Jesus "fulfilled" the law???? Matthew 5:17-26

Jesus came to "fulfill" the law???? (Matt 5:17-26) Don't think that I came to do away with the law or the prophets. I didn't come to do away with but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, one iota or one stroke of a pen will1 absolutely not2 pass away from the law until everything takes place. Therefore3, whoever does away with one of the least of these commandments and teaches thus people, least4 he will be called in the kingdom of the heavens. Now whoever does/keeps and teaches-- this one, great he will be called in the kingdom of the heavens. For I say to you that if your righteousness doesn't abound much more than the scribes and Pharisees, you will absolutely not enter5 into the kingdom of the heavens. You heard that it was said to the ancestors, "You will not murder." Now whoever murders, liable he will be to judgment. Now I say to you that everyone being angry with his brother, liable he will be to judgment. Now whoever says to his brother, "Fool," liable he will be to the Sanhedrin. Now whoever says, "Worthless fool," liable he will be to the Gehenna/hell of fire. Therefore6, imagine7 you are offering your gift upon the altar, and there you remember that your brother has something against you. Leave there your gift before the altar, and go. First be reconciled with your brother, and then, coming, bring your gift. Make friends with your accuser quickly, while you are with him on the road, lest you, your accuser hands over to the judge, and the judge to the attendant, and into prison you are thrown. Truly I say to you, you will absolutely not get out from there until you pay back the last penny. In Matt 5:1-12, Jesus begins the Sermon on the Mount with what is basically a 3 word message: "You are blessed." When we look around the world, who do we think is blessed? Who has God's favor? Do we think it's Bill Gates? LeBron James? Taylor Swift? Jesus says, No. It's you. It's people who follow Jesus, who long for righteousness, who are peacemakers, who are persecuted for their faith. We are blessed. We will be called God's children. We have the promise of being heirs of God's kingdom. We will be comforted. Then, in 5:13-16, Jesus talks about being salt and light. Basically, when you choose to follow Jesus, submitting to him as King, you repent of your sins and choose to live in service to him. Right? And what that means, very concretely, is putting God and his kingdom first, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, being a peace-maker, being willing to suffer persecution. There are times in our lives when doing all of this is easy. We love God, we are thrilled to serve him, and it's easy to praise God for everything. There are other times when we are suffering, or when we are distracted by worldly things, and all of this is very hard. When we became Jesus' disciples, we chose to be salt, to be light to the world. But sometimes we'd rather not be. We'd rather turn into not-salt. We'd rather not shine very brightly in the world. 13 "You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. 14 "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that[b] they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (ESV) Basically, what Jesus is saying here can be summed up in 3 words as well. "Accept your responsibility." Because you follow Jesus, you are salt. So be salt. You are light. So be light. So are we all on the same page so far? In Matt 5:1-12, the message is simple: "It is you who are blessed." Then in 5:13-16, it's simple: "Accept the responsibility that comes with this." "Be salt." "Be light. Shine in the world through your good works." But what exactly is God looking for? What kind of good works does God want? I've known many Christians that are terrified of good works. They hear "good works," and they wet themselves, worrying that we are suddenly talking about legalism, rushing to talk about faith instead. This is nonsense. You are a light in the world, and God expects you to shine. God expects you to do good works, so that people will see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. People at [my workplace] are supposed to look at me, at work, and see my good works-- that I work hard, that I don't gossip, that I don't complain, that I care about my co-workers, that I am filled with joy. And when I work rightly--I don't always, but when I do-- there is the chance that people will praise God. Maybe that will bring him glory, when I let my light shine at work. Shine! Be lights! So let's go back to this question: "What exactly is God looking for? What kinds of good works does God want?" We can be more specific, because there's a pressing question we need to answer. What do good works have to do with keeping the Mosaic covenant? It's when we get to this point, that we are ready for today's passage. Let's start by rereading verses 17-18: "Don't think that I came to do away with the law or the prophets. I didn't come to do away with (them) but to fulfill (them). For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, one iota or one stroke of a pen will absolutely not pass away from the law until everything takes place." There's something about Jesus' teaching that's open to misunderstanding. It'd be easy to get the impression that Jesus is doing away with Mosaic covenant-- and the OT. And when we look at the church, and how they understood Jesus' words, this impression is strengthened. Are we circumcised? Do we follow the food laws? Do we celebrate the Passover? So this is a legitimate question. How did Jesus view his relationship to the law and the prophets? This is what Jesus said: "Don't think that I came to do away with the law or the prophets. I didn't come to do away with them but to fulfill them." What does this mean? It's maybe tempting at this point, if we ignore the larger context, to say something like, "Jesus fulfilled the law by dying on the cross for our sins." This would be super easy, and sounds like something that gets the Martin Luther stamp of approval. But is this the whole story? Let's just leave this as an open question for a minute. "What does