All Saints Day
1 November 2026
Vineville Baptist Church
Macon, Georgia
W. Gregory Pope
MAKING MUSIC WITH YOUR LIFE
Matthew 5.17-20, 48. Romans 13.8-10
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever 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 does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven . . . Be perfect, therefore, as your Father in heaven is perfect.
In the remarkable novel The Kite Runner, wise words are spoken to the main character, telling him in a moment of crisis: “There is a way to be good again.” Today’s passage from the Sermon on the Mount lay a foundation for a way to be good again, a way to live a Deeper Uncommon Goodness, a Truer Life-giving Righteousness.
Much of how we understand what is required of us as followers of Jesus has to do with how we understand our relationship between biblical Law and the Gospel. Within the New Testament there is a complex conversation about the Christian’s relationship between the Law of Moses and the Gospel of Jesus. I want to offer just a sampling of biblical passages to help us see why Christians vary in their understandings of what the New Testament has to say about the Law.
In our text for today Jesus himself says: Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. And then we read in the letter to the Ephesians: Christ has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace (Eph 2.15). To the Romans Paul writes: You have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another (Rom 7.4). We are now discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we are enslaved in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the written code. (Rom 7.6). And to the Galatians Paul writes: I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing. (Gal 2.21) Everybody clear?
Jesus had a deep and abiding respect for the Law of Moses we find in the Hebrew scriptures. When confronted with a question Jesus almost always responded by asking the inquirer, “What does the law say?” Jesus was a faithful Jew who was not only deeply committed to, but faithfully followed, the law of God.
Except, of course, for those times when he didn’t. If you’ve read the four gospels, you know that the same Jesus who embraced the law in today’s passage transcended the law in other passages. Later in Matthew’s gospel: Jesus touched a leper to heal him, breaking one of the
commandments in the law (8.3). He also helped someone on the Sabbath who could have been helped on another day, breaking yet another commandment in the law (12.13). And those are just a couple of the several occasions in the gospels when Jesus, who loved the law, also transcended the law.
Given those instances and others alongside this morning’s gospel lesson, what exactly did Jesus mean when he said he did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it? Jewish New Testament scholar Amy-Jill Levine describes fulfilling the law as “drawing out its full implications.”1 Other scholars have said that Jesus came to “deepen the law” or to “get to the heart of the law” or to “discern for us the true intent of the law.”2
What is the true intent? What are the full implications? In other passages of scripture
we seem to find some clarification from Jesus and the apostle Paul. In our first reading this morning from Romans Paul writes: Owe no one anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law (Rom 13.8). Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law (Rom 13.10). And to the Galatians Paul writes: Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ (Gal 6.2). For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment,“You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Gal 5.14).
Some of us have been taught that every word of Old Testament Law is just as relevant today as it was when it was first written. Though not one of us observes it completely, we are nevertheless told that we should. Others of us have been taught Paul’s perspective that the Law is death and Jesus came to free us from it. We’ve been led to feel that the Law is the equivalent of a four-letter word. Hopefully the Spirit will clarify the matter for us today as we hear that both Jesus and Paul are trying to teach us that the Law is indeed a four-letter word. It is spelled L-O-V-E.3 When asked the greatest commandment Jesus said, All the law and the prophets can be summed up this way: Love the Lord your God will all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.
So it seems that the Law of Moses for Christians neither remains as it is nor is it done away with; rather it is fulfilled and transformed in Jesus Christ. Everything is now to be interpreted and lived out in the light of Jesus. We’re not to return to the letter of the law but we are to interpret all of scripture through the lens of Jesus. It seems that Jesus fulfilled the law by interpreting the law in the light of love; following the law in a way which is guided by love and kindness, compassion and grace. Both Jesus and Paul, with a little help from Jesus’ brother James, make it very clear that at the heart of everything gospel is the law of love. Jesus said it’s been the purpose of the Law and the Prophets all along.
What then does Jesus mean when he says that our righteousness must “exceed” that of the scribes and Pharisees? The scribes and Pharisees were devoted to the letter of the law more than anyone else. They deeply loved God’s law, but it seemed they missed its true intent. The righteousness of the scribes and pharisees focused too much on what not to do and not enough on what to do, too much on narrow interpretations of the law and not enough on the major actions of justice and compassion and love. Jesus called those who embodied such righteousness “hypocrites” which means “play actors on stage.” They pray on street corners to be praised by others. They blow a trumpet when they give alms to the poor. You may know the type. It’s those the little girl prayed for when she said, “Dear God, make all the bad people good and the good people nice.”
