Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you

 

 "Judge not, that you be not judged.  For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.  And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?  Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye'; and look, a plank is in your own eye?  Hypocrite!  First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.  

 

"Do not give what is holy to dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces. 

 

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.  Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent?  If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!  Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets."

 

- Matthew 7:-12

 

We are currently reading through the Sermon on the Mount.  Yesterday we read that Jesus taught, "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on.  Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not of more value than they?  Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?  So why do you worry about clothing?  Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow:  they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?  Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'  For after all these things the Gentiles seek.  For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things.  Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."

 

 "Judge not, that you be not judged.  For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.  And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?  Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye'; and look, a plank is in your own eye?  Hypocrite!  First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."  My study Bible comments here that we will be judged with our own level of judgment because we are guilty of the very things we judge in others (Romans 2:1).  We ourselves have failed in repentance and in fleeing from sin.  To pass judgment is to assume God's authority.  The phrase "with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you" is also found in Mark 4:24 and Luke 6:38.  Each is used in a different context, and there is no doubt Jesus taught this important message many times.  

 

"Do not give what is holy to dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces."  My study Bible says that dogs and swine refer to heathen peoples (Philippians 3:2; Revelation 22:15), but would also include Jews who do not practice virtue.  According to patristic commentary, "dogs" are those so immersed in evil that they show no hope of change, and "swine" are those who habitually live immoral and impure lives.  Pearls are the inner mysteries of the Christian faith, it notes, including Christ's teachings (Matthew 13:46) and the great sacraments.  These holy things are restricted from the immoral and unrepentant.  This is not in order to protect the holy things themselves, as Christ needs no protection.  But we protect faithless people from the condemnation that would result from holding God's mysteries in contempt.  See also Luke 23:8-9 for Jesus' response to Herod's questioning.

 

 "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.  Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent?  If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!"  The verbs ask, seek, and knock are present progressives.  In other words, their effect is to say "be asking," "be seeking," "be knocking."  There is a synergy here which my study Bible cites:  our effort is commanded, but never apart from the immediate help of God.  We ask in prayer, we seek by learning God's truth, and we knock by doing God's will.  My study Bible also comments that people are called evil here not to condemn the whole race of human beings, but to contrast the imperfect goodness that is in people (that is, our goodness is mixed with sin) with the perfect goodness of God (see Matthew 19:16-17).  If imperfect and even wicked people can do some good, so all the more will God work perfect good.  

 

"Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets."  The "Golden Rule" fulfills the demands of the Law and the Prophets, says my study Bible, and it's also a practical application of the commandment to love one's neighbor as oneself (Matthew 22:39-40).  My study Bible calls it a first step in spiritual growth.  It adds that the negative form of the Golden Rule ("Don't do to others what you don't want them to do to you") was well-known in Judaism.  Jesus' form, however, is positive, and this is the action that begins to draw us toward God.  See also Luke 6:31.

 

 In the context of the Sermon on the Mount as a whole, and in particular today's reading, we need to make sense of it in terms of being directed at disciples, those who follow Him.  We're first told, "Judge not, that you be not judged.  For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you."  This is another form of the Golden Rule in today's last verse, but applied specifically to judgment.  How do we look at our neighbors, or in particular our fellow disciples of Christ?  We should consider how we wish to be judged, for we will be judged the same way.  It seems to me this is directly invoking how we treat one another.  Jesus goes on, "And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?  Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye'; and look, a plank is in your own eye?  Hypocrite!  First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye"  In chapter 18 of St. Matthew's Gospel, Jesus will speak of mutual self-correction in the Church.  This verse reflects this notion of mutual correction as a way of helping with discipleship, and emphasizes the humility necessary to do this appropriately.  In monastic practice, a good elder is one who is experienced spiritually, so that their own knowledge of themselves and their mistakes and corrections can be beneficial to others, and they may correct helpfully and with love and mercy, not the kind of judgment Christ forbids here.  If we're blind to our own errors, we're in no position to help, and will easily practice projection upon others.  In this context we read, "Do not give what is holy to dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces."  For a person to benefit from spiritual help, they must be disposed toward acceptance and not rejection.  Even the greatest spiritual treasure may be hated by one who does not wish to accept it.  Jesus then says, "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.  Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent?  If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!"  This is a great exhortation to spiritual growth and discipleship, for it emphasizes the generous nature of God for those who do seek and ask and knock with sincerity.  As my study Bible points out, these are meant to be ongoing always with us; it's a continual pursuit and practice. We keep asking, keep praying, keep knocking through the practices and resources we have in the Church. And the world needs that resource and experience.  Finally, here again is the summing up:  "Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets."  Do you want to learn?  Then help teach.  Do you value kindness, humility, mercy?  Then offer it to others, and in particular we need to model this among the faithful in the ways we treat one another.  Do you wish to gain self-knowledge, spiritual understanding?  Offer what you have, but be properly discerning.  This message of the Golden Rule is a deep emphasis on the communion involved in all of this pursuit of following Christ in discipleship.  God is first of all our Father in heaven, as Jesus references God, so let us understand what we are to be about, all the time.  Let us understand that the good God who gives to us may also reward us with knowledge of ourselves, even of what we need to change in our habits or ways of thinking.  But we continue to ask and seek and knock for how to go forward in God's love and teaching.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You shall love your neighbor as yourself