Jesus mean when he says he came to fulfill the law?" In verse 18, we then get a "for" statement. "For truly I say to you." What "for" does, is strengthen or explain some point just made.8 My grandpa, when he is about to make a point that he thinks is important, begins the comment like this: "The truth of the matter is..." A co-worker of mine, when he's going to make an important point, says, "Here's the deal..." These are called metacomments. It's a way of trying to get people's attention, to make sure they don't miss what you are about to say. This is a big deal. Jesus here lets us know that he's making a big deal about this with a metacomment. "For truly I say to you." So is everyone listening? Is everyone ready? "For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, one iota or one stroke of a pen will absolutely not pass away from the law until everything takes place." I'd LOVE to have Jesus explain this in more detail here. Heaven and earth will pass away? Please, tell me more. But Jesus stays focused here on the Mosaic covenant. Look around your world. Every single thing you see will pass away before a single thing in the law is done away with. The Mosaic law is the last thing that will go. Jesus absolutely denies he is doing away with the Mosaic law. NOPE. He is fulfilling it. This doesn't answer our question. What does Jesus mean when he says he came to fulfill the law. But Jesus couldn't make this any clearer: Jesus didn't come to do away with the Mosaic law. Verses 19-20 Therefore, whoever does away with one of the least of these commandments and teaches people to do the same, least he will be called in the kingdom of the heavens. Now whoever does/keeps and teaches, [this one] great will be called in the kingdom of the heavens. For I say to you that if your righteousness doesn't abound much more than the scribes and Pharisees, you will absolutely not enter into the kingdom of the heavens. So let's say we are reading the Mosaic covenant, and we find something that we don't think we have to do. We say, it's just a little commandment. No big deal. I'll just skip that one. And then, we go on to teach others to do the same. I say, "there's lots of great stuff in the Mosaic covenant, but you have to kind of cut out some of it. Anyone who does this, who does away with even the least of the commandments, will get a special name in the kingdom of heavens: "Least." "There's Pastor so-and-so over there. He taught people that it's okay to divorce your wife if you fall in love with someone else." He's least in the kingdom of heaven. "Over there is Sunday School teacher so-and-so. He taught people that a little bit of greed is not that big of a deal. He's least in the kingdom of heaven. But right here, do you see this9 guy? This guy has modeled what it means to be Jesus' disciple. He hungered and thirsted for righteousness, never being content with where he was at spiritually. He was always striving to walk with God. He was always putting God's kingdom first. And he taught dozens--hundreds-- of people to live the same way. This guy is great in the kingdom of heaven. This brings us to another "for" statement in verse 20: For I say to you that if your righteousness doesn't abound much more than the scribes and Pharisees, you will absolutely not enter into the kingdom of the heavens. This is a great verse. Memorize this one. Most of us are so used to demonizing the scribes and Pharisees, that we can't make heads or tails of this verse. Your righteousness has to far exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees. If it doesn't, there is absolutely no way10-- no chance-- you will enter the kingdom of heaven. And we frown, and we say, "what?" It's not hard to be more righteous than Pharisees, right? Actually, it is hard. The Pharisees desperately tried to please God. They went to great lengths to try to be faithful to God in his covenant with Israel. They just lost focus on the right things, and lost sight of some of the things God really wants. But they weren't Nazis. They weren't terrible people. They were widely respected lay people in Israel's leadership-- people who were models of trying to please God. It'd be like if Jesus said, "Your righteousness has to exceed that of Billy Graham or Mother Theresa, or you absolutely won't enter the kingdom of heaven." Are you serious? How can we possibly compete with that? What more could God possibly want? THAT's how you are supposed to hear this. If even the Pharisees aren't living rightly, what more could God possibly want? And now we get to the really exciting part. We start to get an answer to the question: "What does Jesus mean when he says he came to fulfill the law?" Verse 21: You heard that it was said to the ancestors, "You will not murder." Now, whoever murders, liable he will be to judgment. Now, I say to you that everyone being angry with his brother, liable he will be to judgment. Now, whoever says to his brother, "Fool," liable he will be to the Sanhedrin. Now, whoever says, "Worthless fool," liable he will be to the Gehenna11 of fire. So let's take the first line. You've heard that it was said to the ancestors, "You will not murder." Where was it said to the ancestors that you aren't supposed to murder someone? (ten commandments). Right. So whoever murders, liable he will be to judgment. That word "liable" here is emphasized. You murder someone-- LIABLE-- you are to judgment. You are held responsible; you are going to be punished. There are consequences. But Jesus then pushes past this, to talk about God's deeper purpose. Verse 22: Now, I say to you that everyone being angry with his brother, liable he will be to judgment. Now, whoever says to his brother, "Fool," liable he will be to the Sanhedrin. Now, whoever says, "Worthless fool," liable he will be to the Gehenna12 of fire. If I murder someone, I fully expect to be held liable for my crime. Guilty. I did it. I won't fight that. And it's great if we don't go around murdering each other. But is this all that God really wants? It turns out that what God actually wants is far more difficult. Jesus says: "Everyone being angry with his