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I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that
of the scribes and Pharisees,
you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven.
We are called to a righteousness that is not merely external and performative, doing one thing while cherishing a desire for something else. It is not enough to merely leave Egypt while still carrying Egypt in our hearts.
The scribes and the Pharisees were examples of people who took extraordinary care to appear to be doing what God demanded while their primary motivations remained selfish and sinful. They obeyed so many laws that it was difficult to find fault with them. But they themselves decided on which laws had priority and when. This allowed them to avoid facing up to the true purpose and intentions of the individual laws and the law as a whole. Jesus demanded that his disciples be attentive to the big picture of mercy and justice and to the inner meaning of each law as ordered toward that end.
You have heard that it was said to your ancestors,
You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.
But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother
will be liable to judgment,
and whoever says to his brother,
Raqa, will be answerable to the Sanhedrin,
and whoever says, 'You fool,' will be liable to fiery Gehenna.
It isn't that hard to not kill anyone. It isn't impressive, and the fact that we haven't done so does not really imply anything about our moral caliber, as though we were 'not so bad', as distinct from others whom we imagine to be truly evil. Because, the thing is, while we don't kill others, we still often have in common with killers anger and aggression and other motives. It is true that in us there are other forces that prevent these motivations from getting out of control, such as parental teaching and societal norms. But the fact is that external education and pressure is never enough on its own to remove all traces of hatred from our hearts. All of us experience anger at others at times. All of us are tempted to say Raqa or "You fool". Depending on the day we might be tempted quite a bit. And hopefully we don't. Because we shouldn't. And yet, do we want to reserve to ourselves the right to feel that way? We know that we can't change transient and superficial feelings. But we ought not to cherish them and protect them, thinking of how justified we would be if we said such and such to so and so. Nor are there any exemptions from this prohibition against violence of the heart. Politicians, lawyers, and even tyrants aren't excluded. Their actions may anger us to the point where it is hard to hold our tongue. We may even believe that speaking in anger will actually accomplish something and cause us to be heard and our viewpoint recognized. But this is in the category of the anger of man that does not produce the righteousness of God (see James 1:20). Even, and perhaps especially, the realm of politics needs gracious speech seasoned with the salt of the Gospel (see Colossians 4:6) if it is ever to rise above bickering and recrimination.
Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar,
and there recall that your brother
has anything against you,
leave your gift there at the altar,
go first and be reconciled with your brother,
and then come and offer your gift.
One sign that we have internalized God's priorities in matters of our relationship with others is that we are motivated to seek reconciliation even when it is primarily our brother who has something against us rather than we against him. This is not to suggest that all problems a brother may have are necessarily legitimate. But it implies that we care about the reality of the relationship more than the superficial feelings we have about it. We are willing to do the work even when ignoring the issue would seem convenient, when we were quite content to continue existing with nothing particular against them on our part. But whether the brother's issue is real or a mere misunderstanding how can the world ever experience true peace if we let such things fester below the surface? If they reject our attempts at reconciliation that's one thing. But if we want to offer a pleasing gift at the altar of God we are at least obliged to try.
Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court with him.
The transformation to which we are called is not optional. We're going to pay every penny of it eventually before we are finally released. Better to start now, the sooner the better. The more we insist on cherishing the idols of Egypt in our hearts the harder it becomes to break our ties with them. This is equivalent to not only not paying our debt, but to causing it to grow, so that our time repaying it grows proportionately. Let us rather break all ties with Egypt and stop living as debtors to our fallen impulses. It is to this we have been called since, "where the Spirit of the Lord is,
there is freedom".
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