Ioan Leonte

Group 2

The Sermon on the Mount: Jesus and the Law & the Prophets
(Matthew 5, 42-48)

NKJ
Matthew 5:42 "Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn
away.
5:43 “You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy”.

5:44 "But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you,
and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,

5:45 "that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the
good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

5:46 "For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the
same?

5:47 "And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax
collectors do so?

5:48 "Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

What is the context in which these words are said?

They are part of a larger passage of six “antitheses” 1 showing that Jesus was the last Prophet, and He
came no to abolish the Torra, but to fulfill it.

What was the general purpose of this sermon?

Jesus sought to illustrate the fact that he is the same Person that spoke to Moses on the Mount Sinai
and came now to show that this Law can, in fact, be observed in its last letter. He said in another place
that “ it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail”(Luke 16:17).
This means that all that is written in the law have to be fulfill, but the one who fulfills it is only Him.

What is the relation of this sermon with the whole life of Jesus?

Jesus conducts His entire life by the Law, which, to be more precise, is not understood in the modern
way as a Juridical Code, but as a set of teachings. This is the actual meaning of the Hebrew word “Tora” 2

Before being crucified giving his life as a ultimate obedience to the Law, He shown the people in the
midst of whom he lived that the only way to be totally obedient to the Law is to see and to apply it in its
core meaning, which is the spiritual one.

How did Jesus fulfilled the Law? What is the relationship between the commandments Torah and the
New commandment of Love gave by Jesus (John 13, 34)?
1
Daniel J. Harrington, S.J., The Gospel of Mattew, volume 1, Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minnesota, 1997, p. 91
2
Ibidem
We know that in Christianity, and especially in Orthodoxy, Love precedes knowledge. So no other
prophet than Jesus could give such commandment of loving his neighbor, and loving even his enemy.
First of all the prophet, or the Rabi should have been able to put in practice himself that commandment.
But, as we know, no one from the Old Testament was able to do all things required by the Law, so, thus,
the Law was a curse for everyone who attempted to fulfill it but wasn’t able to do that.

Saint Paul says in Galatians 3:13 that “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become
a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree")”, showing that He was the
only One capable of fulfilling the law and obeying it in its spirit. And only after he saved us by His death
on the Cross, He could require from us to do exactly what he did, and what is stated in the passage
above.

Formal Analysis

Form
The passage from above is written in prose and is part of a larger sermon (Matthew, chapters 5-7 –
called Sermon on the Mount).

Structure
This passage constitutes the final of a series of percepts about relation with our neighbor and it ends
with the general statement that we should be “perfect” as our “Father in heaven is perfect” (5:48).

Movement
Seemingly, separate percepts, the verses from the passage above are gradually arranged so that they
come to a climax in the last commandment listed also above (“be perfect as your Father in heaven is
perfect”)