Thomas J Parlette
“Fulfilling the Law”
Matt. 5: 13-20
2/8/26
Lately I’ve been re-watching one of my all-time favorite shows – The West Wing. In the sixth season, the series starts to focus on who will succeed the current President. The race comes down for the White House comes down to Republican Arnie Vinick, played by Alan Alda and Democrat Matt Santos, played by Jimmy Smits.
In one memorable scene, the current President, Jed Bartlet, played by Martin Sheen, is sitting with Arnie Vinick after hours in the White House kitchen, raiding the White House’s supply of ice cream. The topic turns to religion and church attendance.
The President asks Vinick if he goes to church – Vinick says no, not in years. Bartlet asks why. And Senator Vinick gives an answer that many people identify with. He says:
“One Christmas my wife gave me a very old copy of the King James Bible. A real find for a book lover, which I am. But then I read it.”
“I couldn’t believe there was a God who said that the penalty for working on the Sabbath was death. I couldn’t believe there was a God who said the penalty for adultery was death.”
Then Pres. Bartlet says – “I’m more of a New Testament guy myself.”
Vinick continues, “I struggled with that book for a long time. After a while, I gave up the struggle.”
Their conversation captures the way many people feel about the Bible – especially when it comes to Old Testament versus New Testament. Our passage for today, in which Jesus says that he isn’t here to abolish the law, but to fulfill the law, seems to contradict what we hear in the verses that follow, the ones that go “You’ve heard it said… But I say to you…” Those verses would seem to support the view that you can choose to focus on the New Testament and disregard the Old Testament. It sounds like Jesus is indeed either disregarding or re-writing the Old Testament.
This isn’t really a new development. In fact, this is one of the oldest heresies that exist in the Christian religion.
In the second century, a man named Marcion of Sinope founded a movement within Christianity the rejected the Old Testament and the Old Testament God as too vengeful and chose instead to focus on the merciful God of the New Testament as revealed by Jesus.
Marcionism proposed two distinct Gods, the wrathful, legalistic God of the Old Testament versus the loving compassionate God of the New Testament. In addition to rejecting the Old Testament, Marcionism believed that Jesus wasn’t really fully human, he only appeared to be.
To back up their beliefs, the Marcionites relied on a heavily edited version of the Gospel of Luke and only ten of Paul’s epistles – also heavily edited to remove all references to the Old Testament and Judaism.
So whenever we hear modern day Christians say things like they believe in the New Testament God, or they don’t understand why we need the Old Testament at all now that Jesus has come – what we are hearing is a little bit of the ancient heresy of Marcionism.
Marcion was eventually excommunicated from the Church in 144 and the church put out pages and pages of theological reasons why we needed both the Old and the New Testaments, but Marcionism still lingers on into our present day. One of the positives of dealing with this heresy was that it forced the early church to formalize what it believed and establish a canon of scripture that would eventually become the Bible as we know it.
But for Jesus, Marcionism has no place in Christianity. He is very clear that he has no intention of eliminating the Law. He is not intending to abolish the law, but he intends to fulfill the Law. Throughout the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus shows us how this fulfillment is going to happen.
He starts with what we heard last week – the Beatitudes, the “be like this” statements. This leads us into our passage for today. Jesus uses two metaphors to describe how we are look at ourselves as disciples. As followers of Jesus, we are to be Salt and Light.
First, we are described as salt. Salt was very common and quite valuable in the ancient world. Salt had many uses – the most common were as a preservative in the days before refrigeration, and as a seasoning, as it is now. But there were other uses as well. Salt was used for fertilizing soil and it was used in sacrifices and covenanting ceremonies as well as purifying and cleansing rituals, and as a way to symbolize loyalty. Most significantly in the way Jesus is using it, is Salt as a flavoring agent and as a preservative. (1)
Jesus’ use of salt to describe his followers refers to Jesus’ desire that we bring our unique personality and combination of talents to bear in serving God’s kingdom. We are salt.
We are also Light. We are not the source of the light, but we point towards the light of God in Jesus, we reflect the light that has come to dwell among us.
One of my favorite authors, Robert Fulghum tells the story of being at a conference in Greece. “On the last day of the conference, the discussion leader walked over to the bright light of an open window and looked out. Then he asked if there were any questions.”
“I jokingly asked him, What’s the meaning of life? Everyone in attendance laughed and stirred to leave. However, the leader held up his hand to ask for silence and then responded, “I will answer your question.”
“He took his wallet out of his pocket and removed a small round mirror about the size of a quarter. Then he explained:
“When I was a small child during World War II, we were very poor and we lived in a remote village. One day on the road, I found the broken pieces of a mirror. A German motorcycle had been wrecked in that place. I tried to find all the pieces and put them back together, but it was not possible, so I kept the largest piece. This one. And by scratching it on a stone, I made it round.”
“I began to play with it as a toy and became fascinated by the fact that I could reflect light into dark places where the sun could never shine. It became a game for me to get light into the most inaccessible places that I could find. I kept the little mirror, and as I grew up, I would take it out at idle moments and continue the challenge of the game.”
“As I became a man, I grew to understand that this was not just a child’s game, but a metaphor of what I could do with my life. I came to understand that I am not the light or the source of the light. But light – be it truth or understanding or knowledge – is there, and it will only shine in many dark places if I reflect it.”
“I am a fragment of a mirror whose whole design and shape I do not know. Nevertheless, with what I have, I can reflect light into the dark places of the world – into the dark places of human hearts – and change some things in some people. Perhaps others seeing this happen will do likewise. This is what I am about. This is the meaning of my life.” (2)
Jesus is quite clear this morning – He comes to fulfill the law. To do so, he calls us to be Salt and Light.
He calls us to be Salt, to be who we are to give this world a taste of God’s kingdom and to preserve God’s covenant with humanity.
He calls us to be Light, to reflect God’s love into the dark corners of our world.
May God be praised. Amen.
1. Jin Young Choi, Feasting on the Word, Year A, Vol 1, Westminster John Knox Press, p 81, 83.
2. Robert Fulghum, It Was On Fire When I Lay Down On It, Ballantine Books, 1988, 1989, p 174-175.
