Today is the second sermon in a series on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, found in the Gospel of Matthew, chapters 5 through 7. It is "The Greatest Sermon Ever Preached," Jesus’ sermon, that is! For the next several weeks, we’ll be looking at the important things he had to say to his disciples in that day and to his disciples today.

However, before reading from the section of the Sermon on the Mount that is our topic for today, I want to say a few things about "truth" and "grace." This week, as I was reflecting on Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:17-20, plus looking ahead at some of the topics to come in the Sermon on the Mount, I was reminded again just how difficult some of these topics are; such topics as adultery, divorce, loving our enemies. It occurred to me that we have to have some perspective on truth and grace before continuing much further with the Sermon on the Mount.

Throughout the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus pounds home some hard truths: Today’s passage, for example, about the prominence of Scripture and how our righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees. Taken in isolation, the teachings in the Sermon on the Mount can be difficult indeed. Throughout the Sermon on the Mount, indeed throughout all of Scripture, all of life, we must balance "truth" with "grace." Ultimately, that’s what Jesus does. John, in his gospel, for example, introduces us to Jesus by saying that Jesus was "full of grace and truth." Not "half-grace" and "half-truth," but "full of grace and truth." Our tendency is to get those two things out of balance. Either we elevate grace and diminish truth, or we elevate truth and diminish grace. I think that’s much of what is at work in the discussions we have within our denomination—discussions about ordination issues and the like. One "side" wants to raise up grace…but truth gets diminished, while the other "side" wants to raise up truth…but grace gets lost in the process. Jesus never does that. He is "full of grace and truth." Jesus doesn’t lower the standards of God’s truth. In fact, as we shall see in the Sermon on the Mount, he raises them to a new level! In the coming weeks, you’ll hear several times the statement from Jesus, "You have heard it said," related to a standard from the Old Testament, followed by the statement, "but I tell you…" related to a new, higher standard set by Jesus. Jesus never lowers the standard, he raises them! Yet, the crowds flocked to him. They were attracted to Jesus, in part, because of his love and his grace. Propounding a high standard from God, yet doing so with love and grace. "Full of grace and truth."

The classic example of this quality of Jesus is the story from John, chapter 8, of the woman caught in the act of adultery. Most of you know the story. A woman, caught in the act of adultery, is brought to Jesus. What would Jesus have them do with her? The Law says she must be stoned to death. Will Jesus be so heartless? His response is a powerful illustration of the fullness of grace and truth. Grace: "You without sin cast the first stone," and the crowd, one-by-one, drops their stones and humbly walks away. Truth: To the woman, Jesus says, "Go and sin no more."

That balance of grace and truth is difficult to live out, but it is what we are called to do as followers of the One who is "full of grace and truth." And we will be reminded throughout our series on the Sermon on the Mount of that importance balance of grace and truth.

So, with that clearly in mind, let’s turn to today’s topic from the Greatest Sermon Ever Preached—Surpassing Righteousness. (Read Matthew 5:17-20)

One of the first things Jesus does before raising the bar on the standards set by God’s Law is to emphasize the value of that Law. Throughout his ministry, Jesus will be questioned and challenged about his adherence to the Law of God, the Law of Scripture as it existed in that time and place. Of course, there is no New Testament at this point in time. When Jesus speaks of "the Law" and "the Prophets," he is speaking of the Old Testament—the sacred writings for the children of God at that time and place. He will be challenged, most often by the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, as to his interpretation of the Law and the Prophets. But here, Jesus addresses immediately his attitude as to the importance of Scripture. Predictive of the challenges to come, Jesus 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." Now, to be sure, Jesus will establish his authority over the Law and the Prophets—seen in his coming distinction of "you have heard it said, but I say to you"—but he emphasizes here the importance of Scripture to him and to his disciples. "I have come not to abolish the Law but to fulfill it." His disciples should seek to fulfill the Law in their lives.

Continuing on, Jesus emphasizes that every bit of the law—from "smallest letter" to "least stroke of the pen"—will be in force as long as heaven and earth exist. Here again he exerts his authority over the Law because he will say of his words, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away," (Matthew 24:35). The Law, the words of the Law will be in force until heaven and earth pass away, but Jesus’ words will never pass away. Yet, it is important to say at this point that Jesus’ words do not contradict the Law. Jesus fulfills the Law, not abolishes it! His words—and his actions—reveal the full truth of God’s word and they are words and actions laced with mercy and grace. The Scriptures are of extreme importance to Jesus and, consequently, should be of extreme importance to his disciples.

