Jesus also said that a married person merely looking lustfully at someone other than their spouse committed adultery in the heart. No action taken. Just thought crime. I'm troubled by the notion that righteousness isn't treated in the same way. It's a staircase that only goes down. And I'm not so much changing the formula, which I take as water + words, as much as wondering about the intrinsic values of its components. But I'm a little clearer on this now, I think.
Jesus was dealing with something very different, IMHO. He was pointing out that sin has its root in the heart, in the life of the mind and spirit. It's never just an external thing ("oops, I tripped and fell onto her lips"). And therefore anyone who tries to deal with sin by policing externals while ignoring the heart is attempting something hopeless--rather like trying to get rid of running bamboo by chopping it down when you notice it. The main mass of it is underground, and has to be completely dug up if you're ever to be free of it again.
So what he's saying is not a judicial statement: "I'm here to assign a penalty for your lustful thought!" No, it's an observation of reality: the minute that person looked with lust, he/she started the root of adultery growing. Wait long enough without repentance, and that poisonous root will surface, grow stems and leaves, and eventually create a huge freaking mess in at least two lives.
I understand the desire to flesh this out beyond the status of a thought crime. And I don't necessarily disagree with what you're saying, because it's a reasonable take for sure. It's just that Jesus said something akin to "has already committed," and I think it's hard to walk-back a past-tense reality to a present-to-future-tense probability. I still tend to go with thought crime.
It's an interesting question of whether righteousness operates the same way. I suspect it does, when it's not frustrated by sin--just as sin roots and grows and flowers, when it's not frustrated by repentance. (so, not a staircase that only goes down)
And in fact, you could argue that Jesus does point to similar tiny seeds or "roots" of righteousness when he says this: “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person's reward. And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.” (Matthew 10:40-42) Taking this apart, it seems to me Jesus is saying that there are those who will receive rewards far beyond their own desert simply because they "received" or "gave a cup of cold water" to someone who was righteous, and by doing so they welcomed that person--and through that person, Jesus--and through him, God.
Forgive me if this seems too simplistic, but I think a closer analogy would be if the person imagined themselves giving a cup, or offering a welcome rather than actually doing so. It's the mental exercise in the absence of physical action I'm talking about.
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Forgive me if this seems too simplistic, but I think a closer analogy would be if the person imagined themselves giving a cup, or offering a welcome rather than actually doing so. It's the mental exercise in the absence of physical action I'm talking about.