The words “righteousness” and “righteous” may carry negative connotations for some of us. As in a kind of “self-righteousness,” a holier-than-thou, better-than-thou, smarter-than-thou type
of person – a person puffed up with their own goodness looking down on others, what Mark Twain called “a good man in the worst sense of the word.” Like a person going around looking for a vacancy in a stained glass window.
We tend to back away from the word “righteous.” But there is a kind of righteous goodness we aspire to, which we admire in others and hope for ourselves. Jesus wants to lead us there. The word “righteous” in the Bible means being aligned with God, and the greatest alignment is the alignment of love. Without love all our attempts at goodness fall flat. We are led to
this deeper goodness, this truer righteousness, when we understand that Jesus by coming to fulfill the law means that every aspect of the Law and the Prophets must be interpreted and understood in the light of his teachings. And to say that our righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees is to say that we are to live a different kind of righteousness, a righteousness that seeks to express the merciful, forgiving, reconciling will of God that lies at the center of biblical law.4
What about when Jesus says later in the sermon, “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect”? That word “perfect” is pretty scary. Especially for those of you perfectionists out there,
who are driven by the need for perfection and haunted by a fear of failure. Is Christianity nothing more than following the rules, striving for moral perfectionism?
When Jesus calls us “to be perfect as God in heaven is perfect” we should take it seriously but not fearfully. The Greek word translated “perfect” means something closer to completeness and wholeness than it does to perfection. The Gospel of Luke translates Jesus’ words to read: “Be compassionate as your heavenly Father is compassionate.”
Think of those people you know whose goodness seems good through and through. It’s like they’ve become almost transparent with the love of God. That’s the kind of goodness Jesus lived. He came to love the world, not scold it. And that’s why we love him. He is the secret to the deeper goodness.
The same truer deeper goodness that marked the way of Jesus – that same spirit lives on in those who most closely follow him. That same Spirit is working in us. And those who most closely follow Jesus get up every morning and demand from themselves, a righteousness which exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees. But they also always draw the widest circle of love and grace and welcome for others.
The fact that this deeper righteousness is the work of God’s Spirit in us gives me hope. Jesus will spend the rest of the sermon, describing this new righteousness as it relates to anger and reconciliation, lust and adultery, truth-telling and retaliation, prayer and giving and fasting, anxiety and judging. Into this deeper goodness, this truer righteousness is where we are headed.
Frederick Buechner re-frames the definition of Righteousness and our relationship with the Law with the beautiful analogy of piano playing: Junior is practicing the piano. But the piano teacher tells him: “You haven’t got it right!” Junior is holding his hands the way he’s been told. His fingering is exceptional. He’s memorized the piece perfectly. He’s hit all the proper notes with deadly accuracy. But he’s not getting anywhere close to making music. He’s bored to death and so is anyone who hears him. His heart’s not in it; only his hands. He’s just going through the motions. What he’s playing is a sort of music but nothing that will start voices singing or feet tapping. The scribes and Pharisees were playing it by the Book. They didn’t slip up on a single do or don’t. But they were getting it all wrong. Righteousness is getting it all right. If you play it the way it’s supposed to be played, there shouldn’t be a still foot in the house.5
That’s the deeper uncommon goodness and righteousness. The Righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and pharisees is a righteousness that is more than just playing the right notes,
plunking down the right finger on the right key. It’s about making music with our lives – the music of love. You know it when you see it. You smile when you hear it. It’s the real thing. The deeper goodness, the greater righteousness is all about learning to sing the law of love, not just obey it. It’s about making music with good and beautiful lives. Lives like those we remember today who made beautiful music we can still hear. This deeper goodness is Christ living out his life in our lives.
Make no mistake: God is not a perfectionist. God is a gardener who wants us simply to grow in holiness and goodness and wholeness as we walk with Jesus and Jesus walks with us. God is also a musician. And we are God’s violin. And upon our lives the music of Beauty and Truth and Goodness is to be played for the healing of the world. May it be so.
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1. Amy-Jill Levine, Sermon on the Mount, Abingdon, 2020, 240
2. David Garland, Matthew, Crossroad, 1993, 53
3. John Siburt, “Fulfilling the Law,” in Fleer and Bland, ed., Preaching the Sermon on the Mount, Chalice, 2007, 101
4. Thomas Long, Matthew, Westminster John Knox Press, 1997, 53-54
5. Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking, Harper Collins, 1973, 82