17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19 Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.REFLECTIONSWritten by William Huynh“How amazing is this new teaching!”This is what I imagine Israelites were saying to one another as news about Jesus started spreading from town to town. And it is no surprise that what Jesus was teaching was amazing. He was teaching about the Kingdom of heaven and revealing such amazing insights to the people. However, what he was teaching them was not necessarily a new teaching to replace the old Jewish teachings. In fact, Jesus helps us understand that he has come to fulfil those teachings of the Law and the Prophets in verse 17 which is essentially our Old Testament!Isn’t that strange? I think at times as I read the Old Testament, I tend to think to myself “What am I meant to learn from this weird event? What am I meant to learn in a genealogy?”. But Jesus says this word is so important that not even a letter should disappear from it (v18).  More than that, there are serious consequences if you were to ignore it and were to teach others to do the same. I think what a challenge it is for us! Praise God for Jesus because in Jesus we see the fulfilment of Old Testament scriptures. We can see how weird events and even long boring genealogies actually show us God’s incredible faithfulness to his promise so that in Jesus, even common people and fishermen are able to have a righteousness that surpasses the religious leaders of the law. Let us hold firmly to God’s word, continuing to think hard about how ALL of the words of the bible are important and helps to point us to Jesus.ABOUT THE AUTHORWilliam is part of our Fairfield Evening Church.