(Listen to this homily here).
As we continue through the letter to the Hebrews we hear an
insight about the Old Testament Law: “…the
law has only a shadow of the good things to come.” Jesus said as much as he fulfilled the
Law in Matthew 5:17: “Do not think I have
come to abolish the law and the prophets, I have come not to abolish but to
fulfill.”
This
weekend I preached about how we may miss some of Jesus’ claims of divinity,
while a first century Jew would have understood them completely. Here is another example. In Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount he says
several times, “You have heard that it was said…but I say to you…” For example, he said, “You have heard that
it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman
lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
What Jesus was referring to was the
Law which was contained in the first five books of the Bible. Who, but God alone, could claim to
change God’s own Law?
Jesus
came to fulfill the Old. In so
doing he challenges us to love God and our neighbor. May we have the grace to follow what is New today.
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