CALL NO ONE YOUR FATHER ON EARTH

 CALL NO ONE YOUR FATHER ON EARTH
Matthew 23:9-12
And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father--the one in heaven.
Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah. The greatest among you will be your servant. All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted. ……………………………………………………
It looks like that Jesus was teaching against the fifth  commandment, which as a moral imperativus was written and incorporated into the Ten Commandments more than 3000 years ago, that the Lord commanded the Jews and all the nations that You shall honor your father and your mother.
We know that the mere semblance can get into the way of understanding, when one superficially approaches a deep teaching of Jesus, when  the occasional figurative speech, or the intentional polarization used by Jesus are hard to be appropriately screened in order to find the higher meaning.
The ground zero is what Jesus told the disciples in the Sermon of the Mount, that " Don't think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn't come to destroy, but to fulfill."
Matthew:5:17
Thus, it is unthinkable that Jesus would have abolished the Ten Commandments, let alone the fifth one, that you shall honor your father and your mother, by telling people that it is expired, and not anymore important. It is unthinkable, although Jesus also said it in that Gospel of Luke, chapter 24, that  26 “If anyone comes to me, and doesn’t hate his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he can’t be my disciple.”
It still does not mean that some must hate his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, and sisters and his own life in order to follow Jesus as a disciple, but that a disciple must love God more than his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, and sisters and his own life. The exaggeration and the extensive dynamism in his language served the emphasis on the core of the message, that you must love God before everything. As the Apostle Paul echoes this in his letter to the Philippians, chapter three, that “However, I consider those things that were gain to me as a loss for Christ. 8 Yes most certainly, and I count all things to be a loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and count them nothing but refuse, that I may gain Christ. “
When we ask what is the reasoning behind the commandments in general, then in the case of the Ten Commandments the answer is easy, because the Commandments are so simple and axiomatic that there is almost no extra need for further explanations.
There can be found hundreds of other commandments beside the Ten Commandments, and the sages of the old tradition often say about some particular commandment, that we are baffled about this one, we do not have any clue of the great why behind the divine logic of giving us this or that particular commandment, but we obey it anyways, because for us the major reason is to do the will of God, and it is not that we know the great why behind his will, for it is enough for us to know that this is what God wants from us to do, and we do it despite that sometimes we do not understand its reason at all.
The sages say that when Moses announced it to the people around the Mt.Sinai, that God was going to declare his commandments, the people answered that we will do it and we will hear it. Usually the western translations do not give back the meaning of the Hebrew original accurately, because the translations usually read that we will do it and we will obey it. However the Hebrew original says that "na’aseh ve'nishma" and it means that we will do and we will hear it.
According to the tradition, the Mount Sinai commandments were offered to other nations, and they did not want them. Only the Jews said even in advance without knowing the details that we will do it, whatever the Lord says. It does not really matter what the Lord will say. Please Lord, just tell us what you want and we will do it, anything.
In the case of the Ten Commandments, though they are simple, and it looks like, there is no further need for further explanation, still there are some explanations written in the Book of the Exodus and the Book of Deuteronomy, respectively.
Regarding honoring our parents the whole commandment goes like this: " Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gives you." Honoring the parents is a personal and also a community commandment.
It is not enough that I, myself, shall honor my parents, but everybody else shall honor their own parents in the society, and ultimately on the planet.
AND not only that, but everybody must honor all the parents in the whole society, including all elderly, even those who happen to have no children. This commandment is not a private family matter, which may privately depend on the culture or the mood or the moral sensitivity of different families respectively, because the explanation of the commandment is clear that if you obey it, you will have longevity and peace and prosperity in your land. If you breach this law, then there will be violence and chaos in the land. and the land will be also lost shortly, for certain.
However, it is obvious that Jesus meant, that meanwhile it is an uttermost importance to keep the commandments, if it is possible, all of them and keeping them perfectly, still there is one commandment, which is above all, and amazingly it is not within the Ten Commandments.  The Ten Commandments is practically the how-to explanation of the above all Commandments. This Commandment is that You shall love the Lord your God, from your whole heart, from your whole soul and with all your strength and above everything, above your own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, and sisters, yes, and your own life on Earth, and your own soul in the eternity.
It is amazing that, the commandment at its core did not demand faith nor deed, it requires an emotion, and that is love. How we shall love God? As a child loves his loving father. Nowadays, it is a bit an abandoned notion, however Jesus explicitly said, that we are all brothers of one single Father, and that is Our Father in Heaven.
Hardly there is any other notion that is more Jewish, than God is our Father in Heaven, in Hebrew avinu shebashamayim.
He is the addressee in the Lord’s Prayer, as Jesus ordered that we pray to our Father in Heaven only, just as he added the warning  that “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you don’t forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
Meanwhile, he said, that the Lord, whom we must love as a father, he is the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, our forefathers. Thus, the explanation goes with the Jesus rule, that if You love God, the love of God will make you honor your father and mother, but if you do not love God, you will hate your family and even your own life. It is better to name our God our Father only, lest we forget that God is our Father. May God make his image in us shiny, AMEN