Mt 5:1-20

Reading Mt 5:1-20 all together as one piece, before looking at the individual statements, is good.  It turns us to Mt 5:20 as a conclusion to the whole of the passage. 

It is right to think of Mt 5:20 as opportunistic,  but it is not right to disparage this appeal as a lower form of ethical appeal.  It is not wrong to strive to enter the kingdom of heaven, and not wrong to consider the categorization by the Lord of the scribes and Pharisees in 5:20.

What is the outcome, after all, of a striving-eliminated religion, but a kind of passivity that has been wrongly associated with Protestantism?   Striving, as such, is not to be equated with what Jesus points out here, the righteousness that is "of the scribes and Pharisees." The striving of the scribes and Pharisees regarding the kingdom of heaven is the striving to exit into it, having covered a distance.  The striving taught by our savior regarding the kingdom of heaven, is a striving to enter, apart from the supposed covering of a distance.  The Sermon on the Mount stands here in Mt 5-7, given to those at the beginning of Christ's ministry.  The disciples came up to Jesus where He sat, and listened.  This is not their graduation ceremony speech!

As some theologians point out, there is a kairos-based motive toward goodness and the Lord's blessings, that is different than an accomplishment-based motive toward goodness and the Lord's blessings.  The second motive counts on ability.  But ability fails here.  "Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able (Lk 13:24).."

The door (Jesus) had come to men.  "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Mt 4:17)," we had read last week.