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 as a fulfillment of all previous revelation to the Jewish people. He did not represent a rupture in continuity as though God was scrapping one failed plan for what was hopefully a better one. Much less were the law and the prophets the work of an angry and vengeful God, now replaced by the merciful Jesus. Moses, and the prophets, and indeed all Scripture, concerned Jesus (see Luke 24:27). Moses wrote about Jesus such that true belief in Moses implied one would believe in Jesus as well (see John 5:46).
Jesus was, however, different from all who had come before him. Previous revelation came in varied ways and never gave more than a part of the picture (see Hebrews 1:1). But God spoke definitively through Jesus. He thus provided the framework in which all previous revelation realized its full depth of meaning and purpose. Seen through the lens of the revelation of Jesus all that had been old became new. People were able to ascend from the level of the letter of the law to the level of the Spirit. The law was changed, not by being invalidated, but by having its deepest inner purpose revealed. No longer could it be used as a blunt instrument by hypocrites for the sake of their ego projects. The priorities of love and of mercy were made evident, and all of the demands that those priorities entailed.
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.
It would perhaps seem convenient to set aside the whole Old Testament and begin with the Gospels and with Jesus himself, content with only a vague sense that some sort of messianic expectation and promise had preceded him. But it is not the case that Jesus merely illuminated the teachings of the Old Testament as an interesting but optional prequel. Rather the writings about him hidden within the Old Testament, once revealed, genuinely help us to know him. One of the most obvious images that comes to mind is that of the lamb of God and the Passover sacrifice. Without the entire sacrificial economy of the Old Testament we would have no context for what John the Baptist meant when he called Jesus the lamb who takes away the sins of the world (see John 1:29). We would have encountered the stories of the institution of the Eucharist and perhaps found only a fellowship meal.
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.
Once we move the discussion to the realm of the moral law we tend to become uncomfortable and begin to squirm. We often feel like the fulfillment Jesus brought in this area was simply to become more strict and somehow even more demanding. And in a way, yes. But this was only because Jesus, more than anyone else, understood what was essential for humanity to thrive. He was not content to see us fighting to control our external actions against the desire for sins we secretly cherished within our hearts. He pointed us toward a transformation that could cleanse the inside as well as the surface (see Luke 11:39-41).
But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments
will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.
Some small measure of inconsistency in our behavior may not necessarily exclude us from the Kingdom of heaven. But a line was clearly drawn at breaking the greater ones or in teaching others to do so. People who break the least of the commandments may still maintain some capacity for God, and God will fill that capacity to the full. But those who cannot be bothered even with the greater commandments close themselves to God's presence and purpose by definition. They signify that they want nothing to do with him and so he does not force himself upon them. The greatest in the Kingdom are great, not because they have proved their heroic virtue, but rather because they have the greatest desire to be filled by God. During their lives care about his law enough to desire to fulfill it. When they succeed it is a testimony to God's presence already at work within them. In heaven it is his own work that he crowns. They are the greatest because of the great degree to which they allow his own greatness to be present in them. This is what Barnabas saw and celebrated in the disciples at Antioch and what we see and celebrate in him today.
When he arrived and saw the grace of God,
he rejoiced and encouraged them all
to remain faithful to the Lord in firmness of heart,
for he was a good man, filled with the Holy Spirit and faith.
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