Today’s readings tell us that the later pages of the Bible can improve on what was taught in the earlier pages. For instance, the First Commandment as Moses delivered it back in 1250 B.C. said that God inflicts punishment “for their fathers’ wickedness on the children of those who hate God down to the third and fourth generation.” But six centuries later Ezekiel changed that to say God judges children and grandchildren only on their own merits. He says that God utterly rejects the old saying “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are se on edge.
In the Gospel reading Jesus turned on the Pharisees whose confidence of being saved was based on their meticulous following of all the prescripts of the Old Testament. Jesus told his disciples, “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”