Daily Bread

For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

‘You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, “You shall not murder”; and “whoever murders shall be liable to judgement.” But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgement; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, “You fool”, you will be liable to the hell of fire. So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way to court with him, or your accuser may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

Well, that's me screwed then! Seriously, if to enter God's kingdom in the here and now — to be considered a subject of the King — my righteousness has to exceed that of the holiest, most devout, and law-abiding citizens on the planet, well, I ain't gonna make the grade! Then, come to think of it, if it has to exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, well, they're not gonna make the grade either! In fact, no-one is! It sure looks like the kingdom of heaven's gonna be empty! And now look, I've used the word 'gonna' three times and it's lost all its meaning!

Jesus goes on in this passage to show how, even if you follow the law to the letter, there are still 'sub' laws that we fail by. In other words, no-one can or has ever kept every letter of God's divine law.

Think of it another way. If pure and holy love is the bar, anything that is not pure and holy love is 'sinful' and so to regulate that, hundreds of laws are written to keep us from going astray and to keep us on the path of love. The problem is that each law is like a fine line drawn across a piece of paper, and between each line are gaps, and so we write more laws or lines to fill the gaps, until we have thousands of laws and lines drawn across our page, but if we look closely, there are still gaps between the lines! It becomes impossible to keep track of all the laws and to ascertain whether we have obeyed them or not.

And to make matters worse, God's laws are not only things we say or don't say, or things we do or don't do, they are also matters of the heart — our attitudes such as our compassion, our acceptance, our apathy, and our indifference. And you thought the bar was already high?

Then comes Jesus, God's anointed one, who fulfils every letter of every divine law — both written and unwritten. Only Jesus has the authority because he is the only one who completed that which no human could ever do. He won the prize and wears the crown. And now, what does Jesus do with this authority? He stands at the sidelines and cheers us on, and when we are unable to finish the race, when we are unable to fulfil every law, he carries us over the line, one by one.

The grace of Jesus fills the gaps between the lines, and the gap between us and the divine bar of love that we are unable to reach. Thank God for Jesus, and thank God that through Jesus I can enter the Kingdom of Heaven — God's kingdom — now and forever.

Holy God
Thank you that you are the King of love,
and for all that is good, just, holy, and true.
Thank you that you have invited me
into your kingdom of love and accepted me.
Help me be an ambassador of love,
this day and for the rest of my earthy life,
though your Son, my Saviour, Jesus Christ.