10/6/2023

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE READING:

“Jesus said, [Listen, I speak the truth,] ‘Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, you will certainly not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.’” (Matthew 5.20)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

How many times do you need to read that one verse before it speaks to you not of bitterness toward those in authority who bind themselves to self-righteousness but of the challenge to accept the truth? Let’s consider three groups of people who were standing, kneeling and seated on the mountain terrace where Jesus had gone to be alone with His disciples. There were: followers, gatherers and doubters.

The followers were those called or who had made the decision to be as near to Jesus as possible in order to gain the truth of that moment in their lives. In a recent reading, the author described John the beloved disciple as putting his head on the shoulder or chest of Jesus not because “He loved Him,” he most certainly did. John also knew that Jesus loved him as well beyond the measure of understanding. The highs and lows of John’s character were as extreme as any of the others in same and dissimilar ways. No, the author suggested that John was so confident in His belief in Jesus that he didn’t want to miss a word that Jesus said. Sometimes, Jesus spoke plainly. Sometimes, Jesus spoke in hushed whispers. Sometimes, Jesus said things that defied the logic of the world with meanings that could only point to Heaven as no one had ever taught before. John wanted them all. It didn’t mean he would understand. It meant that he had an emptiness which only Jesus could fill. Little wonder that at the end of the gospel as revealed by John concerning Jesus, he added “Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain all the books that would be written.” (John 21.25) The followers of Jesus were just like that. They were hungry and thirsty for the truth of authentic liberation. Some still only understood it as a theo-political hope but others simply wanted to be out from under the unproductive, counterproductive and self-serving piety of the Temple leadership, the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law. It wasn’t about anything else but being able to draw near to God and Jesus was the closest thing they had ever known.

The gatherers were like pigeons in the park when someone is scattering seed or koi fish in a pond when someone is chumming the water with bread or dog food. Where there is a crowd there is bound to be some food nearby, some free gift or an opportunity to take from others for your own need (many times illegally.) They saw the miracles which Jesus had already performed. For some, His reputation had preceded Him. For others, they were the reputation which would preceed Him. For many, there was a limit to their efforts to draw near. Those limits were found exposed by their willingness to be a follower. When the worldly resource ran out, time ran out, patience ran out or the challenge to lay resources aside and follow Him bearing their own cross ran too far, too deep and too long, they went to find someone else to follow. Trust me, gatherers will always find someone to follow. They, in fact, become leaders of those kinds of followers. They are inspired to seek their own way expressing displeasure in all who do not agree with them. The group of followers, which numbered as much as 120, fluctuated in its composition of people depending on the thrust of Jesus’ teaching concerning authentic discipleship and true righteousness.

Then there were the doubters. Thomas, or Didymus meaning “twin,” has been labeled in history as Doubting Thomas. It was a response to Thomas’s rebuke of the “ten” disciples who were present in the Upper Room on the day of Resurrection when Jesus appeared to them. He had shown Himself to them, taken food and ate it and spoke to them of many things. Why Thomas was not there or where he was is a mystery and most irrelevant to what comes next. Word got to Thomas of what had happened. He responded, “I will not believe it until I see for myself.” How many of us have said similar things as it pertains to things of the world and to believing some occurence attributed to one who believes in God? It certainly doesn’t make any of us bad people because we simply won’t believe what others tell us. What makes us bad people is when we experience it and choose to not believe it. In truth, we refuse to believe it and turn into denyers ourselves. We stand against the truth. Wanting to believe, Thomas followed the disciples back to the Upper Room where they gathered together for the breaking of bread. This indicates it was the Sabbath as was their custom now in remembering Jesus when He took bread and a cup and communed with them. In that moment, Jesus appeared. He offered for Thomas to put his fingers in the holes left in His flesh where the nails had held Him to the cross. He opened His robe for him to put his hand in the gash in His side where the spear of the Roman soldier had tested the body for any sign of life or death. The mere offer overwhelmed Thomas and he fell down to worship Jesus. Such would not be the response of true doubters such as the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law. They doubted the veracity of Jesus’ ministry and administration of the Word of God which He offered. It was so different from their own that they followed only to gather more information to be used against Jesus. Their intention was to convict and eliminate Him. He was a threat to their own righteousness as their self-righteousness was a threat to God’s people. I still laugh when I hear or read the story of the man blind since birth whom Jesus healed. When he was called in to trial before the Temple leadership and was interrogated at length, he find said, “Why are you continuing to ask me over and over again unless you want to be believers (followers and not gatherers), too.” Those to whom he spoke had no doubts. They were not disciples nor gathers. They were hunters ready for the kill.

Mighty ones of God, those who seek to make the righteousness of God as modelled by Jesus the Christ, who are you in the crowd? Disciples, gatherers, doubters or hunters. Heed the warning Jesus pronounces over those who desire to be followers: your righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law. Jesus wasn’t speaking of the “impossibility” of the common person to be able to accomplish that. That would have sounded like the disciples who remarked when the Rich Young Ruler walked away “If a rich man can’t do it then who can.” The problem was the Rich Man’s doubt of his ability to release hold on his riches. The common denominator is that on his own, he couldn’t. On their own, they couldn’t surpass the righteousness standard of the Pharisees. What stood in their way? The belief that the righteousness of the Pharisees was God-centered and unmatched by anything in this world. Jesus urging was “What is impossible for humankind is possible with God.” Righteousness means “going with God in a desire to trust in Him alone for the needs of our lives up to and including salvation.” The Rich Young Ruler would have been able to surrender his hold on his riches if he surrendered first to God. By the power of the Holy Spirit, it would have been possible. That possibility exists for us as well. Nothing exceeds the possibility which Christ gives to us!

PRAYER IN LIGHT OF GOD’S WORD:

Father, You have revealed to us best in Jesus the Christ. By Him and Him alone shall we gain the eternal life and our place in eternal rest, living for You always. Show us more and by Your Holy Spirit instruct us in the way we should go, the truth we should reveal and the life we shall live with you forever. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.