A New Righteousness Part I

Title: A New Righteousness Part I

Text: Matthew 5:21-26

Thesis: Jesus redefines the new righteousness by redefining sin itself: beyond the concrete act, sin begins with the intention of the heart. (Michael Card, Matthew – The Gospel of Identity, P. 57)

Introduction

This week I read a story about a boy who was sitting on the curb beside his lawn mower. As he sat there his pastor came by riding a bicycle. The pastor noticed the dejected look on the boy’s face and stopped to see if he could help… and after chatting a bit the pastor offered to trade his bicycle for the lawn mower. They made the trade and each went his way.

A few days later their paths crossed again and the pastor said, “I think you got the better deal. No matter how much I crank on that mower you swapped me, it just won’t start.”

“Oh,” said the boy, “It’ll start if you cuss it.”

“Well,” the pastor responded, “You know I can’t very well do that. I’m a pastor and I stopped cussing a long time ago.”

The boy answered, “Just keep on crankin’, it’ll come back to you.”

You’ve probably said or heard it said, “That’s enough to make a preacher cuss.” My suspicion is that most everyone, including pastors, have become angry enough to be on the verge of cussing over something.

As we continue our reflection on the Sermon on the Mount I would like for us to see the key to the pattern of teaching that will unfold in our text. In Matthew 5: 20 Jesus makes an astounding statement that had to have rattled the cages of his listener’s perceptions of what it means to live a good life.

Jesus said, “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses or exceeds that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:20

Jesus’ comment was sweeping in its implications. The Pharisees and teachers of the law were perceived to be people who most closely adhered to every jot and tittle of the law. If anyone was to have lived so as to earn the right to go to heaven, it was the Pharisees and teachers of the law. They kept the rules. They were meticulous in their attempts to fully define the law. So much so, that they took the 10 Commandments and carefully parsed each commandment so that everyone would know what they had to do, or not do, in order to have kept the law. In addition to the 10 Commandments the Hebrew tradition has what they call the 613 Commandments which include three categories: The Self-evident Commandments; The (Positive) Performance Commandments; and The (Negative) Abstinence Commandments. The law was sacred to the Jewish people.

In our text we see how Jesus quotes the law, then contradicts it and then substitutes his own teaching in place of it. Essentially, it would seem that Jesus literally had the audacity to point out the inadequacies of their sacred law.

Having made that bold and sweeping statement, Jesus went on to explain what he meant in Matthew 5:21-48. Jesus makes his point through a series of six illustrations, all of which follow a distinct pattern.

Statement: Each begins with the statement, “you have heard that our ancestors were told…” In saying this he is directly referencing the official teaching of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law.

Contradiction: He then says, “But I tell you…” In saying “But I tell you…” Jesus is making a contradictory statement. Jesus is taking exception to what the Pharisees and teachers of the law believed fulfilled the requirements of the law.

Explanation: He then explained what he meant.

In all of this Jesus simply distinguishes between keeping the “letter” of the law and keeping the “spirit” of the law. Jesus is saying that you can keep the letter of the law and yet still have broken the spirit of the law. Jesus was saying that just because outwardly you manage to keep the law, inwardly you may have sinned and broken the law. In this series of examples Jesus is teaching his followers that their exterior and interior lives must be consistent if they are to be truly righteous people.

William Barclay states it very succinctly, “God alone can judge men. We see only a man’s outward actions; God also sees the secret of his heart. There will be many a man, whose outward actions are a model of rectitude, whose inward thoughts stand condemned before God.” (William Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew, Westminster Press, p. 137)

Jesus taught that we honor God and respect people not just through our actions, but with our thoughts and motives as well.

Let’s begin with his first example of how a person can outwardly be justified but condemned by his inward thoughts.