Abolish/Fulfill

Jesus’s next statement will need just as much attention to help us understand the context. Let’s take a look at it before we proceed:

“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. 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.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. 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.”

Now immediately we need to deal with some of our western assumptions. I was often raised with the teaching that Jesus “fulfilled the Law” or that He “fulfilled all prophecies.” What was being communicated to me was that Jesus had “accomplished” those things. What was never explained, however, is why that doesn’t even make logical sense. It treats the Torah and its mitzvoth as a video game that has 613 levels. When Jesus accomplished all 613, He “beat the game” and we were able to put it away.

The mitzvoth is not a game show. It’s not a challenge to be accepted and completed. It was God’s directive of how to live. So, in order for us to understand what’s being said, we’ll need to understand the rabbinic language.

When a rabbi says that he is “fulfilling” Torah, it means that he is interpreting it correctly. If another rabbi were to interpret Torah in a radically different way, he would accuse the other of “abolishing” Torah. To fulfill and abolish refers to the proper or improper interpretation of the Text, respectively. This would usually be accompanied by action. A rabbi claiming to fulfill Torah would also be issuing an invitation to watch his “walk”; in the way that he walks out the Text, his literal and practical interpretation would show the Text to mean what it says.

If anyone doubts this reading of abolish and fulfill, they may consider the following words of Jesus, which state that not even the least stroke of a pen will pass away from the Law until heaven and earth disappear. And His next statement, that any man who teaches someone not to obey the Law is the least in the Kingdom.

This will also make sense in that the following page of your Bible will be full of Jesus interpreting the Law.

Once we understand this, it raises a question: Why is Jesus making this statement in the first place? Is somebody accusing Him of abolishing Torah?

This is a great place to realize that the teachings of Jesus (for now, particularly those found in the Sermon on the Mount) are so radically different that people may be tempted to assume He is throwing out Torah, or teaching against some of its writings. Jesus is clarifying that, in fact, He is fulfilling it in His interpretation. This is a hefty claim, as Jesus would be saying this is how God has always intended it to be interpreted. From the day the Law was given at Mt. Sinai, God has always had these following principles in mind.

So what is it that makes Jesus’s interpretation so radical? Well, we’re about to see it over and over and over again. Jesus is pretty adamant about loving people — all people. Loving your neighbor, loving your brother, loving your persecutors — even loving your enemies. Jesus will be insistent that mercy is the way of righteousness (see the center of the Beatitudes), forgiveness is the path of restoration, and radical love is the heart of God.

The question now is whether or not we believe Jesus is who He said He is. Because if He is, then His teachings will give us much to wrestle with, as they will come with an authority that has never been seen in a human interpretation.

We face the same wrestling match as anyone who heard His words on the hillside that day.

Hope of the World

Jesus follows up the Beatitudes with a statement that His listeners are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. I want to focus on this “light of the world” imagery and try to pull it apart, so let’s take a look at the teaching itself.

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

In order to understand Jesus’s statement about “a town built on a hill,” we will need to understand a bit about ancient cities and where they were built. If you were to go to an archaeological dig in Israel today, most often an ancient town would be found on top of (or inside of) what’s known as a tel, which is an ancient collection of buried cities built on top of one another. You needed to build a city in a particular location for a whole host of reasons; things like water, commerce, and defense dictated where a city would need to be constructed. This means that a new city will need to be built in the same location as the old one. So you will need to build on top of the ruins of the last city. Therefore, a city ends up being built on top of a city that was built on top of a city, forming a tel, and you end up with “a city on a hill.”

An example of a tel (Tel Lachish)

Not only this, but if you keep on digging, you would find the most wealthy homes are built inside the city walls. The prime real estate is found inside the city, because of ideas like protection and convenience. Simply put, the rich live “in town.” The middle class will often build their home into the wall. This ancient form of housing is called casemate. The homes are a component of the wall itself. This multistory complex (think apartments) is also useful in defense, as the city can fill the homes with stones, and the wall increases from 10’ wide to 25’ wide. You also see casemate housing being referenced in the Tanakh: when people are being lowered out of windows in baskets (e.g., Rahab, David, etc.), they are being lowered outside the city walls from one of these homes.

This, however, puts the poor in an awful predicament, often having to fend for themselves and find their own housing. They are not allowed in the city, and they are not afforded room around the outside of the city walls; they cannot live at the bottom of the hill, either, which is all farmland. Often, the poor have to take refuge close to the town “dump” — a designated area for sewage and trash. This area is often referred to as the place of “weeping and gnashing of teeth” in the context of the poor. It is the place “where the worm never dies and thirst is never quenched.”

So, in concept, a city on a hill (which looks like a shining light in the darkness to a weary traveler, by the way) is the hope for the poor. They look to the city to find what they hope to be protection and shared abundance. Many scholars are beginning to think this is what took place at the city gates. The gates (built primarily for defense of the city under siege) were not often needed as defense structures; most cities would only see a siege once every century. What would you use such a large structure for the rest of the time?

The city gates at Tel Gezer

Archaeology continues to show that the city gates served not only as the “city hall” and courthouse, but also for the social welfare system of the city. Simply put, the gates are where the world of abundance meets the world of need.

