Heart righteousness

Matthew 5 : 17 - 20

"I have not come to abolish the Law and the prophets but to fulfil them...whoever practises and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees....you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven"

I marvel at the way those gifted in sports, music and art become one with their specific talent. When they play music, run or perform in athletics, or begin to create a work of art, it seems as if they are wholly one with what they do. There is no sense of awkwardness, nor do they have to stop to figure out the next move. Of course the creativity we witness has been developed through years of often very disciplined practice. Yet, what we marvel at is the sense of freedom that emerges from discipline.

Jesus' ethical system, while it fulfills the Old Testament teachings, is qualitatively different from what the scribes and Pharisees proclaimed as their understanding of God's requirements. The Pharisees had made the quantitative aspect their specialty. They meticulously kept up an outward form of religion and yet often failed to attend to "the more important matters of the law - justice, mercy, faithfulness" (Matt. 23: 23). These matters are matters of the heart while the Pharisees' rule keeping was merely external conformity. It is easier to teach a person to obey rules than to help him or her understand the deeper purposes and meaning behind the rules. When I look at our young people in church today (and my children are at that age too), I wonder how many who have been through years of Sunday school, who come from Christian homes, really understand the spirit of the Law. They have been given the dos and dont's and these they can tell you very well. But I wonder whether these rules have taken root in their hearts. As they go out into the world, there will be pressures of all kinds to conform to the standards of the surrounding culture. And some will give in to those pressures. What about those who do manage to keep the 'rules'? Do they really understand the "more important matters of the law"? We could end up with two kinds of Christians - those who end up immersed in the world and those who have kept the rules and yet developed a legalistic attitude towards others.

The only remedy according to Jesus is to turn our attention to "heart-righteousness", to being more interested in the spirit of the Law than to being scrupulous in its keeping. This takes practice and discipline. It is not enough to merely know the rules. No artist or musician or athlete keeps referring to the rule book after they have trained well. The rules have become a part of their lives. Jesus wants us to treasure the rules in our hearts before we practice them or teach them to others. For Jesus, rule keeping has to go hand in hand with a deep and honest relationship with God, one that flows out to others in mercy.