Matthew 5:20

Let’s imagine for a moment that Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount had been recorded and has been preserved in video form. Not only that, but you have just come into possession of a copy of it and are on your way home to watch it for the first time. As you drive you think to yourself, "I wonder what exactly has been captured on this tape. How’s the sound quality? Will I even be able to hear what Jesus says? I wonder what the camera was focused on."

With a mind full of questions, you pull the car into the garage, get out, walk into the living room, and pop the tape into the VCR. After a few seconds of fuzz and moving lines, a picture forms on the screen. On the screen you see the back corner of Jesus’ robe, His audience, and the beautiful blue sky reflecting on the Sea of Galilee in the background below.

You turn up the volume but all you can hear is the wind blowing into the microphone. You are a little disappointed, but you continue watching. And as you watch you are amazed at how much of Jesus’ sermon you can decipher by simply watching the audience. It’s as though you can hear the sermon on the faces in the crowd.

Upon making this discovery, you rewind the tape so you can watch the crowd more closely from the very beginning. This time as soon as the picture appears you notice one man in the crowd abruptly stop fiddling with the blades of grass around him and turn his head in the Speaker’s direction. Next to him, a woman’s eyes suddenly become bigger as she raises her brows in interest. The crowd, you deduce, must have been pleasantly surprised by Jesus’ unexpected comments on happiness.

After about thirty seconds of similar expressions, things suddenly change. One lady’s mouth drops nearly to the ground in shock. Behind her a man, like an inflatable object that’s just been stuck by a needle, closes his eyes in despair, sighs, and allows his torso to limply fall downward. Not far from that man are several people who simultaneously let their hands fall into their laps and slowly shake their heads in disappointment. It’s apparent that these slightly different non-verbals are all saying the same thing: "I should have known better than to get my hopes up."

"What did Jesus say that could have possibly caused such reactions?" you wonder. You stop the tape, get out your Bible, and read what Jesus said shortly after The Beatitudes: "For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven" (NKJV). You read that verse over and over. As you read you think to yourself, "What is so shocking or disappointing about this statement? How hard can it be to be more righteous than the scribes and Pharisees? I mean, He’s not asking them to exceed the righteousness of the most righteous people they know!"

And then it hits you: to the average first-century Jew, the scribes and Pharisees were the most righteous people they knew. In their minds, they could never even come close to attaining the level of righteousness of the "walking scrolls" known as scribes. And they’d never be able to reach the spiritual heights of the Pharisees, who set them selves apart from everyone else in society by their strict obedience to both the Scriptures and the traditions.

What many in the crowd likely didn’t understand at first was that Jesus was calling them to a righteousness that was of an entirely different nature than that of the scribes and Pharisees. You see, the scribes and Pharisees focused exclusively on externals. The Pharisees were concerned with more obedience. Jesus, however, was concerned with deeper obedience. What Jesus is calling for is a righteousness that penetrates the heart. An inside-out righteousness.

Make no mistake about it: there’s a world of difference between the right kind of righteousness that focuses on internals and the wrong kind of righteousness that focuses on externals. Consider a few obvious differences between the two:

They see God as a slave driver.

Religion in one word is "rules."

They are concerned with doing right.

They seek to glorify themselves.

Everything’s a show and they’re always the star.

They major in minors and minor in majors.

Their favorite topic of conversation is controversial issues.

They see God as a Father.

Religion in one word is "relationship."

They are concerned with being right.

They seek to glorify God.

They’re just a small part of God’s show and Jesus is the star.

They major in majors and minor in minors.

Their favorite topic of conversation is their relationship to God.

~Daniel Hope