So, first, there is that: Jesus doesn’t lower the standards of God’s word, he raises them. He came, not to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it!

Then it is imperative to note Jesus’ emphasis on the importance of living out the teachings of the Law. The least in the kingdom of God will be those who break the commandments of the Law and teach others to break them. Those who will be called great in the kingdom of God—and who doesn’t want that?—will be those who practice what the Law teaches…and teach others to do the same. More than hearing what the Law has to say and teaching that to others, those who are called great in the kingdom will be those who hear the standards taught in the Scriptures and live them out in their lives. The axiom is true, Actions speak louder than words! Want to be called "great" in the kingdom? Live in obedience to the standards of the Law, the truth of Scripture…but do so with grace!

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, what those actions communicate is the level of our righteousness. This is important because Jesus says that our righteousness is to exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. Those words must have stunned his audience. Righteousness that surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law? These are people who spent their whole lives studying the Law and the Prophets—fine tooth combing the Law to the minutest detail, trying to determine the meaning behind every "smallest letter" and "least stroke of a pen," as Jesus refers to in his sermon. The disciples must have looked at each other in amazement, our righteousness must exceed theirs? But here is where grace enters into the picture. The error of the Pharisees and teachers of the Law was that they took the Law and made them burdensome to the people. More than that, they made the Law a source of pride for them. Rather than a righteousness based on truth and saturated with grace, theirs was a righteousness mired in minutia and rotted with arrogance. Their interpretation of the Law lost the most important expression of the Law—the love of God for His people. That was the focus of Jesus’ anger toward them—the love of God was absent from their interpretation of the Law: leading to such disputes as to whether is was right to heal someone on the Sabbath; leading to illustrations like the Good Samaritan, where the self-righteous priest and Levite cross the street rather than help a beaten traveler because of their interpretation of the Law; leading to a crowd gathering with stones in their hands to throw at a woman caught in adultery. They didn’t love God’s people, they loved their self-righteousness. They elevated truth—that is their particular interpretation of it—but they were utterly lacking in grace. In that respect, perhaps it isn’t so difficult to surpass their righteousness.

However, keep in focus, what Christ desires from his disciples is what he modeled in his life; a life "full of grace and truth," which isn’t quite so easy.

In order to live out what Christ is asking of his disciples in this portion of his sermon, I think it’s essential that we assess our own attitudes toward God’s Law. Do we have a tendency to elevate grace at the expense of truth? Or do we make the opposite yet equal error of elevating truth with the absence of grace? Perhaps we’re apathetic and indifferent to the whole matter—a scenario where both grace and truth is lost. If any of those three scenarios is where we find ourselves regarding God’s Law, Jesus warns us that we are very far indeed from the kingdom.

Perhaps we are in need of a new perspective toward God’s Law. The temptation is to view God’s Law in the negative—the great "Thou shalt nots," as if God was a kind of "cosmic killjoy" squashing all the fun and joy out of life. If that’s our mind-set toward God’s Law, then there is little motivation to seek knowledge about God’s Law—let alone applying the Law to our lives. I’d like to suggest a different perspective. Rather than viewing God’s Law in the negative—thou shalt not do this or thou shalt not do that—I suggest developing the perspective of God’s Law in the positive. God gives His Law to us for our protection and provision. As we work our way through the Sermon on the Mount, we will discover areas from which God wants to protect us or areas in which God wants to provide for us. God wants to protect us from the hurt of broken relationships caused by anger or lust, providing for us instead the joy of relationships of trust and commitment. God wants to protect us from the damage of escalating vengeance against those who’ve hurt us and provide for us instead safety and security in the joyful surprise of new found friendships. God wants to protect us from the disappointment and emptiness of earthly treasures and provide for us instead the fulfillment and meaning of heavenly treasures. The Law is a gift to us from the loving heart of God, giving to us the pathway to God’s protection and God’s provision. Perhaps with a greater appreciation of the positives behind God’s Law for us, we might better develop the attitude of Jesus towards the Law—that not the smallest letter or slightest stroke of the pen would be abolished, but rather fulfilled; that the truth of the Law would be elevated in our lives, administered always with an equal measure of grace, surpassing the righteousness of the self-righteous teachers of the law; that we might experience Jesus’ desire for us in the Law, that we and the others around us would know the positive experience of God’s protection and God’s provision for our lives.

Let’s spend a moment of silent, honest reflection on our attitude toward God’s Law in our lives.