Sermon on the Mount - Essay Example

What Jesus does to the Old Testament law in the Sermon on the Mount As Jesus addressed the people in the mountain, he stated very clearly to the people that he had come to fulfill the law of the prophets and not to abolish them. The law of prophets he was referring to in this case was the Old Testament law or the Law of Moses. According to Kodjak (96), the sermon Jesus gave contained teachings that were in line with the Ten Commandments given to Moses in the Old Testament. This means that Jesus was rubberstamping whatever the people had learned from the Old Testament Law given to Moses.

By saying ‘you have heard’, ‘but I tell you’, Jesus was making a reinterpretation and expounding on the Law of Moses so as to fit the perfect will of God by dealing with its weaknesses. The expounding/antithesis that Jesus did were majorly touching on anger, adultery, divorce, oaths, love for enemies and retaliation. For example, he equalizes someone who gets angry with someone else as a murderer and the one who looks lustfully at others with an adulterer. In this case, Jesus was emphasizing on the fact that people ought to obey the law not only from the physical vicinity but much more from their hearts.

Therefore, he was actually speaking against hypocrisy while commanding absolute, whole round holiness. On the contrary, the Law of Moses had room for hypocrites presented physical goodness in the vicinity of men but did evil when alone provided there was no one to testify of their evil deeds. That is why he tells them that their faith should surpass that of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Jesus spoke against divorce though it was allowed in the Law of Moses. But a contrast to the Law of Moses is still found in Old Testament in the book of Malachi.

In Malachi chapter 2:16, God says that he hates divorce. He also stresses no one should separate a man and wife because they are both one in body and spirit before him. This means that Jesus did not in any way abolish the Old Testament law but advocates for its fulfillment even at a better level. Jesus gave them the Golden rule which he states as the summary of all the law (Sabourin 143). This rule agrees with and summarizes the Old Testament law which also requires that people love their God and those around them.

The will and its relationship to divine Using the beatitudes, Jesus suggested that people should live to according to God’s will so that they would get divine blessings. He communicates this by using the phrase ‘blessed are those’. For example he says ‘blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God’. In this case seeing God is a blessing that cannot be granted by men but only by God unto those who fulfill His will of having a pure heart. Other divine things promised are mercy, satisfaction, inheriting the kingdom of God among others.

Therefore Jesus was stressing on the fact that there are divine things that God will only grant those who do his will in their personal lives, dealing with issues or while relating with others in the society (McArthur 129). It is possible and easy for someone to do what Jesus commands in the bible. All it requires is the willingness of a person’s heart to obey them and not the adoption of the hypocritical attitude of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. In this way, it will be easy for the commands to manifest physically as good actions that are Christ-like in nature.

This also requires that