Introduction to the Beatitudes

Matthew’s gospel

I love Matthew’s gospel because it’s so well-organised and carefully structured. You really get a sense of Matthew, the taxman and accountant, diligently checking and arranging the balances of his account under the inspiration of the Spirit of God.

One of the reasons for the level of organisation we find in this gospel, scholars believe, is that Matthew wrote for the purpose of catechesis (i.e. oral instruction). Matthew intends to present the teaching of the Lord Jesus in a highly organised and memorable way so that it might be easily employed in the disciple-making activity, which is the focus and climax of Matthew’s account.

Matthew writes, as a Jew to a community of Jewish Christians and his gospel has a distinctly Jewish flavour to it. We suspect that the community to which he writes is beset by hostility - Jews hostile to the message of the cross and to the identity of the Lord. So, Matthew arranges his gospel as an apologetic: a reasoned defence of the Messiahship of the Lord Jesus from the orthodoxy of the Old Testament scriptures (see, for instance, his repeated fulfilment formula - “this happened to fulfil” - in that regard).

One of the standout features of Matthew’s gospel is his repeated use of mountain imagery (as both a literary and theological device) at the high points of his narrative. Where Matthew records the mountainside location of the events of Jesus life, he wants us to make the connections with Sinai: the mountain at which Israel received the covenant of the law and was constitued the kingdom of God. Here in Matthew 5:1, Matthew wants us to think of Sinai and the giving of the law through Moses, as the Lord Jesus goes up a mountain to deliver his teaching.

He also wants us to make the connections with Zion, the city of God and seat of the Messianic King. Matthew keeps pointing us forward to the mountain of commission on which his gospel account concludes and, beyond that, to the eschatalogical Mount Zion and to the prospect of the Son of Man coming into his kingdom to take up his seat on David’s throne and to surround himself with a community comprising all nations.

Matthew Sandwich

Thanks to Bill Hybels, we now know what a Matthew Party is and we’ve enjoyed a few of our own. I want to introduce you to the “Matthew Sandwich”.

These are the little repeated phrases and structural devices between which Matthew sandwiches his content, making it easy for us to see and remember the structure of his gospel.

One way of dividing this gospel account is by Mathew’s structural markers: “from that time on…” (Mt 4:17; 16:21).

Those markers sandwich Matthew’s gospel into 3 sections:

prelude to ministry (Mt 1:1 – 4:16)

ministry in Galilee (Mt 4:17 – 16:20)

ministry in Jerusalem (Mt 16:21 – 28:20)

Another way, is to see the gospel as carefully packaged into 6 narrative sections with 5 discourse sections sandwiched in between. The sections run consecutively in a pattern of Narrative – Discourse – Narrative etc.

The 5 discourses all contain teaching related to the kingdom, one of Matthew’s key themes. Each of them ends with the phrase, “when Jesus had finished saying these things…”. The 5 discourses could be titled as follows:

teaching on life in the kingdom - the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5:1 – 7:29)

instructions for the ministers of the kingdom – sending out the Twelve (Mt 10:5 – 11:1)

parables of the kingdom at work in the world (Mt 13:1 – 53)

teaching on relationships and discipline in the kingdom (Mt 18:1 – 19:1)

teaching on the consummation of the kingdom - the Olivet Discourse (Mt 24:1 – 26:1)

The Beatitudes feature right at the beginning of the first and longest of the five discourses sections in Matthew’s gospel. That fact alone would point to their significance for the whole body of Jesus’ teaching.

The discourse itself runs from Matthew 5:3-7:27 and is followed by the next narrative section, which runs from Matthew 7:28-10:4. It’s interesting to note that this whole discourse-narrative section is a Matthew Sandiwch, bookended by an almost identical expression in Matthew 4:23 and Matthew 9:35.

Matthew 4:23 NIV

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.

Matthew 9:35 NIV

Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.

The point is that this whole portion of Matthew’s gospel, from the beginning of chapter 5 right through to the end of chapter 9 sits together in the mind of its author. We have a section of discourse and a section of narrative, which together illustrate the typical preaching, teaching and healing of the Lord Jesus. And Matthew’s point is that all of this ministry sits together.

You can’t divorce the teaching from the healing; you can’t have the healing without the preaching; and so on.

And in summary form, in the beatitudes, which head up this section, I believe we see all three: preaching, teaching and healing.

Preaching: blessed!

Is the blessedness that Jesus proclaimed: (a) conditional; (b) unconditional; (c) both?

The statements we find in the opening verses of Matthew 5 are known as Beatitudes from the Latin word (beatitudo) for happiness or blessedness. Happiness is an approximation of what is intended by the Greek word μακάριος (makarios), but it’s not an altogether helpful one because the secular understanding of happiness is so far removed from the concept of blessedness in the Scriptures.

Now, the form of these pronouncements has parallels in ancient Egyptian and Greek literature and was also employed by the rabbis in Jesus’ day. There are other beatitudes in the New Testament (outside of the Sermon of the Mount and the similar account in Luke’s gospel of the Sermon on the Plain). To assist our understanding of the concept of blessedness, however, I want to take us back to an Old Testatement beatitude: Psalm 1.

