Jesus said to his disciples:
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.
Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away,
not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter
will pass from the law,
until all things have taken place.
Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments
and teaches others to do so
will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.
But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments
will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses
that of the scribes and Pharisees,
you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”
You have heard that it was said to your ancestors,
You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.
But I say to you,whoever is angry with his brother
will be liable to judgment;
and whoever says to his brother, ‘Raqa,’
will be answerable to the Sanhedrin;
and whoever says, ‘You fool,’
will be liable to fiery Gehenna.
Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar,
and there recall that your brother
has anything against you,
leave your gift there at the altar,
go first and be reconciled with your brother,
and then come and offer your gift.
Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court.
Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge,
and the judge will hand you over to the guard,
and you will be thrown into prison.
Amen, I say to you,
you will not be released until you have paid the last penny.”
You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery.
But I say to you,
everyone who looks at a woman with lust
has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
If your right eye causes you to sin,
tear it out and throw it away.
It is better for you to lose one of your members
than to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna.
And if your right hand causes you to sin,
cut it off and throw it away.
It is better for you to lose one of your members
than to have your whole body go into Gehenna.”
It was also said,
Whoever divorces his wife must give her a bill of divorce.
But I say to you,
whoever divorces his wife –
unless the marriage is unlawful –
causes her to commit adultery,
and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”
Again you have heard that it was said to your ancestors,
Do not take a false oath,
but make good to the Lord all that you vow.
But I say to you, do not swear at all;
not by heaven, for it is God’s throne;
nor by the earth, for it is his footstool;
nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.
Do not swear by your head,
for you cannot make a single hair white or black.
Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’
Anything more is from the evil one.”

Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.‚I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.

These teachings on the sermon on the mount are often debated among modernists as Jesus softening the law given in the ten commandments and the Torah. This is probably because these prohibitions occur directly after the telling of the beatitudes, and those beatitudes are often miscontrued by those same moderists as a passive Jesus teaching passivism.

The truth is that He is doing just the opposite, He is explaining the law at its most basic level, and then strengthening the prohibition, by making the mear thought of that sin the same as the sin itself.  Jesus is in fact, reviewing the most important aspects of Jewish law and saying that the Pharisees and the scribes have lied to you about the true meaning of these laws. These “keepers” of the law, had created a morass of laws of their own design and were more interested in enforcing their own law than they were in teaching the real and true meaning God’s law. They might have a started this practice with the hope of preventing anyone from even transgressing God’s law, but by the time of this reading it is clear that they had forgotten why the law was given to them, in the first place.

Let me explain using the first one he mentions, “thou shall not kill”. This law was given to the jews to remind them that life is precious, and every person regardless of stature or status has infinite dignity and worth. Before this law, the world was run by strong men that took what they wanted and killed anyone that got in the way. Our lord reminds us that no one has the right to take another life, only God has that right. Jesus is not watering down the law at all, He says that anyone that is even angry with his brother is liable to the same judgement. That is indeed a much more strenuous interpretation.

We then must confront the thoughts, feelings and actions that lead to any of the evils that the 10 commandments forbid. If we set up a rule for our lives that prevented us from even being angry, then we would never even get close to act of raising a hand against another. This is the true meaning and purpose of God’s law…, to prevent even greater evils. The act of murder can be accidental, but it is often the result of a very long line of much smaller sins, that built upon each other, one after another, until a person snaps and commits the totally irrational act of murder.  And so, that is what Jesus is doing here. Strengthening the law so that the greater evil never happens.

The same is true for the other prohibitions. God prohibits adultery, because sex outside of the marrital union is destructive to not only the people involved, but also society at large. Because adultery breaks up families, destroys marriages, and leads to orphaned and aborted babies. But if we gaurd our eyes, and prevent ourselves from even feeling lust of another person, we can prevent the larger sin from ever even happening. That same custody of the eyes will also prevent a multitude of other sins like lust, envy, and even divorce.

And finally oath making… by the time of this reading a practice of oath making had developed where people would swear oaths by the name of the temple or Jerusalem, or even their own heads. They did this because they were afraid to make an oath in the name of God. This is because an oath in the name of God was also known as a Covenant, and a covenant was not something that could ever be broken. But the people committing these “false oaths” where hoping to sound like they were serious and committed to the agreement, but knowing in the back of their mind that they had an out. This is truly evil because it means that they are invoking the authority of a covenant with no intention of ever following through. This act leads to deciet, lying, and even theft. Jesus is saying, do not make an oath (covenenant) unless you intend to hold that covenant even to death, and simply let your yes mean yes, and your no mean no.

God’s vision and plan for this world and for heaven are the beatitudes. They are the what the Lord has always wanted for us from the beginning in the garden of eden, and they will be our rule of life when we get to heaven. But while he understands that most of us will fall short of that vision on earth, He gave us the 10 commandments to live by, while we are here. They help prevent us from doing even greater evils. So while following the 10 commandments will lead us to that divine life, they are not the end of His plan for us. He wants us to understand his law, and then live them out in this world…, and that is what the beatitudes envision. Jesus in this reading, is indeed tightening the law, raising the bar, and expecting more from us. We should seriously consider this lesson that He is teaching us, because it is the only way that we have to find our way to eternity with the lord.

Oh lord, help me today to follow your law, but more importantly embrace the beatitudes. I want to be with you lord in eternity. Please help me today to discern your law, and understand the life you want me to live. Amen.