 

 But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.   Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"  Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.'  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like it:  'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."  

While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, "What do you think about the Christ?  Whose Son is He?"  They said to Him, "The Son of David."  He said to them, "How then does David in the Spirit call Him 'Lord,' saying:

    'The LORD said to my Lord,

    "Sit at My right hand,

    Till I make Your enemies Your footstool"'?

"If David then calls Him 'Lord,' how is He his Son?"  And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question Him anymore.

 

- Matthew 22:34–46 

 

In our current reading, Jesus is in the temple in Jerusalem.  It is Holy Week, the final week of Christ's earthly life, and Jesus has been disputing with the religious leaders.  Yesterday we read that the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him and asked Him, saying:  "Teacher, Moses said that if a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother.  Now there were with us seven brothers.  The first died after he had married, and having no offspring, left his wife to his brother.  Likewise the second also, and the third, even to the seventh.  Last of all the woman died also.  Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be?  For they all had her."  Jesus answered and said to them, "You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.  For in the resurrection they nether marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven.  But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'?  God is not the God of the dead, but of the living."  And when the multitudes heard this, they were astonished at His teaching. 

 

 But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.   Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"  Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.'  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like it:  'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."   My study Bible comments here that the Pharisees had found 613 commandments in the Scriptures.  They debated about which one was central, so they are inviting Christ to provide His answer here.  Jesus provides the first and second commandments, which constitute a grand summary of the Law.  My study Bible suggests that although the lawyer came with malice to test Him, we know from St. Mark's gospel that this man is converted by Jesus' answer (Mark 12:28-34).  Moreover, my study Bible explains also that the second commandment given here by Jesus needs to be understood as it is written:  You shall love your neighbor as yourself, or perhaps more clearly, "as being yourself."  It notes that this commandment is frequently misinterpreted to read, "You shall love your neighbor as you love yourself," which doesn't match the true force of the statement.  We are not called to the standard of how we love ourselves as the way we must love others.  We are called to love our neighbor as being of the same nature as we ourselves are, my study Bible teaches, as being created in God's image and likeness just as we are.  In patristic teaching, we're taught that we find our true self in loving our neighbor.  

While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, "What do you think about the Christ?  Whose Son is He?"  They said to Him, "The Son of David."  He said to them, "How then does David in the Spirit call Him 'Lord,' saying:  'The LORD said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool"'?  If David then calls Him 'Lord,' how is He his Son?"  And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question Him anymore.  My study Bible notes that Jesus asks this question in order to lead the Pharisees to the single logical conclusion; in effect, that He is God incarnate.  The expectation of the Pharisees is that the Messiah would be a mere human being, and so they reply that the Messiah would be a Son of David.  But David, as the king of Israel, could never, and would never address anyone using the title "Lord" except God.   But nonetheless, in Psalm 110:1, David addresses the Messiah as "Lord," indicating that the Messiah must be God.  The only possible conclusion, my study Bible comments, is that the Messiah is a descendant of David only according to the flesh, but is also truly divine -- sharing Lordship with God the Father and the Holy Spirit.  Consequently the Pharisees cannot answer.  They recognize the implications and they are afraid to confess Jesus to be the Son of God. 

