Make It Happen

Matthew 5:13-20

There are some things that Jesus says which tend to boggle my mind. The overall message I get from the teachings of Jesus are to live with compassion, to seek justice, and to build our relationships with one another and ourselves through God. I'm sure there's more to his message than that, but I think that's a pretty good place to start.

Sometimes, though, Jesus comes right out and says or does something that just doesn't quite make sense. That is until I dig deeper into what is being said to whom.

Jesus is a Jew. From all accounts he's an educated Jew, at least by his knowledge of scripture. So, when Jesus says that he's "come to fulfill the laws" he's saying quite a lot. Let's take a closer look at the word "fulfill". The Greek word used in this passage is plēroō, which has a few meanings, among which are to make full, to complete, or to carry into effect or to make happen. That last definition, to make happen is what I would like to focus on.

Let's replace the word "fulfill" with the definition of the word and try it again. Jesus says that he's "come to make the laws happen." In other words, following a more grammatical version, Jesus has come to be an example of the true meanings of the laws.

This passage from Matthew follows last week's Beatitudes. For Matthew this is Jesus' shining moment. This is where the readers of his Gospel will learn everything they need to know about Jesus before he goes out and lives by example the words he speaks here. This is Matthew's portrayal of the Sermon on the Mount, or a part of it. Those who will read this Gospel, the Jews for whom it was written, will understand this to be a way of Jesus saying that he has come to this world to go against the current culture which the Pharisees and Scribes are teaching. Jesus is going to be the way God intended by finding a way to bring righteousness to the world.

There's another word I want to look at. Righteousness is represented by the Greek word dikaiosynē which is defined as integrity, virtue, purity of life, rightness; correctness of thinking, feeling, and acting. In the biblical sense all of this would be done so as to be acceptable to God (a hint of Paul there, eh).

What we have now is Jesus saying that he's come to live out the examples of integrity by behaving in such a way as to be pleasing to God. What, then, is pleasing to God? For the answer to that we go back to our first passage of the week where Isaiah says, speaking on behalf of God, that we should "share [our] bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into [our] house; when [we] see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide [ourself] from [our] own kin?" as a way of loosening "the bonds of injustice."

To be a Christian is to follow Jesus' examples and teachings. Let's begin to live in such a way as to be pleasing to God. I guess I'm not as boggled as I thought.