Today’s Scripture Readings

Gospel Reading

NRSV

‘Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfil. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

In the Bible, amnesia is always a danger, and ‘forgetting’ is one of its prime words for sin. And in the epicentre of Christian worship, the Eucharist, we hear the unforgettable words of Christ: ‘Do this in memory of me’.

In the Book of Deuteronomy, the call is to remember the gift they have received in the Law of Moses, a gift that produces not just wisdom and discernment but liberation. To obey this God-given Law is to enter into the mystery of a liberating obedience.

Jesus speaks of the fulfilment of the Law, saying that none of it will disappear until its purpose is achieved. By this, he means until the fullness of God’s liberation has come, not just for God’s people but for all humanity and even, according to St Paul, the entire creation. There is no conflict between the Law of Moses and the grace of Jesus. The Law, with its liberating power, is grace. But the fullness of divine grace comes only in the encounter with Jesus crucified and risen.