Sermon on the Mount: The Call of Mercy part 1

CONTEXT

READING

INTERACTION - signs of God’s favour? Blessing?

MAKARIOS

WHAT ARE THE BEATITUDES FOR?

THREE TYPES OF BEATITUDES

CONTEXT:

What happened between last week (Jesus tested in the wilderness) and this week’s text?

Calling of the first disciples - Matthew 4:18-22

Matthew 4:18–22 NIV

18 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” 20 At once they left their nets and followed him. 21 Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, 22 and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

Healing ministry - Matthew 4:23-25

Matthew 4:23–25 NIV

23 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. 24 News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed; and he healed them. 25 Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.

So Jesus has called some followers and they’ve followed Him. Picking up a few more along the way. And then they’ve embarked on a teaching and healing campaign - a successful one!

But now, Jesus will wander away from the crowds… go up on a mountainside and sit down. The followers follow. And He begins to teach.

Wait, didn’t you always think of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount as being Him teaching a whole crowd?

Well, Matthew 7:28-29 tells us why we have that image.

Matthew 7:28–29 NIV

28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29 because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.

So, he goes up the mountain. And begins teaching his followers. His inner circle, if you will. But obviously, there are others listening in. Including, thanks to the gospel writer, US. Jesus is teaching a few - Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John. But the people around them are listening too. And we get to join them - hearing Jesus teach. What is it that Jesus wants us to hear?

Dean, will you come and read for us? And will you please stand to hear the beginning of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount from Matthew chapter 5?

Reading: Matthew 5:1-16

Matthew 5:1–16 NIV

1 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them. He said: 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. 10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. 13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. 14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

Salt and light. This is what the disciples and early followers of Jesus are declared to be.

Salt and light. This is what we are, through this Gospel Word, declared to be.

Bringing flavour to the world God made and loves, an agent of preservation and cleansing.

Bringing light - or perhaps reflecting the light that Jesus brings into the world. The light that last week was described using that image from Isaiah 9… dawning in the darkness so that the day of gloom would be over.

Salt and light. A special calling indeed. Perhaps one could even call it a “blessed” calling?

A description of what kingdom people are.

BLESSING/GOD’S FAVOUR - interactive

What do we typically think of when we hear the word “Blessing” or “Blessed” or “Fortunate” or ??

What do we congratulate people for?

What are the markers we assume go with seeing God’s blessing in someone’s life?

MAKARIOS

Happy, lucky, fortunate, blessed. It can be both blessed by a divinity (with good fortune), or a quality of divinity itself -- in classical Greek the gods are themselves makarios. I think the contrast between the adjective and the subject is deliberate -- usually we would say the "poor" or "hungry" were "unfortunate", but Jesus is saying it aint necessarily so. I think "Providential" might get at a good translation, but I can't think of a concise way to say "blessed by Providence". So "blessed" is about as good as it gets, I guess.

Darrell Johnson: Makarios refers to how God assesses us and our condition. Blessed. Happy. Right-side up. In-alignment. In sync.

“in sync with the kingdom of heaven” …

This is not how we would define “blessedness”

What are the Beatitudes FOR? An announcement of what the Kingdom of heaven is like, and where it can be found. A description of someone who is living IN that kingdom - again, in contrast to the Kingdom or the Empire of Rome.

The Beatitudes emphatically tell us that it is the poor in spirit, the meek, the pure in heart, the peacemakers and the persecuted - these are the ones to whom the kingdom belongs. These are the ones who shall inherit the earth, see God, and be called Children of God.

And in the Beatitudes, Jesus gives a description of a person who belongs to the kingdom - and to whom the kingdom belongs. Not a bunch of profiles or a description of a variety of ways to follow Jesus or people in whom we might see the kingdom.

Darrell Johnson writes this: “Jesus is not describing eight different kinds of kingdom people; rather, He is describing eight interrelated qualities that emerge in every “kingdomized” person. He is saying that each person grabbed hold of by Him and His gospel becomes poor in spirit, meek, merciful, and pure in heart.”

He also suggests that each Beatitude is understood or interpreted through the others. Interrelated & inseparable.

Dale Bruner suggests that there are three types of beatitudes:

EMPTY/LACK - the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness

FULL/HELP - merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers

HURT/PERSECUTION - persecuted, insulted, unfairly treated and misunderstood because of righteousness

Who Does Jesus bless?

Jesus blesses empty people, [people who, usually in the world’s opinion and often even in their own, do not measure up — “failures,” broken people, the world’s underclass, the wretched of the earth.] re-word

Then…Jesus blesses full people [who reach out into the world in imitation of the One who has reached down tot them, giving the world the three main things it craves — heart, purity, and peace.] re-word

[Finally,] Jesus blesses hurt people [who take flack for trying to bring Jesus’ blessing into a strangely resistant world] re-word

Now, we may be able to nod at this as an idea. But in reality, when we are empty or hurt, I don’t think we’re very quick to say, “Oh, God’s blessing is on me right now.” We may claim God’s favour as something that rests upon us DESPITE our circumstances. But in the Beatitudes, Jesus seems to suggest that there is a necessity about being empty and broken, overlooked or not measuring up in order to enter the Kingdom of heaven. And certainly the idea of being kicked for trying to share the blessing we’ve received… well, don’t we mostly look at those moments as avoidable failures? (They should have … I should have … )

What would be different about how we view the need to be full and successful and always prepared to help

Dale Bruner sums it up like this:

“I see in the sequence of Blessings the grace of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who picks up all who are down and sends them out in the world to pick others up, knowing this will lead these very helpers, mysteriously, to be thrown back down in persecution and, so, into need; from whence they will rise again from their knees to their feet, where they will again be knocked down an so on the rest of their lives — the aerobics of discipleship.”

So who does Jesus bless? What does the blessing of God look like in a human life? And in humanity more broadly?

EMPTY/LACK - the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness

FULL/HELP - merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers

HURT/PERSECUTION - persecuted, insulted, unfairly treated and misunderstood because of righteousness

And then Jesus makes his statements about these kingdomized people… moving from Blessed are to the You are… you folks are the salt and the light.

Jesus tells us who we are. And in Matthew, Jesus tells disciples who they are before He tells them what to do. (Our next few weeks will dive a little deeper into what Jesus tells us to do)

So again, being the salt and light - purifying, bringing flavour, and preventing corruption in the places we live, work and play AND reflecting the goodness of God in the places we live, work and play.

And people who are salt and light will also be people who discover the blessing of God, the favour of God found in LACK, in FULLNESS (in which we can then help others) and when that FULLNESS is misunderstood, emptied out, and that will HURT. We discover in that third movement that we are back in a place of emptiness once again. But NOT outside of the BLESSING of God.

I was on Facebook last night and came across a picture of four people - three I recognized. The one couple are a former CBWC pastor and his wife - who served in Vancouver and then in the interior. In the photo, they are with another couple - who I realize I recognize one half of the pair. The man is Elijah Brown who is the General Secretary of the Baptist World Alliance. And I did what we often do when we see people on social media who we didn’t realize are connected… I marvelled at the ways life often overlaps and interconnects us.

Both couples ended up in the UK for school - and that awful feeling when your currency doesn’t go as far as you expected it to...

“Megan and David, when I, on my knees, asked God over 20 years ago now, to teach me hospitality, I thought he’d help us open our doors and fill our table for others. Instead, he took all our doors and tables away, over and over again and made us utterly dependent on other people’s hospitality in our lives, for our lives.”