A Study of Matthew: Re-Writing the Script

Opening Event

Wise and Otherwise

A bird in the hand __________

If at first you don’t succeed, __________

A friend in need __________

Where there is smoke __________

That which doesn’t kill you __________

Introduction

Taking a popular saying and putting a twist on it has been going on for centuries. Why? Because when you start with something everyone knows, they automatically think you are going to do one thing. Then you change it, and you catch everyone off guard. You get their attention.

It’s called misdirection, and it is a useful tool in communication.

Comedians do it for laughs. Movies do it for scares or to increase the drama. And, as it turns out, Jesus was a master of misdirection, putting a new spin on popular sayings and ideas. And we are going to look at one of the times Jesus did that.

Matthew 5:1–12 ESV

Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

The best way to get the most out of understanding the Bible is to know what the author was trying to communicate to the original audience. Matthew was writing to the Jewish people, the descendents of Abraham, the ones that the whole Old Testament are written about, to prove to them that Jesus is the Messiah, the ultimate hero of the Jewish people that God had promised to send. They have been waiting for the Messiah for at least a thousand years. Lots of guys have come along claiming to be Messiah. Matthew is writing this book to show the Jews what makes Jesus different from the other pretenders.

The setup for what we just read is that Jesus has just recently started his ministry. He went and got baptized. The other two members of the trinity show up, with God’s voice booming from the sky, “This is my son.” Then Jesus goes into the wilderness to fast and pray, and after 40 days, the devil shows up to tempt him, but Jesus doesn’t give in to any temptation. After that, Jesus shows up near the sea of Galilee and begins recruiting disciples that he will teach. But instead of going to the local schools to pick out the honor roll students, he goes down to the fishing docks and picks out some guys who are cleaning their boat after just coming back from fishing. They start following Jesus around, and Jesus is preaching, but he’s also healing people. Obviously, this draws a crowd.

So Jesus takes his small group of disciples up on the side of a mountain and he begins teaching them what we just read. It’s a passage we call “The Beatitudes.”

The word beatitude comes from the Latin word beatus, meaning “blessed” or “happy”. They are the blessing statements. It turns out that these statements were a somewhat well-known form of teaching and writing. Have you heard of the Dead Sea scrolls? The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of ancient Hebrew literature, which were found in caves near the Dead Sea around 1946-56. They are believed to have been written and put in those caves within 50 years of Jesus’ birth. The scrolls are amazing because they have copies of the Hebrew scriptures, the ones we call the Old Testament. And these documents are almost identical to the scriptures we have today, showing that God has preserved his word through the generations. There were also several documents that ultimately were not made part of the Bible. Among those ancient documents they found one in which all the statements begin with “Blessed are...” The statements in that document all refer to the blessings of following wisdom, but the format the document is nearly identical to the beatitudes. It seems that this document was extremely well known and considered very important back then.

Back to the story. Jesus gathers his disciples around him on top of a mountain. The crowd is nearby, within earshot, but Jesus is talking to his disciples. That’s important to know, because that means that the lesson he is going to teach is meant for those who already have made a decision to follow Jesus.

When Jesus opens his mouth and says, “Blessed are...”, everyone thinks Jesus is quoting the famous document about wisdom. Some of them probably began to speak it with him, like you probably do when your favorite song comes on the radio. But then his sentence goes on: “Blessed are—the poor in spirit...” WHAT?

Put yourself in the shoes of that audience. How would they have reacted to this message? First of all, that is NOT what the famous document says. It’s supposed to say something like “blessed are those who pursue wisdom.” But Jesus is taking this famous saying, and he’s twisting it. He’s rewriting the script.

Furthermore, what Jesus just said doesn’t make any sense to this audience! They’re probably thinking Jesus must have meant the RICH in spirit. Look at the pharisees, the sadducees, the religious leaders. They are rich in spirit. They know what is right, what is wrong. They follow all the laws. They are so much better than us. They’re the blessed ones, aren’t they?

