This pivotal passage in Matthew sets up Jesus as the teacher whose wisdom is the ultimate interpretation of the law. From here on in Matthew, the opposition mounts as Jesus’ way and wisdom counter the conventional teaching of the day. The passage precedes the conflicts about work and healing on the Sabbath in the next chapter and the parables in chapter 13, which we will read in the coming three Sundays.

I am old enough to remember etiquette maven Emily Post and numerous lectures on walking and sitting “like a lady,” and standing “up straight” that were daily fare when I was young. Back then, it was just a burden to my free spirit. It wasn’t until recently that I began to understand there might have been some deep wisdom in all of this “posture talk.” The pain in my lower back and hips had become so chronic I was thinking I would be a candidate for surgery soon. Then my brother-in-law introduced me to a simple regimen of exercises, really more postures, which are held for a few minutes daily. Though I am not quite pain free, in just one month’s time the return to proper posture has me feeling quite comfortable again. Finally, after all these years I understand there was something at the heart of all those rules.

Jesus launched His ministry into a world that was full of rules, rules without heart, behaviors with no center, posture just for appearance sake. All of this had become a heavy, externalized burden. Into that world, He interjected a new way of seeing that called people toward the center from which true morality, conversion and compassion flow.

The wisdom of Jesus is world-subverting wisdom that undermines and challenges the conventional ways of seeing and being. The Pharisees, whom Paul might have labeled “debtors to the flesh,” felt threatened by this wisdom. In the weeks to come, we will hear the parables of Jesus, which they could not understand. We will be invited to this new way of seeing; to true morality, conversion and compassion.

My little discovery about the heart of posture has me feeling much better physically. Are there other teachings I may have discarded along the way that revisited for their heart, their center, in the light of Christ, might be seen and appreciated in new ways.