Gospel: Matthew 5:17-19

 

Today’s Gospel teaches how to observe the law of God in its complete fulfillment. Matthew writes in order to help the communities of converted Jews overcome the criticism of the brothers of their own race. Jesus Himself had been accused of infidelity to the Law of God. Matthew has Jesus’ clarifying response to His accusers. Thus, Matthew sheds some light to help the communities solve their problems.

 

There were several different tendencies in the first Christian communities. Some thought that it was not necessary to observe the laws of the Old Testament, because we are saved by faith in Jesus and not by the observance of the Law.

 

Others accepted Jesus, the Messiah, but they did not accept the liberty of spirit with which some of the communities lived the message of Jesus. They thought that, being Jews, they had to continue to observe the laws of the Old Testament. 

 

But there were Christians who lived so fully in the freedom of the Spirit, who no longer looked at the life of Jesus of Nazareth, nor to the Old Testament. 

 

The great concern in Matthew’s Gospel is to show that the Old Testament, Jesus of Nazareth, and the life in the Spirit cannot be separated. The three of them form part of the same and unique plan of God and communicate to us the certainty of faith: The God of Abraham and of Sarah is present in the midst of the community by faith in Jesus of Nazareth who sends us His Spirit.