Sermon OTM Mt. 5:17-20 – 12/29/2024

Welcome and Prayer: Jim Calhoun

Come Lord join us here today.
Thank you Lord
Thank you
Thank you

Thank you for a year of goodness
For a year of tender care
For a year of abiding patience

Thank you for your unending love
Your constant presence (as a simple matter of fact)
Whether we could perceive it or not
And for the drips and drops
The nudges and pokes
To help us know you are near

Thank you for the stumbles on the path
The false starts
The brick walls
That had us calling out your name
First in frustration or fear
But in time with affection

It is more difficult to thank you for
Our disappointments
Our losses
Our failures
Our loneliness and isolation

And even more so for
Our need to grow
To step into the next thing you have for us
To take full advantage of an unexpected opportunity
To heal our deepest wounds
Because we are afraid
Afraid we will lose who we are today
Afraid that we won’t be able to rise to the challenge
Afraid that everything we know will collapse
Afraid that we will be judged and discarded
Again

But Lord, even for our need to grow and our need to heal we thank you
Trusting you will hold us
Lift us up
Carry us along
And take us through
Even if we freeze
Even when we turn back
Even if we fight you
Even if we must start again again

So we thank you for all the fresh starts and second chances
For the third chances
And all the times we get to try again
For the grace of living life in you
For the seven times seventy you grant us
Because this is what we need as humans
Frail, flawed and finite
Dependent upon you
Wholly
Gladly
Thankfully
Amen

Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them Matthew 5:17

Intro: We need to know where we are in Jesus’ Sermon

Verses 17-20 are the heart of the Sermon (perhaps the heart of the entire Bible)
– these verses hold the key to interpreting the rest of Sermon
• unfortunately, many Christians read this passage, but don’t understand it
– speculations have resulted in some big errors:
• one, is that Jesus and St. Paul were not on the same page
◦ i.e., Jesus taught we’re made righteous by the Law
◦ Paul insisted we’re righteous by faith, and not works of the Law
• another error: the Sermon was meant for a Jewish audience not for Christian disciples
◦ because of this kind of misreading and faulty interpretation, it’s really important that we get this right

I want to give you a layout of the terrain we’re going to cover

Jesus reveals two big ideas in verses 17 and 20
– in between those verses, Jesus drives home the first big idea
• his emphasis is so strong, it sounds like he’s exaggerating
◦ v. 18 stresses the permanence of the smallest details of Law
◦ v. 19 addresses the way people treat Law–and the consequences of their actions
• then, in verse 20, Jesus drives home his second big idea
◦ it would have sounded to his disciples even more preposterous than the first
– after these big ideas, Jesus illustrates them with six examples

V. 17, Jesus begins with a caveat and a shocking surprise

A surprise, because we’ve heard that Christians aren’t under the Old Testament Law
– Paul, writing to the Romans (and to the Galatians, who had disappointed him in this regard)
For by works of the law no human being will be [made righteous] in [God’s] sight (Ro. 3:20)
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes (Ro. 10:4)
• ever since the Reformation, this has been stressed so strongly
◦ that it has become the key doctrine of salvation for many believers
– being grounded in this belief, we’re shocked by what Jesus says
• “Do not think I have come to abolish the law”
◦ Do not suppose or imagine – Do not draw this conclusion
• this does make sense when you consider that Jesus is Son of the Father, who delivered his Law to humankind
◦ he also ties the Law in with “the Prophets”
(which between the two of them often stand for the entire Old Testament)
◦ after his resurrection, Jesus told his disciples
“. . . everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled” (Lk. 24:44)
– “fulfill” is same word he used here in Matthew 5:17
Amy-Jill Levine, “When Jesus speaks of ‘fulfilling’ the Torah, he signals that he is drawing out its full implications.”
• Matthew is fond of this word “fulfill” and its significance
“All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet” (Mt. 1:22; the same, or a similar phrase appears also in Mt. 2:15, 17, 23; & 4:14)

What “fulfills” the Law and Prophets?
Something we’ll come to later in the Sermon gives us a clue
“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets” (Mt. 7:12)
◦ then Jesus totally gives it away in the last week of his public ministry (Mt. 22:34-40!)
• how I understand the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets:
◦ it has to do with the power of God’s word (demonstrated on Mt. Sinai and in the visions and oracles of the prophets)
◦ there’ a spiritual potential in all God commands and promises
◦ Jesus actualizes, or releases that potential
he brings God’s word to its fullness in the lives of his disciples

Even though Paul was correct regarding the Law; i.e., that it can’t make us right with God,
– the Law is still is a vital and valuable revelation and also a connection with God
• but even more important is it’s fundamental significance
◦ it was never about making people perfectly obedient slaves,
◦ but it represented the formation of a bond with God
• in normal course of human affairs, people made agreements
◦ relationships were built on those agreements
◦ this involved a formal process in which they swore loyalty to each other
– the most intimate bond was the marriage covenant
• that is the significance of the Law
◦ it was Israel’s sworn covenant with God
“Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples (Ex. 19:5)
And [Moses] wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments (Ex. 34:28)
• this is the first indication that the Law is primarily relational
Jonathan Pennington, “This [view of the Law] is a far cry from the images of dusty old law books, large marble-filled rooms, and powerful judges standing coldly and objectively over us as we sit fearful in a box awaiting sentencing. Tora is covenantal and relational.”

