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 

 

We are currently reading through the Sermon on the Mount, found in Matthew chapters 5 - 7.  In yesterday's reading, 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, first of all, performing God's will in all its fullness (Matthew 3:15).  Moreover, He transgresses none of the precepts of the Law (John 8:46; 14:30).  He also declares the perfect fulfillment of the Law, which He is about to deliver to the disciples in this sermon.  Finally, Jesus grants righteousness -- which is the goal of the Law -- to us (Romans 3:31, 8:3-4, 10:4).  He fulfills the Prophets by both being and carrying out what they have foretold.  

 

"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."  Assuredly is a translation for the word "amen."  Coming from Hebrew, rendered in the Greek αμην/amin.  My study Bible says that this word means "truly," or "confirmed," or "so be it."  Here it's used by Jesus as a solemn affirmation, which is a form of an oath.  Jesus' use of this word at the beginning of certain proclamations (rather than at the end, as in our prayers) is unique and authoritative:  He is declaring His words affirmed before they are even spoken.  A jot (ιοτα/iota in Greek) is the smallest letter in the Greek alphabet (it corresponds to the English "i"); a tittle is the smallest stroke in certain Hebrew letters.  So therefore, the whole of the Law is affirmed as the foundation of Christ's new teaching.  All is fulfilled is a reference to Christ's Passion and Resurrection.  

 

"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 that righteousness according to the Law is a unified whole.  So, therefore, 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.  

 

In today's reading, Jesus declares that His disciples will not be able to enter heaven unless their righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees.  According to St. Hilary of Poitiers,  Jesus therefore "bypasses what is laid down in the law, not for the sake of abolishing it, but for the sake of fulfilling it."   Jesus emphasizes here that He comes into the world within a fairly strict tradition, within the lineage of the inheritance of the Hebrew Scriptures and Mosaic Law, and in fulfillment of all that is predicted in the prophets.  According to my study Bible, He is alluding to the fulfillment that will only be completed through His Passion and Resurrection.  There are many places in the New Testament where we read of Christ's fulfillment of prophesy, such as when He cleansed the temple.  In St. John's Gospel, we're told that the disciples came to understand this as fulfillment of the psalmist's words, "Zeal for your house has eaten me up" (see John 2:13-17; Psalm 69:9).  He fulfills the Law through His righteousness, as when He was baptized by John the Baptist, and John wanted to refuse Him, because clearly He needed no baptism of repentance.  But Jesus told the Baptist, "Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness."   Whereupon completion of His baptism, the revelation and manifestation of the Holy Trinity occurred (see Matthew 3:14-16).   It's important for us to remember that in the completion of Christ's mission of the Incarnation, His Passion, death, and Resurrection, this sacrifice is what makes possible the setting right of all things in this world.  Through the Incarnation, Christ defeated death for all of us, and enables us to emerge from the effects of a sinful world into a life of hope, of reconciliation with the Lord, and to enter and participate in His life that He offers to us.  It is in all of this that we understand Christ as the fulfillment of all the aims of the Law, and all the foresight of the Prophets who awaited such a One as Christ.  He is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).  He became the suffering Servant and Man of sorrows, humiliated and abused for love of us, even becoming the lamb led to the slaughter (Isaiah 53).  In these and so many ways, He is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets.  But there is more to the story here, as we are asked, as His disciples, to exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.  He calls upon us to be like Him, to fulfill the commands that He gives us, and to find His way for us.  For He has gone before to show us the way, and invite us to participate in His life and mission as we can, and enter into the labors of those who came before, and who will come after (John 4:38).

 

 

 

 

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 yesterday's reading from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught that believers are like Salt and Light.  He said,  "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 tells us that Christ fulfills the Law in Himself, in His words, and in His actions in the following ways:  He performs God's will in all its fullness (Matthew 3:15).  He transgresses none of the precepts of the Law (John 8:46; 14:30).  He declares the perfect fulfillment of the Law, which He is about to deliver to those who listen.  He grants righteousness, which is the goal of the Law, to us (Romans 3:31; 8:3-4; 10:4).  He fulfills the Prophets by both being and carrying out what they foretold.  

 

"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."   Assuredly is a translation of Αμὴν/Amen from the Greek.  It means "truly," or "confirmed," or "so be it," according to my study Bible.  Here, Christ uses it as a solemn affirmation, which is a form of oath.  His use of this word at the beginning of certain proclamations -- as opposed to at the end -- is unique and authoritative, my study Bible says.  Jesus declares His words affirmed before they are even spoken.  A jot (ἰῶτα/iota in the Greek) is the smallest letter in the Greek alphabet, while a tittle is the smallest stroke in certain Hebrew letters.  So, therefore, the whole of the Law is affirmed as the foundation of Christ's new teaching.  My study Bible says that all is fulfilled 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 explains that righteousness according to the Law is a unified whole.  It says that the observance of all the least commandments is to observe the whole Law, while the violation of the least commandment is considered to be 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."  Righteousness that leads to salvation must exceed that of the Pharisees, my study Bible explains, because their righteousness was outward and works-based.  The righteousness of salvation is the communion of the heart, soul, mind, and body in Jesus Christ.  This righteousness starts with God, but is accepted by human beings in faith.  We live that faith as Christ lives in us and we in Him (Galatians 2:20).  This is an ongoing communion, my study Bible says, in an ongoing, dynamic, and growing life with Christ.

