Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent – March 10, 2010
Matthew 5:17 – 19
"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. 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. 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.”
Many contemporaries of Jesus would have heard these words and then fought for a more rigid code by which to live. It is popular to have a code of ethics that orders life, to distill life down to some key rules to keep and regulations to follow.
I am among the many who want someone to tell me what the rules are and what is expected of me, so then I can work toward doing all the right things that will bring happiness and fulfillment. In my mentality, if you can show me what the expectations are, I can work to meet or exceed them. I can be a very accomplished rules-keeper!
But rules-keeping is not to be confused with living a full and authentic life. In fact, in my efforts to do right by the regulations, I may in fact miss what is deepest and most real about life.
Jesus fulfilled the Law and the writings of the Prophets. He did so, though, not by keeping the prescriptions of the Hebrew Scriptures or by being a slave to moral codes. He “fulfilled” the Law by completing the essence of it, by getting underneath the prescriptions about behavior to the state of the heart.
In his relationship to the Father, to others, and to the created world, Jesus fulfilled what it meant to be fully human. If the essence of the Law was to draw persons to God and to God’s life, then Jesus fully lived into the Law and its essence.
Further, his worth did not come from keeping the Law. God bestowed worth and value upon him, and then out of that core Jesus filled out the intention of the Law.
Neither did Jesus pick apart the Law and say that it was unimportant. He did not “abolish” it. He would never say that connection to God did not matter. Rather he received his identity from the Father – an act of grace – and then lived fully into that identity. In living fully into his identity connected intimately to God, he fulfilled the Law’s intention.
In many ways, God invites us to a much larger life than the life we tend to live. God invites us to explore the depths of our personhood, to become fully the people we were created to be. That means filling in all the unlived edges and coming completely into the design of God for our lives.
A rigid concern for religious legalities will not get you to connection with God. It may make you more “moral” by some standards, but it will not necessarily connect you to God. Neither abolishing the Law, nor keeping it in practice – but not in heart – will earn you a connection with God.
You are declared worthy already by God, apart from how you keep or do not keep the rules. Your life is a statement of grace. Only when we live in this grace-state do we have the inner freedom to “keep the Law” and not “abolish the Law,” to live into the essence of the Law as God-connection. Jesus shows the way to life fully connected to God.
"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. 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. 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.”
Many contemporaries of Jesus would have heard these words and then fought for a more rigid code by which to live. It is popular to have a code of ethics that orders life, to distill life down to some key rules to keep and regulations to follow.
I am among the many who want someone to tell me what the rules are and what is expected of me, so then I can work toward doing all the right things that will bring happiness and fulfillment. In my mentality, if you can show me what the expectations are, I can work to meet or exceed them. I can be a very accomplished rules-keeper!
But rules-keeping is not to be confused with living a full and authentic life. In fact, in my efforts to do right by the regulations, I may in fact miss what is deepest and most real about life.
Jesus fulfilled the Law and the writings of the Prophets. He did so, though, not by keeping the prescriptions of the Hebrew Scriptures or by being a slave to moral codes. He “fulfilled” the Law by completing the essence of it, by getting underneath the prescriptions about behavior to the state of the heart.
In his relationship to the Father, to others, and to the created world, Jesus fulfilled what it meant to be fully human. If the essence of the Law was to draw persons to God and to God’s life, then Jesus fully lived into the Law and its essence.
Further, his worth did not come from keeping the Law. God bestowed worth and value upon him, and then out of that core Jesus filled out the intention of the Law.
Neither did Jesus pick apart the Law and say that it was unimportant. He did not “abolish” it. He would never say that connection to God did not matter. Rather he received his identity from the Father – an act of grace – and then lived fully into that identity. In living fully into his identity connected intimately to God, he fulfilled the Law’s intention.
In many ways, God invites us to a much larger life than the life we tend to live. God invites us to explore the depths of our personhood, to become fully the people we were created to be. That means filling in all the unlived edges and coming completely into the design of God for our lives.
A rigid concern for religious legalities will not get you to connection with God. It may make you more “moral” by some standards, but it will not necessarily connect you to God. Neither abolishing the Law, nor keeping it in practice – but not in heart – will earn you a connection with God.
You are declared worthy already by God, apart from how you keep or do not keep the rules. Your life is a statement of grace. Only when we live in this grace-state do we have the inner freedom to “keep the Law” and not “abolish the Law,” to live into the essence of the Law as God-connection. Jesus shows the way to life fully connected to God.
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