In Jesus’s time the Law had a sacredness and a saving value, and for most Jews it was the definitive revelation of God. The main promoters of this point of view were the Scribes and Pharisees. Matthew’s Gospel, and particularly the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ attempts to present Jesus’s attitude to the Law in the context of the early Jewish community.

Jesus begins by stating that his mission was not to repudiate the Law and call it into question, but to fulfil it, or to bring it to perfection. What does this perfection consist in?
It consists in a relationship of trust and love with Jesus, whom the Father has sent – and not in the material fulfilling of whatever the Law demands. Paul expresses this eloquently later in the New Testament, when he says that the ‘righteousness’ given by the Law does not bring salvation, but ‘faith in Jesus’ does.

This is why the Sermon on the Mount challenges the disciple to live by a higher standard than that of the Scribes and Pharisees.

If the Law condemns someone for murder, Jesus goes further still. He wants the very roots of anger and vengeance which lead to murder removed completely. He wants the thoughts of anger and the harsh words which follow, removed from the disciple’s minds. He declares that forgiveness and reconciliation among one’s own is more important than offering sacrifice.

The law condemns adulterous behaviour. Jesus insists that even the lustful thought and desire are evil, and one must spare no pain in suppressing them.

And most of all, when the Law teaches one to love one’s neighbour but hate one’s enemy, Jesus demands that the disciple’s love become all inclusive, embracing enemy, sinner and unbeliever alike, even as God does.

It’s not ritual observance and mechanical obedience then which brings the Law to perfection within us, but the change in our attitude. That’s when our hearts are transformed. That’s when we enter the kingdom of heaven.