Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
– Matthew 5:19-20
Ask a common person in Jesus’ day who the most righteous people were, and most would tell you it was the Pharisees. Why? Because more diligently than anyone else, the Pharisees followed the Law of Moses. Their entire sect was born out of the pursuit of detailed obedience to the Law. They went to great lengths to accurately interpret the Law; no detail was overlooked. If any group epitomized righteousness, it would be the Pharisees.
This is what makes Jesus’ statement in Matthew 5 so astonishing. One might wonder if it is even possible for a Pharisee’s righteousness to be surpassed. And even if it is possible, what are the odds that a person could attain such righteousness? If a bar was ever set too high, Jesus did it here. After all, Jesus was teaching common folk, not religious professionals. You might think he would be saying things to encourage them, not causing them to be dispirited. I wonder how many people in the crowd heard Jesus’ statement and thought, “Well, I will surely never enter the Kingdom.”
Once you begin to understand Jesus, you discover that it is not his goal to make people feel discouraged. Challenged, yes; discouraged, no. As Jesus’ teaching is recorded here in Matthew’s gospel account, the points that follow will help us understand what Jesus is communicating. What we soon realize is that Jesus was not raising the bar of the Law, but rather deepening the application of the Law. Once we see this, we discover that Jesus was not trying to make people feel hopeless regarding their odds of entering the Kingdom, but rather helping them to understand what truly leads them into the Kingdom.
The problem with the Pharisees was not that their bar of obedience to the Law was set too low. Rather, the problem was that their application of the Law was too shallow. This reality is clearly reflected in Jesus’ criticism of the Pharisees when he likened them to people who clean the outside of a cup but leave the inside filthy with greed and self-indulgence (Matthew 23:25). Jesus described them like “whitewashed tombs” that appear beautiful on the outside, but on the inside are full of death and uncleanness (23:27). The picture is self-explanatory. Jesus was in no way negating the need for outward obedience to the Law. Instead, Jesus was helping us to see that the necessary place of the Law’s application is in the heart. If it is not applied to the heart, nothing else matters much.
The examples Jesus gives in the following verses will offer opportunities to look at specific applications of this foundational idea. The point Jesus makes is that Kingdom righteousness is righteousness of the heart—something the Pharisees were largely lacking. If we hear Jesus’ teaching as a call to shed religiosity, we have missed the point. Jesus had no criticism of the Pharisees for practicing their religion by praying, tithing, worshipping and studying scripture. Jesus applauded those who refrained from outward sins such as adultery, murder and theft. The point Jesus makes is that all these things fall short if the person fails to apply the Law inwardly, to the inclinations of the heart and mind that are known only to God and self.
In the face of such a call to righteousness, let us be reminded of our good news. While Jesus does not allude to it in this passage, it is nevertheless central to the Gospel. The good news for people, whether Pharisees or anyone else, is that the righteousness that gets us into the Kingdom is not our own. It is Christ’s righteousness. We get the credit, but we are not the source. The perfectly obedient life and sacrificial death of Jesus attained the righteousness of God, and by our faith that righteousness is credited to us (Romans 4:1-5). Therefore, let us be thankful for the righteousness of Christ that accomplishes our salvation, and pray for the Holy Spirit to produce heart righteousness within us.
See you along the Winding Path.
The Winding Path 