Families are an interesting thing. When April and I do premarital counseling with couples, we use a tool called a genogram. If you are unfamiliar with genograms, they are sort of like a family tree except that they focus on relationships within the family. So they look at things like divorces, strained relationships, family members who’ve been rejected or cut off from the family, family losses and gains, painful relationships. We do this activity for a couple of reasons. First, we recognize that we have often been shaped by our past. And second, we are the legacy of our families. We hold within us all of that goodness and struggle from the past, even the things that are invisible to us. For example, when I was a kid, my grandfather would always rub my head whenever he would walk past me. I hated it. He did it kind of hard and I couldn’t understand why it was even necessary. When I had kids and they had begun walking. I noticed myself rubbing their heads like my grandpa had done. It surprised me. But it also transformed the way I thought about my grandfather. I began to realize that for him rubbing my head was a sign of affection. My grandfather was blind and mostly deaf, so touch was one of the main ways he connected with the world. That fact combined with the knowledge that my grandfather had always struggled to express his feelings, led me to recognize the importance of that gesture, no matter how annoying it was to me at that time.

Jesus came from a family as well, and not just his biological family, but his family of faith. Judaism was all about the family. Every individual was linked to their ancestors: Simon son of Jonah, Lot the son of Haran ,Jonah son of Amittai, Laban the son of Nahor. There are so many of those references in the Bible because family mattered. Jesus is the son of Joseph. He is also referred to as Jesus, Son of David. The Jews listed these ancestors because family and heritage was important to them. They stood upon the legacy of those who had gone before. Jesus stood upon the shoulders of the prophets, priests, and kings who went before him. He drew from their knowledge and wisdom. He stood upon the law that they formed in order to live in love for God and one another. This was the foundation upon which Jesus’ ministry was formed.

This is the context in which we must read Jesus’ words in this segment of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. There seem to be two parts to this section. The first part talks about salt and light and about doing good works so others see our faith. And the second part is about Jesus’ connection to the law of God. Those two sections, at first glance, feel very disconnected. It seems odd that they would be back to back in Jesus’ sermon. But as I’ve contemplated this passage over the week, I see a deep and important connection between these two segments of Matthew 5. This wasn’t just someone writing down two different things Jesus mentioned with no consideration for their placement next to one another. Jesus and Matthew put these statements together for a reason.

I recently watched the new TV show on Netflix called “That 90s Show.” The story is based upon a previous show called, oddly enough, “That 70s Show.” If you had never seen “That  70s Show,” you could still watch and enjoy “That 90s Show” without any problems. The plot line is not entirely dependent upon some previous knowledge and, even when references to the previous show are made, you are usually able to understand them in context without knowing the references. But as someone who has watched “That 70s Show,” watching the new show was like going back home. It reconnected me with sights and sounds and characters I loved and missed. “That 90s Show,” though complete and enjoyable on its own, stood upon the legacy of the previous show. And understanding that opened the new show up for even deeper meaning.

Jesus begins this section of his sermon by talking about what is really the goal of the law of God. We are to be the salt of the earth. Like salt fertilized the ground and brought forth more abundant life, we are to fertilize everything around us with the love of God in order to bring forth abundant life for all. And just like light is meant to shine, we are meant to love. We are meant to show the world God’s love through our compassion, our patience, our joy, our strength in the face of trials, our hope for a better life for all. That is the basis of the law of God, to love God and to love people. And Jesus says that when we let our lights shine, others will see the goodness within us and will recognize that it comes from God, and they will give glory to God because of that.

This is where the message seems to go off course. Yet, as we look at it again, we see Jesus talking about the law of God that he just gave us a picture of. Jesus says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” The law and the prophets is a reference to the Torah, which is the first 5 books of the Bible and considered to be the law of God for the Jews, and the prophets are pretty much the rest of the Old Testament. The writing of Jewish prophets from Joshua and Esther to Nahum, Habakkuk, and Malachi. Together, these were the most sacred writings of the Jewish faith. And many were afraid that Jesus had come to destroy them, not in a physical way by like burning them or something. But in a spiritual way by rejecting or changing pieces of the law and thus devaluing it. But Jesus attempts to allay the fears of his listeners by saying, “I have come NOT to abolish the law or the prophets, but to fulfill them.” Jesus came to complete the law, to show us what the law truly looks like, to show us truly how to live it.

This may not seem so radical to us, but to the people listening to Jesus, they probably thought he was a lunatic. No one could fulfill the law of God. Even the Pharisees were unable to be that righteous. And Jesus even agrees with that. He says, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” But what Jesus is saying in this passage is that it’s not about the letter of the law, it’s about the intent of the law. It’s not about crossing all our t’s and dotting all our i’s. It’s about the simple truth of loving God and loving our neighbor. We will never do it perfectly, even the ultra-devoted scribes and Pharisees couldn’t do it perfectly. But Jesus offers another way…by living as the salt of the earth and shining like a city on a hill. But loving God and in turn loving others. This is the legacy upon which the Jewish faith was built and the legacy upon which our faith is built as those being transformed by the Holy Spirit into the likeness of Jesus.

May we be the salt of the earth and may we shine like a city on a hill as we seek to show the gracious and merciful love of God to our families, our communities, and our world! May we live in the legacy that Jesus passed down to us. And may others see and give glory to God. Amen!