is grace and mercy for me, continued aspersion to them.)

Paul here is breaking all that away. In Christ there is no Jew or Greek, no heterosexual or homosexual, no black or white, no rich or poor, and so on. ... Or is there? To the extent that these divisions still exist, our community does not reflect that of Christ.

But it isn't too late.