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In Hebrew teaching, love and respect for the law are unmatched. Jesus’ opening statement in today’s gospel (Mt 5:17-20) reflects this posture, a very positive attitude toward upholding the abiding validity of the law until the visible universe will be no more. He came to fulfill it (v17).
“ plēroō “ ( πληρῶσαι ) generally refers to prophesy being fulfilled or the climactic realization of God’s redemptive purposes in the person of Jesus Christ, (Mt 1:22, 2:15f; Mk 1:15,15:28; Lk 4:21, 24:44; John 13:18, 17:12f; Acts 3:18,13:27). It means also fulfilling the requirements of the law and all righteousness, (Mt 3:15). In particular, today’s gospel points to Jesus’ declared intention to bring the purposes of the law and the prophets to “completion”. What does Jesus mean by it?
Jesus came with a new order of things. While respectful of the Torah, Jesus invited his hearers to go beyond it, that is, to observe more in the spirit than in the letter. He also showed how to radically live the law and brought it to the highest standard his disciples should follow. Thus regarding murder (vv 21-26), Jesus focused on its underlying cause, that is, anger, which can escalate into abusive language and ultimately to murder. He counseled reconciliation and forgiveness which will render any form of litigation unnecessary. On adultery (vv27-30), the underlying cause which leads to violating marital rights is human lust, which involves the internal decision to act on it in some way or another. On divorce (vv31-32), though it was permitted by the law of Moses under certain circumstances (cf Dt 24:1-4), Jesus synthesized the exception and then repealed it and made the indissolubility of marriage one of NT’s clearest and strongest statements (19:1; Mk 10:1-12). On oaths (vv33-37), Jesus opposed invoking God as a witness and appealed to a transparent spirit of honesty in Christian attestation of the truth. A simple and direct answer wherein falsehood plays no part is at the heart of Christian truthfulness. To sum up, there is a continuity of the two laws, that of Moses and that of Christ. Jesus indeed respected the Torah but he “fulfilled” it in the sense that he put a new emphasis on interiority and radical response. It is an ethic that looks to internal motives in all our actions, an ethic that calls not only to avoid sin but to adhere to the positive pursuit of good.
Let us ask then for the grace of God ‘to instruct us in the way of his statutes that we may exactly observe them and give us discernment that we may obey his law and keep it with all our heart’, (Resp. Ps.). May he heal our illnesses at their roots that we may fulfill nothing but his will. Amen.
