Fulfillment of the Law

The Sunday night message in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  September 24, 2023.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 5:17-22.

            Every society has to have some sort of laws.  They may be written down in to books, or they may be just an understanding among people.  They may be made by a group or they may be made by one person.  But for a society to function, there has to be some sort of rules.  There has to be some understanding of what’s allowed and what’s not.

            In the United States, we’ve always prided ourselves on being a society of law and not of men.  What we mean by that, of course, is that we believe the law should apply equally to everyone.  You’ll hear people use the phrase, “No one is above the law.”  It does not always work that way in practice, of course--you can think of examples, and so can I--but the theory, at least, is that the rules of society apply to everybody, no matter who you are.

            The reason human societies have these laws, as you probably know, is because of sin.  If we all just did the right thing all the time, if we all acted as God wants us to act, there’d be no need for laws.  I suspect that’s how it is in heaven.  There’d be no need for law in heaven, because in heaven our sins will have been washed away by the blood of Jesus Christ.  We’ll be the people we’re supposed to be, holy and spotless, made perfect by God’s love.  No law will be required to make us that way--we just will be that way by our faith in Jesus as the Savior and by God’s love and grace and mercy.

            The society of Jesus’ time was a human society, too, and so that human society had a lot of laws.  There were the laws enforced by the Roman government.  But there were also the Jewish religious laws, enforced by the religious leaders of the day.  There were a lot of those laws.  It started from the Ten Commandments, which were simple enough, but then there were all the laws of Moses, and then there were all the decisions of the judges, and then all the interpretations by the Rabbis, and so by the time Jesus came to earth there was a lot of law.  Not as much as we have in America today, probably, but still, it was a lot.

            And people believed in strict adherence to the law.  The Pharisees especially prided themselves on that.  And this was no small thing, because after all, these were God’s laws.  The Pharisees believed the way to get to heaven was to follow the law.  If you followed the law perfectly, God would be pleased and you’d go to heaven.  Following the law was, for them, a matter of eternal life and death.

            That’s why the Pharisees were so upset when Jesus did things like breaking the Sabbath law, healing people on the Sabbath.  They did not care so much about Jesus himself.  But Jesus was a very influential person.  If people saw Jesus breaking the religious laws, they might think they could break them, too.  The religious laws, which originated from God through Moses and then through all the judges and Rabbis and teachers, could be lost.

            And sometimes we look at Jesus that way, too.  We read about Jesus breaking the Sabbath law, and we think Jesus did not believe in the religious laws.  We say things like, “Well, when Jesus came, he freed us from the requirements of the religious laws.”  I think I’ve probably said that myself at some point.

            But if we say that, what do we do with our passage for today?  Listen again to what Jesus said about the law:

 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to       abolish them but to fulfill them.  For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.  Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 

Yes, Jesus did break the religious laws on occasion.  But he did not say the religious laws were no longer valid.  He did not say we could ignore them and break them with no consequences.  Jesus said the religious laws were tremendously important.  After all, those religious laws came from God.  Jesus would never have told us that we could just ignore God’s law.

But here’s the thing.  Let’s take the Ten Commandments for example.  Now, the Ten Commandments are wonderful.  They’re awesome.  You’ll never hear me say anything against the Ten Commandments.  One of the things I always do with my confirmation students is have them read the Ten Commandments.  But then I ask them a question.  I ask them “What is the thing Jesus talked about the most that is not included in the Ten Commandments?”

Anyone know what it is?

It’s love.  Love is not mentioned anywhere in the Ten Commandments.  They say we should not have any other gods, but they don’t say we should love God.  They say we should honor our parents, but they don’t say we should love them.  They say we should not speak falsely against our neighbor, but they don’t say we should love our neighbor.  Love is simply absent from the Ten Commandments.

Now, the Ten Commandments are still tremendously important.  Again, they came from God.  But what Jesus knew is that it’s possible to follow all the Ten Commandments, to follow all the Mosaic laws, and to follow all the rules and regulations, and yet not feel love.  Not love for God, not love for our neighbor, not love for anyone.  

And yet, what did Jesus tell us was the greatest commandment?  That we love the Lord our God.  And what did Jesus say was just like it?  That we love our neighbor as ourselves.

Jesus was not saying God’s law was unimportant.  Again, he said it was very important.  But what Jesus said is that following the letter of the law is not enough.  We need to do more than that.

In fact, that’s what Jesus goes on to say in our reading for today.  In fact, he uses an example from the Ten Commandments:  you shall nor murder.  Jesus does not say that’s wrong.  It’s right.  We’re not supposed to commit murder.  But Jesus says it’s not enough to just avoid murder.  We need to go beyond that.

He talks about how we treat brothers and sisters, and as you probably know he’s not talking about that in the sense of blood relation.  He’s talking about our fellow believers, male or female.  He says we should not even be angry with each other.  We should not call each other names--“Raca” was a term of contempt in Aramaic.  And if we call each other fools, we are in danger of the fire of hell.

            That’s a tough standard.  But that’s how Jesus says we should look at all of the religious laws.  It’s not enough to just follow the letter of the law, even when it’s God’s law.  We need to apply those laws with love.

            That’s why Jesus healed someone on the Sabbath day.  It’s not that Jesus thought the Sabbath law was unimportant.  He thought it was very important.  Jesus did not say we can do anything we want on the Sabbath.  He did not say go fishing or go golfing or watch a ball game on the Sabbath because the Sabbath does not matter.  But what he did say is that when you have a chance to help someone and show God’s love to someone, don’t let the fact that it’s the Sabbath day keep you from helping them and showing God’s love to them. 

            Jesus said to apply the Sabbath law with love.  That’s what Jesus said about all of God’s laws--apply them with love.  Don’t just put God ahead of other gods--love God.  Don’t just honor our parents--love them.  Don’t just avoid killing each other or lying about each other--love each other.  Love is the fulfillment of the law.  Love of God and love of each other.

            That’s our goal.  To honor God’s law, to follow God’s law, and to apply God’s law with love.  Will we always do that perfectly?  No, probably not.  I know I won’t.  That’s where repentance and forgiveness come into it.  When we fail, we need to ask for God’s forgiveness and then do whatever we can to change, so we can avoid failing the next time.  But we also should not use that as an excuse.  We should be grateful that God gives us another chance, but we need to do our best to take advantage of that chance.  God knows we are not perfect, but God expects us to do our best.  We should not take God’s forgiveness for granted.

            Jesus did not tell us we could ignore God’s law.  In fact, he said we should follow God’s law.  But he also said we should do more than just follow the letter of the law.  We should apply God’s law with love--love of God and love of each other.  That way, we will not just be following the law.  We will be following the Holy Spirit that gave us the law.