Fulfilling 'the law'

21 “You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ 22 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. 23 So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. 25 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. 26 Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny. 27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 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. 30 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. 31 “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 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. 33 “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.’

[Matthew 5:21-33, NRSV]

 

 

“You have heard that it was said”, verse 21; “You have heard that it was said”, verse 27; “Again it was said”, verse 31; “Again, you have heard that it was said”, verse 33.

 “You have heard that it was said…” was a phrase that rabbis would often use when they started their interpretation.  You see the way the Jewish teachers would operate is that they would read a passage from scripture, and then they would interpret it. A bit like we do.

But there were rules to this interpretation: no rabbi would ever come up with a completely new idea, that would be frowned on, what they did instead was to link back to some earlier teacher and build on those ideas.

The Jewish Torah, their bible, is often referred to as ‘the law’, as in ‘the law and the prophets’, and in some ways it’s very much like our legal system. 

Eighteen years ago I started a law degree.  Seventeen years ago I changed that to a psychology degree with legal studies.  The main reason I changed course was because law confused me. Everything was based on a thing called ‘precedent’: a judge would be expected to decide a case but they couldn’t do anything that contradicted a previous judge’s decision. So solicitors and barristers would argue their case by saying stuff like in Stephenson versus Donohue the judge said…

To be a good legal mind you needed to either remember every case and the precedents that were set, or know where to look to find them.  I couldn’t do either very well. So I wouldn’t have been a very good solicitor. I wouldn’t have been a very good rabbi either.

So, that was the system Jesus came into – you had to know your scripture, you had to know what previous rabbis had said about scripture, and you had to choose your interpretation and support your argument.  But Jesus didn’t do that. He changed everything.

“You have heard that it was said”, verse 21; verse 22, “But I say to you that…”;  “You have heard that it was said”, verse 27; verse 28 “But I say to you that…”; “Again it was said”, verse 31; verse 32 “But I say to you that…”;  “Again, you have heard that it was said”, verse 33; verse 34 “But I say to you…”.

Four times he reinterpreted scripture.  Four times he took what previous rabbis had said and threw it out the window.

Now the Bible is not just a good story, it’s also a work of literary genius.  It’s been studied for hundreds of years and people are still learning from it. And the most important lesson is that everything happens for a reason.  Nothing happens by accident. So when something gets repeated four times, there’s a reason, and it’s not just because the writer couldn’t think of anything else to say.

Actually this “You have heard it said,” “But I say to you” pattern happens six times, four here and two in the following verses.  So there are six times when Jesus reinterprets what the Pharisees and Jewish people thought was truth.  Six times when he tells the people: what you have been told is shallow, it’s inadequate; it’s not good enough.

He’s doing something rabbis wouldn’t dare do: he’s re-interpreting scripture. But he can do it, because he’s the son of God and he knows what the words of scripture meant.  In last week’s reading, in verse 17, we heard Jesus say “Do not think I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them.”  Here, in his re-interpretation of the law he is showing us how they can be fulfilled: it’s not enough to not kill people, we have to not be angry with fellow believers, we have to avoid insulting people; it’s not enough to avoid the physical act of adultery, we have to stop looking at other people with impure thoughts. 

It’s not enough to obey words of the law.  We have to follow the spirit of the law.  And how do we do that?

The answer to that is easy: Romans 13 verse 10: “Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”

Let’s listen to those verses back to back: Matthew 5:17 and Romans 13:10:

“Do not think I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them.” 

“Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”

Can we make a commitment this week to try and fulfil the law, if only a little bit?  Can we try and love our neighbours just a little more than we already do?  It’s what Jesus did for us, and what he expects us to do for each other.