Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.
Jesus came in full continuity with what had come before in his Jewish heritage. Heretics who posited that an evil God in the Old Testament had been usurped by the new God of love in the person of Jesus would have to contend with Jesus's own words about the goodness and the validity of the Old Testament. Yet it was true that, by itself, "the letter killeth". The letter of the law itself was meant to point beyond itself to fulfillment in Christ. It would give life only when read with faith with the inspiration of the same Spirit that guided its writing.
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.
In what ways could the letter kill without faith? If it was only allowed to speak to external behaviors and not to the human heart it could not prevent people from becoming hypocrites obsessed with how they appeared to others. When the words were considered in isolation at the expense of the underlying intention of the whole those words could be twisted, used to escape obligation to others, and even wielded as weapons of judgment over and against others. The law was not meant to be used to insist on one's own rights as it was to reveal the depths of one's duty to love God and neighbor. With only the letter the law could only make our own failings more manifest, and our inability to love as we ought more evdeint.
Is the law then opposed to the promises? Of course not! For if a law had been given that could bring life, then righteousness would in reality come from the law (see Galatians 3:21).
We can see that the law pointed in the right direction but was missing an essential ingredient that made its own fulfillment possible. That ingredient was the power given by Jesus himself, the dynamic interior power of the Holy Spirit poured out at Pentecost. With God's own life within us bearing fruit we could learn to use the law in accord with its original purpose. Our own relationship to the law could begin to take the fulfilled shape of the way Jesus himself always perfectly prioritized love of God and neighbor.
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.
When the Spirit leads us, when faith in Jesus is our primary guiding principle, we can receive the law as an immense blessing. We can understand the deeper intentions meant to guide the transformation of not only our behaviors but also of our hearts. We will no longer risk using the law as a weapon against others or a protective barrier for ourselves against them. It won't become a point of pride making us hypocrites like the Pharisees. It will rather call us on to embrace that which most perfectly fulfills it, the cross of Christ, and therefore also our own individual crosses, borne by the power of the grace of the Spirit we now share with Jesus himself.
But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments
will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.
To be the greatest in the Kingdom is something which we also know means becoming a servant of all. It is not by moral superiority that we attain greatness, but by following Jesus and his path of love all the way down in humble service. This kind of greatness cannot result in pride for it cannot issue from our own strength or capability, but rather can come only from the Spirit himself, "in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit" (see Romans 8:4). Only with the aid and power of the Spirit will the law be fulfilled in us, for he is himself the power of the love between the Father and the Son.
the one who loves another has fulfilled the law (see Romans 13:8).
We have been given the grace we need to see the fulfillment of the law of love realized in ourselves and in our world. Yet sometimes we still choose to prefer the many idols our society offers to the way of the true God. They promise much, but remain silent when crunch time comes. Let us remember that only the living God of Israel has promises worth trusting, promises that will be fulfilled.
“How long will you straddle the issue?
If the LORD is God, follow him; if Baal, follow him.”
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