Mt 5, 17-37
«You have heard that it was said to the former ones… but I tell you»
While some conceive the gospel as the culmination of the old testament, others speak of a rupture, but, in any case, the enormous novelty of Jesus is undeniable; a novelty so notorious that even Matthew – a scribe possibly from a Pharisee sect – has no choice but to recognize it. In today’s text, Matthew portrays the famous dilemma that Jesus poses to the Jews, «you have heard that it was said to the former ones… but I tell you…», and in chapter nine he compares Jesus to new wine that bursts the old wineskins.
And it is that Jesus is offering himself as an alternative to Moses. He is asking his followers to surpass the concept of Law and embrace the gospel. He is telling them that it is not about being holy and irreproachable in the eyes of God, but about creating humanity; that it is not about fulfilling a series of precepts and traditions, but about feeling loved by God and responding by loving, serving, forgiving…
As Ruiz de Galarreta says: *“The difference between the law and the gospel is that the law leaves the person to their own strength, gives them precepts to strive to fulfill, threatens them, rewards them… while the gospel places them before the gift of God, makes them know their Father, makes them a son, changes them from within… and no longer has to command them anything.”*
But precisely the novelty of his message provokes in people a very disparate reaction. Those who feel the need for that God who loves us and forgives us unconditionally, follow him to the end. On the contrary, the rich, the comfortable, and the satisfied with life, prefer the Judge who gives to each according to his merit, because he has already declared them righteous and worthy of reward, based on the prosperity they enjoy.
The scribes and Pharisees reject him from the beginning and take an unequivocal position against him. And they are not wrong. They have consecrated their lives to the God of Abraham, to the God of Moses, ultimately, to the God of Tradition, and that new doctrine is for them the greatest of deceptions. They have no doubt that that carpenter who proclaims it is an imposter; moreover, a dangerous imposter, because if his teachings prevail, they, along with the priests, will be the most harmed.
For every Israelite, conversion to Abba means abandoning the God of their fathers, renouncing their traditions, and plunging into the void… and their minds are not prepared to assimilate that message. They are enthusiastic about Jesus, they follow crowds, but they cannot accept that it might conflict with their millennial beliefs. That’s why everything they hear from him they mold to fit the shape of their beliefs and traditions, and end up interpreting it more in political than religious terms…
To give us an idea of the novelty that Jesus represented in his time, it is enough to think that, twenty centuries later, we, the Church, still haven’t quite digested his words and repeatedly return to the God judge, just and merciful, who will judge and reward us for our good deeds.
Miguel Ángel Munárriz Casajús
To read an article by José E. Galarreta on a similar topic, click here
English version translated with AI