 

 Perhaps today is a good occasion to consider this second great commandment that Jesus gives.  It is ancillary but essential to the first.  The first, we recall, is "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind."  The second is, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."   (These are from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18.)  My study Bible goes to great pains to explain that this does not mean one must love one's neighbor as much as or in the same way one loves oneself.  (So often we are quite imperfect in the ways we love ourselves!)  But rather, my study Bible explains, we are to love our neighbor as if they are made of the same stuff that we are, of the same nature, created by God in the image and likeness of God.   So often our popular or modern notions of what constitutes "love" seem to evolve to include things that were not necessarily there in the Scripture for its intended hearers.  We have private notions of love that depend closely on what we feel belongs to us, or what we would long for in a mate or a friend or even a child.  But the kind of love that Christ always speaks about is a love that involves definite and particular actions that express compassion.  When this same passage is found in St. Luke's gospel, it is embellished and illustrated with the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37).  The Samaritan in the story is a model of what it means to love a neighbor "as oneself," even if he's a Samaritan and the victim of robbers whom he helps and cares for is a Jew.  To love in that case was to act as a neighbor, to be a neighbor by doing what is needful and thereby expressing compassion.  When the people who've come out to see Jesus have been with Him into evening and have nothing to eat, He commands the disciples to feed them, and completes this act of compassion (extended from His first impulse to heal and teach); see Matthew 14:13-21.  He illustrates compassion when He speaks of Judgment, in His role as the true Shepherd who separates the sheep and the goats.  He tells those on His right hand, the favored ones, "I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me."  (See Matthew 25:31-46.)  These are all illustrations of acts of compassion, and let us keep in mind that it is not simply the specific action that we must fulfill by rote as if we are crossing items off a list to be within the rules of the law.  These are actions that are moved from the heart, from the inner life of a person, the soul.  They are ways in which we love others as if we recognize the same needs, the same substance as ourselves, in them.  They are not abstract, but rather couched within the substance of the first great commandment, a love of God with all one's heart, soul, and mind.   So often we find it is difficult to love people in the sense that we approve or love all the things they believe or do.  But we can nevertheless love by recognizing need and seeking to help fill that need, by having compassion and recognizing in the fulfillment of that need that they are of the same nature that we are, even when quite different in other ways.  There are all kinds of people we wouldn't necessarily want to live with or be with all the time, but we can still recognize the needs we would have in their place, and seek to help.  An act of compassion does not have to be purely material, either.  Sometimes people just need someone to smile at them, or to express a compassion through care in other ways, even simply to be acknowledged with a gaze.  There are myriad ways to express compassion.   It's not a competitive contest to see who can give the most, it's not checking off the box of counting up our good deeds, it's not about our image in the eyes of others.  None of that enters into what Jesus is telling us.  In fact, our act of compassion may quite often be something embarrassing to us, even frowned upon, such as befriending an unpopular person who's not of our nominal group.  Our Lord Himself set this example when He became sin and scandal out of love for us, put to death on the Cross.  Let us consider the meaning of Christ's love, as illustrated by His life and His work among us, and find the simple ways we can live it.

 

You cannot serve God and mammon

 

 "He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.  Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?  And if you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is your own?  No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and mammon." 

Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things, and they derided Him.  And He said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts.  For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.  The law and the prophets were until John.  Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it.  And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail.  

"Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery."

- Luke 16:10-18 

 

Yesterday we read that Jesus also said to His disciples:  "There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods.  So he called him and said to him, 'What is this I hear about you?  Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.'  Then the steward said within himself, 'What shall I do?  For my master is taking the stewardship away from me.  I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg.  I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.'  So he called every one of his master's debtors to him, and said to the first, 'How much do you owe my master?'  And he said, 'A hundred measures of oil.'  So he said to him, 'Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.'  Then he said to another, 'And how much do you owe?'  So he said, 'A hundred measures of wheat.'  And he said to him, 'Take your bill, and write eighty.'  So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly.  For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.  And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home."

