A Year-Long Exploration of the Sermon on the Mount: Week 14

Chapter 14 – The Law

 

Erroneously, the Christian New Testament is sometimes thought to be a replacement to the Hebrew Scriptures. The arrival of Jesus and the work he did in his ministry has been claimed to supposedly cancel out everything that happened prior to his arrival. Almost as if God wasn’t satisfied with how things were playing out, so God sent Jesus to put a stop to everything and get everyone on the right path.

 

Well, that last statement might have some truth to it. God sent Jesus to fulfill the law, but not it in the way most people think. First let’s remind ourselves that Jesus is not Christian. Jesus was Jewish, through and through. Matthew makes that especially clear in the genealogy of Jesus found at the beginning of his gospel. Therefore, Jesus would have grown up Jewish, including learning the Torah and all the laws found therein. So, what does it really mean when it’s said that Jesus fulfilled the law of the Torah?

 

In this week’s chapter, Addison Hodges Hart attempts to answer that very question. She states, “It would seem that he means that the Torah becomes ‘complete’ when it goes into the hearts and lives of his hearers and changes them from the inside out.” (p. 87) Jesus’ fulfillment of the law is to get people to move beyond the literal and deep into the meaning and purpose behind the law. Jesus wants us to focus on the motivation behind the law and bring forth action. In Jesus, the Law is fulfilled when people do the commandments not just think about them.

 

The Sermon on the Mount is Jesus’ call to action. It is his way of teaching that the law is fulfilled not just by him, but by all of us. The law is fulfilled by the opening of our hearts to the deeper meaning behind the law and to put it all into practice. There is nothing being cancelled only expanded. If only we would open our hearts to Jesus.