That's a trap! Well, it's not really a trap. It's just a

That's a trap! Well, it's not really a trap. It's just a clever rhetorical flourish on the part of Jesus. And I mean, it is very clever the way he's setting this thing up.

We're in Matthew Chapter 5. We are just getting Jesus' first big public words to everybody.

This is a very confusing thing for people, a very exciting thing for people, his audience

sitting there listening to him on the hill would have been wondering if

maybe Jesus was the promised Messiah who was gonna straighten everything out and

get blind sight and solve all the problems and sit on the throne of David for all of

eternity and so they're pretty interested to see if he's gonna tick all the box of description of this beautiful upside-down kingdom with values that are the opposite of the

world where things that the world kind of despises are celebrated and blessed and

rewarded in the kingdom it's kind of thing that no matter how how hard somebody's heart is they would hear that and be like actually I have to admit that does sound better

But two problems one we already have a system and what are you going to do with that, and two, can you actually deliver?

Well, we've spent the last several days talking about the system that's already in place and how Jesus is the fulfillment of that, and that's what he says in Matthew 517 and 18 I didn't

come to abolish the law or the prophets but to fulfill them I tell you the truth

until heaven and earth disappeared not the smallest letter not the least stroke of a

pin will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished.

And so there's this language of fulfillment and completion there that at least vaguely addresses one of the big questions what do we do with what we already have

but then the second big question can he deliver that one is still lingering out there and it's not really going to be

answered until we get to the end of

the sermon on the mount and then it's pretty amazing because it immediately

gets answered. So you got this crowd, they got these questions percolating in their

mind. Jesus says don't worry about the law it's still going to be

there but it's going to be fulfilled and completed. People are wondering exactly what

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