 

  "He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.  Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?  And if you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is your own?"    My study Bible comments that the test as to whether God will bestow heavenly blessings (true riches) on a person is directly related to how each person spends one's money.  The money which we consider to be our own, my study Bible says, is actually another man's.  That is, all wealth ultimately belongs to God -- or at least to the poor in need.  In patristic commentary, a person's failure to give money to God's work is seen as stealing.  Theophylact comments that such failure is "nothing less than the embezzlement of money belonging to someone else."

"No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and mammon."   Taken in the context of Christ's comments prior to this (as well as the parable in yesterday's reading -- see above), Jesus puts it plainly.  You cannot serve God and mammon.  Therefore even "unrighteous mammon" (wealth or money) is to be used to serve God and God's purposes.  There is one highest priority that comes first, and all things are subject to that priority.

Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things, and they derided Him.  And He said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts.  For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God."  My study Bible comments here that the things which are highly esteemed among men include money, power, position, and praise.  Again, Jesus is elaborating on the statement that one cannot serve God and mammon, and if we but look closely, all these things which are "highly esteemed among men" also fall into the category of mammon, of material life. 

"The law and the prophets were until John.  Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it."    In preaching the kingdom of God, Jesus is fulfilling the law and the prophets (see Matthew 5:17).  My study Bible comments that Jesus fulfills the law in Himself, in His words, and in His actions.  First, He performs God's will in all its fullness (Matthew 3:15).  Second, He transgresses none of the precepts of the law (John 8:46; 14:30).  He also declares the perfect fulfillment of the law, the gospel of the Kingdom; and this gospel grants righteousness -- the goal of the law -- to us (Romans 3:31; 8:3-4; 10:4).  He fulfills the prophets by both being and carrying out what they foretold.   

 

"And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail."  Additionally, righteousness according to the law is seen as a unified whole, and not separate categories one either checks off or does not.  That is, the observance of all the least commandments, my study Bible explains, is to observe the whole law, while the violation of the least commandment is considered a violation of the whole law.  See Matthew 5:19.

"Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery."  Here Jesus seems to be making note about the law, and in this context here, criticizing the easy divorce that was possible for men at His time.  My study Bible comments that because of the misuse of divorce in that day, Jesus repeatedly condemns divorce (see, for example, Matthew 5:31-32; 19:8-9), and He is emphasizing the eternal nature of marriage, and in this sense relating this to the perspective of the kingdom of God.  

In today's reading, Jesus' preaching emphasizes the supremacy of the kingdom of God before all else.  The Pharisees were lovers of money, our text tells us.  But moreover, we know from Christ's criticisms of their hypocrisy they were also lovers of the "praise of men" -- doing many nominally pious things simply in order to be seen by others.  This is the foundation of their hypocrisy, which Jesus roundly condemns in many ways in Matthew 23.  But in saying that one cannot serve both God and mammon, that we must choose between one and the other, Jesus seems to go a step further, and is including those things which are "highly esteemed among men" and calling them an "abomination in the sight of God."   In modern terms, we might consider that what Jesus is referring to here is a kind of purely transactional viewpoint on life, in which only material good is considered as value -- and as part of that material good would be included those things which give one "currency" (that which is "highly esteemed among men").  As my study Bible says, these things include "money, power, position, and praise."   Whether that is reputation, or publicity, or whatever is done purely with the goal of social currency of some sort, becomes a part of this world of mammon, as it is divorced from putting God and God's kingdom first.  For this is the true righteousness that Christ preaches, the fulfillment of the law and the prophets:  seeking to please God first, to participate in God's kingdom even as we live our earthly lives.  Jesus says, "The law and the prophets were until John.  Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it."  This seems to be a parallel with His statement in Matthew 11:  "Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.  For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.  And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come" (Matthew 11:11-14).  This "violence" is a reflection of everyone pressing into the kingdom He has preached, heralded by the spirit of Elijah returned in John the Baptist -- and thus the signal for the fulfillment of the law and prophets in Christ's gospel of the kingdom.  And so we live at this time in which we are invited to participate in this Kingdom, this righteousness He offers to us.  But, of course, mammon is with us still, and in some ways possibly more than ever.  Our faith in technology seems to some to have become a kind of replacement religion, even as technological capabilities have reached extraordinary new levels -- much of which offers yet new uncertainties for our future.  In light of Christ's preaching, let us take this to heart with every new turn of the modern world we see before us.  We are commanded to know that even "unrighteous mammon" has uses which can be defined by the priorities of the kingdom of God, and so we put our faith first in living faithful lives.  This is the one defining thing we know.  Regardless of what we think we see and experience around us, there is still the Kingdom in which we dwell, which we carry with us through how we choose to live, how we pray, how we even go into our secret rooms with God who sees in secret (Matthew 6:6).  Perhaps what is true now is these practices are more important than ever, for it is there we find our true treasure, and the way to carry our cross daily through the world.

Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill

 "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets.  I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.  For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.  Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.  For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven."

- Matthew 5:17-20

We are currently reading through the Sermon on the Mount.  It began with the Beatitudes.  In yesterday's reading, Jesus taught, "Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake.  Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.  You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?  It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.  You are the light of the world.  A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.  Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.  Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."

 "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets.  I did not come to destroy but to fulfill."  My study bible tells us that Jesus fulfills the Law in Himself, in His words, and in His actions in several ways.  First, He performs God's will in all its fullness (3:15).  In addition, He transgresses none of the precepts of the Law (John 8:46; 14:30).   Also, Jesus declares the perfect fulfillment of the Law, which He is about to deliver.  Finally, the goal of the law is righteousness, which He grants to us (Romans 3:31, 8:3-4, 10:4).  He fulfills the Prophets in that He is and does what they foretold; like the Prophets He calls the people back to God and the true fulfillment of God's promises and teachings.

"For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled."  The expression translated as "assuredly" is Amen in the original Greek.  It means "truly," or "confirmed," or "so be it."  This is used by Jesus as a solemn affirmation, a kind of oath.  He uses this word at the beginning of various proclamations (as opposed to at the end) in a unique and authoritative way:  His words are declared affirmed before He speaks them.  (In John's Gospel the expression appears several times doubled:  "Amen, Amen," such as in John 3:3, where it is translated "most assuredly" in the NKJV.)  A jot is the smallest letter in the Greek alphabet; a tittle is the smallest stroke in certain Hebrew letters.  Therefore, the whole of the Law is affirmed as the foundation of Christ's new teaching.  All is fulfilled refers to His Passion and Resurrection.

"Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.  For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven."  My study bible says that righteousness according to the Law is a unified whole; it's not something to separate out piecemeal as if our lives are an adding up of commandments filled.  To observe the least of the commandments is to observe the whole Law; violation of the least commandment is considered a violation of the whole Law.  Taken as a whole, Jesus speaks of reverence for the word of God; essentially a reverence for how God wishes for us and teaches us to live our lives, in relationship to God and to the world.

Jesus begins the Sermon on the Mount by first teaching the Beatitudes, a state of being in which one participates in the Kingdom and in its blessings, its "happinesses" even while in this world and living a "worldly" life.  In yesterday's reading, He spoke of the tremendous investment and value in discipleship; how disciples are the light of the world, the salt of the earth -- and in so being, they glorify God.  In this context, it is blessed even to be persecuted for the sake of the righteousness He teaches, for so were the prophets before.  In today's reading, He begins with a fulfillment of the function of the prophets:  to call all to the word of God, the teachings in letter and spirit.  He is about to give His gospel, the teachings to His disciples, but it comes as fulfillment, not the abolition of what has come before.  In Jesus' words, we read about a kind of relationship established.  To follow the least commandment is not to do so as a kind of legal stricture alone, but to enter into relationship with the whole of the Law, with God.  To disregard or abandon the least is thereby to abuse that relationship, to disregard it or discard it in some sense.  As the Sermon on the Mount progresses, Jesus will teach us what it is to truly enter into relationship in the understanding of the Law, the word of God:  relationship both with God and with community.  He will dig more deeply into how and why it is so, and how righteousness works as "right-relatedness."  In so doing, He is bringing a kind of awareness, a consciousness of a deeper level of God who is love, and who teaches us to be God's love in the world.  If we fail to understand relationship, we will fail to understand Christ.  This is a way to walk a blessed life, the life of the Kingdom.  The fullness of His mission will confer the Spirit, the Eucharist, His Passion and Resurrection:  it is all part of a whole, the fulfillment of all that has come before, and the giving of a way of life for us.