A Famine Not of Bread

Click here to listen. [Jesus said:] “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Any religion worth its salt is concerned with righteousness—righteousness among people and especially righteousness before God. In fact, I would go so far as to say: All religions except Christianity teach that people must find a way to make themselves righteous enough to be acceptable to God, to earn their own salvation. Such was the case with the scribes and the Pharisees. And if it were possible for anyone to ever pull it off, it might have been the scribes and the Pharisees. They were so serious about their religion, they established their own set of rules to make sure they kept God’s law. But that very addition to God’s law weakened the killing, condemning power of the law, turning it into “manageable law,” a self-help manua...

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The scribes and the Pharisees—for us Christians today those names conjure up negative images for they were the primary opponents of our Lord.  But it would not have been so in Jesus’ day.  The Pharisees were well-known and highly respected religious leaders who believed and taught that in order to live under God’s favor the Jews needed to separate themselves from the Gentiles and return to strict observance of Mosaic Law.  The scribes could trace their origin back to Ezra, the first priest called a scribe (7:11-12).  The title literally means a writer, a secretary who prepares and copies scrolls, but over the years, their role was greatly increased to being the chief interpreters and public teachers of the Law.  Both groups were established with good intentions.  Prior to the Babylonian captivity, God’s Word had been so neglected that 2 Kings reports the dis...