Jesus was not just another rabbi among thousands. He was unique in so many ways, And here in Matthew’s gospel he reveals his ability to cut through the fog of legalism to give the essence of all law by boiling everything down to its most basic parts. He was able to take the Decalogue (10 commandments) and condense them to two simple rules. Love God and love others. If we are able to obey these simple admonitions we will wind up keeping the whole law.
This isn’t such a foreign concept when we understand that as a child grows into maturity he will be able to take all the myriad “no-no’s” handed down by loving parents and translate it all into basic common sense. He will be able to translate, “Don’t touch the stove, don’t touch the iron, don’t touch the heater, don’t touch the candle, don’t touch the fireplace. Don’t touch the tail-pipe of the car. Don’t touch the match.” Into a basic overarching principle. Don’t handle hot stuff!