The Law of Love

Matthew 5: 17-37

‘Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

‘You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, “You shall not murder”; and “whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.” But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, “You fool”, you will be liable to the hell of fire. So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way to court with him, or your accuser may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Truly, I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall not commit adultery.” But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell.

‘It was also said, “Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.” But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

 ‘Again, you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, “You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.” But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let your word be “Yes, Yes” or “No, No,” anything more than this comes from the evil one.

Jesus sounds drastically stern in this Gospel passage, especially if one is interpreting it as Jesus simply adding a bunch of subsections and small print to the Law of Moses, making it more complex and infinitely more difficult to adhere to. Who among us has not been guilty of at least one of these sins? We could be forgiven for throwing up our hands along with Peter when he once asked Jesus in complete bewilderment, “Who, then, can be saved??”

The one statement Jesus makes that we really need to pay deep attention to is, ‘Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.”  How does one fulfill a law? The same way one fulfills a contract: by doing everything that is required by the contract. Jesus is stating for the sake of the scribes and Pharisees that he did not come to introduce a new law that would oppose the old law. He came, instead, to satisfy every single requirement of the old law, a task that was impossible for people. In other words, he came to do it for us. He fulfilled the whole contract – even the small print.

The old law was even more complex and burdensome than the people suspected and Jesus was pointing this out especially to those who were trying to adhere to the letter of the law without trying to understand the spirit of the law. He was showing how murder and adultery spring from the very same root as being angry with someone or looking at another person with desire. Sin is deeply rooted and although there are more obvious manifestations of sin, like murder and adultery, it doesn’t mean that the more private sins like anger and lust are any less serious. Those who make a great show of outwardly observing the law without paying attention to the state of their inner hearts or their deeper motivations are fooling themselves.

However, even those that Jesus was addressing who were more aware of the heart of God rather than just the letter of his law still could not have been justified simply by keeping the law because sin makes it impossible to keep the law perfectly. There is not one being on earth who can come before God and claim righteousness just because of obedience to the law. Because of our brokenness, it is an impossible and unattainable goal.

The immense and astounding gift of Christ is that he did it all for us. In complete love he fulfilled the requirements of the whole law. He was a good and upright citizen of Israel as was required by the civil aspect of the law. He was sinless as was required by the moral component of the law. And in the end he became the paschal sacrifice required by the ceremonial component of the Law. He did what was and is absolutely impossible for humans to do: he stayed pure and holy in the sight of God. Still, we often try to justify ourselves by being rule keepers and there is a great reluctance to depend on Christ’s gift of himself. We need to examine this reluctance for as St. Paul says in Galatians 2: 21, “…if the law can justify us, there is no point in the death of Christ.”

    

I know this is hard for us to wrap our minds around – it’s almost as if we should be suspicious of a gift so huge and so freely given. Surely, it can’t be that simple. Are we just let completely off the hook? Can we just act however we want, forget about being good and not worry about the consequences?

These questions are answered, in depth, by Paul in many of his letters, especially the one to the Romans and I certainly can’t cover it all in a short blog. But it comes down to one thing: an ongoing and ever deepening relationship with Jesus that is based on reverent gratitude for what he did for us. We need to open ourselves to growing closer to his heart so that our actions become less and less based on fear of breaking rules and laws (which we inevitably fail to keep) and flow more and more from being so close to him and feeling so loved and so influenced by him that we can’t help but be true reflections of him. Our behavior changes as we encounter Jesus more and more but Jesus is still the one who is our justification, not our behavior. It’s so hard to keep that clear in our hearts but if we do, it leads to constant thankfulness for and appreciation of what this God of ours did for us out of sheer love. It’s totally mind and heart boggling.

One thing that Paul says that gives us a concise idea of how we are to behave now that we are a people of the Living Spirit and not slaves of the dead Law is in Galatians 5:14: For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

And Galatians 5:22: “For the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness and self control. Against these things there is no law.” (Or ‘these things are completely in accordance with the law of God.’)

Right there is the heart of the whole law. Right there is the heart of Jesus. Right there is the complete fulfillment of every iota of the law. No one is ‘let off the hook’. Rather, we are all called to a higher ‘hook’: living in communion with the heart of Jesus and, by the power of his grace, becoming just like him. Right there is your breathtaking freedom all wrapped up in the gift of Christ’s love for you.

Can you accept it? No, really…can you accept it?