We Are Not Minimalists Series

Matthew 5:17-48

“We Are Not Minimalists”

There is a group of people in the Bible known as the Pharisees.

If you have been a Christian for a while you would know that Jesus didn’t have a lot of good things to say about the Pharisees.

Which was kind of strange because most Jewish people at the time were very respectful of the Pharisees.

Pharisees were very committed to God and to the Jewish community.

It was the Pharisees who sided with the common people in revolt against the ungodly aristocracy.

The Pharisees were a major force in the widespread establishment of schools and synagogues to bring education to everyone.

Everyone in the community would see the Pharisees as amazing spiritual leaders.

Such being the case the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:17-20 would be quite a shock to the disciples and the crowds that were listening to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.

17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19 Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 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.

We need to surpass the Pharisees?

Those spiritual giants who are so righteous?

How is that even possible?

That would be the response of the crowds, and even the disciples. That is because the Pharisees were known to be experts at following the law of God. All the laws.

The Pharisees followed to the letter all the laws of The Torah … these are the laws written in the first five books of the Bible. Genesis. Exodus. Leviticus. Numbers. Deuteronomy. That is the Torah. The Pharisees worked out that there were 613 laws in the Torah.

This is one of the laws in the Torah – it is the Fourth Commandment.

8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labour and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work.

Exodus 20:8-10

There are other laws in the Torah which describe what you can’t do on the Sabbath. But the Pharisees and teachers of the law didn’t think that was enough. So they added laws and interpretations to the Scriptures. These laws were known as the Mishnah.

As an example, in the Mishnah, there is a section which tells you what “work” is.

The idea was to define “work” so that, on the Sabbath you won’t “work”.

1. Carrying

2. Burning

3. Extinguishing

4. Finishing

5. Writing

6. Erasing

7. Cooking

8. Washing

9. Sewing

10. Tearing

11. Knotting

12. Untying

13. Shaping

14. Ploughing

15. Planting

16. Reaping

17. Harvesting

18. Threshing

19. Winnowing

20. Selecting

21. Sifting

22. Grinding

23. Kneading

24. Combing

25. Spinning

26. Dyeing

27. Chain-stitching

28. Warping

29. Weaving

30. Unraveling

31. Building

32. Demolishing

33. Trapping

34. Shearing

35. Slaughtering

36. Skinning

37. Tanning

38. Smoothing

39. Marking

Mishnah Shabbat 7.2

The Mishnah then goes on to give examples of all these categories of work.

The Pharisees knew all of these laws – Torah and Mishnah – and they lived them down to the letter.

So when Jesus says “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.”

The disciples and the crowds would be looking at one another and thinking – I’ve got no hope.

Except …

There is hope.

There is hope because

… for all their Torah law keeping.

… and all their Mishnah law keeping.

… and all their effort and energy to keep the letter of the law..

Despite all this the Pharisees only had one goal when it came to their relationship with God. Their one goal was to work out the minimum effort it takes to stand with a clean conscious before a Holy God.

The Pharisees were minimalists.

Therefore a “righteousness that surpasses the Pharisees and teachers of the law” is a righteousness that avoids minimalism.

Building our relationship with God on the basis of law keeping, and rules, and rigid conformity, and outward piety … that is the spiritual life of a minimalist.