Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, Your commandments demand us to love you perfectly and our neighbor perfectly, to be righteous. Because we fall short, and we can offer you nothing which could atone for our failures, the gates of heaven should have been forever closed to us. But we thank you today that through faith in Christ's righteousness you count us sinners as righteous too, and therefore have now opened the gates of heaven to all who believe. Amen.
 

Many actors playing married or dating couples in sitcoms have played out a situation similar to this: Reservations at the city's trendiest restaurant were to have been made by the guy months ago. Just before leaving for the restaurant, the woman mentions to him in passing, "I sure am glad we decided to make those reservations when we did!" Oops. He forgot. Of course, he isn't going to admit this to her. But as they drive to this restaurant at which they have no reservation, the guy is sweating it out. "How am I going to get us into that restaurant tonight?" Upon entering the restaurant lobby, the host asks the couple, "Your name, please." The guy plays it cool while the host scans the reservation listing. But when the host, upon failing to find their name, says, "I'm sorry; I don't see it here," the guy feigns annoyance. "What!? I don't see how this could happen! This is your fault!" After other silly attempts to get them into the restaurant, the guy ends up playing the age-old "slip the host a twenty with a wink of an eye" game. Does this ever really work? I don't know.

When it comes to gaining entrance through heaven's gates, how we like to reduce the God of heaven and earth to that of a trendy restaurant host.  God, we imagine, can be bought off by slipping him a handful of our good deeds like shiny coins. "God, have you ever seen coins like these? You must open heaven's gates to me; I obviously deserve it." Isn't this, what religion really amounts to, as we normally understand religion.

Today, it seems that Jesus is talking about religion, as we normally understand it. He says, "I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will never ever enter the kingdom of heaven." In other words, Jesus seems to be pointing out that entrance through heaven's gates is dependent on having enough very shiny coins to buy off God. In other words, we must be very good. How good? Righteous, a word which means holy or perfect. Our righteousness must surpass that of a righteous Pharisee to enter heaven, so Jesus says.

That's sounds like old-time religion all right. Be good! Be better than the best! Be more righteous than a Pharisee and heaven is yours! Nobody said it was going to be easy! If we are going to earn the right to enter heaven's gates, we might as well out-earn the best, the Pharisees! (The Pharisees, a highly religious Jewish sect of Jesus' day, believed they were keeping God's commandments, and therefore earning for themselves plenty of shiny coins with which to buy off heaven's gates, and earning more coins than any one else.) Let's take them on! We have Jesus himself rooting us along the way!

But wait. Haven't you heard like I have that God's commandments are hard to keep? If the Pharisees are earning all these coins, they must have found a way to keep the commandments pretty well. Maybe we should uncover their secret before we go head to head with them. What is their secret?

The Pharisee believed that one successfully kept God's commandments by keeping them outwardly, that is, by going through the motions.  We are all familiar with "going through the motions" in the religious sense, right?  "I see no reason to attend church, I'm already a pretty good guy. But I'm sure God counts it for something."  "Every coin God sees me put in the plate is another star by my name in heaven. At this rate, I'm going to have plenty of stars." This is the way our hearts naturally approach religion. "If I go through the motions well enough, I will earn enough coins. I won't need that many; after all, God is like the easily bribed host of a trendy restaurant."

Is this what Jesus is really encouraging us to do? Today, Jesus explains what this "going through the motions" religion amounts to. He does so by showing us how one truly keeps the commandments. As an example, He uses the fifth one: "You shall not murder."

"You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, "Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment." But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, "Raca or mindless", is answerable to the Sanhedrin.  But anyone who says, "You worthless fool!" will be in danger of the fire of hell." To sum up Jesus words, let's also quote John 3:15: "Whoever hates his brother is a murderer."

In these words Jesus is pointing out to us that in God's sight, when we merely think evil of our neighbor we are actually slitting their throat from behind. We know what murderers deserve, don't we?  Uh-oh. There seems to be much more to keeping the commandments than the Pharisee thought. It is not enough to avoid sinful actions. The secret attitudes of our hearts must conform to the commandments and our words too. Uh-oh.

