Do and teach

Matthew 5:17-20 Part 3

Don’t make the assumption that I came to do away with the Law and the Prophets; I did not come to do away with but to fulfill. For in truth I say to you, until such time as the heaven and the earth disappear, neither one iota nor one mark shall disappear from the Law, until all things have happened. Therefore, whoever should loosen one of the least of these commandments and instructs people likewise, will be named least in the kingdom of the heavens. Moreover, whoever should do and teach, this one will be named great in the kingdom of the heavens. For I say to you that if your righteousness does not abound more than the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of the heavens. Matthew 5:17-20

Offense and truth

Logic appears to be on the outs in our culture today.

Feelings have taken front and center.

The facts and the connection between those facts are insignificant if they offend someone’s sensibility.

But whether we like it or not, Jesus did not seem to be too concerned about whether he offended people. 

He was not trying to offend—his concern was to love people by telling them the truth about themselves. The offended were those playing the world’s shame and honor reputation game.

The Sermon is case in point. 

When he named the scribes and the Pharisees, the intent was not to shame or offend them, but to shake them up, to get them to turn to true righteousness, not their righteousness-in-front-of-others game.

And that is a good approach for all of us who listen to Jesus’s words.

Let his words shake us up and redirect us to God.

We have already inspected the first two and a half verses of this passage (Matthew 5:17-19a). One and a half verses remain.

A Reprise

Just to sum up, Jesus first proclaimed that the Law and Prophets came to fulfillment in his role as Messiah. Next, the commandments of Torah, rather than the rule-book they were turned into, represent the unchanging inviolable character of God: to alter them by adding or subtracting to them leads to a misunderstanding. The command to love God and your neighbor (in some sense summed up in Matthew 5:3-16) is the focal point of all the commandments—loose either of those, or the Ten Commandments, and the character of God is encountered head on and results in the natural consequences of our contrary actions.

Two more sentences remain, but they emerge from the previous ones.

The Logic of Matthew 5:17-20

When we consider all of these verses together, we see that Jesus constructed a logical flow of thought to talk about the Messiah, Torah, the commandments, and the idea of righteousness with respect to the kingdom of God.

The key terms in the Greek text set out the clear logic of these four verses: … alla … gar … oun … de … gar;  “… but (contrast) … for … therefore … but (development)… for ….”

Jesus often used everyday images to get his message across, but he did not shy away from plain old logical argument when he needed to be absolutely clear.

That is certainly the case here.

The entire progression of 5:17-19a leads to the most important of the clauses: But whoever should do and teach, this one will be named great in the kingdom of the heavens.

The “but” here is different than the first “but.”

The first “but” in 5:17 (I came not to destroy but to fulfill; Greek alla) presented an absolute contrast (not abolish, but fulfill). 

This second “but” (Greek de) shows the development of an argument to a higher level. I have used the word “moreover” to get this across in the opening translation. 

Jesus wanted this statement to be the most important statement of all: “Moreover, whoever should do and teach …”

Yet in this development, Jesus presented a contrast of enormous proportions:

Those who loose the commandments and teach likewise will be called least; those who do and teach will be called great.

Who is least is contrasted with who is great in the kingdom of the heavens.

The contrast could speak to all who are in the Kingdom of God, yet the following verse suggests that “least” is a word describing those not making it there: “you will never enter the kingdom of the heavens” he says of the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.

Do and teach

What did Jesus mean by “do and teach?” It must have meant something else than what the scribes and Pharisees were doing.

And indeed the meaning is very different.

Jesus goes on in the Sermon to define what he means by “do and teach.” 

We actually must look ahead to discover what he intends.

What Jesus says about murder, adultery and divorce, oath taking, retribution, hate for enemies, public displays of piety, idolatry, even worry, as well as the positives of loving your enemy, secret piety before God, forgiveness, storing treasure in heaven, trusting for our daily needs, and seeking God’s kingdom is the stuff of “do and teach.” 

And perhaps the preeminent word of “doing” comes in so-called Golden Rule of Matthew 7:12—“Therefore everything whatsoever you desire that people would do for you, so also you do for them. For this is the Law and the Prophets.”

The Golden Rule is the summation of the righteous game that God desires for us to play (aka do).

We are to do and to teach likewise.

Jesus did not alter the law in the Sermon; he defined its true letter and intent and depth, and then modeled what he said with his entire life—even to his death.

Least and Great

The outcome for the one taking on this opposite-of-the-world approach of love and service for others as service to God, is a future proclamation in the Kingdom: “great.”

Those altering the commandments for their own advantage will be called “least,” but those who do and teach will be called “great” (Greek: mega).

Later, Jesus said that the first shall be last and the last first. Then Paul in his great hymn to Jesus (Philippians 2) recounts the humiliation of Jesus to death on the cross, but the subsequent exaltation of Jesus to the highest place. In Revelation, John saw the Lamb exalted to the right hand of God. 

And all of Jesus’s followers likewise will be called great.

“To do” is to imitate Jesus in his model of following God, of loving others, and of willingness to give all in the face of the world’s pressure to conform. “To teach” is to model Jesus to others.

False and true righteousness

Finally, we get to Jesus’s last statement.

To give support and more emphasis to the contrast of least and great, Jesus followed up (and concluded) with: For I say to you that if your righteousness does not abound more than the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of the heavens.

The “if” clause here is a true condition: if the condition is met, the then clause is true. In this case the condition is a threshold, and not meeting that threshold is negative. There is no entrance to the kingdom with a righteousness equal to or less than the scribes and Pharisees; the righteousness must somehow exceed theirs.

Whatever righteousness is, it has to go beyond the righteousness practiced and propounded by these Jewish religious authorities.

Jesus himself was being quite strong in this statement, and no doubt some took offense. But he spoke the absolute truth.

The true child of God is not offended by the truth but welcomes it, even when that truth hits very close to home.

The Negation of Effort

The righteousness that exceeds is what people of the kingdom hunger and thirst after and are persecuted for.

It is not a righteousness of performance, but of character—God’s righteous character that he bestows on those who love Him and love their neighbor. 

This character—this righteousness—cannot be obtained by human effort.

Unless that effort is the negation of effort. 

Poverty of spirit is the recognition that I bring nothing to God. 

Hungering and thirsting for righteousness is that recognition that I have none on my own.

Any claim to righteousness on my own effort is deficient as true righteousness.

Filthy rags is one oft-cited image.

Paul used the more graphic term skybala in Philippians 3:8.

The only righteousness I have is what God gifts to me through Jesus.

You will never …

Of final importance in this verse is the possibility of missing out on the blessing of the kingdom because I am too focused on myself and my reputation—my own righteousness. This idolatrous focus results in the stark statement, “you will never enter the kingdom of the heavens.” 

God help us all.

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With the Beatitudes, the Salt and Light passages, and these five verses as the introductory section of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has set the stage for the first act, the so-called “antitheses.”

In the next post I will take up murder.

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Observations on the Greek Text

ὃς δ’ ἂν ποιήσῃ καὶ διδάξῃ, οὗτος μέγας κληθήσεται ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ τῶν οὐρανῶν. Λέγω γὰρ ὑμῖν ὅτι ἐὰν μὴ περισσεύσῃ ὑμῶν ἡ δικαιοσύνη πλεῖον τῶν γραμματέων καὶ Φαρισαίων, οὐ μὴ εἰσέλθητε εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν. Matthew 5:19b-20

1. ὃς δ’ ἂν ποιήσῃ καὶ διδάξῃ is a clause referred to in discourse grammars as a left dislocation.