Today's Gospel reading shows that Jesus was looking for more than a codified religion. He is looking for people to change their hearts. So many people in His time (and in ours) hide behind laws and practices; they stick to the letter of the law so they can find loopholes that allow them to live how they want to live. Jesus makes it clear that there are no loopholes--that the spirit of His teachings are more important than the letters used to describe them.
As out pastor pointed out, if laws led to salvation, all we would need is enough laws and we would have a perfect society. However, we know that this is untrue. While we should work to ensure that the laws of our temporal world are as fair, just, and merciful as we can make them, we are still flawed creatures--both as makers of our laws and followers of them. We must work to change ourselves, to better our world as we live in it, and to spread love and forgiveness with or without the laws to support us.