Jesus goes on. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” HUH? What does it mean to mourn? If I’m mourning, it’s because I’ve gone through something bad. That doesn’t sound like blessing!

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” Isn’t meekness like weakness? In this world, the meek get pushed around. It’s the bold who get ahead.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” I mean, that one sound pretty good, but what about hungering for success? Isn’t that important? And we have the priests and religious leaders to tell us what to do. That’s righteousness, isn’t it?

“Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” Where is Jesus going with this?

“Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God.” When that audience heard that, they probably said to themselves, “We Jews have been under Roman occupation for years now. The only way we will have peace is when we drive them out. What is Jesus saying?”

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Does persecution sound like a blessing? The Jews listening to Jesus must have been baffled. They were hoping that Jesus was the promised Messiah, who would restore Jerusalem to it’s former glory. They were expecting a speech against the Roman empire and about how he was going to put the Jews back on top. Listening to Jesus, they were probably thinking, “We have been persecuted for centuries. Is that what he’s saying—that it’s finally our time to shine?”

Jesus goes on. “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Hold on now, Jesus! We have been waiting for Messiah to come and usher in God’s kingdom. This is supposed to be a time of rejoicing, not persecution. He’s making it sound like, if we follow him, we will suffer more persecution than ever.

How confused those listeners must have been that day. Everything Jesus called a blessing seemed the very opposite. What was Jesus trying to teach them that day?

Well, remember that Jesus’ primary audience was NOT the crowds. Instead, he was speaking to his disciples, the ones who committed to following him. He wanted them to know what he is about. What the kingdom is about.

We live in a world that values power. We value comfort and prestige. We want to be nice, and consider ourselves basically good, but we recognize that sometimes you have to step on some people a on your way to the top. That’s how the world works. God’s kingdom has a completely different set of values.

While we look up to people who have it all together, the Kingdom values the ones who recognize that they don’t have it together. Poor in spirit. Until we recognize that we are spiritually bankrupt, we never will turn to Jesus for help.

We live in a world that says, “Show no weakness.” Keep your feelings closely guarded. But Jesus’ kingdom invites us to come with our hurts and pain, so that we can be comforted and healed.

In a world that says, “Go make a name for yourself. Go big or go home,” Jesus values the meek—not the doormats, but those who don’t feel compelled to push their agenda on others. Those who value others and are confident enough in their own identity that they don’t need to prove themselves.

The Kingdom values those who fervently seek righteousness—not self-righteousness, not just getting their own way.

The Kingdom values mercy. It values a pure heart that is focused on knowing God.

The Kingdom values the peace makers. Notice that it doesn’t say peace KEEPERS. We’re not talking about smoothing things over, but doing the hard work to settle the issues so that relationships are restored and real peace is established.

Jesus says all these things, and then he goes further. Matthew 5:10-11

Matthew 5:10–11 ESV

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

Jesus has been talking about his kingdom, and it is nothing like what the people has been expecting. And now, on top of everything, he starts talking about persecution. He’s basically saying, “If you follow me, you will be persecuted.” How’s that for a sales pitch!

In the world we live in, when someone wants you to join their group, they point out all the advantages. They save the challenges until you are more invested. Even in the church, you tend to hear about how much better your life will be when you come to Jesus. And I have to say that following Jesus is the best decision you could ever make. But when Jesus was presenting his kingdom, he didn’t sugar-coat it. He told them about the benefits, but he also let them know how the world would react. He wanted people to come into his kingdom with eyes wide open.

Why am I sharing all of this? Pretty much everyone who is listening right now has already signed up to be a Christian. Or at least you are thinking about it, or you wouldn’t be at a Bible study. But I want you to think about what you are really signing up for.

The kingdom of God is a kingdom where we realize how messed up we are and how much we need him. When we see how poor we are in spirit, we will come to God in humility, and we will certainly not see ourselves in any way superior to anyone else.

