Matthew 5:20-26
For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the
scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Anger
11 no one
understands;
no one seeks for God.
12 All
have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no
one does good,
not even one.”
21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You
shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to
judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is
angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever
insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever
says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of
fire. 23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar
and there remember that your brother has something against
you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go.
First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your
gift. 25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you
are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the
judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in
prison. 26 Truly, I say to you, you will never get out
until you have paid the last penny
___
Well, does your righteousness exceed
the scribes and the Pharisees?
The Pharisees were, in the eyes of
some, at least, exceedingly righteous:
Josephus said several times that the
Pharisees were "experts in the interpretation of the Law"
The Talmud claims the Torah contains
613 laws, 365 negative commands and 248 positive laws. And the
Pharisees, no doubt, sought to keep them all.
The tithing of herbs - mint and dill and cumin,
The wearing of phylacteries and tassels,
The careful observance of ritual purity – no touching dead
bodies, no going into the house of a gentile like Pilate,
Frequent fasting,
Distinctions in oaths,
And, of course, rigorous observation of the Sabbath Day.
And not only did they seek to follow all these laws themselves,
they taught the law. They were the authorities on the law. If “you
have heard it said”, there's a good chance it's because the
Pharisees taught it. They were the Law of Moses cheerleaders par
excellence.
Unless you can do better than that – unless you can hurdle that
high bar of law-following, you will never enter the kingdom of
heaven. Unless your righteousness exceeds even the most righteous
you can think of – you're already lost.
And I suppose very few of us could go toe-to-toe with the
righteousness of the Pharisees and come out looking very good.
Tithing? Fasting? Ritual purity?
To an outward observer, an unbiased judge, we'd probably lose the
righteousness contest every time.
But Jesus is being a bit facetious here. For he knows well that
the righteousness of the Pharisees is a sham. They are hypocrites.
Their righteousness is thin and flimsy, and it only hides the rot
that lies within. Jesus' words of woe for the Pharisees and their
so-called righteousness are recorded later in Matthew's Gospel.
Here's just a taste of it:
Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his
disciples, 2 “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses'
seat, 3 so do and observe whatever they tell you, but
not the works they do.For they preach, but do not practice. 4 They
tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's
shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with
their finger. 5 They do all their deeds to be seen by
others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their
fringes long, 6 and they love the place of honor at
feasts and the best seats in the synagogues 7 and greetings
in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by
others....
13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For
you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to
go in.15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you
travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when
he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child
of hell as yourselves.
You know we're so used to seeing the
Pharisees as the bad guys – the opponents of Jesus – the
self-important, smug, know-it-all hypocrites. We love looking on
from the sidelines and watching Jesus beat them in verbal sparring
matches, and we love to watch them fall flat when they try to trip
him up and trap him in his words. Go Jesus! Smack those villains.
Child of hell, yeah, get 'em! Woe to them, right on!
Woe to them! And woe to you, too, who
aren't even as righteous as they are. If your righteousness needs to
exceed theirs, and that's what he says about THEM. Then where does
that leave you?
Our text shows one example of how
horribly impossible it is for us to keep the law. The 5th
Commandment, you shall not murder. Pretty straightforward. What
percentage of people do you think suppose they've kept this? Most of
us have never taken a human life. But don't imagine that makes you
righteous. For Jesus shows the true law behind the law. The inward
law, if you will, that covers not just the deed but also the word and
thought. Harsh words. Insults. Ridicule of your brother. Even
anger in your heart – all of these are grounds for judgment. All
of these mean you are not righteous. All of this means you are, and
ever will be, outside of the kingdom. All of this means you, too,
are liable to judgment.
St. Paul, who knew a thing or two about
the righteousness of Pharisees, has this to say (Romans 6):
What then? Are we Jews any better
off?No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews
and Greeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written:
“None is
righteous, no, not one;
But there is one whose righteousness
exceeds the Pharisees. There is only one, in fact, who was ever
righteous on his own merits. There is one who never inherited sin
from his Father. There is one kept every dot and dash of the law.
And that one, of course, is Jesus, the Christ.
He was like us in every way, yet
without sin. He was humble and gentle. He returned no man evil for
evil. He turned the other cheek. He kept no wealth for himself, but
had no place to lay his head. He always put others before himself.
He had compassion on so many. He always spoke the truth, and spoke
it with love. He was not hot-tempered, or rude, or impatient or
unkind. He fulfilled the law. He fulfilled all righteousness. He
did all things well.
He did get angry, but justly, unlike so
much of our anger. Zeal for the Father's house consumed him. His
righteous anger that drove the moneychangers from the temple was but
a hint of the righteous anger of the eternal judge who will one day
cast all the wicked far away from his eternal presence. But that's a
far different kind of anger from you and I, who are indignantly
offended when some other sinner wrongs us or disregards us with some
minor slight, real or imagined.
But Jesus' righteousness is a perfect
righteousness. He submitted to his Father in all things – actively
fulfilling the law on our behalf. And passively becoming obedient,
even unto death, even death on a cross.
For us. For you. So that his
righteousness is yours. So that his law-fulfilling benefits you. So
that when God sees you, he sees you through Christ – and says,
well done, good and faithful servant. His righteous anger at you and
your sin is turned aside – for it was already poured out on Christ.
He is arrested and imprisoned. He
stands before the judge in your stead. He answers the accuser for
you. And he pays the sentence, covers the debt. His blood pays
every last penny you owe for your sin.
So, does your righteousness exceed that
of the scribes and Pharisees? No. And theirs was nothing to crow
about anyway. But your righteousness isn't what counts. You have
Christ's righteousness, and that makes all the difference. In
Christ, you are righteous. In Christ, the kingdom of heaven is
yours. Believe it for Jesus' sake. Amen.