The LXX translation of Psalm 1:1 employs the same Greek word and structure as we find in the Beatitudes of Matthew 5: “Blessed [is] the one”. The word “is” has to be supplied in English, but is not required in the original languages of the Scriptures. Removing the word “is”, I think, helps us to hear these beatitudes as declarative. “Blessed! the one...”. They are exclamations, proclamations of divine favour! They are good news.

Happiness, in the thinking of the world, is bound up with “hap” - it’s entirely dependent on circumstances and, for that reason, can come and go as quickly as circumstances change. It’s a feeling, a consiousness, which is dependent on what happens to us externally.

In complete contrast, the blessedness that the Scriptures proclaim is fundamental, not superficial, and doesn’t depend upon external circumstances at all. It is a condition not simply a consciousness.

Look at what it says in Psalm 1:3 about the blessed person. That person is likened to a tree, planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.

I am grateful to Tim Keller for his insight into this verse. He makes the point that the tree is subject to seasons. These seasons are the external circumstances of our lives: the harsh winter or the dry summer.

And the tree isn’t always in fruit or in blossom - there are seasons for that.

But the tree described in Psalm 1 is an evergreen; its leaf never withers! The affliction of the seasons cannot affect the tree’s blessedness because its blessedness derives from what it is, not from what happens to it.

It is a tree, which has been planted by streams of life-giving water, which speak of the living and enduring word of God. Now we’re getting to the root of the matter!

Is the blessedness that Jesus promises conditional or unconditional? Let me ask you another question: who planted the tree? Did the tree plant itself?

The word for planting sometimes carries the thought of transplanting (e.g. Ezk 17:22) and I like to carry that thought into Psalm 1:3. The blessed person is someone who has been lifted from a barren place and transplated by an eternal stream, so that their root can go deep into the law of the Lord. And it’s entirely a work of God’s mercy and grace.

Friends, this is what I see as of first importance in the Beatitudes: they’re first and foremost a proclamation of the unconditional blessedness of those on whom the King’s favour rests. For he has resuced us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves! Lifted from a barren place, transplanted by streams of water.... blessed!

Teaching: the poor, mourful, meek, hungry, merciful, pure, peacemaking, persecuted

But hang on a minute, some of you will be thinking. Doesn’t the psalmist say that blessedness belongs to the one who does not walk in step with the wicked, or stand in the way that sinners take, or sit in the company of mockers; the one who delights in the law of the Lord and meditates in that law day and night. Isn’t the blessedness of which the psalms speak conditional on that upright walk and reverence for God’s word?

And do we not find a similar thing here in the Beatitudes of Matthew 5? The proclaimed blessedness is for the poor in spirit, the mourful, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, the persecuted. Wasn’t Jesus, in his Sermon on the Mount, laying out the entry requirements for his kingdom?

Was the sermon for: (a) the disciples; (b) the crowds; (c) both?

See Matthew 5:1-2; 7:28-29. It seems to me that the teaching was for the disciples and for the crowds. They were both intended to hear it, though I believe they heard it differently, and its primary direction was toward the disciples. I suggest to you that it gives us a model for our own teaching of the Word. We should invite the crowds to hear it.

Now, to those on the outside - the crowds - this perhaps sounded like a set of entry requirements, designed to bring them to the point of repentance and faith.

To the disciples also - the primary target of the Lord’s teaching in the sermon - there were ethical implications to what Jesus was saying, especially in the 5th, 6th and 7th beatitudes (merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers).

This was the King’s manifesto, his outline of the way life would be lived in his kingdom. And the Beatitudes present a kingdom of upside down value. Disciples living according to this manifesto would be distinctive (like light and salt).

Is the blessedness that Jesus proclaimed conditional or unconditional? Is entrance to the kingdom conditional or unconditional?

Matthew 5:20 NIV

For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Conditional on righteousness? Yes! But not on the sort of righteousness that the Pharisees pursued, not on works of the law.

You see, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law had watered down the law of Moses to the point that they actually believed they were keeping it. They believed they were righteous. If righteousness is the entry requirement, they believed they were getting in.

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is showing what true righteousness looks like. And he raises the bar. A formula repeated throughout the sermon is: you’ve heard it said..... but I tell you..... The Pharisees and teachers of the law told you this would enough, but I’ve got news for you!

And whether it’s murder, adultery, divorce, vows, restitution, or whatever, Jesus raises the bar; the required standard is higher than they’d been led to believe.

Indeed, the standard is out of reach! And that’s the point. Jesus is showing them that they need a Saviour. The King’s standard is righteousness, but it’s unachievable by works of the law. The righteousness we need in order to enter the kingdom is of a different order to the righteousness that can be achieved by works of the law. The righteousness that gets us into the kingdom is that which comes from God and is by faith!

Now, we expect to say more about this kind of righteouness as we examine the teaching of the Beatitudes in coming weeks. By the way, we’ve another Matthew Sandwich here: the repetition in verses 3 and 10 of the phrase, “theirs is the kingdom of heaven”, tells me that there are 8 Beatitudes. Matthew 5:11-12, then, are an expansion of the thought in the eighth Beatitude in Matthew 5:10. More importantly, though, it tells me that we don’t have eight different types of person in view here, but one.

