Surpassing

Read Matthew 5:13-48.

"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 5:20)

When you think of someone who is "righteous" or "holy," who comes to mind? No, please, don't everyone say my name at once! (Ha! That's a joke, in case you don't know me very well.) Maybe you think of "big names" like Billy Graham or Mother Teresa. Perhaps you think of someone who taught you the faith. One of the godliest women I have ever known was my high school Sunday School teacher, Esther Beard. She loved people like Jesus loves them. Who comes to mind when you hear the word "righteous"?

For people in Jesus' day, they would likely have thought of the Pharisees—perhaps a local Pharisee that they knew. Or a rabbi or teacher who subscribed to the Pharisees' idea of what made God happy. The Pharisees were not clergy; they were laypeople who saw it as their responsibility to protect the law of God. In terms of theology, the Pharisees and Jesus were probably not all that far apart. So why then does he argue with them so much?

It's because the Pharisees had developed a whole code of their own laws meant to protect the actual law. They had built a "fence" around God's Law so that, if by some happenstance, you broke through the fence, at least you hadn't actually broken God's Law. For instance, God's Law said to honor the Sabbath by doing no work. So the Pharisees had all these rules about what made up "work" in order to protect God's Law about the Sabbath. If you accidentally did one of the things they said not to do—well, at least you had ONLY broken their law.

Jesus argues with the Pharisees because they've completely missed the spirit and point of God's original law. While Jesus says he hasn't come to get rid of God's Law, he has come to help the people understand the original intent. It was never about the Law—the Law itself was never the point. The reason for the Law was to shape people's hearts and lives, to make them into folks who were deeply in love with God, not people who were merely afraid of breaking a rule.

So when Jesus says the person acceptable to God is one who has "surpassing righteousness" compared to the Pharisees, he's not saying you have to obey more rules. He's saying you're meant to fall in love with God, to live in love with God. And then he spends much time in this sermon showing how the legal requirements of the law aren't the point; every single thing is a matter of the heart. Adultery begins in the heart, murder begins in the heart, promises are a matter of the heart...and so on. Surpassing righteousness is a matter of the heart long before it becomes a matter of action.

Holiness begins in the heart, not in the action. If our hearts are set on loving God, then our actions will follow. And then we will have the surpassing righteousness Jesus calls us to have.