After the start of the Sermon on the Mount, after the promise of heaven, the description of heaven, the "rejoice in being persecuted", and the fact that if you do these things you will stand out like a candle in a dark room, the disciples are trying to reconcile this with the law of Moses. Are you telling us that the Law of Moses, which up to now we have tried to base our entire lives on, is wrong? Because that's not how it's been interpreted to us.

I bet some people left following Jesus because the law of Moses as taught to them, didn't stress forgiving your enemies as much as it stressed being a stick in the mud, pure as the driven snow and holier than the people around them.

Jesus told them, I'm not here to destroy the law or the prophets you already have. I'm here to fulfill the law; this is what the law is supposed to lead you to. Those Pharisees who set themselves up as examples, you need to do better than them, or you won't reach heaven.

"Tokyo Godfathers", an animated film, starts with three homeless people who find an abandoned newborn baby. They decide to find the baby's parents. This is the emotional climate where Jesus was teaching his sermon. These people have had everything go to heck and they are clinging to each other. The people they meet along the way all have problems, intractable problems that no bandage could fix. The three do good things, with mixed results. Their past choices come back to bite them. The baby nearly dies but is saved. Their problems do not go away, but they have the opportunity to grow new perspective.

I can hear the Savior at the end: "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more."