But what does it mean to fulfill? Jesus makes it clear with a series of examples that follow. Each example begins, “You have heard that it was said,” which introduces what the Law and Prophets and Jewish tradition have taught. Then Jesus says, “But I say to you,” and what follows is an invitation not to lower standards but to raise them, deepen them, fulfill them—to take them above the level of the religious scholars and Pharisees, from the level of external conformity to internal change of mind and heart:
