Your Righteousness Must Go Deeper (Mt 5:20)
The powerful invitation of the Sermon on the Mount, that we continue to listen to in the gospel reading of today, is to embrace the previous revelation of God and to be available to the God who is here and now. It is also an invitation to embrace the Law and to go beyond it. And to be part of the Kingdom of God, your righteousness has to be go beyond that of the scribes and Pharisees (Mt 5:20).
This is the time of New Dispensation. Righteousness is not legalism. The word ‘righteousness’ could be translated as justice, uprightness, virtue, perfection. Matthew is constantly proposing a new and deeper meaning of righteousness. It is not mere conformity to law, but a response to the plan of God. Let us consider just a few examples in the Gospel of Matthew to illustrate the meaning of righteousness – which will serve to help us even understand the whole of the Gospel(s). The list here is not meant to be exhaustive.
Speaking of Joseph’s plan in dealing with Mary who was found to be pregnant even before they came to live together, Matthew says, “Joseph, being an upright man (righteous/just/virtuous man) and wanting to spare her disgrace, decided to divorce her informally” (Mt 1:19). If he followed the law he should have taken Mary to the Rabbi and have her stoned to death. But ultimately, the angel will invite him to go a step even further in his righteousness and take her as his ‘wife’. And he responds to the plan of God.
When Jesus comes to be baptized by John (Mt 3:13-17, NAB), “John tried to prevent him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me?” Jesus said to him in reply, “Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness.” Then John allowed him.” Even though from a human perspective John should not be baptizing the Son of God, the plan of God here is otherwise. And righteousness is flowing with the plan of God.
Again in a parable that is unique to Matthew (20:1-16), the workers would question the ‘righteousness’ of the landowner who pays lavishly to those who worked only for one hour. But they are told not be “envious because I am generous?”
So what is happening in the New Dispensation? To be part of the Kingdom of God, your righteousness has to go beyond that of the scribes and Pharisees (Mt 5:20): to go beyond the security of legalism to a deeper discernment of the plan of God; to go beyond the mere avoidance of gross crimes like murder, adultery, and breaking of oaths, to a deeper life of freedom from anger, lust and deceit. Embrace the plan of God, be part of the Kingdom!
Fr. Franco Pereira, S.D.B.