Not to Abolish but to Fulfill

I have always loved this passage. The Sermon on the Mount feels like a moment when Jesus begins to reveal who He truly is. Many in Israel hoped for a Messiah who would appear as a warrior king, yet here Jesus speaks of the Kingdom of God, of persecution for His sake, and of the deeper meaning of the law.

As I prayed with these words, I tried to imagine what it must have been like to sit there and listen to Him speak.

Something new struck me this time. Jesus does not say only that He has come to fulfill the law, but the law and the prophets. He is pointing to something much larger than the commandments themselves. The prophets had long spoken of the coming of God’s kingdom, of restoration and salvation. In saying that He fulfills both the law and the prophets, Jesus is declaring that these promises are being brought to completion.

Seen in this light, the Sermon on the Mount is not only a description of what the Kingdom will be like someday. It is the announcement that the Kingdom has begun to appear in Him.