The late great Rabbi Jacob Milgrom invited his colleagues from the Protestant seminary, where he was teaching, to partake in a Passover meal. When the Baptist students saw that there were several bottles of wine on the table they subtling drew back. But the chancellor reached out and inspected one of the bottles. He read the label and said, “Ah, its okay boys—it is sacramental!” Some time later Jacob was at a baccalaureate service where the climax of the event was the Eucharist. As the body and blood were passed to him he recalls the same awkwardness he noticed at the Passover meal, this time, it was him. The chancellor, sitting next to him, reached over and passed the plate over Jacob and whispered— “It’s not for you, its only grape juice.”
There is this interesting phrase that both Paul and the ancient rabbis often used, m’aseh torah. We often render it “works of the law.” What is interesting about this phrase is its closeness to the phrase m’aseh todah. This is another phrase that certainly rhythms with the former, but also, was to be used (specifically in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the rabbinic literature of the Talmud) to complement the former phrase. The two phrases were often mistaken even in translation because in Hebrew the consonants daleth and resh are nearly indistinguishable. It is noteworthy then that m’aseh todah means “works of thanksgiving” or even the “power of thanksgiving.” The Israelites were rescued from slavery in Egypt and their response to the “mighty work” of God was the work of thanks, which took on flesh and blood as they followed the way of God, the way of torah.
So much of what it is to follow Jesus is learning the way of God, the reality of God, in response to a work that has already been “finished.” To live on the other side of slavery, death, darkness is to live into a certain texture of reality—bright, free, alive. Law, the yoke and the burden—even when crushing—is lighter that we thought. It is as if we pass through the waters everyday and refresh covenant law with thanks. To make things right in a relationship or to go the extra mile is like a prayer floating on thanks and gratitude. This week some friends got together and gifted me some funds to replace the bike that was stolen just a week ago. I opened a letter yesterday and just started crying—I was so thankful. And there is nothing that I am to do beside hold that gift in thanks as I ride for the next several years on that bike redeemed be my friends. I know I can take the metaphor to far here but let me be clear. Thanks is a good work, work that fulfills all of the instruction of God.
