Not to abolish but to fulfill (Sabong News)
Author
Manila Bulletin
Date
MARCH 23 2022
What Jesus understands by coming to fulfill the Law is not that he is ready to follow the Law in its smallest details; that would be to miss the point of the Sermon on the Mount where he goes beyond the Law. Jesus is even criticized by the scribes and the Pharisees for doing away with the Law, like the Sabbath rest. What Jesus does is to divest the Law of the minute prescriptions that have been attached to the Law through the ages and points to the core of the “spirit” of the Law which expresses God’s will “from the beginning.” And the core of the Law is the dual commandment to love.
We know from experience that there are judges and lawyers who study the “fine prints” of the laws of the land, not to upheld the majesty of the law but to find ways to exonerate the guilty ones, based on letters of the law. They are doing away with the “spirit” and the purpose of the law to shield malice and corruption.
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.”