Vv. 18-19, Jesus takes us deeper into the surprise

First (v. 18), the Law is here for the entire duration of the universe
– reading through the Law, some of it is obviously irrelevant
(when was the last time you saw your enemy’s ox stuck in a ditch?)
• but though the particular situations don’t fit our context,
◦ there are general principles behind them that do
◦ so we can still find relevant applications
• to make certain we do not shrug off chunks of the Law, Jesus adds,
“not an iota, not a dot will pass from the Law until all is accomplished”
◦ we would say, every ‘t’ is crossed and ‘I’ is dotted
– “until all is accomplished” – or all his come into being
• “accomplished” signifies the same thing as “fulfilled,” simply from a different point of view
• honing in on the smallest details of the Law adds force to the point Jesus is making

Secondly (v. 19), there is no tension between the Law and the kingdom of God
– God’s faithful teacher will not avoid or disrespect the Law
• one thing is certain: the Law was adored by spiritual souls we encounter in the Hebrew Scriptures
“O how I love your law!
It is my meditation all the day” (Ps. 119:97)
• we don’t have time to look into their great affection for it, but many instances occur in the Psalms

V. 20 provides the key to interpreting these four verses

This would have struck terror into hearts of those who heard it
Jonathan Pennington, “On the one hand this is shockingly bad news, because in Jesus’ day the scribes and the Pharisees were the righteous untouchables who were obviously far superior in righteousness to the mere masses.”
– but we have to immediately discard this reaction
• Jesus is not putting us in a piety competition of with the scribes and Pharisees
◦ he is not saying we must work harder to obey the letter of law
• it is not a matter of volume (how many commandments are you faithfully obeying) but of essence
◦ Jesus is not saying, “You must be more religious, more devout, more intense or passionate than the scribes and Pharisees”
◦ He is saying, “You must go about this differently from how they observe the Law”
– what was the problem with righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees?
• we find out all through Matthew in Jesus’ conflict with them,
and then Jesus provides us list of their failures in chapter 23; for instance,
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness” (Mt. 23:23)
(a significant contrast between law keeping in minutia, while neglecting the truly important broad strokes of the law)
• the Scribes and Pharisees missed the spirit of the Law, the true heart of the Law, and the heart of the Law is everything
◦ they missed the forest for the trees
– what Jesus illustrates is that the law is relational
• the scribes and Pharisees treated it as if it were moral
• what happens when we treat the Law as a moral code?
◦ we become fixated on ourselves!
“How am I doing? Have I broken a commandment recently?”
◦ we have less love or concern for others
◦ and we tend to become judgmental and treat others as being inferior to ourselves
– Mark gives us an insight into the Pharisee’s type of righteous
“For the Pharisees . . . do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, and when they come from the marketplace, the do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe . . . .” (Mk. 7:3-4)
• these are all add-ons that are not found in the law, but in the tradition embraced by the Pharisees

My med: A few weeks ago, while reading Mt. 12:1-8, I had this thought: “Whatever a righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees means, it is not a more meticulous adherence to the letter of the law. This is proven when Jesus argues from the case of human need and compassion, demonstrating that specific stipulations of the law can be overridden in certain cases. It seems the question that determines the case, is this: What action best fulfills the spirit of the law, which is love for God and love for others. AND, it is here in verse 14 that the Pharisees show their true colors in conspiring to destroy Jesus for healing a man on the Sabbath. That is why (and in what way) their concept and practice of righteousness must be surpassed.”
• Paul cuts to the chase by declaring, “love is the fulfilling of the law” (Ro. 13:8-11)
• this is the essence of the “new covenant” (cf. Hebrews chapters 8-9)
◦ God gets his Law written inside of us and not merely to us
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jer. 31:31-33)
◦ the Law is fulfilled in our lives, when the spirit of it is written in our hearts

Conclusion: Many Christians practice the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees

They go to church, pray, read their Bibles (infrequently), tithe, and they may attempt to live virtuous lives and convert others
The law of love, however, is much more challenging
(We will see this when we get to verse 44, where Jesus says, love your enemies! )

We might want to begin this way of fulfilling the Law by admitting that we’re broken
The world is hard on people – but then, so is the Church – and so are many families
We love imperfectly – sparingly – prejudicially
We are broken, but there is healing – in the love of Jesus
Receiving his love, love for God is birthed in our hearts,
and love for our neighbor as well
And THAT is what fulfills the Law!