By Tom Jones, 3.23.22
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(Jesus said) “. . . as long as heaven and earth exist, neither the smallest letter nor even the smallest stroke of a pen will be erased from the Law until everything there becomes a reality.” Matthew 5:18 CEB
While on earth, Jesus was the only human to ever spend time with both Moses and Elijah. That at the Transfiguration on the mountain. Moses is held up as the giver of God’s Law. Elijah was called by God to bring His people back to the Law after they had been seduced away by misguided leaders. What must these three have talked about?
In Jesus’ time the people of Israel were under the authority of the Romans, a people who worshiped pagan gods they themselves had conceived. The Hebrew civil authorities were paranoid, corrupt and despised. The Hebrew religious leaders were motivated to preserve their status at all cost.
When He came off that mountain, Christ knew He was on the final path to the cross. Like Elijah, He was challenging the civic and religious leaders, but in a new and unique way. Like Moses, He had come to affirm God’s Law, again in a new and unique way. When Elijah confronted the authorities with the Law he had to run for his life; but ultimately Jesus surrendered to their arrest. The cross was inevitable.
Our Lord simplified the Law through His teachings: Love God, love your neighbor, turn from sin and achieve salvation. But more, He was willing to erase the accountability of confessed sin through His death.
In this season of Lent, reflect on all that has gone into communicating and affirming God’s Law. But mostly reflect on the price Jesus paid to remove the accounting of our failures.
“Let us love one another because love is from God.”