3/30/11 - Fulfilling the Law

Matthew 5:17-19

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.”
----

The subject of Christ fulfilling the law can be tough to get your mind around. I know, I've tried. In very basic terms though, here is my 25-cent version: Christ is the only person who could perfectly live the Mosaic Law, and he did it for all of us. This immediately raises a huge stumbling block though. If Christ fulfilled the Law, how does it apply to us today? Are we bound to try to fulfill it?

Immediately after this passage, through the end of Matthew 5, Christ gives divine interpretation of some elements of the Mosaic Law. Clearly the moral teachings still stand, and he explained them in further detail throughout the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5, 6, and 7).

Here's more from the CCC:

I. JESUS AND THE LAW
 
577 At the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus issued a solemn warning in which he presented God's law, given on Sinai during the first covenant, in light of the grace of the New Covenant:

Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets: I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law, until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.³²⁹

578 Jesus, Israel's Messiah and therefore the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, was to fulfill the Law by keeping it in its all embracing detail - according to his own words, down to "the least of these commandments".³³⁰ He is in fact the only one who could keep it perfectly.³³¹ On their own admission the Jews were never able to observe the Law in its entirety without violating the least of its precepts.³³² This is why every year on the Day of Atonement the children of Israel ask God's forgiveness for their transgressions of the Law. The Law indeed makes up one inseparable whole, and St. James recalls, "Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it."³³³
 
579 This principle of integral observance of the Law not only in letter but in spirit was dear to the Pharisees. By giving Israel this principle they had led many Jews of Jesus' time to an extreme religious zeal.³³⁴ This zeal, were it not to lapse into "hypocritical" casuistry,³³⁵ could only prepare the People for the unprecedented intervention of God through the perfect fulfillment of the Law by the only Righteous One in place of all sinners.³³⁶
 
580 The perfect fulfillment of the Law could be the work of none but the divine legislator, born subject to the Law in the person of the Son.³³⁷ In Jesus, the Law no longer appears engraved on tables of stone but "upon the heart" of the Servant who becomes "a covenant to the people", because he will "faithfully bring forth justice".³³⁸ Jesus fulfills the Law to the point of taking upon himself "the curse of the Law" incurred by those who do not "abide by the things written in the book of the Law, and do them", for his death took place to redeem them "from the transgressions under the first covenant".³³⁹
 
581 The Jewish people and their spiritual leaders viewed Jesus as a rabbi.³⁴⁰ He often argued within the framework of rabbinical interpretation of the Law.³⁴¹ Yet Jesus could not help but offend the teachers of the Law, for he was not content to propose his interpretation alongside theirs but taught the people "as one who had authority, and not as their scribes".³⁴² In Jesus, the same Word of God that had resounded on Mount Sinai to give the written Law to Moses, made itself heard anew on the Mount of the Beatitudes.³⁴³ Jesus did not abolish the Law but fulfilled it by giving its ultimate interpretation in a divine way: "You have heard that it was said to the men of old. . . But I say to you. . ."³⁴⁴ With this same divine authority, he disavowed certain human traditions of the Pharisees that were "making void the word of God".³⁴⁵
 
582 Going even further, Jesus perfects the dietary law, so important in Jewish daily life, by revealing its pedagogical meaning through a divine interpretation: "Whatever goes into a man from outside cannot defile him. . . (Thus he declared all foods clean.). . . What comes out of a man is what defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts. . ."³⁴⁶ In presenting with divine authority the definitive interpretation of the Law, Jesus found himself confronted by certain teachers of the Law who did not accept his interpretation of the Law, guaranteed though it was by the divine signs that accompanied it.³⁴⁷ This was the case especially with the sabbath laws, for he recalls, often with rabbinical arguments, that the sabbath rest is not violated by serving God and neighbor,³⁴⁸ which his own healings did.

CCC Footnotes:

329 Mt 5:17-19.
330 Mt 5:19.
331 Cf. Jn 8:46.
332 Cf. Jn 7:19; Acts 13:38-41; 15:10.
333 Jas 2:10; cf. Gal 3:10; 5:3.
334 Cf. Rom 10:2.
335 Cf. Mt 15:31; Lk 11:39-54.
336 Cf Isa 53:11; Heb 9:15.
337 Cf. Gal 4:4.
338 Jer 31:33; Isa 42:3, 6.
339 Gal 3:13; 3:10; Heb 9:15.
340 Cf Jn 11:28; 3:2; Mt 22:23-24, 34-36.
341 Cf. Mt 12:5; 9:12; Mk 2:23-27; Lk 6:6-9; Jn 7:22-23.
342 Mt 7:28-29.
343 Cf. Mt 5:1.
344 Mt 5:33-34.
345 Mk 7:13; cf. 3:8.
346 Mk 7:18-21; cf. Gal 3:24.
347 Cf. Jn 5:36; 10:25, 37-38; 12:37.
348 Cf. Num 28 9; Mt 12:5; Mk 2:25-27; Lk 13:15-16; 14:3-4; Jn 7:22-24.