Jesus & the Law
January 16, 2023
Matthew 5:17-20 | Deuteronomy 6:1-9
As we continue in the sermon on the mountain, Jesus gets right to it. The Law. The Law (torah in Hebrew) is what Jewish tradition holds was given to Israel through Moses soon after their delivery from slavery in Egypt.1 It became the source of all teaching for Israel and is full of the commandments of God (including what are usually called the Ten Commandments, better said: the ten words). Yet again, Matthew continues to show Jesus’ rise from within the story of Israel.
And Jesus himself will affirm Israel’s Law, saying that he has not come to get rid of it. Even so, both Jesus’ teaching here in Matthew 5-7 and in his actions thereafter, he will show the truest nature of the spirit of the Law: one of love. He does this to a length at which it even appears he breaks the law to uphold the law. Weird, right? Keep reading…
Matthew 5:17-20
“Don’t even begin to think that I have come to do away with the Law and the Prophets. I haven’t come to do away with them but to fulfill them. I say to you very seriously that as long as heaven and earth exist, neither the smallest letter nor even the smallest stroke of a pen will be erased from the Law until everything there becomes a reality. Therefore, whoever ignores one of the least of these commands and teaches others to do the same will be called the lowest in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever keeps these commands and teaches people to keep them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. I say to you that unless your righteousness is greater than the righteousness of the legal experts and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Deuteronomy 6:1-9
Now these are the commandments, the regulations, and the case laws that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you to follow in the land you are entering to possess, so that you will fear the Lord your God by keeping all his regulations and his commandments that I am commanding you—both you and your sons and daughters—all the days of your life and so that you will lengthen your life. Listen to them, Israel! Follow them carefully so that things will go well for you and so that you will continue to multiply exactly as the Lord, your ancestors’ God, promised you, in a land full of milk and honey.
Israel, listen! Our God is the Lord! Only the Lord!
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your being, and all your strength. These words that I am commanding you today must always be on your minds. Recite them to your children. Talk about them when you are sitting around your house and when you are out and about, when you are lying down and when you are getting up. Tie them on your hand as a sign. They should be on your forehead as a symbol. Write them on your house’s doorframes and on your city’s gates.
Prayer:
God -
We humans love the things of law. Even if we say we don’t, we really do. Deep down, we know we need boundaries. Not so deep down, we’re pretty sure that everyone else needs them.
Why do we need laws, God? Between religion and the government, there’s no shortage of things by which to abide. It can be paralyzing. We’re certain that you have called us to love, God. Can you legislate love? It seems to be against love’s very definition.
I know I can’t figure this all out today. But as I live, God…as I make choices, as I deal with people, as I deal with myself…help me to lead with the law of love. Where I am unsure or wrong, give me fast boundaries indeed. I do not want to overstep the lines of love, for that is the image in which you have created me. Help me be your image.
By your Spirit & in Christ, Amen.
Remember what we read in chapter 2 of Matthew: as a child, Jesus was taken by his father and mother to Egypt, returning once his life was free of the tyrant Herod’s threat of death, much like the nation Israel: “I have called my son out of Egypt.” (Matthew 2:15 & Hosea 11:1)