# On the fourth Sunday or every month Pastor Mizuguchi gives a series of lectures on The Sermon on the Mount, from the Gospel according to Matthew. Today’s lecture is part three of the series.

1. Jesus came to fulfill the law

Today I will talk about real the significance of the law. It is believed the Sermon on the Mount was told through separate teachings, at different times, not all at once. So all the contents might be later edited as one continuous speech. Matthew probably did not compile those teachings at random, because each one is connected to another following a logical order. Today’s lecture is taken from chapter 5 :17-20, which presents further teachings continuing on from the previous part two.

We have already reflected upon this passage, “you are the salt of the earth, the light of the world,” and learned the allegory that disciples were the salt, which made their life meaningful. They were the light which enlightened the world. Then at the end of that teaching Jesus said: “In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

He said, “His followers, Christians, should do good deeds.” But what are good deeds exactly? We might find the answer in the following verses, “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” (Matthew 5:17).

“The Law and the Prophets,” is synonymous with the Old Testament. More precisely, the Jewish scriptures are divided into three parts: Torah, Prophets, and Writings. The Torah is the law of God as revealed to Moses and recorded in the first five books, of the Hebrew scriptures (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy).

For Jewish people of the time, righteousness meant to live in strict obeyance of the law. So those who heard Jesus’ words, “do and show your good deeds,” might feel compelled to lead such a life. Law teachers and Pharisees were considered to be extremely faithful because of their advanced studies and knowledge about the law. They spent day and night reading the Jewish Bible to seek ways of observing the laws as faithfully as possible. They also urged others to practice the law by reading the law books of the Bible. So much so, ordinary people believed it was a prerequisite upon entering the kingdom of God.

But Jesus said, “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” (Matthew 5:20). Righteousness is a virtue. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees are experts. Hence it would be easy for the audience to think it impossible to be more virtuous than the experts, and consequently, discouraging their hopes of entering the kingdom of God.

If fulfillment of the law requires such a strict adherence, nobody could be blameless with respect to the law. Why did Jesus teach and encourage the disciples a discipline which goes beyond the human capacity to achieve? Perhaps the answers to this question will be revealed as we seek Jesus’ intention as he addresses the people through the Sermon on the Mount.

2. Precisely what is the law ?

According to Matthew, Jesus’ stance with regard to the law, is apparently incoherent. On one hand, He compelled people to observe 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” (Matthew 5:17). Or, “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” ( Matthew 5:20).

On the other hand He neglected the law concerning the Sabbath by curing the disabled, or through the advocation that His disciples picked heads of wheat on the sabbath. He even said that the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. From from where did such a flexible attitude develop?

Originally the law ( Jewish Torah), was a covenant between God and His people. After the Israelites had gone out of the land in Egypt, and upon reaching Mount Sinai, the Lord said to Moses: “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites’” (Exodus 19:5-6).

God, as the creator and ruler of the world, proposed to the people a contract which presents His will. The people agreed to it. Thus the covenant was validated. The law is clauses written in the covenant and the role of the law is to organize and prosper the Jewish people as God’s nation.

Despite the existence of the law, the Israelites were defeated by Babylon in 587 B.C., as the result of their unfaithfulness. The Israelite community was scattered. In consequence, the role of the law, the fundamentals of the people’s unity, altered. It became the core of the people’s faith, along with their religious identity.

The covenant between God and the people became directives which determined people’s lifestyles, for example, observation of the Sabbath, circumcision, and nutritive interdicts, etc. In this way their concerns focused on each others personal daily conduct as regards to the law.

Diverted from the original concept of a covenant, methods of the application of the law made law teachers dogmatic. They compelled ordinary people to observe clauses of the law as strictly as the priests did, and urged every one to respect religious purity. Besides, they claimed a similar authority for the Rabbis’ oral teachings of the written law. In consequence, trivial negligence, like not cleaning one’s hands before taking meal, or picking heads of wheat on the Sabbath, became targets of harsh physical treatment.

Jesus accused such an attitude vis-à vis the law, which became void of essence. He even attacked the Law teachers and the Pharisees for their hypocrisy: “Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven” (Matthew 6:1). “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full” (Matthew 6:5).

Jesus teaches that love for our neighbors is what God wants from us. To love, is not to hate anybody. It is the very interpretation of the Old Testament, which breathed into law, the breath of life .

3. Observation of the law as interaction to Jesus’ teaching

I chose Jeremiah 31:33-34 as today’s invocation verses: “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

Jerusalem fell to the babylonians, ending the kingdom of Judah in 587 B.C. Jerusalem, called the City of God, was demolished. David’s family, said to be the eternal ruler, lost his successors, and the Temple, the dwelling place of God, was torn down. Thus God’s words, “you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation”, given as the Old covenant was invalidated.

But then the prophet Jeremiah heard the voice of God who promised a new covenant, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah” (Jeremiah 31:33). The new covenant must be fundamentally different from the old one. Because renewal of the old covenant is a worthless act due to the defective nature of humans: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure” (Jeremiah 17:9). Jeremiah suggests a comparison, “the Ethiopian can not change his skin or the leopard its spots, neither can humans do good who are accustomed to doing evil” (Jer. 13:23).

By nature, humans are unable to fulfill contracts. Even if God renews the existing covenant they would break it every time. So much so, that salvation is unattainable without God’s Grace. In contrast, under the new covenant, God won’t talk to humans, and they won’t have need to listen to God. Because God’s will is placed inside humans’ mind itself. Thus there would be no obedience of humans to God.
Obedience exist in a relation of different wills whereas there will be no different wills if God’s will is placed inside a humans’ mind. Humans identify their will with God’s, in consequence they want exactly what God wants. God declared to the Israelites: “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up” (Deuteronomy 6:5-7).
But human conduct resulted in calamity. So they became incapable of obtaining the state of salvation through their own efforts. Thus God took the decision to give a new covenant, through Jeremiah to the Israelites. Having heard Jeremiah’s prophecy they became more unified. Jeremiah’s life and spiritual influence was a rich symbol of the demise and restoration of Judah and its chief city, Jerusalem.

However, for a few centuries, the promise of the new covenant was absically forgotten. It was Jesus who reminded the Jewish people: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you” (Luke 22:20). Thus the new covenant was signed with Jesus’ blood.

The core of Jewish law is the Ten Commandments. Though its contents are basically a list of statements, written not in the negative imperative, but of indicative future, “You shall not murder , You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal,” and so on (Exodus 20).

Those who are loved by God don’t harm their neighbors. Originally that is the essence of the law. And Jesus introduced us into God’s kingdom through His own death. He made us members of the community of the new covenant. Therefore we follow Jesus through our best efforts. In that way our sinful existence will be purified and changed, which helps us to fulfill the law, and the law of love.

I conclude today’s lecture with Paul’s words: “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. The commandments, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not covet,’ and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law’” (Romans 13:8-10). So, Let’s follow in Jesus’ footsteps, and love our neighbors!