In Jesus’ time, the very architecture of the temple revealed what Jesus was trying to reform. The design of the building assigned and protected degrees of worthiness. The center was the Holy of Holies, which only the high priest could enter. Then the court of the priests and the Levites, which only they could enter. Next was the court, which only the circumcised could enter. Further out was the court of the Jewish women. Outside the temple was a sign warning non-Jews that they would be punished by death if they entered!
Today, this exclusivity continues where we seem to need some kind of sinner or heretic against which to compare ourselves. We create worthiness systems and invariably base them on some kind of purity code—racial, national, sexual, moral, or cultural. The pattern never changes, because it is the pattern of the fearful and over-defended ego.
Jesus had no interest in maintaining purity systems because they only appeal to the ego and led no one to God. Jesus openly disobeyed many of the accepted purity codes of his own religion, the many restrictions that made various people “impure.”
Even stronger is what Jesus said to the elders who wanted to stone the woman caught in adultery: “Let anyone who is without sin, throw the first stone!” (John 8:7). Just that statement alone should have been enough to redirect the belief and practice of moralism and purity codes. But sadly, it didn’t seem to have its desired effect on history.
John 13:34-35 “So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”
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