Seeds for 05/18/2023 - Matthew 5:17-20, part 1
Scripture: 17 “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. 18 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. 19 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. 20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
Observation: Okay, talk about hefty. Here goes.
When Jesus refers to “the Law and the Prophets,” He’s talking about the Hebrew Bible—Christians’ Old Testament (OT). It was made up of three sections, the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings. Jesus uses the phrase “the Law and the Prophets” as shorthand for the whole thing.
The words He uses to talk about His purpose with the Hebrew Scriptures are interesting: “fulfill” and “accomplished.”
Jesus isn’t here to abolish the Hebrew Scriptures, but to fulfill them. What does that look like? The calling and covenants with the people of the past—Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David… No one fulfilled them faithfully. But Jesus will fulfill not only the points of the laws and instructions in Deuteronomy, but the story of blessing and calling that have been left dangling by the failings of His predecessors. Like the last note or two missing from a familiar tune leaves us on edge, yearning for resolution, the Story of God in the Hebrew Scriptures yearned for resolution. Jesus will be that resolution, that fulfillment.
Jesus pledges that not one point will “disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.” What does He mean? While there is much truth in the OT Law that guides and informs us, Christians don’t live by or maintain our relationship with God by keeping every individual command. It all comes to us through the lens of Jesus—His life, death on the cross, and resurrection. We can’t “accomplish” the Law. Israel didn’t either. The only One who does is Jesus in His life and death. In His life because He lives out the perfect obedience that we do not and in His death because He gives His life in our place. As Paul says, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
This is an early opportunity to see that Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount both shows us that only Jesus fulfills God’s calling perfectly and teaches us the vision for discipleship that we are called to live out, but only by relying on His grace and power at work within us to grow in spiritual maturity.
Application:
How does Jesus’ fulfillment God’s calling and accomplishment of God’s Law inspire and/or comfort you? How does it challenge you?
What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?
Prayer: Lord, keep me in awe of your perfect obedience and faithfulness, and of your perfect love displayed in the cross. Amen.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
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