Let’s start with a pop quiz about the ten commandments (Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20). 

• How many of you think the ten commandments are important? 
• When was the last time you read or thought about them?
• How many of you support the public display of the ten commandments – in schools, courthouses, town squares? 
• What are the ten commandments? How many can you name?

Here’s why I started with those questions. Over the last twenty years or so there have been several polls about the ten commandments. They all found that the vast majority of Americans support the public display of the commandments but only a small percentage could correctly name the ten commandments.[1] One poll revealed that “Americans recalled the seven ingredients of a McDonald’s Big Mac hamburger … more easily than the Bible’s Ten Commandments.”[2]

When I was a child I had to memorize the ten commandments before I could be confirmed and receive communion. They were God’s rules for my life. They set the expectations for my behavior toward God and others. At a very basic level they were an attempt by God to protect God’s self and others from me. 

I shouldn’t have other gods, make idols, or misuse God’s name. I should remember and keep holy the sabbath day. I should honor my mom and dad. I shouldn’t murder, commit adultery, steal, lie, or covet.

It was pretty simple. If I kept the commandments I was good. If I broke them I was bad. I used to think the commandments were primarily about my outward behavior and a standard for grading my life each day. How many out of ten did I get correct? Do I have to get a 100 or is 60 still passing? Will there be a final exam or is a lifetime average calculated when I die?

I wonder if that’s how we often approach the ten commandments, the beatitudes, and the teachings of Jesus. We measure and keep score of our life and the lives of others. But what if that’s not God’s way? What if the commandments aren’t primarily about our outward behavior but about the integrity of our underlying relationships with God, others, ourselves? What if the commandments are less about protecting God and others from us and more about protecting us from ourselves?

Haven’t you sometimes needed protection you from yourself? I think we all need that kind of protection and we know it. We say things like, “I shot myself in the foot.” “He’s digging his own grave.” “I keep getting in my own way.” “She’s her own worst enemy.” When have you said those things about yourself? What was going on? When have you self-sabotaged? 

I think that’s what we see in today’s gospel (Matthew 21:33-46). The tenants are digging their own grave. “There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants.” The tenants, however, refused to pay the rent. They not only refused to share the harvest with the landowner, they beat, killed, and stoned the people he sent to collect the rent, including his own son. And the tenants lost it all. Or as the religious authorities say to Jesus, “[The landowner] will put those wretches to a miserable death and lease the vineyard to other tenants.” 

The imagery of this story is graphic, unsettling, and unrealistic – murdering bill collectors and tenants who fail to pay rent? The imagery, however, isn’t meant to be taken literally. It’s intended to get our attention. It’s asking us to seriously consider trust and betrayal in our own relationships. And we’ve all experienced both.

What do you want when it comes to your relationships with others? 

Most of us probably want to live or love in situations and with people we can trust. We want our relationships to be such that we can never be hurt. We want to know that what is pledged in words is forever binding.[3] We want to be able to count on the other.

Isn’t that what you want from your spouse or partner, your children, friends, work colleagues, the church, institutions, America, even God? We want a primal relationship of trust, a container by which another can never let us down. I suspect that’s what the landowner in today’s gospel wants too. 

But here’s the thing. Every relationship of trust contains the seeds of betrayal.[4] It doesn’t matter whether it’s with others, institutions, or God. Trust and betrayal are the two sides of every relationship. It’s easy to see the tenants’ betrayal of the landowner but before they ever betrayed the landowner they first betrayed themselves. They needed protection from their “own treachery and ambivalence.”[5] So do I and, I suppose, so do you. 

What if that’s how we saw and lived the ten commandments, the beatitudes, and Jesus’ teachings? What if they are for our benefit? What if they are calling us back to our true and authentic self? What if they are protecting us from ourselves?

See if any of this sounds or looks familiar in your life.

1. Sometimes I give my allegiance to that which cannot give me life. It might be my work, an agenda, an ideology, a political party, a denomination, my country, an addiction, a pattern or habit of behavior. I make ultimate what is not ultimate. I need protection from myself. “You shall have no other gods before me.”

2. There are times when work, success, power, wealth, approval are images that guide my life. Despite their promises they don’t enlarge my life. Instead, my life becomes small, hardened, and one dimensional. I need protection from myself. “You shall not make for yourself an idol.”

3. If I’m not careful I will say more about God than I really know and it’s usually to my benefit or the detriment of another. I call God to be on my side. I speak on behalf of God more than I listen to God. I need protection from myself. “You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God.”

4. It’s not unusual for my life to get out of balance. I live depleted and exhausted. Time is a commodity I use to be productive and profitable. Sometimes I spend my time on what is not worthy or deserving of my time. I need protection from myself. “Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy.”

5. Somewhere along the way I bought in to the idea that I should be a self-made man, independent, hard working, and deserving of what I have. That’s just my delusion. I can pretty quickly forget that none of us can do life alone. My parents gave me what I could not give myself – life. It all began with them. I need protection from myself. “Honor your father and mother.”

6. I’ve never physically killed anyone but I have given the look that kills and I have spoken words that pierced the heart. They were dead to me. I’ve acted in ways that negated, devalued, or took life. I need protection from myself. “You shall not murder.”

7. Sometimes I give myself to qualities and ways of being that adulterate and pollute my life. I settle for substitute gratifications that never truly satisfy or fulfill. I choose superficiality over vulnerability and intimacy. I need protection from myself. “You shall not commit adultery.”

8. When I was five I stole a toy rocket from the store. I sometimes still want what I don’t have. I want to fill the emptiness, someone to blame, an assurance that I am enough. That’s when I become a thief in my relationships. I need protection from myself. “You shall not steal.”

9. There are times when I get scared and make up a safer more comfortable truth. I make judgments about others. I project my stuff on to them. I react out of misunderstandings and say things that just aren’t accurate. I need protection from myself. “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”

10. I have often compared myself to others. I couldn’t be happy for their achievements or happiness because I wanted them for myself. I wanted what they had – things, relationships, recognition, opportunities. I wanted to live their life, not mine. I need protection from myself. “You shall not covet.”

I don’t offer any of that as a way of saying, “Hey, look at me.” I offer it as an invitation for you to look at yourself. Do you recognize yourself in any of that? Is any of it descriptive of your life? In what ways do you need protection from yourself? 

Here’s the thing that strikes me about the ten commandments. They focus our attention on what in our lives is good, holy, and worthy of protection. They aren’t protecting us from ourselves because we are so bad but because we are so worthy of protection. There is something holy and sacred about you and me that is worth God’s effort. Maybe the only question is this: Do we consider ourselves worth the effort?

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Image Credit: “Statue of Moses and the Ten Commandments – Lodz Park – Łódź, Poland” by David Berkowitz is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Footnotes:
1. The Ten Commandments, Foundation of American Society, accessed 10.7.2023; Americans: Thou Shalt Not Remove the Ten Commandments, accessed 10.7.2023.
2. Americans know Big Macs better than Ten Commandments, accessed 10.7.2023.
3. Hillman, “Betrayal,” Loose Ends, accessed 10.4.2023 (available on Amazon).
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.