Righter than Right

Today was one of those days when I felt like my teaching could be summed up like this: good content but poor execution.

Our text was Matthew 5:17-20, which ends with Jesus' statement: For I tell you that unless your righteousess surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

The writer of Matthew carefully portrays Christ in parallel with Moses. At Moses' birth Pharaoh had the Hebrew baby boys killed. At Jesus' birth Herod ordered the infanticide of the baby boys of Bethlehem. Moses received the law on Mt. Sinai, while Jesus interpreted the law in the Sermon on the Mount (even though Luke assembles many of the same teachings in a sermon on the plain.

Jesus explained that it was not his intention to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. The law could mean the ten commandments, the books of Moses (Genesis-Deuteronomy), or the Law and the Prophets (basically the Old Testament), but the word's most common usage was in reference to the oral or scribal law. The scribes dedicated their lives to interpreting the law, detailing it to apply to any and every life situation. By the third century A.D., the scribal law filled an 800-page book. Whereas the scribes (the teachers of the law) dedicated their whole lives to the law's interpretation, the Pharisees dedicated their lives to living out the oral/scribal law. It was in this context that Jesus charged us saying our rightousness must surpass the teachers of the law and the Pharisees. How is that even possible? I for one, don't have time to dedicate my life to either explaining or living the scribal law and I'm a pastor! How could Jesus reasonably make that kind of demand?

Jesus summed up this higher righteousness when a scribe approached him as he was teaching. Read about it in Mark 12:28-31. The scribe asked Jesus about the most important commandment. In other words, he was asking, Teacher, you're familiar with the scribal law. What's the most important commandment? Jesus answered: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength (Deuteronomy 6:4-5). Then Jesus coupled those verses called the Shema (Shema = hear) with Leviticus 19:18 - Love your neighbor as yourself.

The Mishnah (or scribal law in book form), and its later commentary (the Talmud - basically the size of the Encyclopedia Brittannica!) covered every life situation imaginable. If someone had a question about the lawful thing to do in any given circumstance, a scribe could point to chapter and verse to provide an answer. Jesus, however, freed us from the burden of the scribal law. If that's the case, how can we even attempt to live more righteously than the scribes and Pharisees?

When in doubt, don't ask, Where's the rule that covers this situation? Ask instead, Is this the best way I can show love for God? And is this the best way I can show love for people? If you can answer, Yes, to both of those questions, that's the way to make sure your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and the Pharisees. Then you'll be righter than right.