Perhaps the most misunderstood text in all of scripture is the one where Jesus says to us: “Unless your virtue goes deeper than that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
Ron Rolheiser, OMI
AN INVITATION TO A DEEPER VIRTUE
We generally misunderstand that because we wrongly think that Jesus is referring to the vices of the scribes and Pharisees, not their virtue. We look at the hypocrisy, jealousy, double standard, and rigid legalism of the scribes and Pharisees and easily distance ourselves from that. But it wasn’t their vices that Jesus was referring to, but their virtues.
In fact, they had a pretty high standard. The Ten Commandments, strict justice in all things, compassion for the poor, and the practice of hospitality, constituted their ideal for virtuous living.
In Jesus’s view, what’s wrong is that it’s still too easy. Jesus’ invites us “beyond”, beyond natural reaction, beyond instinct, beyond giving back in kind, beyond legal rights, beyond strict justice, beyond the need to be right, beyond even the Ten Commandments, beyond the virtue of the scribes and Pharisees.
Indeed the litmus test for Christian orthodoxy is not the creed (Can you believe this set of truths?) but this particular challenge from Jesus: Can you love an enemy? Can you not give back in kind? Can you move beyond your natural reactions and transform the energy that enters you from others, so as to not give back bitterness for bitterness, harsh words for harsh words, curse for curse, hatred for hatred, murder for murder? Can you rise above your sense of being wronged? Can you renounce your need to be right? Can you move beyond the itch to always have what’s due you? Can you forgive, even when every feeling inside of you rebels at its unfairness? Can you take in bitterness, curses, hatred, and murder itself, and give back graciousness, blessing, love, understanding, and forgiveness?
That’s the root invitation inside of Christianity and it’s only when we do this that we move beyond “an eye for an eye”.
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