Matthew 5:17-20; Luke 10:25-37
Audio file is at the end of this text.
Today we continue with the idea that some cling to and that is if a person is good enough and nice enough a person can by their own achievement work their way into heaven. Let's look at Matthew 5:17-20 where Jesus says,
17 "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19 Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven."
Have you ever seen the Chinese language written out? Doesn't it make your head spin? There are large stokes and even small dots and slashes and each mark means something. The same is true for Arabic. So when Jesus says, "the smallest letter or stroke" he is teaching the people of his day in a way that they understand very clearly. Jesus is saying that he is not throwing out the old laws that were given to the Jews and that every detail matters.
Jesus says he has come to complete what our Father God started. Let's stop here. First, the old law was for Jews only and Jesus changed that and said, all people who call upon him are God's chosen ones. Second, when we choose to follow Jesus, we choose to make an effort to follow the old law.
No person alive can say they have followed the old laws under their own power, but, we know that God sees us trying and try we must. And, the best news is that with Jesus, all things are possible. This is what is new in the New Testament.
When an Old Testament expert tried to find a loophole in Jesus' teaching, the expert asked, "Who is my neighbor?"
The answer Jesus gave blew away 2,000 years of tradition. In Luke 10:25-37 we read the famous story of the Good Samaritan... While traveling a man was robbed and left for dead at the side of the road. A priest walked by and saw the man but passed by on the other side of the road. Next a Levite saw and ignored the suffering man. We might call the priest and the Levite paid church staff if we were writing this story today. Both men were called "men of God" in that culture. And remember that a Levite is a descendant of the Hebrew tribe of Levi and this is the tribe assigned to the temple duties. This wasn't someone new to the faith; this was a person who came from thousands of years of law-studying ancestors. Some argue that the priest and the Levite might have assumed the man was dead which gave them the perfect excuse not to do anything since they were not to touch dead bodies. Nice work if you can get it.
The third person who saw the injured man was a Samaritan. In that day, Jews did not speak to Samaritans and thought Samaritans were unclean because Samaritans did not follow the Jewish law and they were simply born inferior. This Samaritan stopped everything he was doing to help the man. He not only gave him first aid on the spot, he put him on his donkey, took him to an inn, paid the innkeeper for three weeks of lodging and said he would come back and take care of any additional expenses. Jesus ended the story by saying to the Jewish law expert, "Go and do the same."
The old law taught, "love your neighbor as yourself" so the expert was obligated to do this. But, before Jesus came, Jews interpreted this law to only apply to other Jews. The bar has been raised and Jesus teaches that the neighbor is the one who shows mercy and that every human being is a precious child of God.
Let us pray that God gives us each the heart to, "Go and do the same."
