Matthew 5:17-20.
We know that we are saved by grace, and not by observing the law. See Galatians 2:15-16. And, because of this we may be perplexed by Jesus saying that He has not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets, but to fulfill them. We might even strain to figure out which part of the law we must still follow, and from which part have we been relieved. Is it just the moral law that we must follow, or must we follow dietary or ceremonial laws as well?
To an extent, I think this kind of an examination misses the point. In fact, I suspect that (like much of the Bible) when we examine the law in this way it is not so much to determine what we should do to be good followers of Jesus, but instead to figure out the minimum we must do in order to be accepted by God. What we want to really figure out is what is the least we can do and still please Him.
The truth, though, is that we can never do enough to please God. Or at least, there is never enough that we can do to be seen as righteous in His eyes. Instead, our righteousness comes solely from Jesus and through Jesus. We are made righteous in His eyes, but only because He Himself made the ultimate sacrifice to cover our sins. We are made righteous by His blood; and by His blood alone. See Hebrews 10:1-18.
At the same time, if we are truly made righteous by the blood of Jesus, what started as an internal transformation begins to be reflected externally as well. If we really love Jesus, that love will be manifest in how we, in turn, love others. Conversely, the absence of external obedience to Jesus tells us it is likely that nothing actually changed on the inside either. We may profess Christ, and yet never actually have allowed Him to become the Lord of our lives.
And so, Jesus continues His great sermon. He warns us that we will not inherit the kingdom of heaven unless our righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. What we do externally will never be enough.
How deflating those words must have been to the crowd around Him. The Pharisees and the Teachers of the Law were the spiritual elite. They were the ones who followed the law meticulously. They were the ones who had cornered the market when it came to righteousness. The question on the minds of those in the crowd must have been if not the Pharisees "who then can inherit eternal life?"
At this point we might hope that Jesus would preach the message of grace. We might hope that He would say something -- anything -- to let the crowd off the hook. But instead, he drives the point home. “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment." Matthew 5:21-22.
Rather than bringing relief from the law, Jesus has brought to the surface its fullness. Not only will murder bring judgment on you, but even just being angry with your brother. Hearing this, much of the crowd must have walked away sad. Indeed, by the end only about 120 believers would remain. See Acts 1:15.
In the end though, mercifully, those who stayed the course would come to understand that it was never about our ability to live up to the letter of the law, but instead it was about our willingness to live by the Spirit of God. Both our internal and our external righteousness, as it turned out, would depend entirely on Jesus.
As a point of departure we looked at the Commandment to observe the Sabbath. The Pharisees had added their traditions to a simple commandment of God. They had made it a matter of not exerting themselves on the Sabbath and in the process had "neglected the more important matters of the law -- like justice, mercy and faithfulness."
The Command, after all, was to keep the Sabbath holy. And, I wonder -- what could be more holy than feeding someone who is hungry, visiting the sick or imprisoned, or telling someone who is lost about Jesus?
"At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”
He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent? I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”
He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus."
Matthew 12:1-14.