 

 What is this communion with God that exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees?  According to my study Bible, Christ is asking here for something more; He's saying that He is the true fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets, and He repeatedly reiterates the power and authority of the Law, that all of it will be fulfilled.  But in this understanding of who He is, we find Him inviting us into communion with Him, so that we also may fulfill this understanding of righteousness.  Once again, we must revisit the notion of repentance in the Christian sense.  The Greek word for repentance means change of mind.  In common parlance to repent means to address a particular sin, to turn away from it.  But in the true sense of this word in the Gospels and in the tradition of the Church, there is a sense in which repentance is a consistent ongoing process, and it means that we change in relation to our turning to God, to Christ.  In communion then, the objective in this understanding of righteousness is not necessarily that we are looking back on a particular sin and rejecting it, but rather that we seek the kind of fulfillment Christ speaks about here.  We are growing toward something, and this is the ongoing "repentance" process of communion with Christ.  We grow to be more like Him, the One of true righteousness, through a depth of relationship with Him, the proper communion we seek.  This is the key to entering the kingdom of heaven, and its real root is love.  Jesus will teach that the two greatest commandments, summing up all the Law and the Prophets, are as follows:  He said, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.'  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets" (Matthew 22:37-40).  In the tradition of orthodox theology, the word that describes our love for God might sound strange to us, who live in a secular culture in which words have changed meaning over time.  But this Greek word ερως/eros is also used to define a deep love and desire for God, and in this sense of loving God "with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind," describes a devotion and passion for God that the commandment indicates.  In this sense, we desire a union with God in the totality of who we are.  When Christ speaks, therefore, of fulfilling the Law and Prophets, we should consider what it means to seek a life pursuing this kind of union with Christ, and the αγαπη/agape (often translated as "charity") love of neighbor that this will lead us toward.  When Jesus speaks of righteousness, it is with a sense of teaching to us this deep-rooted start in love, for God is love -- and from God's seeking us in love, and our responding with love to God, we find the righteousness about which Christ teaches here, that which exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees. 

 

 

 

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 yesterday's reading, 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 explains that Jesus fulfills the Law in Himself, in His words, and in His actions by:   performing God's will in all its fullness (Matthew 3:15); transgressing none of the precepts of the Law (John 8:46, 14:30); declaring the perfect fulfillment of the Law, which He was about to deliver to them in this Sermon on the Mount; and granting righteousness -- which is the goal of the Law -- to us (Romans 3:31, 8:3-4, 10:4).  He fulfills the Prophets by both being and carrying out what they foretold.

"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."  Assuredly is "amen" in Greek (ἀμὴν).  It means "truly," or "confirmed," or "so be it."  Jesus uses it here, as elsewhere, as a solemn affirmation, a form of oath.  My study Bible notes that Christ's use of this word at the beginning of certain proclamations -- rather than at the end -- is unique and authoritative.  He is declaring His words affirmed before they are even spoken.  A jot (Greek ἰῶτα/iota) is the smallest letter in the Greek alphabet, while a tittle is the smallest stroke for certain Hebrew letters.  Therefore, it is the whole of the Law that is affirmed as the foundation of Christ's new teaching.  All is fulfilled, my study Bible says, 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."  Righteousness according to the Law is a unified whole, my study Bible says.  The observance of all the least commandments is to observe the whole Law, while at the same time 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 that leads to salvation must exceed that of the Pharisees because theirs was an outward, works-based righteousness.  The righteousness of salvation, it says, is the communion of the heart, soul, mind, and body in Jesus Christ. 

 

 What is the righteousness that exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees?  How does Christ fulfill the Law and the Prophets, and that, in turn, is passed to us?  My study Bible cites St. Paul, writing in Romans 1:16-17:  "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.  For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, 'The just shall live by faith' [Habakkuk 2:4]."  What all of this implies is what my study Bible repeatedly notes, and that is the indication that our faith is a personal one, for in Christ all of this is fulfilled -- and it is our participation in His life that lends righteousness.  That is, a kind of personal depth that mirrors the "knowing" that comes with a deepening communion and relationship to another person.  Only this participation and communion occurs on levels more intimate than we know, since it involves a wholeness of body, soul, and spirit -- and our Creator knows us more deeply than we know ourselves.  Indeed, it is He who awaits our response to His call to this depth:  "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me" (Revelation 3:20).  Of course, this is fully expressed in many ways in the traditions of the Church, but nowhere more iconically so in the Eucharist, in which we are encouraged to eat Christ's body and blood (see especially John 6:53-58, in which Jesus declares that "unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you."  What this means is that the Incarnation itself, Christ the Son who lives as righteous human being, is what we feed upon and grow within in order to find and grow in the righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees.  This indicates a deep, mystical relationship, one that penetrates within us and engulfs all that we are.  It is meant to be a journey, a lifetime process of salvation, in which the righteousness of Christ becomes something personal for us in relationship to Him, in which we commune and participate through our own struggles in life, and in our seeking of Him in our hearts.  Strangely, we may come to find that in so doing, we are also in communion with the "great cloud of witnesses" St. Paul describes in Hebrews 12:1.  And in this cloud of witnesses, we also find help, support, resources, and a kind of mystical communion that makes our faith a living righteousness, an organic and growing participation in something far greater than ourselves, and with so much to offer us as we grow within it.  The personal nature of this righteousness makes it dynamic and growing, more than a set of rules, and a deepening sense of its importance, impact, and depth within us.  It will call into question our assumptions and perspective, and transform who we are with growth -- bearing fruits of the spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), those fruits "worthy of repentance" to which John the Baptist called his followers in preparation for the Christ (Matthew 3:8).  We live in a modern world which would seek to deny such perception and communion within us exists, parts of ourselves we might have lost touch with, but the whole world seeks this wisdom and perception which we so deeply need.  Let us hunger and thirst for His righteousness, for we shall be fulfilled (Matthew 5:6).  Jesus says in today's reading, "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."  Our communion is meant to be all in all, something that encompasses our lives and transfigures them, like leaven in a mixture of dough, a parable Jesus will preach in Matthew 13:33.  It is only through the personal that this is possible, a deepening growth and participation "in Him in which we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).