Readings:
Deuteronomy 4:1-9; Psalm 147; Matthew 5:17-19

Moses said to the people, ‘Take notice of the laws and customs that I teach you today, and observe them, that you may have life… When they (other peoples) come to know of all these laws they will exclaim, “No other people is as wise and prudent as this great nation.” ‘
Deuteronomy 4:1, 6, 7

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete them. I tell you solemnly, till heaven and earth disappear, not one dot not one little stroke, shall disappear from the Law until its purpose is achieved. Therefore, the man who infringes even one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be considered the least in the kingdom of heaven; but the man who keeps them and teaches them will be considered great in the kingdom of heaven.‘
Matthew 5:17-19

This is a disturbing Gospel passage in which Jesus appears to be endorsing the exact observance of rules and regulations as the only way to God. Jesus is not a legalist. One of the most solemn obligations for the Jew was observance of the Sabbath. Jesus made the astonishing statement, ‘The Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath.’

The context of this Gospel passage explains its meaning. This passage comes just after the beatitudes and the following passage shows how the beatitudes are, in fact, the fulfilment of the Law.

Virtue lies in motivation rather than in performance. For example, two people may each give £1,000 to charity, a good thing to do, but while one may perform the action out of compassion and at great personal sacrifice, the other may do so at no personal sacrifice and because the donation will bring favourable publicity. So Jesus says, ‘If your virtue goes no deeper than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of God.’ He then goes through some of the commandments, showing in what their fulfilment consists.

Fulfilment of the Law consists primarily in an inner attitude of mind and heart rather than in the exact observance of the letter. For example, it is not enough to observe the prohibition ‘Thou shalt not kill’. We must live in a state of peace and reconciliation with our brothers and sisters, love our enemies and pray for them.

It is not enough to observe ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery.’ We must not commit adultery in our heart. It is not enough to observe ‘You must not break your oath’. We must learn not to swear by anything outside of us, because our ‘yes’ and our ‘no’ must express our whole being.

The Law said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’, a commandment on which the moralists can make endless observations-what if the enemy has already lost an eye, or has no teeth? Jesus says the perfection of this commandment is that we should offer the wicked man no resistance, and if he hits us on the right cheek, we should offer the left cheek as well, or if he orders us to go one mile, we should go two miles with him. This is the fulfilment, the perfection of the Law-it demands a radical change in our inner attitudes, not the multiplication of external prescriptions and their scrupulous observance.

It is astonishing how we manage to ignore this teaching of Jesus. Our nuclear deterrence policy, supported by every major political party and by the majority of Christians and Christian leaders in Britain, is a contradiction of Jesus’ teaching and reveals a deep split in us between what we profess with our lips and decide in our hearts.

Prayer
Lord, heal the split within us so that we may live the faith in you which we profess. Write your law on our hearts so that all our decisions reflect your compassion for all your creation. We ask you this through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Amen.