It's All Performance Art 85

More from the Sermon on the Mount, in Spanish, then in English:

"No piensen que he venido a anular la ley o los profetas.  No he venido a anularlos, sino a darles  cumplimiento.  Les aseguro que mientras existan el cielo y la tierra, ni una letra, ni una tilde de la ley desvanecerán hasta que todo se haya cumplido.  Todo el que infrinja una solo de estos mandamientos, por pequeño que sea, y enseñe a otros a hacer lo mismo, será considerado lo mas pequeño en el reino de los cielos.  Pero el que los practique y enseñe será considerado grande en el reino de los cielos.  Porque los digo a ustedes, que no van a entrar en el reino de los cielos a menos que su justicia supere a la de los fariseos y los maestros de la ley."

Certain points of grammar I have not remembered correctly and have to refer to the printed text for corrections, but it's all good and I still have it basically correct in my memory.  Here it is in English translation:

Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.  I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfil them.  I assure you that while heaven and earth still exist, not one single letter or tilde of the law will disappear until all has been fulfilled.  Everyone who violates even one of these commandments, no matter how small, and teaches others to do the same, will be considered the smallest in the kingdom of heaven.  But they who practice and teach them will be considered great in the kingdom of heaven.  Because I am telling you that you will not be entering the kingdom of heaven unless your justice is of a better quality than that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law.

I know this fundamentalist evangelical who is part of a church that is almost cultish, and he once insisted that by those words, Jesus means that we still have to fulfill all the laws of the Old Testament, including the stoning of women caught in adultery and of men caught in acts of, shall we say, unnatural love?  The church he is a member of seems to represent just the same  kind of Christian heresy that Margaret Atwood so eloquently warned about in her prophetic novels, the Handmaid's Tale, and the Testament.  Fortunately, that church is not about to take over any government in the US nor here in Canada, or well, let's not ruin our day, shall we?

We have to really read the entire Gospels, as well as the whole Sermon on the Mount in order to get an idea of what Jesus is really talking about.  Suffice it to say that love is the fulfilling of the law, and if we love God and one another, then that's all we need really.  And no one gets rocks thrown at them, either.

In other words, Jesus is the fulfilment of the law, and in Jesus we find the fullness of God which is the completeness of all that is love, all that is true and all that is lovely.  And Jesus speaks these truths with authority, with badass authority.  "Do not think", "I assure you", "Because I am telling you".  You can't get any more badass cool than Jesus.