“Do not presume that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter shall pass from the Law, until all is accomplished!”
Matthew 5, 17-18
The Mosaic Law was given to the tribes of Israel for a couple of different reasons. The first was to direct them how to live in right relationship with God and with one another. A secondary reason was to set them apart from the rest of the world. This was to keep them from becoming like the world, which ultimately leads away from God. They were meant to be the shining example of how humans were supposed to live. The Law itself did not set the tribes of Israel apart from the world but it was their obedience to God in following the Law that did.
Jesus told his disciples that he did not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it. Even the most scrupulous Jew, who followed every jot and tittle of the Law, did not fulfill it. What made Jesus’ observation of the Law different?
One of the greatest Hebrew words is hesed. There is no direct translation of the word hesed into English. Words like mercy, love, compassion, grace, and faithfulness relate to the word hesed, but none of these fully grasps the concept. Hesed describes a sense of love and loyalty that inspires merciful and compassionate behavior towards another person. I have heard it said that being hesedic means to do more than the Law requires. To be called hesedic is one of the greatest compliments a Jew can give you.
Yet, Jesus teaches us of an even greater love than hesed. The Greek word used is agape. For Christians, agape is sacrificial love. It is the total giving of self for another. Hesed is the highest form of natural love. Agape is the fulfillment of hesed and is the perfect, supernatural love. God is agape. God is perfect, sacrificial love that knows no bounds.
So how did Jesus fulfill the Law? Jesus was the living Law come down from heaven. Being sacrificial love himself, he did not simply observe the Law but he lived the Law sacrificially. When fulfilled, the Law is not an observation that initiates an inward action. The Law is meant to be the beginning of sacrificial love, not just towards God, but towards all of creation. The Law, when lived inwardly, is useless. As we see in many of the scribes and Pharisees of Jesus time, their hearts were closed to sacrificial love due to their pride of inward observance to the Law. St. Paul is our greatest example of someone puffed up with pride in his scrupulous observance of the Law. He cast it all aside when he learned of agape and the true reason for the Law.
As Christians, we are not called to simply obey the Ten Commandments. We are called to fulfill the Commandments. We fulfill the Commandments the same way Jesus did. We live them sacrificially. To sacrifice for the Law means to put the object of the Law before ourselves. Most of us are casual observers of the Law, obeying what it says when it aligns with our lifestyles.
Take for instance the first commandment – You shall have no other gods before me. Most of us can recognize the command to worship God. How often does this command fall second to sleeping in on Sunday, attending youth sporting events, vacations, skipping Mass because we don’t like the weather, or for fear that we may catch whatever illness is making the rounds? No one expects anyone to put their life at risk by traveling during inclement weather. Keeping people healthy was one of the reasons we were given when Mass was suspended during the covid chaos. But, to follow this commandment sacrificially means we need to be willing to die to worship our God. This is something our brothers and sisters in Africa do every day. They do not hesitate to walk eight or ten miles in all kinds of weather to attend a Mass, that if they were discovered, they would be martyred for their faith. To love God above all other things includes our very lives.
Fulfilling the commands sacrificially also extends to the commands we were given for how we live in right relationship with one another. Thou shall not commit adultery; the six commandment. For someone obeying the Law this means not to cheat on one’s spouse. For someone living sacrificially, we fulfill this command by giving our lives for our spouse. We love them by serving them. We are willing to die for them if necessary. When a spouse is sacrificing for another divorce, is not only not an option, it is not even a thought.
Because he fulfilled the Law through sacrificial love, Jesus was able to boil the whole law down to just two commandments –
“But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him: “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Upon these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.”
Matthew 22: 34 – 40
We are to love both God and each other with the same love God has for us; agape, complete sacrificial love. This is what it means to fulfill the Law.
