Surpass

Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven. I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5.17-20)

On this Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, we find ourselves once again in the Sermon on the Mount. It has occupied our attention for the previous two Sundays and it will be with us for a while longer. The crowds listening to Jesus preach were more patient than they are in our times. Today, the church would be empty on the next Sunday if Jesus had preached two hours straight as he does here.

Of course, as we know, scholars generally agree that Matthew collected any number of sayings of Jesus and put them into the Sermon on the Mount, although they probably were scattered here and there as he made his way through Galilee. One sure sign of that fact is that many of these same teachings that we find here in the Sermon on the Mount also appear in both Luke and Mark, but they are not bunched together as they are in Matthew.

This section of the Sermon on the Mount generally goes by the title the “antitheses,” a word that means contrasts or oppositions. It was a well-known structural method of the time that Matthew likely borrowed. So, he presents six different moral issues, each of which has Jesus begin with the words “You have heard that it was said to your ancestors.” 

Jesus then quotes a passage from the Torah that presents the matter. For example, the first is “You shall not kill, and whoever kills will be liable to judgement.” Then he offers the antithesis, which we find in these words, “But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.” This structure follows with the other moral issues, including adultery, divorce, oaths, responding to evil, and loving friends.

Our text for this Sunday provides only the first four of the antitheses. We will see the final two antitheses next Sunday. Rather than put a laser focus on one or several of these issues, I want us to step back to look at the bigger picture. If we get an understanding of what Jesus is doing here, we can apply his point to more than just six moral matters, but to the whole kit and caboodle of moral living.

I believe the surest way to understand these six antitheses can be found in the way Jesus introduces them  and how he finishes them at the end. At the start before he goes into any of the examples, he offers this guiding principle, “I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” 

After the sixth and final antithesis, we hear Jesus say, “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” These two statements, I believe, are bookends that hold tightly together the six examples that Jesus offers in these antitheses. They provide us with the principle by which Jesus presents these six teachings. If we understand it, then we understand in a better way these six instructions and, for that matter, any other moral matter that comes our way.

That principle, as I see it, is the challenge to his followers that their morality must be above and beyond the norm. The norm that Jesus uses, of course, is the Torah or the instructions found in the first five books of the Hebrew scriptures. Jesus is preaching to a Jewish audience and Matthew is writing for a similar Jewish-Christian audience.

So, in both instances, the norm or the standard for the way they live is found in the teachings of Moses, the law giver. It is the guide or the ground rules for anyone who wants to be considered a good and faithful Jew. This is the reason that Jesus begins these matters with the words, “You have heard that it was said.” Of course, they have heard it said because the Torah has been the textbook for all their lives.

But, as Jesus makes clear, that is not enough. Not for those who want to follow in his footsteps. They must “surpass” the Mosaic rules for right living, a word that should be understood as “be in excess of” or “better than.” While it may have been sufficient as the guide for previous generations, Jesus expects future generations–composed of his followers–to go beyond. He expects more from us.

It is important to see that Jesus is not voiding the old law in favor of a new law. He says the opposite when he tells his disciples at the beginning of this section, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” So, in his mind, he is taking the law as the foundation and asking his followers to go even further.

Or, another way of saying the same thing, he is challenging them to delve deeper as he does when he accepts the law that no one should kill, but also insists that no one should be angry with his brother because, as Jesus understands, it is actually anger that leads to murder. Rather than stay on the surface of things, he instructs his disciples to go deeper into the heart of the matter, that is the darkness in the human heart.

So when he uses the word surpass or exceed, he is telling his followers that he expects them to move from the kiddie pool to the deep end of the pool. While the kiddie pool serves its purpose, providing a well defined space that ensures safety, his followers need to jump into the deep end because it is there where much more is required of a person. The days of doing the dog paddle are done. Now, it is time to show some freestyle swimming.

We should be clear once again that Jesus does not see this as contradicting the old law, but instead sees it as fulfilling the Mosaic Law. His antitheses are not to be seen as contradictions but as moving towards their logical conclusion, or fullness. It is what God intended at the start. And those who follow Jesus’ instruction to surpass the old law are, in fact, moving it towards its goal, its end. 

To use some vernacular from our times, it is Jesus’ way of saying “put on your big boy or big girl pants.” Diapers served their purpose but they were never meant to be used beyond childhood. Likewise, the instructions of Moses served their purpose in the early stages of Judaism, but Jesus wants believers to put on pants.

Of course, this is challenging for us just as it was for the Matthaen community who heard these words when Matthew wrote them. When it comes to right living, we have a natural tendency to get by, meaning we live on the surface, doing enough to be seen as a good person, but never or rarely pushing ourselves to do more, to surpass, to exceed the norm that we see all around us.

With the Winter Olympics now taking place in Italy, we have a perfect snapshot of what it means to superabound and to do far better than average. We marvel at the beauty, the symmetry, and the physicality that these athletes exhibit as they put before us the fullness of their long years of training and their never ceasing to ask more of themselves. They are where they are because they have challenged themselves each and every day, never content to be “good enough,” but insisting of themselves that they be “better than.”

We look at those athletes and we say, “That will never be me.” And it is easy to say the same thing when we see what Jesus is asking of us today when he puts before us these examples of living with a moral code that requires far more of us than it does of the non-believer or the non-practicing Christian. Our first instinct is to say “that will never be me.”

Perhaps not. But have we really tried? It was the British writer G.K. Chesterton who wrote these immortal words, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.” It is perhaps the most famous line from his book, “What’s Wrong With the World” that he wrote in 1910, the book being a collection of essays on family, education, and other social issues of the time.

There is a certain irony in the fact that over a century later we are asking the same question, “What’s wrong with the world?” We look around and we find the world going to hell in a handbasket. The air we breathe is filled with belligerence, belittlement, and besting others in ugly rhetoric, vile discrimination, and perverse attacks on anyone and everyone different from ourselves. 

How did we get here? Chesterton tells us how. We have failed the challenge that Jesus gave us, choosing instead to water down the demands, pick and choose our Bible verses, and dilute discipleship until it looks like those marked-down specials on the clearance aisle of a Walmart store. Sadly, we have cheapened Christianity by our lackluster lives.

One glance back at Jesus’ words today and the proof is there. While we pat ourselves on the back for not killing anyone, we have ignored Jesus’ call to set for ourselves a different standard, one that sees getting angry with others as a serious moral deficit. Or, again, we accept that giving a false oath is not good, but Jesus says lies of any sort should not be a part of our lives. He says, “Let your ‘yes’ mean ‘yes’ and your ‘no’ mean ‘no.’”

And yet, our culture is drowning in anger and in lies, proving we are nowhere near fulfilling Jesus’ call to tackle the darkness in our own hearts that has led to such a world. We are put to shame by Jesus’ words today when he says, “I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” 

As I said at the start, it is that one word “surpass” that is the kicker in today’s gospel. Hopefully, hearing it again may be the kick in the pants that we need. Something has to move us out of our lethargy and our lackluster performance. Pray, dear Lord, pray tell that word touches our heart, builds a fire in them, and inspires us to be above average.

–Jeremy Myers