Primacy matters

What the Bible’s Story does is this: it takes us from Moses to Christ and says, “Now, follow Jesus.” It doesn’t place Christ as an equal alongside Moses or Elijah, which was Peter’s temptation in Matthew 17. No, it says, “Listen to him!” Jesus is the one to whom we listen, and that means the lex talons at work in the Torah and which prompted Israel’s wars has been set into a new cruciform reality. The wars of Israel say nothing to the follower of Jesus about how to deal with enemies. Again, “Listen to him” are the words of the Father to Peter and to us.— Sermon on the Mount, page 133