I Have Come Not To Abolish (the Law) But to Fulfill It

02-12-2023Weekly ReflectionFr. Manasseh Iorchir, VC

After listening to Jesus’ teaching on the Beatitudes and hearing Him use the strong and very consequential metaphors of salt and light to describe his would-be disciples, the audience of the “Sermon on the Mount’’ must have come to the realization that they were dealing with a special kind of teacher with undoubtedly revolutionary ideas about religion. They may have imagined that given the positive rendition of the Beatitudes, in contrast to the prohibitive nature of the decalogue, and given the manner he positioned His disciples as agents of a new world order, Jesus was probably going to abrogate the letters of the law and replace same with new and more revolutionary precepts that would be a more formidable vehicle for His very radical ideas.

Jesus must have felt them thinking along these lines because He decided to immediately make His position on the Torah very clear. He told the people He had come, not to abolish the law of Moses, but to fulfill it. His way of approaching the ancient law was not to discard it, but to probe for its deeper meaning and more fulfilling practice. His interest was not only in the overt actions which the law either permitted or prohibited, but also to scrutinize the intentions and movement of the heart that actually leads to compliance with or infringement of the law.

There was no problem with the law; the problem was with the skewed interpretation given to it and the hypocrisy in its practice by the religious leaders of the time. Therefore, Jesus warned His disciples, that unless their righteousness surpassed that of the scribes and Pharisees (the leading religious authorities of the time), they would not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The disciples’ piety must exceed that of the Pharisees because the righteousness of the Pharisees was largely external and relied on exterior actions in accord with the traditional interpretations of the old law. It was not a righteousness motivated by love, but by mere legalism. He proceeded to demonstrate the lack of depth in the interpretation offered by Jewish religious authorities and went further to show, through a critical evaluation of some commandments, how the inadequacies of the interpretation could be remedied.

For example, Jesus stated that although the fifth commandment prohibited killing, its actual Spirit cannot be limited to murder but must be expanded to prohibit anger, verbal abuse, insults and the desecration of human dignity in any form. In fact, Jesus taught that reconciliation with a neighbor with whom we have disagreed should be effected before we carry out external fulfillment of the law, even as important as offering our offertory. In the other three antitheses (“You have heard how it was said…. But I say to you….”), Jesus did not loosen the moral requirements of the law, instead, He tightened them.

We are thus invited to face up to the full demands of God’s moral law without attempting to rationalize or make excuses for ourselves. We are also called to work towards acquiring interior transformation that will afford us the right disposition to keep God’s law.

May we be gifted the Spirit of Jesus that would make interior conversion possible and so be motivated by the pure love of God and neighbor to stay faithful to our Christian vocation.

Please be kind and may God bless you.

Fr. Manasseh