Matthew 5:14-19
The Lord said to his disciples, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
In our Gospel reading today we hear our Lord saying that He has not come to abolish the law and the prophets, but that He has come to fulfil them. And that not so much as a jot or an iota will pass away until they are fulfilled. And He goes even further and condemns anyone who teaches others to relax even the least of the commandments as being call the least in the kingdom of heaven.
First, it may be appropriate to explain what is meant by the law and the prophets. He is speaking here of the Old Testament. The ‘law and the prophets’ is a shorthand way of referring to the three major divisions of the Old Testament, which are the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings. The Law refers to the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, which contains the law or commandments given to the Hebrews by God; the Prophets means the books of the major and minor prophets; and the writings are the other works contained therein, such as the Psalms, Proverbs the Song of Solomon, and other writings that are also often referred to as the Wisdom works.
With respect to the law, it may seem strange to some that on the one hand we have our Lord saying effectively that it will stand forever and on the other hand we all know full well that there is much of the Old Testament law that we no longer adhere to. This is not only true of today but from the earliest days of the Church.
I should note, in passing, that this is not an issue that greatly troubles Holy Orthodoxy. We know our Faith and we trust what the Fathers of the Church have passed down to us. It is enough for us to know that this was not something of any great concern to them. And we are, therefore, more than happy in our reading of the Old Testament to look to its typological and allegorical meanings – by which I mean, the ways in which some stories show us those we can see as types of Christ and the Holy Theotokos, and others that may read has having a deeper, spiritual message – as well teaching us of the history of salvation prior to the coming of Christ.
However, it is a matter of some greater concern in the West. And since many Orthodox now live in the West, and even many who do not are inundated with material from the Western media, it is no harm to try and understand why it is that these days it is not uncommon for some to accuse Christians of being hypocritical for insisting that there are some laws from the Old Testament that are to be obeyed, and our soul is in grave danger if they are not, while other commandments can happily be left to the side.
The answer is that there are three types of law that are contained in the Old Testament; the ceremonial law, the civil or judicial law, and the moral law. The ceremonial relates to the rituals of Jewish worship and other matters relating to the practice of the faith. Examples of this would be animal sacrifice, dietary laws, or circumcision. Civil or judicial law applied to the regulation of Jewish society. Examples of this would be the requirement to have a low wall on the flat roof of your house to stop people falling off, not making garments of mixed fabrics, or sowing different types of seed in the one field. And what the moral law consisted of we all know very well, summarised for us, as it is, in the 10 commandments, and distilled even more for us by our Lord by way of the two Greatest commandments.
The ceremonial law and the judicial law were of their time and place, applicable only during the time of the Old Covenant, and ceased to be part of God’s law when the New Covenant was enacted. But not so with the moral law. This is eternal, as we know from the many, many times throughout the Gospels our Lord, in other words God Himself, affirmed it.
Sadly, there are all too many in the world, even those who call themselves Christians, who accuse those who seek to uphold the moral law in its entirety as being hypocritical for doing so. They think themselves very clever for coming up with arguments along the lines of ‘how can you call such-and-such a sexual sin even though you are wearing a shirt that is a wool and cotton blend. You’re trying to enforce the Old Testament Law selectively!’
Such arguments are at best woefully ignorant of the truth of the matter; or at worst, they are being wilfully disingenuous, knowing the truth of what Christ and His Church teaches, and trying to twist that truth to suit their own purposes. Given that many who put forward such arguments claim to be academics, some even theologians or biblical scholars, it is hard not to suspect that they may fall into the latter category.
Such as these are the ones whom Jesus condemns are trying to relax the commandments of God. And we must pray men will not be led astray by them; and for them also, that their eyes will be opened and their souls saved. Even as we pray for ourselves that we might obey these commandments, the moral law of God, and teach them to other and receive the reward at the end of days of being called great in the kingdom of heaven. Amen.
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