This passage from Matthew’s Gospel contrasts the idea of righteousness in the ‘kingdom of heaven’ with the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees. Where is the difference? It’s not in external behavior, but interior attitude.

The Jews associated righteousness with three basic acts of piety: almsgiving, prayer and fasting. In each instance, Jesus draws a contrast between the spurious piety of display, and genuine piety which is unassuming, and seeks to conceal itself.

Almsgiving has always been considered a virtue by every religious tradition. It serves two purposes: it acts as a deterrent to the accumulation of wealth, which usually has a corrupting influence; and it makes us sensitive to the needs of our poorer brothers and sisters. Jesus emphasizes a generosity which is unassuming, and which does not draw attention to itself for personal publicity.

For the Jews praying was usually a public act, uttered at set times of the day, much like what Muslims do today. At these times a Jew would stop and stand wherever he was – unless the place was dirty and unfit for prayer – so he would be noticed. It was also customary for Jews to say long prayers. Jesus’s directives are all to the contrary: do not wait to be noticed when you pray, but pray in the secrecy of your room, and with directness and honesty.

Fasting too, which in the Jewish tradition meant abstaining from food from sunrise to sunset twice a week, easily became an occasion for showing off. More than pleasing God, it contributed to a person’s smug self-satisfaction. Jesus insists that such devotion is performed in secrecy and silence if it has to have any value at all.

True religion is the religion of the heart -- this is what the Sermon on the Mount tells us. External performance, sometimes necessary, is always secondary. If the heart is not transformed by acts of piety, such acts are performed in vain.