The people of Israel received The Law with 613 commands. 365 of them “thou shall” and 268 “thou shall not.” God gave the commandments and said, the way of life and the way of death are set before them with life and prosperity, and death and adversity. 

If they obey by loving God, walk in God’s ways, and observe God’s commandments, decrees, and ordinances, they shall live and become numerous. God will bless them in the land they were to enter and possess. But if their hearts turn away and are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, God declares that they shall perish.

We may wonder why God gave such strong decrees to follow. The Israelites were slaves in Egypt. They lived under the rule of the Pharoah. Whatever the Pharoah and the leaders commanded was the order for the Israelites to follow.

After their liberation, when they came into the wilderness, Moses was the authority to give the rules. The lack of a regulation for a way of life in community meant a need for an order. God gave them the law and asked them to follow.

However, Israelites were not astute to follow the law. The leaders interpreted the law as they deemed necessary. One of the harshest was to observe Sabbath. Even healing of a sick person was not allowed on Sabbath. God gave the law for the people to live a disciplined life, but the leaders of Jesus’ day made the people for the law and made it difficult. It was in such a situation they turned to Jesus.

Matthew presents Jesus as a kind of new Moses. Just as Moses went up the Mount Sinai to receive the law, Jesus ascends to a mountain to give new commandments.

It may seem Jesus giving a new law. But the righteousness Jesus teaches is not so new. Jesus intensifies and underscores Mosaic law. Jesus repeats some stricture from Mosaic law and gives them a deeper meaning. Mosaic law was tough enough to fulfil as it is. Jesus intensifies it and makes it even more demanding.

Jesus commands a higher righteousness saying, “You have heard that it was said… but I say to you…” Concerning anger, divorce, adultery, oaths and so on.  “It was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also.”

Who can do these?

We were taught that Christianity is the supreme religion. Your life will go better if you sign on with Jesus. But I say to you, if we listen to Jesus, if we try to take his demands seriously, then we may find that Jesus complexifies and complicates our life.

We have heard that violence is wrong unless it is used in self-defence. But Jesus appears to advocate some higher value than self-defence as he asks to turn the other cheek. How many of us or ordinary people have we known who are willing to do what Jesus demands in his sermon on the mountain?

As we wrestle with Jesus’ teachings as in the gospel today, we must note that the righteousness Jesus commends is more than just conventional common law and order. Common law and order is insufficient to comprehend the higher, more demanding way of Jesus. Jesus’ teaching overturns our commonly held notions of what is right and what is wrong. Jesus calls his listeners to a more demanding way, a way closer to God.

The formula “You have heard that it was said…” each introduces four of the commandments. It is to go deeper: “But I say to you…” First Jesus speaks of taking steps to defuse anger before it reaches a murderous stage. Jesus gives three concrete examples. Primary is to avoid insulting one another. Then, if there is a rupture in a relationship, a ritual action alone will not mend it. A face-to-face reconciliation must be sought. Finally, conflicts should not be allowed to escalate to the point of litigation or to the extent of war. The same is true of all other laws Jesus addresses in the sermon on the mount.

Looking at our own society, we learn that law and order is insufficient for peaceful living. The way of life Jesus shows is live with a deeper understanding of relationships that passes the understanding of all the law with which the people are governed.

The way of Jesus is different to the way of world’s law and order. The law of God is a gift of God out of God’s grace for life and prosperity in which God graciously shows us the way of life. Jesus demands his followers to go beyond, even deeper, not simply obeying the law, but more seriously to love one another.

Last Sunday Peter in his message quoted Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I repeat those words: “Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline.”

Let me quote another of Bonhoeffer from his book Meditations on the Cross.”

“The world is overcome not through destruction, but through reconciliation. Not ideals, nor programs, nor conscience, nor duty, nor responsibility, nor virtue, but only God’s perfect love can encounter reality and overcome it. Nor is it some universal idea of love, but rather the love of God in Jesus Christ, a love genuinely lived, that does this.”

Christ’s way of love exceeds all the laws and rules of any society.