CC 04: Fulfillment

Given my smaller stature, there were many games of athletic prowess that were, shall we say, more difficult for me than perhaps the average person. However, one game I always enjoyed, was the game of limbo. 

If you are unfamiliar with the game, it is a very simple one. Two people get on either side of a stick or bar, hold it in the air and see who can go under it. As the game progresses, the bar goes lower and lower until only one can make it under, and they are the winner. I must admit, there were many times you could not wipe the smile off my face as people who were usually so dominant in feats of physical skill struggled to bend and twist to get under the stick that I could so easily just walk under. 

I bring this up, because this analogy works well when describing what the Pharisees were doing with the old law. They were interpreting it in a way that it made it easier to accomplish for them, basically defining it all by what you could show on the outside. In our next section of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus challenges this. More importantly, Jesus says this new way of viewing the law is not an attempt to get rid of it, but to fulfill it. This morning, let’s see what he means by this, and what it looks like for us.