This shouldn't surprise us though. The summary of God's commandments is simply this: to love! Love God and love your neighbor perfectly. Trust God wholeheartedly to take care of your every need, rather than seeing him as one we must appease. Be committed to your neighbor for his benefit, and his benefit ALONE. Love in this sense is not emotion, but commitment. Going through the motions shows a lack of commitment; it betrays the selfishness which lives in us.

Such religion earns us nothing except the threat of punishment. As Jesus warns: "Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. I tell you the truth, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny" (Matt 5:25,26).

The warning hits home, doesn't it? With sticks and stones we break bones, and with words we hurt others deeper still, and our hearts hardly settle things quickly with a sincere request for forgiveness. Husbands? Wives? Would you deny you have hurt each other at times, and then continued to hold a grudge? Moms or dads, have you ever held your bad days at the office against your kids? Kids, do you get mad at mom and dad simply because they ask you to help around the house. Angry words; hard hearts: the eternal prison awaits us.

The Pharisees were wrong then; we cannot keep the commandments by going through the motions. Religion, then, as we commonly understand it also does not gain us access to heaven's gates. God demands perfection in our lives. We have nothing to give him; our hands are empty. The commandments, far from being kept, only show us how sinful we actually are (Romans 3:20), and how deserving we are of NOT heaven's but HELL'S gate.

If it is not mechanical religion by which we gain unsurpassed righteousness, where do we look? Where do we find this righteousness which escapes us from the gnawing of our hearts which says, "I sure hope I have been good enough to earn a place in heaven. But who can be sure?"

What important questions are these to answer! To have this answer revealed to you in God's Word -and to simply believe it- is what finally rescues you from the prison of man-made religion, opens heaven's gate for you and carries you right through the gates themselves! This is what happened to Martin Luther long ago. When the Holy Spirit revealed the answer to Luther, he said it was like heaven's gates had opened up to him! He didn't mean this figuratively either. He knew the gates had been opened to him. The Father wants us to know that heaven's gates are open to us too, despite our sins.

There is only one place to find righteousness which surpasses that of the Pharisees! Surely, it is not found in our lives, nor in our hearts. When Jesus said, "Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees you will never ever enter the kingdom of heaven," he is not pointing us to half-heartedly keep some rules which God laid down. He is directly us to HIM! He says, "I am the One who gives you this unsurpassed righteousness. I came to live for you the righteous life that is impossible for you, a sinner, to live for yourself."

He did this keeping all the commandments perfectly in thought, word and action, being perfect God, and sinless man at the same time. For instance he kept the fifth commandment in our place, "Do not murder," despite the best attempts of some to goad him into saying: "Forget the fifth commandment! I shall murder my enemies with harsh words, just as they have done to me!"

The teachers of the law were jealous of Jesus' reputation as a teacher, so they tried to cut him down. But Jesus did not seek revenge but kept at teaching God's word with accuracy and authority as he had always done. Pharisees did not like how Jesus would call them to repentance. "How dare he! Doesn't he see the effort we put into going through the motions." To get back at Jesus, they would vainly try to embarrass him with trick questions. Jesus was wrongfully put on trial, and convicted without evidence; yet even then he did not lash out in anger. After He was nailed to the cross as a criminal, He simply prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34).

 This perfect life he lived for you, so the Father would count HIS obedience to all the commandments as if YOU had kept them! As Romans 5:19 proclaims: "Through the obedience of the one man, the many will be made righteous." Therefore, God does see us as surpassingly righteous, as saints, and not because we did anything at all! Christ did it all FOR US!

Therefore, unlike the couple on the TV sitcom who tries to enter the restaurant by slipping the host a twenty, we do not have to worry about buying off God like this. The gates of heaven are open to you right now!  The Father has already placed your name in the book of reservations called the Book of Life. On that Day when He announces your name—that you may enter the heavenly gates—someone else's name will ring in your ears. That name is Jesus Christ.