"Do not think I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them."

 

         At the Midwinter Conference a few weeks ago, a pastor got up and gave a remarkably courageous testimony before 1,200 of his peers. Some years ago, his young son was killed when his bicycle was hit by a car. His grief and anger and the sense that he was not in control of his life became his constant companions. One day a parishioner took him to a casino, thinking it would be innocent fun. It was not. Gambling became an escape and then a compulsion. Then he was found out.

         When he went before the Covenant Board of Ministry, he was told "You are under the discipline and care of the board."

         Now, this is what he said to us: "When those words are spoken to you, all you can hear is the word 'discipline.' For the next three years, all I experienced was 'care.' "

         He then told the story of his restoration.

         Jesus said, "You have heard that it was said . . . but I say unto you." The people of Jesus' day were not hearing the truth of God's Word. They were hearing what interpreters said. There is a human tendency to distort or twist the scripture in favor of self-will. So in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus first exposes what had been said to the people, what they heard; and then he recaptures the truth of scripture for them. In doing so, he showed them how the law and prophets point to him.

         For us, the issue is somewhat different in hearing this sermon. We too have heard many interpretations, perhaps a verse here or there thrown at us. But this teaching points us to Jesus, and to experience life in him. Yes, the words sound harsh to our ears. What we hear is the impossibility of keeping these laws. We feel judged by them. But what we experience in Jesus is his healing and his care.

         D.A. Carson writes in his commentary that the key word for entering into the Sermon on the Mount is "fulfill." He makes the simple, but profound, observation that Jesus did not say, "I have not come to abolish the law or the prophets, but to keep them." What Jesus said was, "I have not come to abolish the law or the prophets, but to fulfill them."

         Carson says that "fulfill" is a prophetic word. "Jesus fulfills the law and prophets in that they point to him, he is their fulfillment."

        Jesus fulfills Old Testament prophecies by his actions, his death and resurrection. He fulfilled the law by his teaching and the way he lived. There is a continuity in the Word of God from Old Testament to Jesus to the Kingdom of God.

         The Sermon on the Mount does not lead us to despair: "Who can do all this?" Nor does it lead us in any way to pride: "Look at me; I have done all this perfectly." This sermon leads us to Jesus, and in Jesus we find mercy, we find forgiveness, we find protection, we find healing and grace.

         Jesus begins by speaking about murder. The people had heard that the law forbids murder and that a murderer must be brought to judgment, to a court of law for trial. But Jesus says that the law against murder does not point to a courtroom trial; rather it points prophetically to the Kingdom of God, in which there is no hatred of the brother and no settled anger of the heart.

         The anger that Jesus points to is the reaction people have to personal affronts or offenses. This anger is a strategy to get one's own way, or to make people behave in ways that lead to one's benefit.

But when we would expect Jesus to be angry in this way, when he is hanging on the cross, we find "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." He could have been in a rage at that point, screaming and cursing at the soldiers, at Pilate, at the leaders, calling down God's judgment upon them. We would expect Jesus to be filled with anger on the cross. He was not.

         In this season of renewal, we confront our anger. When we feel we have been unfairly treated, hurt, slighted, offended by words or actions of those close to us, we can easily settle into anger, we can live there. We can use all forms of anger to get our way, to make people do what we want them to do for us.

         We come to the cross of Jesus, in this season of forgiveness, to put our settled anger to death, and to learn to express forgiveness from the heart.

         The Midwinter Bible teacher was Miroslav Volf, a well-known theologian. During the war in Croatia, he was captured and held for a time, and he suffered mistreatment at the hands of an interrogator. He carried from that experience haunting and damaging memories. He spoke to us one day about the meaning of forgiveness. He began by saying that Elle Weisel, the Jewish author who survived the Holocaust in Nazi Germany, writes that salvation lies in memory, that lack of memory of wrong doing is itself injurious. But, Volf said, the problem is that hatred and revenge also come from our memory. In fact, injurious memories fester and grow in us. Also, the wrong done to us can inscribe itself into our souls so that it begins to cloud other parts of our story, of our identity. Therefore it is important for memories to be healed. As Christians we believe that we are not the sum of what has happened to us. Our lives are hidden in Christ. We are what God sees us to be. It is God who makes his face to shine upon us.

Volf said that the theologian Jurgen Moltmann wrote that we think that the future comes to us from the past. That is, if we have been wronged in the past, we expect only bad things will come to us. But, Moltmann says, the future comes to us from God's hand. Consider Abraham. Where did his future come from? It came from the promises of God.

You see, it is our identity in Christ that allows us to forgive. So, at the cross, our anger and our hatred is washed away.

         The second command that Jesus talks about is "do not commit adultery." Carson writes that in Jesus' day, adultery was seen primarily as a form of theft, not as an issue of moral purity. But Jesus says the command points first of all to lust, and specifically the actions of a man trying to get a woman to lust after him. Jesus is talking about deception, the use of sexuality to meet some selfish desire or longing. It is degrading to women and a significant misuse of a created gift. We are not to live in lust.

         Secondly, Jesus talks about adultery as theft. In his day marriages were arranged, and nearly everyone was married quite young. But some men used an interpretation of the law to find some fault with their wives and divorce them, for the purpose of marrying someone else. This was really adultery under the guise of righteousness. It was a ploy to steal someone else's wife. Jesus calls people back to God's word and intention for marriage.

         The law on adultery points to Jesus. How did Jesus treat women? That makes an interesting study. Look at every instance in the Gospels where Jesus interacts with women. In that day when there was a general disregard for women, he was a friend to Mary and Martha; there were women who traveled with his band of disciples; there were women who were healed and forgiven by Jesus; and there were women both at the cross and at the tomb. Jesus models for us a life free of lust and adultery.

         Jesus says if your eye or hand causes you to sin, get rid of them. Ancient people were better at understanding such expressions than we are. The eye was a figure for what led people into sin. The hand was a figure for what caused people to steal. Jesus did not go around cutting off hands and gouging out eyes of sinners. How did he handle sinners? How did he handle Zacchaeus, or the woman at the well, or the paralytic lowered to him by ropes, or the woman caught in adultery? He knew their neediness, the pain in them demanding to be fed, and he touched them with healing power, and he spoke words of forgiveness, and he cast out evil in them. Jesus restored people.

        The issue is this: what leads you to sin? My observations of myself and of others are that we are led to sin out of our neediness, out of our brokenness and out of our pride. I think that it is some inward need or pain; often loneliness, sometimes anger, sometimes feeling rejected or abandoned, that demands to be fed. We tend to reach for what the world offers.

Jesus is able to restore you. Take your sin to the cross. There you will find forgiveness and healing love.

These are not soft or easy words Jesus speaks. You may hear only judgment from them. But if you follow them to the cross, you will experience only his love and care.

        Amen.