That's a trap! Well, it's not really a trap. It's just a clever rhetorical flourish on the part of Jesus. And I mean, it is very clever the way he's setting this thing up. Where in Matthew chapter 5, we are just getting Jesus' first big public words to everybody. This is a very confusing thing for people, a very exciting thing for people. His audience sitting there listening to him on the hill would have been wondering if maybe Jesus was the promised Messiah who was gonna straighten everything out and give blind sight and solve all the problems and sit on the throne of David for all of eternity. And so they're pretty interested to see if he's gonna tick all the boxes. And so far he has. And he gets up, okay, everybody. And he lays out this description of this beautiful upside-down kingdom with values that are the opposite of the world, where things that the world kind of despises are celebrated and blessed and rewarded in the kingdom. It's the kind of thing that no matter how hard somebody's heart is, they would hear that and be like, actually, I have to admit, that does sound better. But two problems. One, we already have a system, and what are you going to do with that? And two, can you actually deliver? Well, we've spent the last several days talking about the system that's already in place and how Jesus is the fulfillment of that. And that's what he says in Matthew 5, 17 and 18. I didn't come to abolish the law or the prophets, but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappeared, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pin will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished. And so there's this language of fulfillment and completion there that at least vaguely addresses one of the big questions. What do we do with what we already have? But then the second big question, can he deliver? That one is still lingering out there, and it's not really going to be answered until we get to the end of the Sermon on the Mount. And then it's pretty amazing because it immediately gets answered. So you got this crowd, they got these questions percolating in their mind. Jesus says, Don't worry about the law, it's still going to be there, but it's going to be fulfilled and completed. People are wondering exactly what that means. And he goes on in verse 19 to say, anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever practices and teaches these commandments will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Okay, here's how we're setting up the trap. Remember, the audience that is in place physically at the moment that Jesus is saying this stuff is twofold. One, he's teaching his disciples. I mean, it says that explicitly. Verse one of the Sermon on the Mount, chapter five. Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him and he began to teach them, saying, So he's talking to his disciples, but there are crowds and other people gathered around as well, and they're listening in. Twofold audience. We get the impression from the way things are going so far, and from reading between the lines of what Jesus is saying that he's addressing an audience that is very sensitive to the things they've been taught by the religious elite of the day. The Pharisees, the Sadducees, the teachers of the law have basically taken all of these people through first century Jewish confirmation. And these people are very much tethered by this religion because you have to physically go places and physically do things to participate, given the Levitical law that we talked about the last few days. So everybody's very steeped in this. It's not like casual religion time. These people really get what's being talked about. And further, I think this crowd would have actually included the teachers of the law, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, or some combination of those groups, because they were pretty curious about Jesus. They made the trek out to see what was going on with the whole John the Baptist thing. And because of the way Jesus talks, you get the impression that they're here or that they're going to have all of this stuff reported back to them one way or another. So that's why Jesus is setting up this clever little rhetorical flourish. Think about that last verse. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Now I think this is a very simple equation. What kind of person is going to hear that little duology statement and be like, ah, bummer, that's not good for me. And what kind of person is going to hear that and think to themselves, well, I mean, yeah, I'd have to agree with Jesus on that one. Okay, the crappy person, the normal person, the mundane person who doesn't get paid to do religious things, is gonna hear that and be like, well, I yeah, I mean, I have problems, yes. I've broken one of the least of those commandments. That's that's disappointing. And well, really, I mean, the only people who don't are like the the professional major league religious people, the really good ones there. Like, obviously they hit every pitch that's thrown to them, but the rest of us, you know, we're we muddle along. Oh, that's a pity. I guess I'll have to be least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Now, who's gonna hear that second part and be like, well, that applies to me? Well, obviously, the religious elites. They're going to say, you know what? From a very early age, I was devoted to the teaching of a rabbi. This is an actual thing that happened. This is how it works. This is what uh Saul, who later became known as Paul, this is what his deal was growing up. You get committed to this rabbi, you learn at their feet, you gather all of this information, you are under supervision, your behavior is closely monitored, and all of these mental and physical checks are in place to the point where a lot of these religious leaders genuinely believed that they didn't sin. They just were getting stuff right all the time, I guess. And they had mastered it through their position and their training and their self-discipline, and frankly, they're just being better than the normal plebs that run around and do the farming and merchanting and whatnot to keep everything else afloat. There's an elite class, there's a common class, and they're in conflict here. But what's interesting is how you think about this, it's an upside-down kingdom. Jesus is saying something that seems to set some rules that would be very familiar to the world kingdom mind. You suspect that there's something common here, because he just spent the first eleven or twelve verses or whatever talking about how this kingdom is upside down. So where's the twist? Uh ha. Verse 20. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. Problem. What this means is he's saying no one is going to get this right. He's saying, if anybody breaks one of the least of these commandments, you're the least in the kingdom of heaven. But if you get it all right, you'll be called great in the kingdom of heaven. And he goes on and expands on this idea, for I tell you, not but I tell you. He's continuing the same thought, that unless you're even better than the elite, the top-flight big league religious people who never get anything wrong and who never miss any pitches, and unless you bat a thousand perfect, even better than they bat a thousand perfect, all tongue in cheek, then you can't enter the kingdom of heaven. Two things just happened. There's a lot of two things in this episode. Thing number one, this reframes the importance of the religious elite in one fell swoop. Wait a minute. Nobody's better than them. Nobody. There is no class, there is no individual, there is no religious rock star who goes around and does concerts and has posters and stuff, and everybody has trading cards of him, and they trade the cards, and the kids would never put that guy's card in the spokes of their primitive first century 80 Galilean bicycle because it's just too valuable and they're gonna keep it forever and they hope their mom doesn't throw it away while they're off at Jewish college and someday they can come back and maybe sell it when the religious rock star trading card is worth more. Like not even that guy, there is no such guy. Nobody can achieve this thing. So, one, there's a shock because the religious elites aren't enough and they just got shamed in front of everybody. And the second thing that happens here is it raises the question well then who's in the kingdom and why are you telling all of this stuff to us? Why did you bring us up here on a hill? Why did you have that attractive beard and those nice calming words and describe this beautiful paradise that no one can go to? This is the dumbest, most backward thing ever. And for you and me, whether we've been around religion for a while or not, we read through that and it just doesn't hit us as hard as it would have hit the original audience. Because you and I are like, oh yeah, that's very important. Jesus is talking about humility, and but to them, they don't know what he's gonna say next. And so for them, there's this impossibility, this conundrum that's been set up. Well, what he says next is gonna be really crucial to speaking back and to answering the riddle that he just put forth. But as we hit our pause point here, in summary, Jesus just set up the atonement conundrum that we talked about two conversations ago, and what I think we were calling that number 107. The atonement conundrum is everybody understands guilt, everybody understands failure. That failure might be because you did something stupid, it might be because you did something accidental, it might be that you didn't even know you failed, it might be because somebody did something to you, it might be because of just how the world is, but one way or another, everyone has problems, everyone is in a situation that is in need of atonement, and because of the linear nature of time and space, here comes the conundrum, you can't fix it. You can make it better, you can ameliorate the consequences, you can soothe your soul and try to make the other victims or people you might have been involved in hurting feel better, but you cannot go and unmake the past. Therefore, atonement is something only achievable in limited doses in fractions of reality for normal people. Same conundrum right here that Jesus just set up. Here's a kingdom where atonement is a thing. The law promises atonement. To have the law completed or fulfilled would mean that atonement is real. It's achievable, it's something that you can have. But one half of a paragraph later, he's like, but not even the best of you can achieve that. So and then the way he's gonna clarify what he actually meant is genius. He's gonna go thing by thing through key religious behaviors and principles and demonstrate how even getting that right isn't really getting it right. What he's done, and I think this is genius, is he's thrown out the breadcrumbs one by one. People are like, yeah, that makes sense. Yep, that makes sense, yep, that makes sense. I would want to be a part of this. How do we sign up? Oh, righteousness? Oh, but there's supposed to be one more crumb, and it's supposed to be the one of how we get righteous enough to do that, but that that crumb's not there. Well, surprise, now you're all the way over here after following the trail of breadcrumbs, and now I'm gonna walk you through the next thought that's gonna make sense of the impossibility of this situation. And in setting up the impossibility of the situation, what Jesus is going to do in an upcoming master stroke is demonstrate that he is the solution to this impossible situation. More on that tomorrow, but first, something very important. How are you guys doing on toilet paper? Everybody okay? I'm guessing not everybody's okay. I had a friend who told me a few days ago that he had to order some on Amazon and that he was basically effectively out. And so I was at a hardware store, a hardware store, and I saw one pack of six rolls of toilet paper, and I was like, I'm getting that, and I'm giving it to my friend because we don't really need it, and we're a bidet family, and I'm quite proud of that. And so then I went to get it to him, but somebody else had already found some and he had his toilet paper needs met. So guess what? I have six extra rolls of toilet paper, and I bet some of you are dying for toilet paper, and it would be my greatest honor to send a roll of toilet paper to whoever the first people are who email me and ask for a roll of toilet paper and give me their address. And thus concludes the worst promotion in the history of podcasting. But seriously, if you need toilet paper, I have extra, and I will send you some. And literally on that note, we are wrapping it up. I'm Matt. This is the 10 minute Bible Hour Podcast. Let's do this again soon.