For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven

 

 "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets.  I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.  For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.  Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.  For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven."

 

- Matthew 5:17-20 

 

In our present readings, we are going through the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5 - 7).  Yesterday we read that Jesus taught, "Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake.  Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?  It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.  You are the light of the world.  A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.  Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.  Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."

 

"Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets.  I did not come to destroy but to fulfill."  My study Bible comments that Jesus fulfills the Law in Himself, in His words, and in His actions by doing several things.  First, He performs God's will in all its fullness (Matthew 3:15).  Second, He transgresses none of the precepts of the Law (John 8:46, 14:30).  Moreover, He declares the perfect fulfillment of the Law, which He is about to deliver to the people as He preaches this Sermon on the Mount.  And finally, He grants righteousness, which is the goal the Law -- to us (Romans 3:31, 8:3-4, 10:4).  Jesus fulfills the Prophets by both being and carrying out what they foretold; a living fulfillment of faithfulness and righteousness.

 

"For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled."  In the Greek text, Christ's word translated here as assuredly is "amen."  It means "truly," or "confirmed," or "so be it," in the definition of my study Bible.  Here (and elsewhere) Christ uses it as a solemn affirmation; it's a form of oath.  My study Bible describes Christ's use of this word at the beginning of certain proclamations (rather than at the end) is unique and authoritative.  He declares His words affirmed before they are even spoken.  A jot (in Greek, iota, what we might read as the equivalent of the letter "i") is the smallest letter in the Greek alphabet.  A tittle is the smallest stroke in some Hebrew letters.  So, therefore, the whole of the Law is affirmed here as the foundation of Christ's new teaching, out of which will be a renewed, new covenant.  All is fulfilled, my study Bible tells us, refers to the Passion and Resurrection of Christ.

 

"Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven."   My study Bible comments here that righteousness according to the Law is a unified whole.  It is not meant to be taken piecemeal.  It explains that the observance of all the least commandments is to observe the whole Law, while the violation of the least commandment is considered a violation of the whole Law.  

"For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven."   My study Bible explains that righteousness which leads to salvation must exceed that of the Pharisees because theirs was  an outward, works-based righteousness.  But the righteousness of salvation is the communion of heart, soul, mind and body in Jesus Christ. 

As a Jew, Jesus is a faithful Jew.  He has not come to dismantle or to destroy, but rather to fulfill the aims of the whole Law.  The Law (Torah or Pentateuch, meaning the first five books of the Old Testament) is given as a way to gather community, to create and sustain the community of the people of God.  It is meant to give a code of righteousness, a way to build and create right-relatedness with God as the center of the community.  This is why we must have a sense of what the is as a whole concept.  Like other ancient civilizations, this sense of law or code gave definition to a people, and conferred identity and belonging.  This is why it is taken as a whole; where the observance of the least remains an observance of the Law as a whole concept; and a violation remains a violation of a whole in this sense of what is necessary for community.  The system of sacrifices (meaning communal meals) and offerings and the various teachings in the Law are meant for reconciliation and righteousness within the community, and the sustaining of that identity of a people.  For the ancient Athenians, for example, the word that may translated into "law" in this sense is "nomos" in Greek, and it functioned as well to define people as Athenians.  For this reason, at the time of Christ, there were Jews who became Hellenes (as Athenians) and Greeks who became Jews (John 12:20).  So the sense of being one people was much more a focus on this type of code or set of laws that defined the people, rather than the concepts of race we're familiar with.  This is why, in the early Church, this would become an important issue when Gentiles began becoming Christians.  There were those who believed they should first become Jews, whereas St. Paul advocated that this full observance of the Law should not be necessary for those who were not Jews to begin with.  Eventually the very first Council of the Church decided these new Gentile members of the Church should observe these important mainstays of Torah: "they should keep themselves from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality" (Acts 21:25).  As for the identity of those who came from pagan societies such as Athens and Rome, this would have to be forged in the light of Christ.  In other words, they retained their identity, but transfigured in the teachings of Christ and through the work of the Holy Spirit.  This is how, for example, we have theology:  those whom we call Church Fathers were fully educated in the classical culture of their time, which included encyclopedic knowledge of science and philosophy.  The applications of Greek philosophy but which served instead Christ the Lord is how we have theology.  In this sense, whatever was good and true and beautiful could serve the Person who was Truth.  In this way, we have a "renewed" covenant, not disparaging or doing away with the old (and our Bibles retain the Hebrew Scriptures), but rather teaching us righteousness and giving us identity as those who also may become "sons [and therefore heirs] of God."  In this understanding, Jesus teaches a righteousness which exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.   As He is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets, leaving nothing out, so He may become our means of salvation, our center around which we build right worship and right community, leaving nothing out of the salvation plan of God for the world.  In this context it is most important that we see the Eucharist as essential to worship, for through it we participate in His cup and His sacrifice for all of us and for all time.  St. Paul writes, "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me" (Galatians 2:20).  We are properly to understand it as communion, and communion with God in faith is the foundation of all righteousness.  This is what Jesus will proceed to teach us as He preaches the Sermon on the Mount.