Thursday, April 12, 2012

Matzo and Christian liberty


I listen to the Planet Money podcast for information and insight into economics, but the latest edition related more nearly to my day job. It proved the point of Westminster Confession of Faith 20.1, which says in part "...under the New Testament, the liberty of Christians is further enlarged, in their freedom from the yoke of the ceremonial law, to which the Jewish Church was subjected." The story on the Manischewitz corporation's matzo production facility illustrates the incredible lengths to which Jews have had to go in order to keep the ceremonial law. Of course, rabbinic Judaism, which is descended from New Testament-era Phariseeism, has adumbrated that law with any number of requirements; no doubt, law-keeping during Biblical times was not nearly so complex. Nonetheless, this contemporary illustration can help the modern-day Christian understand just what Leviticus is going on about.

No comments: