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The Jews always listened to Paul and sometimes agreed until he got to the part about the law not making us righteous – especially because that meant uncircumcised Gentiles would be righteous. And they rose up in anger, flogged him, stoned him, ran him out of town. The only thing that saved him was that he was a Roman citizen. So they couldn’t kill him. But eventually things got bad enough he appealed to go to Rome to stand trial and he died while he was there – still preaching, I’m sure, salvation by faith in Jesus Christ to his last breath. And then a writer by the name of Matthew picked up a pen and began to write. It was about thirty years after the death of Christ. Those who had known Him personally were dying out. Paul, if not already dead, was imprisoned in Rome and Matthew knew things needed to be written down for future generations to have a first hand account of Jesus. And he had a specific issue to address. All four gospel writers wrote for the same reason – to share Jesus, but each had a specific issue in mind: Mark wrote originally to encourage the Christians being put to death in Rome. Luke wrote to explain Jesus to the Roman world – the Gentiles. Matthew wrote to the Jewish Christians – to encourage them in their relationship to the Jews. “There are some things you need to remember”, Matthew whispers to the Jewish-Christians from the words of his gospel. “Remember”, Jesus said, “I do not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it” (Matthew 5:17) “Remember”, Jesus said, “the law says this, but I take it one step further: the law says Do Not Murder. I say do not be angry or even insult your brother.” “The law says ‘An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth’, but I say when someone hits you on the right cheek, turn to them the other as well.” “The law says ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy’. I say ‘Love even your enemies’.
(Matthew 5)
“Remember”, Matthew whispers to the Jewish-Christians, “remember what He, Himself said.” Remember Jesus let His disciples gather grain to eat on the Sabbath and did not make them purify themselves in the Jewish way before eating. When the Pharisees asked him why he broke the law, He quoted Isaiah> “This people honors Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me.” (Matt. 15:8) And remember how Jesus called the Pharisees “white washed tombs – beautiful on the outside – but dead on the inside - on the outside appearing to be righteous, but on the inside, in their hearts, full of lawlessness and hypocrisy. (Matt:23:27-28)” “And above all remember this: Remember”, Jesus said, “the greatest commandment in the law is” “You shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart, soul and mind and the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
“Remember”, Matthew says to Jewish-Christians, “it maters not if you wash your hands five times in perfect form in accordance with the tradition of the law. If there is no love in your heart for God or for neighbor, for all the law and the prophets boil down to this: Love God. Love your neighbor.”