Commentary on the Gospel of
Transcending the Law
The Law and the Prophets are two central pillars of faith in the Hebrew Bible. Jesus came not to displace either of them but to reconcile and absorb both into himself, and thereby completing them. This is evident from the scene of the Transfiguration where Jesus is seen with Moses (for the Law) and Elijah (for the Prophets). It is the temptation of the binary human thinking to see them as ‘either-or’ instead of ‘both-and.’ Let us look at it this way: No great musicians are born great; they begin by learning the laws of music, one by one. And once they have truly mastered them, they transcend them and compose new forms of music. This transcendence is no negation; but such a perfect absorption of the laws that they are able to transform them from inside out to create loftier music. And in their doing so, the law has served its purpose! Isn’t it the same dynamics we find in the life of Jesus or of our many mystics?
