Jesus told his audience that “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:20). On the surface it sounds like he was praising them for having so much righteousness. Now this is odd as He often criticized them for their hypocrisy and said, “you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness” (Matt. 23:28).First, it helps to understand that the Pharisees were considered the religious leaders of Israel. Most of the teachers, scribes and leaders in all the synagogues were Pharisees. They were known for their high standards, and for their encyclopedic knowledge of the Scriptures.By contrast, there was another group of men called the Sadducees. They were the upper class economically and politically. They controlled the Temple as the High Priest was always a Sadducee. They didn’t believe in the prophets, nor in the promise of resurrection of the dead. Now their religious fervor didn’t match the Pharisees, perhaps that is why Jesus never accused them of hypocrisy.But He did say about the Pharisees in Matthew 23: The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but don’t follow their example. For they preach, but do not practice. The Pharisees of Jesus’ day set the bar of religion really high. They did that to impress people with how righteous they were. But then Jesus came along and pointed to what God really wanted.Following this statement that our righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees, Jesus explained. So He points out the scripture concerning murder (Matt. 5:21-22). The Pharisees would agree with that, but Jesus continues to get to the heart of the matter with how were control our anger and attitudes. Then He brings up adultery, but again Jesus goes to the heart of the matter and point out that righteousness that God wants goes to our desires. The Pharisees had felt they had all their ducks in a row; and here was Jesus, just shooting down all their ducks. Their righteousness was never going to be good enough for God.Paul tells us in Romans 3:10, “It is written: ‘None is righteous, no, not one.’” And in Romans 3:23 he said “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”; and Romans 3:20 declared “No-one will be declared righteous in (God’s) ...
