On Fire
New member
From a sermon on Matthew 5:
“I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished.” (Matt. 5:18)
Here Jesus was referencing a Jewish folk tale. The story went like this: even though everyone knew that it was wrong to alter any of the law, when God changed Sari’s name to Sarah, he took a yod, the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet, a mere stroke of the pen, out of the text. This letter then went to heaven and complained so loudly that God eventually reinstated her by changing Joshua’s name and adding her back in. Jesus was saying he wasn’t about to change the law even in this tiny way, but he added until “everything is accomplished.”
The phrase “Until heaven and earth disappear" was an idiom which meant “the impossible.” So, Jesus wasn’t talking about a particular moment in time here: the moment heaven and earth disappear; he was saying that it was impossible for anyone to change the law until “everything is accomplished.”
‘Accomplished’, or genetai in the Greek means ‘happens,’ or “comes about” or more specifically ‘a moment when something you’re looking forward to, arrives.’ In other words, the law cannot be changed until the moment the law and the prophets look forward to, happens.” And the one thing that everyone felt the law and the prophets looked forward to was the Messiah, the one who would bring God’s kingdom into being on the earth. And the irony is that there was Jesus, the Messiah, ushering in God’s kingdom, accomplishing everything the law and the prophets were looking forward to in that very moment. And while in that moment he wasn’t changing the letter of the law or the importance of the law through his teaching, he’d do that through his coming death and resurrection, what he was doing was clearing up some terrible misinterpretations of what God actually considered obeying the law.
And he began by setting up a dichotomy between someone who breaks and actually teaches others to break the commandments and those that keep the commandments and teach others to do the same. He said, “Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices (does) and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Matt. 5:19. (Just so you’ll know the least of the commandments was thought to be Deut. 22: 6-7). Of course, Jesus’ broader point was that what should be practiced and taught was an understanding of the law that had evaded the religious establishment; it was his understanding of the commandments… and, in fact, he was just about to give his listeners a whole lot to think about when it comes to practicing and teaching the commands. But for the moment he wanted his listeners to think about whether the people that generally taught them about the law actually practiced what they preached and if what they preached actually led to a confident, hopeful relationship with God.
“I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished.” (Matt. 5:18)
Here Jesus was referencing a Jewish folk tale. The story went like this: even though everyone knew that it was wrong to alter any of the law, when God changed Sari’s name to Sarah, he took a yod, the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet, a mere stroke of the pen, out of the text. This letter then went to heaven and complained so loudly that God eventually reinstated her by changing Joshua’s name and adding her back in. Jesus was saying he wasn’t about to change the law even in this tiny way, but he added until “everything is accomplished.”
The phrase “Until heaven and earth disappear" was an idiom which meant “the impossible.” So, Jesus wasn’t talking about a particular moment in time here: the moment heaven and earth disappear; he was saying that it was impossible for anyone to change the law until “everything is accomplished.”
‘Accomplished’, or genetai in the Greek means ‘happens,’ or “comes about” or more specifically ‘a moment when something you’re looking forward to, arrives.’ In other words, the law cannot be changed until the moment the law and the prophets look forward to, happens.” And the one thing that everyone felt the law and the prophets looked forward to was the Messiah, the one who would bring God’s kingdom into being on the earth. And the irony is that there was Jesus, the Messiah, ushering in God’s kingdom, accomplishing everything the law and the prophets were looking forward to in that very moment. And while in that moment he wasn’t changing the letter of the law or the importance of the law through his teaching, he’d do that through his coming death and resurrection, what he was doing was clearing up some terrible misinterpretations of what God actually considered obeying the law.
And he began by setting up a dichotomy between someone who breaks and actually teaches others to break the commandments and those that keep the commandments and teach others to do the same. He said, “Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices (does) and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Matt. 5:19. (Just so you’ll know the least of the commandments was thought to be Deut. 22: 6-7). Of course, Jesus’ broader point was that what should be practiced and taught was an understanding of the law that had evaded the religious establishment; it was his understanding of the commandments… and, in fact, he was just about to give his listeners a whole lot to think about when it comes to practicing and teaching the commands. But for the moment he wanted his listeners to think about whether the people that generally taught them about the law actually practiced what they preached and if what they preached actually led to a confident, hopeful relationship with God.