When we come to Jesus, we mentally align ourselves with his kingdom. It sounds good, all that talk about peace and forgiveness and a fresh start. But all too often, without even realizing it, we still find ourselves living by the world’s value system instead of the kingdom’s value system.

We talk about all the things that a good Christian does, like forgiving others, but then we hold grudges instead of forgiving. We talk about loving our neighbor, but then we talk behind other people’s backs. When someone persecutes us, gives us grief, we give it back a hundred times worse. We cheat on a test because it’s just stupid math—what am I ever going to use that for? But what is happening is that we are superimposing this world’s values on God’s kingdom.

Look at how Jesus lived out the kingdom values. He stepped out of heaven to become a human baby born to a family of modest means. He made up his ministry team from vulgar, working class people and people like Matthew, who had betrayed his Jewish heritage to collect taxes for the Romans. Jesus willingly went to the people that the Jewish religious leaders condemned. The ones who everyone else said was irredeemable, Jesus redeemed. And the people who responded to Jesus’ message of the kingdom were not the high and mighty, but the poor in spirit, the meek, the discouraged and hurting.

Blessed are the poor in spirit--Jesus lived in humility. He didn’t have a home, but stayed wherever people were willing to invite him in. Even though he was God made flesh, he lived in dependence on his heavenly father to provide what he needed.

Blessed are those who mourn—the Bible shares several times when Jesus wept over those who were lost and without God.

Blessed are the meek—did Jesus try to manipulate people with clever words? No, he told them the simple truth of the kingdom. When challenged by the religious leaders, Jesus didn’t get into shouting matches. He didn’t go on social media to get his Facebook followers to cancel the people who disagreed with him. He stood up to them with sound doctrine and then left them to decide what to do next.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness—Jesus knew and lived the word of God. He was constantly in an attitude of prayer and intimate relationship with his father.

Blessed are the merciful—remember Jesus’ interaction with the woman caught in adultery? “Who condemns you? Go and sin no more.”

Blessed are the pure in heart—when he was hanging on the cross, looking at all those who had turned against him, Jesus begged his father to forgive them. No malice. No revenge. Pure love and compassion.

Blessed are the peacemakers—Jesus literally took our sins upon himself, doing the one thing we cannot do to restore peace between us and God.

Jesus was persecuted, lied about, despised. And he took all of it without giving up the concepts—the values—that his Kingdom is built upon.

So what do we do with this? What’s the point? Jesus clearly spells out what it means to be a citizen of heaven’s kingdom. These are the qualities his citizens are supposed to possess. And I know that I fall short, but they are what I aspire to have in my life. And it starts with me recognizing the poverty of my spirit so that I cry out to Jesus. Save me. Change me. Make me holy and pure. Make me yours. Live in me so that everyone else can see you in me.

How do you measure up to this list of kingdom concepts? I’m not here to judge; search your heart. How quick are we to show mercy, and how quick are we to speak out against those awful others whose politics are wrong and they’re doing those things that are so bad and they don’t believe the same things that we do? When those awful people suffer, how quick are we to offer help, or how satisfied do we feel that they got what they deserved?

Jesus, help us internalize heaven’s values, your kingdom concepts, into our hearts and lives. Help us truly value what you value and live out what you live out. Help us have genuine love for those who would be our enemies, and forgive us the many times we have fallen short. We are poor in spirit. We need you to live in us. Help us be who you created us to be. Don’t let us do or say anything that would make you ashamed of us. Help us show others the grace you have shown us. Do what it takes to make us proper citizens of your kingdom. We pray in Jesus’ name.

If you don’t know Jesus as your savior today, if you are not yet a part of his kingdom, be aware that it’s not always an easy road, but it’s worth the it. Jesus is offering you a place in his kingdom today. He loves you. If you are ready to take that step, will you come forward and let us pray with you?