If you were to pick one verse to summarize the Gospel according
to St. Matthew, the first verse this morning wouldn’t be a bad choice. Matthew 5:17 reads, “Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Do not think that I have come to
abolish the law or the prophets. I
have come not to abolish but to fulfill.’”
In
reading from Matthew, we must remember that he was a Jewish convert to
Jesus. Not only this, but also he
wrote with a Jewish audience in mind.
The structure of his writing, the numerous Old Testament references
(greater than the other three Gospels), and the theme of Jesus’ as fulfiller of
the Jewish Law and prophets all helped Matthew write in a convincing manner to
his audience.
We
continue to read from the Sermon on the Mount—Jesus’ definitive fulfillment of
the Old Law. St. Paul states, “the letter brings death, but the Spirit
gives life.” The letter here refers to this very law that
was intricate and judicial in nature.
This letter literally called for the death of people who broke the
Law. I, for one, am glad Jesus’
fulfilled this law as it would be no fun sitting outside of Duluth for a week
after touching a corpse at a funeral!
Jesus
came, not to make the Old Law irrelevant but to show at what this Law aimed—love. We are called to live in accordance to
Jesus’ teachings, especially in the Sermon on the Mount, in order to love God
and neighbor well.
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