Was Jesus a Lawbreaker?

WAS JESUS A LAWBREAKER?

Mt. 5:17-37

Some people regard Jesus as a rebel.  He was a lawbreaker.  Today's Gospel reading is Jesus' response to that accusation.  It begins with His denying the charges that had been levelled against Him.  He said, 'Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the Law and the Prophets.  I have come not to abolish them, but to complete them.'  From there, He went on to make one of the loftiest statements on the law that the world has ever heard or read.

Yes, Jesus was a rebel, but He was not an anarchist.  There is a great difference between the two.  The dictionary defines a rebel as 'a person who resists authority.'  It defines an anarchist as 'a person who wants to overthrow the established government and have a society without laws.'

Jesus did break the silly and petty rules of the Pharisees, but He never broke the laws of God.  If we take the time and the effort to know Jesus, we will discover that Jesus had a profound respect for the law.  Listen to Him as He says, 'I tell you solemnly, till heaven and earth disappear, not one dot, not one stroke, shall disappear from the Law until its purpose is achieved.’

That saying simply means that no one can destroy the moral law.  It is here to stay; it cannot be broken.  We have just as much chance of destroying the law of gravity as we do of abolishing the moral law.  Our only options are to recognise it and cooperate with it, or else be destroyed by it. 

Immanuel Kant, the eighteenth-century German philosopher, said there were two things that filled Him with awe.  They were 'the starry heavens and the moral law.'  Jesus would endorse that statement.  He felt the same way centuries before and He knew that God’s law would still be here long after the stars in the heavens have ceased to shine.

Jesus not only upheld the letter of the law but its spirit.  For example, one of the Ten Commandments says, 'You shall not commit murder.'  Most of us are pleased with ourselves for we have never committed this crime.  But Jesus would not settle for that.  He would want us to be free from anger, abusive language, calumny or gossiping.  For He knew it was these things that lead one to murder.  The same could be said of all the other commandments. 

Take the commandment, “Thou shall not commit adultery.’  That commandment can be kept by merely avoiding the physical act.  But again, Jesus would not settle for that.  He understood that the commandment had been given to protect the sanctity of the home and the sacredness of the person.  Jesus went to the heart of the matter and forbade us to have lustful looks at another person.  That means we should not regard another person as a mere object - a means of satisfying our sexual appetite.  That is the beginning point of people committing adultery.  Deal with it there and you will stop the problem before it ever starts.

This is how Jesus looked at the law of God.  He certainly loved the law and respected it, and He calls us to follow in His steps.  He said, 'The man who keeps them and teaches them will be considered great in the kingdom of heaven.'  That is His challenge to each of us in a world where some people maintain that neither God nor His law exist.

Lord Jesus, You were no lawbreaker; no one upheld the law as You did.  Like You, teach us to love not only the letter of the law but to observe its spirit.

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