Unveiling the Law and the Prophets
March 26, 2025 - Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent
Matthew 5:17-19
There is a very popular saying among the Jewish scholars that to read the Bible in translation is like kissing a bride through a veil. Perhaps, nowhere it is so evident like in today’s passage of the Gospel. How does Matthew envision the relationship between the Old Testament and the New, the law of Moses and Jesus’ teaching? Does fulfilling the law means abolishing or disregarding the law of Moses? If not even a small letter from the law should pass away, what about the sacrifices and the kosher food that are part of the law? What about the Sabbath? Should all these regulations be taught and obeyed by us?
Those who are familiar with St. Paul, whose writings pre-dates the Gospel of Matthew by two decades, know his ideas about the law. In the letter to the Romans we read that Christ is the end of the law (Rom 10:4) and in Galatians that we have died to the law and are free from it (Gal 2:19, 5:1-6). The Acts of the Apostles informs about the decision taken by the apostles that the Gentile Christians should not be required to circumcise their sons nor they should follow Jewish food regulations (Acts 15). This gives an impression that the obedience to the law ended with the coming of Christ. But is this what Jesus mean?
The phrase, ‘the law and the prophets’, means not specific commandments, rules, and regulations, but it stands for the first part of our Bible, which we call, the Old Testament. It is this first part of the Bible that tells the story of salvation leading to the coming of Jesus. It is there that we find the mystery of Christ hidden behind the persons and events narrated there. Without it, we will never be able to understand how God deals with humanity, where do we come from and what is the goal of the entire creation.
St. Augustine perfectly captured the meaning of today’s passage in his famous saying that ‘The New Testament lies hidden in the Old and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New’. And most of us are familiar with the saying of St. Jerome that ‘Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ’. Yes, Jesus fulfilled all the sacrifices of the old law, declared all the food clean, and taught us to do good on the Sabbath. But, he did not tell us to ignore the law and the prophets, as some heretical groups in the Church did. And so I invite you once again to commit yourself to reading of the entire Scripture. Think of it as a personal letter written to us by God. Delight in reading or listening to it and learn from it how to live. And then, when you have been molded by it, teach it to others. In this way, you will be great in God’s kingdom.