Today I am in another city sitting with a cup of tea looking out on the world passing by. That makes me a happy man! As I was quietly observing the world, I was also doing some reading about the Sermon on the Mount and was captivated by a thought the author of the book was discussing. He was looking at the section in the sermon where Jesus is expanding on the law that the Jews knew so well from the Old Testament. Jesus would start each phrase in this section by saying “you have heard it said…..” and He would name one of the laws the people would have lived by. Then He would go on and say “but I tell you…..” where He would expand on the statement with something more. It’s like He was raising the bar in terms of what the law said. For example;

• He raised the bar of “do not murder” to include not being angry
• The bar for “do not commit adultery” was raised to not looking lustfully at anyone
• The bar for divorce for any reason was raised to sexual immorality
• The bar for swearing oaths falsely was raised to not swearing oaths at all
• The bar for retaliation was raised to a nonviolent response
• The bar for love was raised to loving your enemies

It’s an incredible part of the sermon and one that would have been crazy for the people to have heard. I can understand why people mistakenly thought Jesus was abolishing the law in this moment. It could have sounded like He was rubbishing what had been set in stone for the people for generations, but as Jesus rightly said when He was accused of such a crime – “I am not abolishing the law, I am fulfilling it!” (my paraphrase). At the time, I’m not sure that the people fully understood what Jesus was getting at here. Jesus was going way deeper here. This wouldn’t have been how they would have thought about it previously, and I don’t believe it was how they would have been taught it either. Of course, in the years since, we have heard lots of teaching around this, and in one sense I’ve always understood this; however, the author, when commenting on this section of the scripture, nailed it incredibly with this one line.

For all their necessity, goodness, and beauty, laws that deal only with actions, such as the Ten Commandments, simply cannot reach the human heart, the source of actions.

Of course we see this referenced by Paul in his letter to the Galatians;

Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. Galatians 3:21

I found this really helpful and it illuminated something to me that I thought I already knew but clearly had filtered away somewhere. The goal of our lives in Jesus is not to avoid doing wrong or hurting others; it is to love God with all we have and love others as ourselves. If I simply spend my life trying not to do wrong things and not to hurt others, I might be able to achieve that feat before my dying day, but there is no guarantee that I would be someone who is filled with kindness and love for the world around me. It’s entirely possible to avoid doing wrong and not become the person God has created me to be. Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, is not trying to lay down an updated law; He still expects the people to honor that. He is helping them flourish, to become who He has always desired them to be. In the process of becoming one who loves their neighbor, doesn’t lust after another, doesn’t retaliate, doesn’t seek quick separations for lifelong relationships, or indulge in anger, we can be 100% confident that we won’t commit murder or any of the other crimes that the law prohibited.

Laws are good, but they can’t bring life. They can tell us what to do, but they can’t tell us why we shouldn’t. They can tell us who we shouldn’t be, but they can’t tell us who we can become.

Perhaps we need to raise the bar on our life with Jesus. We need to look deeper than simply trying to do the right things or avoid the wrong ones. We must take the time to look below those acts and do the heart work that will grow us into something more, someone more. A people who will flourish and become all that Jesus desires us to be.