These eight characteristics are shared by everyone in the kingdom. And that is yet another pointer to the righteousness that is given by God.

Healing: the blessings of the Kingdom

So, we’ve seen that there’s preaching in these statements. They come firstly as good news. There’s also teaching; the Beatitudes do contain ethical exhortation, though they point us to a different type of righteouness than that which can be achieved through works of the law.

In closing, I want us to see that there’s healing in these verses too. I’m referring, of course, to the benefits of the kingdom. Indeed the very reason that the disciple may be declared blessed is because he’s a part of this kingdom and stands to enjoy all the blessings and privileges that come with it.

But here’s a question that has foxed Bible scholars for centuries. Is the kingdom now or not yet?

Are the benefits of the kingdom: (a) a present reality; (b) a future reality; (c) both?

We have to distinguish between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven. The former is a narrower thing; it relates to the vineyard, the garden, an enclosed space on earth that is holy to the Lord. The kingdom of God comprises the holy nation - a nation that exists among the nations of the world, though separate from them, to declare the glories of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light. Israel was God’s kingdom in OT days; today it comprises disciples of any nationality who align themselves with the Lord’s teaching.

The kingdom of heaven seems to be a wider thing; it is a kingdom that embraces the whole earth. Indeed, you might say that the kingdom of heaven is heaven come down to earth. It manifests itself as God’s will being done on earth, even as it is in heaven.

Most Jews in Jesus’ day were eschatological in their thinking. They thought they lived at the ‘eschaton’ - the end of the age - when God would restore the fortunes of Israel and usher in a new kingdom. This is the kingdom that I believe Matthew refers to when he uses the term ‘kingdom of heaven’.

For the Jews, then, the coming of the end was really a new beginning: the beginning of the Messianic kingdom, which would embrace the whole earth.

This new age would be a time of righteousness (e.g., Isa 11:4–5), when people would live in peace (e.g., Isa 2:2–4). It would be a time of the fullness of the Spirit (Joel 2:28–30) when the new covenant spoken of by Jeremiah would be realized (Jer 31:31–34; 32:38–40) and God would restore the privileges of his people and fulfil the covenant promises made to David and the patriarchs.

John, the Lord and the apostles preached that the kingdom of heaven was “at hand”, that it had “come near”: Matt 3:2; 4:17; 10:7. So, there was an immediacy to the kingdom, associated with the coming and, in particular, the death and resurrection of the King (by which we understand that he has ascended the throne).

But the early Christians came to realize that Jesus had not come to usher in the “final” end but only the “beginning” of the end. They came to see that with Jesus’ death and resurrection, and with the coming of the Spirit, the blessings and benefits of the future had already come, though not yet in all their fulness.

In a sense, therefore, the end with its new beginning, the kingdom, had already come. But in another sense, it had not yet fully come. Thus the end, and the kingdom, are at the same ‘already’ and ‘not yet’ - both a present (partial) and a future (complete) reality.

The early Christians learned to live between the times — that is, between the beginning of the end and the consummation of the end. They lived as if the kingdom of heaven was a present and a future reality.

And we find precisely that same tension in the Beatitudes:

Matt 5:3, 10 - the repeated promise is expressed as a present reality: “theirs is the kingdom of heaven”

Matt 5:4-9 - the intervening 6 promises are all expressed as future: “will be comforted”; “will inherit the earth”; “will be filled”; “will be shown mercy”; “will see God”; “will be called children of God”.

The kingdom of heaven is already and at the same time not yet. This is an important interpretive key for Matthew’s gospel. There is a foretaste of these blessings now, but it’s nothing compared with the glory that will be revealed to us in a coming day.

Take Matthew 5:9, by way of example - our being called children of God.

John says now we are children of God (1 Jn 3:2). And, he says, what we will be has not yet been made know. There’s more to these blessings than our minds have capacity for currently.

Understand, though, that these promises contain healing: comfort and mercy and satisfaction that we receive now (in part) and that will be consummated in a coming day. This is the healing for which the world groans, which is why we cannot keep it to ourselves. The gospel of the kingdom must be preached. We must go out into all the world with a ministry of preaching, teaching and healing, as we seek to disciple men and women for the King.

Application

In closing, I want to suggest that in our detailed examination of these Beatitudes in future weeks, we keep before us the holistic ministry of kingdom, which Matthew so clearly illustrates in the Matthew Sandwich of chapters 5 - 9 and which we have, in summary form, in the Beatitudes of Matthew 5:1-12.

Preach the good news of the kingdom: let’s celebrate the blessedness of kingdom life, which comes to us by the mercy of God.

Teach the way of the kingdom: let’s examine the righteousness that is distinctively different from the self-justifying righteousness of the world; works of faith as opposed to works of the law.

Point to the healing power of the King: as we’ve been healed by God’s mercy, let’s go down the mountain to fetch others that they might be drawn into the kingdom and know its healing effects too.