Jesus says, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven?” Are you better than a scribe or a Pharisee? If we are honest, our first thought is most likely, “Yes, they were the bad guys.”

But this doesn’t mean that people during the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry thought of the Pharisees as the “bad guys.” It was very much the opposite. People believed the Pharisees to be good guys. They were the guys who seemed to have everything together. They had it all figured out. If you wanted to get to heaven, you needed to live like a Pharisee. People aspired to be like the scribes and Pharisees, who loved every minute of the attention. I mean listen to this list of a Pharisee’s accomplishments: “I’m not like other men. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get.” He’s a pretty good guy. He’s kept the commandments (he thinks). He dutifully fasts and tithes—showing his piousness before God. No wonder people look up to the Pharisees!

Even so, most scribes and Pharisees didn’t like Jesus, so we don’t particularly like scribes and Pharisees. They are the bad guys for rejecting Jesus. We criticize them for being holier-than-thou, because they saw themselves as being righteous in God’s eyes by their good works. We turn our nose up at their snobbishness, because they didn’t want to be seen with average people. They certainly didn’t want their name used in the same sentence as tax collectors and sinners. We grumble at their complaints about Jesus “receiving sinners and eating with them.” We deride their prideful attitude, because they “trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt.” We consider scribes and Pharisees to be insufferable people.

There’s a problem. By looking down on the scribes and Pharisees (let alone many of the people we cross paths with every day) we turn into scribes and Pharisees. We do the very thing for which we criticize them. We act better than them and others, even though we are sinners just like them. As sinners, we have the same standing before God as the scribes, Pharisees, tax collectors, and other sinners we encounter every day, for we are by nature sinful and unclean. By nature, we think of ourselves as better than others. We may want to say we don’t. We may want to think we don’t. But deep down in our sinful flesh, we all think we are better than others. By thinking that we are better than scribes, Pharisees, and others, we make ourselves scribes and Pharisees.

Jesus says our righteousness needs to exceed the scribes and Pharisees, because everyone thought they really were righteous. People thought the scribes and Pharisees were holier than them. People thought they had an “in” with God. People tried to live like Pharisees. Even the disciples grew up believing they needed to pattern their lives like the scribes and Pharisees to be holy and righteous in God’s eyes.

Therefore, Jesus says, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” The people believe Pharisees are as close to being sinless as you can get, and if Jesus says that the good things you do (keeping the Law, loving the Lord with all your heart, and loving your neighbors as yourself) must surpass the Pharisees, then people would have understood Jesus to be saying you have to be perfect. If so, then the kingdom of heaven is an unattainable place. That’s true… only if you try to reach the kingdom of heaven by your own efforts. But what if it comes to you?

John the Baptist proclaimed: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Jesus proclaimed: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” You don’t reach heaven by your own righteousness. Your own righteousness doesn’t exceed that of the Pharisees—but Jesus’ does!

Our Lord says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Jesus hasn’t come to destroy the Old Testament, because He’s the point of the Old Testament. Jesus hasn’t come to relax the Law, because He’s the fulfillment of the Law—for you.

The perfect life, obedient suffering and death, and victorious resurrection of our Lord accomplishes the fulfillment of the Law and Prophets. The risen Lord said to His disciples: “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” He’s the Lamb of God, forsaken by God because of the sins of the people, who shed His blood for the sins of the people, so that we may be atoned for and reconciled to God.

In and of ourselves we have no holiness and righteousness. Neither did the Pharisees. Neither does anyone else… except Jesus. He is the righteousness of God.

JESUS GIFTS YOU HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS

St. Paul says, “[God] made [Christ] to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” God made Christ to be sin, so that Christ could declare you to be the righteousness of God. Isaiah says, “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation; He has covered me with the robe of righteousness.” 

This happens in Baptism, where you are buried into Christ’s death and raised with Him to new life in the Holy Spirit. Paul says, “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” You are covered with the robe of righteousness, because you have been clothed with Christ through Baptism. Therefore, Paul again says elsewhere, “That I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the Law (you know, like what the scribes and Pharisees believed), but [a righteousness] which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.” You are righteous in Christ, who died for your sins upon the cross and rose triumphantly from the grave to claim you as His own in Holy Baptism, in which you receive the Holy Spirit.

Having received the Holy Spirit in Baptism, you have undergone a change. You didn’t cause this change to happen. This change is worked in you by the Holy Spirit because you are given Jesus’ righteousness.

Jesus declares you (His baptized disciples) to be salt and light. By your confession of the faith and the love you show your neighbors, you are revealed as salt and light. The days of those you interact with are more flavorful and brighter. Others see the fruit of the Spirit at work in you, and they glorify your gracious and merciful Father in heaven.

When you fall short, you repent, forever trusting that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets, whose righteousness has been gifted to you. And you are forgiven and renewed as salt and light.

So, live as the salt and light that Jesus has declared you to be. In what you daily confess with your mouth and do with your hands, seek to fear, love, and trust our Triune God above all things. Seek to love your neighbors as yourselves. You don’t do this by your own effort, but because you have received Christ’s righteousness as a gift in Baptism. You are salt and light so that those you interact with daily may benefit from Christ’s love in you and give God the glory due His name. Amen.