Again, a city on a hill is the hope of a world in need.

“You are a city on a hill…”

The people of God are the hope of the world. I say this fully aware of the famous quote from the famous pastor who said, “The Church is not the hope of the world — Jesus is.”  Point taken. However, let us be perfectly clear: Jesus plans on being the hope of the world by working through His followers.

This has always been the case. God has always been looking for partners. God has always been putting His people at the crossroads of the earth. God has always chosen to redeem the world through people choosing to put Him on display to a world in chaos. If we are a city on a hill, what will people find when they look to us? Do they find sustenance, compassion, mercy, and justice (mishpat)? Do they truly find a light shining in darkness? Do they catch a glimpse of a God who, from day one, has been putting the world back together?

“You are a city on a hill.”

Blessed

In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus’s public teaching ministry begins with what many of us know as the Sermon on the Mount. Most scholars will be quick to say they don’t believe Jesus actually gave this long “sermon” of a teaching, but instead Matthew is arranging many of Jesus’s teachings into a “package” that he wants his Jewish readers to see as one large teaching.

But even before Jesus starts teaching, the record of Matthew is already interesting. Chapter 4 ends with a description of Jesus going throughout the Gailiee and teaching in their synagogues. We are told that He healed many folks and crowds came out to see Him. Matthew includes a description of who is in these crowds. There are people from the Galilee (religious Jews), people from the Decapolis (pagans), people from Jerusalem (Sadducees?), Judea (Herodians?) and the region beyond the Jordan — a quick way of saying everybody was there.

Jesus, after seeing the crowds, goes on to call His disciples to Himself and teach them. The “them” in the passage is slightly ambiguous. We have a few things helping us to determine what Matthew is saying. First, a rabbi would never address such a large crowd with this kind of teaching; however, we’ve already stated that it’s quite possible Jesus didn’t actually teach this entirely in the “sermon” form we see today. Second, in typical Greek, the “them” would be a reference to the closest antecedent, which would be the disciples. The key word in the last sentence would be “typical,” because if there is one thing I learned from Greek in my Bible training, it’s that the “rules” of the Greek language are much more fluid than we’d like (hence the reason Greek ruined my GPA, but I digress).

It would be safe to say that Matthew is pointing out the crowds for a reason and a purpose; you might also remember Matthew’s agenda concerning the outsider. This crowd has lots of people who simply “don’t belong.” This point of consideration will become important as we learn from the sermon on the mount.

Jesus opens with a famous passage that we like to call the Beatitudes:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
    for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
    for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
    for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
    for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
    for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
    for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Now, I’ve heard many a sermon about the Beatitudes being a list of things Jesus is inviting us to aspire to. However, there are a few things that may be incorrect about this approach. If this is true, then Jesus is announcing that God’s favor rests upon somebody else. When you become meek, when you get to the place of peacemaking, when you get to _______________, then you find the blessing of God. Not only does this run counter to many of the things we find in Jesus’s teachings, but this line of reasoning doesn’t work with all the statements. Consider the term “poor in spirit” or “those who mourn.” Do you want to aspire to mourning? Is Jesus really telling people to pursue a state of mourning? Do we really want to be people who find ourselves poor in spirit? This seems upside down.

Instead, Dallas Willard once suggested that the Beatitudes are, in fact, pronouncements of God’s blessing on all the people the world thinks are missing out. In essence, this would mean Jesus starts His teaching with pronouncements that look like the following:

God is for those who are spiritually bankrupt.
God’s favor in on those who mourn.
God is for those who are meek.

This sounds like an intriguing idea, but don’t we end up with the same problem as our other theory? It doesn’t work for all of the statements. Being merciful isn’t a negative quality. But Willard invites us to consider the context of Jesus’s teaching. In fact, being merciful would be a terrible quality. In a world being torn apart by Imperial Rome, to show mercy to your enemy would be an incredibly offensive idea. To be a peacemaker would be akin to asking for persecution.

So, in fact, the Beatitudes might be a list of pronouncements; Jesus might be announcing to the crowds — full of Jews, Gentiles, Herodians, Pharisees, and Romans alike — that God is for the ones they think He has abandoned.

That would fit Matthew’s agenda of the mumzer quite nicely.

And if we peer a little deeper into the teaching, we may begin to wonder if the list is a chiasm.

Poor in Spirit
    Those Who Mourn
        The Meek
            Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness
            Merciful
        Pure in Heart
    Peacemakers
Persecuted

The stunning, thunderbolt center of Jesus’s teaching would be a stark message to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Jesus might be saying, “Are you interested in righteousness? Do you hunger and thirst for it? Do you want to see it? Try showing mercy.” Into a world that is being rocked with injustice — into a crowd that has a mixture of Romans and the Jews they are mistreating — Jesus suggests that true righteousness looks like mercy.

And Jesus isn’t going to let up on this idea throughout His teaching. Jesus will continue teaching that we would pray for those that persecute us and love our enemies, and He even tweaks an ancient Jewish prayer to be a statement about forgiveness.

This Jewish rabbi is serious about loving people. So buckle up, because this ministry of Jesus is just getting started…