brother-- liable he will be to judgment. Wait. I'm not supposed to be angry with my brother? I thought the Mosaic law just basically said, "Don't murder people when you are angry with them. Put down the knife." But what God actually wants is for us not to get angry with each other. If we do get angry, we are liable to judgment, just like a murderer is. This is what Jesus means when he says he fulfills the law. The Mosaic law doesn't perfectly express God's vision for how the world should look. God knows we are going to want to get angry with each other. The Mosaic law was designed to keep people from acting on that anger. To limit how we express that anger. You can't pick up that knife and (stabbing motion) when you get angry with someone. But what God actually wants is for us not to get angry with each other. That's what fulfills the law-- that's what God really, fully wants. It's not enough to not (stabbing motion). You can't even get angry with them. Jesus then offers us a second pair of contrasts. If you call your brother Ῥακά, a "fool," you are liable to a human council-- the Sanhedrin, and they will decide your punishment. But if you call someone Μωρέ, a "worthless fool", you are liable to hell. So it's great if you don't go around murdering people. But the vision Jesus has for what God's people should look like goes much farther than this. "Don't murder-- but also don't be angry, and don't insult your brother. If you do this, your righteousness will far exceed that of the Pharisees. If you do this, you will enter the kingdom of heaven (5:20).13 Jesus then gives us an illustration in verse 23, to help us think through what this looks like in real life. Therefore, imagine you are offering your gift upon the altar, and there you remember that your brother has something against you. Leave there your gift before the altar, and go. First be reconciled with your brother, and then, coming, bring your gift. So imagine you are one of Jesus' disciples, first hearing this, and you've gone through the complicated process of readying a sacrifice at the altar at the Jerusalem temple. You've walked 80 miles, to get the temple. You've purified yourself, you've brought or bought your sacrifice, and you are finally ready to worship God. And then, at the last minute, you remember that you sinned against someone, and that someone is upset with you. What do you do? What can you do? It'd be tempting to kind of shrug our shoulders, accept that it's not ideal, but go ahead and offer the sacrifice to God. Jesus says, "No." Leave your gift at the altar, go. First be reconciled, then offer your gift. Jesus is actually pushing his teaching about anger and murder a step farther in these verses. What does it mean, that Jesus fulfilled the law against murder? It's gone from "don't murder" to "don't be angry" to "urgently work at being reconciled to anyone you have a broken relationship with." It turns out that it's not even enough to not be angry with my brother-- although that's great. I also have to make sure my brother isn't angry with me. If you know you've sinned against someone, you need to try to make things right. NOW. So what is it, at the end of all this, that God actually wants? God wants us to live at peace with one another. There is an urgency to peace-making (5:9). It is this teaching that fulfills the Mosaic law against murder-- live at peace with one another. When that peace is broken through sin, seek to be reconciled. Fix the relationship. This brings us to verse 25: Making friends with your accuser quickly, while you are with him on the road, lest you, your accuser hands over to the judge, and the judge to the attendant, and into prison you are thrown. Truly I say to you, you will absolutely not get out from there until you pay back the last penny. There are some really practical benefits to being reconciled to people. If someone has something against you, and you've made it an urgent priority to fix that, he's not going to take you to court. He's not going to have you thrown in prison. That's a good thing, right? If you know someone has something against you, and you don't go to them to try to fix it, what exactly do you hope will happen to you? Do you think they will forget what you did? Seriously? You think they won't remember that you insulted them, or blew up at them, or stole from them, or gossiped about them, or broke your promise to them? They remember. Believe me. They remember. Just like YOU remember when someone does something terrible to you. So go apologize NOW. If you do, from a very practical perspective, you might keep something really bad from happening to you. So this is the first illustration Jesus uses to explain what he means, when he says he came to fulfill the law. Let's take the Mosaic law against murder. Are we supposed to see how close we can get to murdering someone, and still keep the law? Absolutely not. We can start there-- don't murder. But this isn't enough. What else should you do? Don't be angry. If you've sinned against someone, go to them. Beg for forgiveness; be reconciled. Live at peace with each other. This is what God wants: Live at peace with each other. 1 sometimes subjunctives work best to translate as futures 2 emphatic negation. 3 resumption after the "for" explanation. 4 bolded and underlined are P2, emphasis. Jesus/Matthew are making a big deal about some particular aspect. Part of my job as a reader/teacher is to emphasize what they do, when they do. 5 sharpens it-- not even about being called "great" or "least," but about not even getting in. 6 ouv signaling a shift from talking about the "whoever people" saying things that shouldn't be said, back to "you." 7 ἐὰν a hypothetical situation to be thought about. "imagine you're doing this." 8 "gar" (Runge) 9 "This" is talking about someone closer to the main point of the narrative. But I'm not going to try to figure out how to explain this. 10 again, it's emphatic. 11 theological dictionary entry below. 12 theological dictionary entry below. 13 I'm going to choose to not apologize for taking Jesus' words seriously here. --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ 1