Righteousness is
- Gary Fritsch
- Mar 13
- 2 min read
Boy, if you are going to try to unravel today's Gospel, you have to start with the first line. "unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven." And in that first line, the pivotal word is righteousness.
The dictionary would give us the idea that it is to be 'right' in the eyes of God. The problem with that is that we don't see with the eyes of God, so we usually just interpret it as being 'right'. The Greek word for this, dikaiosune implies being the way we ought to be or were made to be. God made us to be in relationship with Him. We will never be perfect in that, but our hearts can desire that, and then our lives can pursue that. So really, it is about desiring to be in right relationship with God.
This is where Jesus draws a distinction from the practice of the Scribes and Pharisees. They were concerned about the 'letter of the law', but not the relationship to God, or to others. You see, all sin separates us from God. It also separates us from others. Perhaps most pertinently, it separates us from being the way we were intended to be, separates us from our true selves.
When we think of sin this way, we aren't as much worried about our culpability for sin, but about how we can remove ANYTHING that stands between us and God (and others, and self). We can do this well sometimes in our love relationships. We do something, and we see that the other is hurt or upset and we might seek to amend or repair, not because the thing we did was a sin, but because we can see that it damaged the relationship. I say this not to start painting a whole picture of relational psychology, but to note that the first thought should be: what is it doing to my relationship with God, with others, with my true self.
The list of things that affect the relationships will be bigger than the ten commandments. Jesus didn't come to water down the commandments, but to call us to something much greater. Our ultimate goal is to live in a place where there is only love. We need a lot of practice, so we better get started. As we try to do this, we will make plenty of mistakes and will fail many times. When the goal is harder the failures are greater. Jesus has the remedy for that: His love and mercy. He wants us to constantly strive for a closer relationship with Him, more loving relationships with others and closer resemblance to the person God made us to be. His mercy is the only path there. So desire it!
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