The Beatitudes – Matthew 5:1-11

1 Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

– Matthew 5:1–13 (ESV)

OPENING THOUGHTS

ON THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT

The Sermon on the Mount is not an isolated speech. That is to say, the life, death, ministry, and resurrection of Jesus demonstrates how the Sermon is to be lived out. Jesus live offers an explanation on how to live out the sermon and the sermon offers an explanation as to why Jesus lived the way he did.

“[Jesus’] life is but a commentary on the sermon, and the sermon is the exemplification of his life.”– Stanley Hauerwas

The whole sermon is Christ describing what life in the kingdom and allegiance to him looks like. It is a vision cast for Kingdom life. The Kingdom of heaven is God’s original vision for creation and the direction he is leading it. It is a political vision of what the world will be like under God’s reign.

Jesus’ definition– “Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.

Obedience to the Sermon on the Mount is a practice in imagination. That is to say, while some of the human condition is still the same, the specific application of Jesus day must require adjustment to our moment. Following Jesus, is about doing what he would do if he were you.

TRANSITION THOUGHT– As Jesus opens the sermon he pronounces 9 blessings that flip everyone's understanding of blessing on its head.

CULTURAL COMMENTARY

As I reflect on the beatitudes of Jesus, I can offer a hardy "Amen!" while my heart remains committed to a different vision of the good life.

We are in the midst of a cultural, emotional, and spiritual crisises. The Church and Christians are not immune to this crisis. And in part, I think it is because we have been discipled in a vision of the good life, not given to us by Rabbi Jesus, but given to us by the culture we reside in.

David Brooks has this great article written "5 lies we are told by culture" that we think will make us happy–

career success is fulfilling. A lie we reinforce every-time we put our kids in the hamster wheel of achievement. But I think we all intuitively know that there is only hollowness once you catch what you've been chasing.

I can make myself happy. The lie of self-sufficiency or of personal accomplishment– I've never heard of someone on their death bed reminiscing over the 15 pounds the lost in their 30s– personal accomplishments will not make you happy.

Life is an individual journey. Less commitment, more experiences. More me time. This is a hedonistic treadmill to no where.

You have to find your own truth. Unless your name is Aristotle, you and I, do not have the intellectual chops to come up with our own system of values. Instead this road lie people to a vague sense of morality, and not direction or purpose.

Rich and Successful people are worth more than poorer and less successful people. We like to pretend we don't believe it, but everything around us has suggest it is the truth– the high achievers in life are simply better.

These lies are not "out-there" problems. They have infiltrated so much of the Church, this church, and if I'm honest, this heart.

As followers of Christ, I am in desperate need of a profound rethinking– a repentance if you will of how I organize my life and evaluate my priorities.

And this is just what the Sermon on the Mount invites

BIBLICAL THEOLOGY

The Beatitues– that term is an Anglicans latin mashup basically meaning a "state of blessedness". Don't read too much into that

As we explore the Beatitudes, theologian Scott Mcknight offers a helpful grouping of three catagores:

Three blessing on the humility of the poor.

Three blessings on those who pursue righteousness and justice.

Three blessings on those who create peace.

Three blessings on the humility of the poor

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. – Matthew 5:3-5

Jesus’ audience was a group of impoverished Galilean Jews known as the ‘anawim’. Historians of Jewish history mostly agree on three things about this population.

They were economically poor, yet trusted in God.

They found their way to the temple as a meeting place.

And they longed for a Messiah that would bring about justice.

Jesus is speaking to those who are experiencing abject poverty, violent oppression, and have been stripped of anything resembling power– and yet to them he offers everything.

EXEGETICAL GYMNASTICS – The first set of blessings have been spiritualized into meaninglessness; I remember sitting through a theology class watching the professor do exegetical gymnastics to make this text apply to the students in his private christian university class.

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

The poor in spirit will cover those who are spiritually, emotionally, psychically, and economically poor.

However, this is not a statement on those who are willingly entering those thing. These are not people experiencing poverty as a choice, but those who have experienced poverty as a result of being crushed by society.

This is the paradoxical nature of the gospel declaration that blessed are the spiritually inadequate.

This first blessing becomes the lifeblood for the rest of the sermon. A sermon which, ironically, could be retitled The Sermon from the Valley.

This is a blessing for those in bad situations NOT for those with good attitudes– and the second beatitude follows–

4“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Brunner translates the main verb as brokenhearted.

This is not those with a longface or those that enjoy a sad movie, it is a blessing on those who have experienced the worse the world has to offer.

Jesus promises the comfort of the Kingdom to those broken by the brokenness of the world.

It is a reminder that the Lord sees us as we cry out from our bed.

It is not just grief for ourselves but grief at the state of the world, because they’ve been crushed by the world.

Even in the midst of your unbelief, your desire to be believe, your desire to hope is a mourning that will be comforted by the Kingdom’s coming.

5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are the little people or the powerless. (Brunner’s translation)

In many ways the second and third beatitude are continuations of the first.

With this beatitude we may think of Jesus on trial, in poise and gentleness.

The third beatitude holds on hope for a renewed earth by which they will be inheritors. The powerful are often willing to give the meek heaven while retaining earth for themselves. Jesus gives them that renewed earth.

“Thus for a third time in three Beatitudes it appears that Jesus simply picks up the pieces.First to the dependent poor, then to the grief-stricken, and now to the unaggressive, Jesus gives everything:

God’s kingdom, God’s comfort, and now God’s green earth.

“Yet everyone else knows that it is the physically and spiritually self-confident, the positive- and possibility thinkers, and the dynamically assertive who really get things and who get things done on earth. The meek may inherit heaven—both the entrepreneur and the revolutionary will give the meek heaven—but not earth. Yet Jesus gives them earth.”

– Dave Brunner

The situations in which the world judges as disastrous and hopeless are the very ones in which Christ calls blessed.

Throughout the Gospel of Luke there is an ongoing theme of the upside down Kingdom.

Three blessings on those who pursue righteousness and justice.

6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. 8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. – Matthew 5:6-8

The Blessings on those who pursue righteousness and justice work from the previous beatitudes– acknowledging the existence of the poor, the brokenhearted, the powerless, and those aching for justice.

The second set of beatitudes acknowledges that there are those following Christ that have not experienced those things but that they have a chance to engage with those that do. Matthew’s Jesus takes seriously the disciples role in “working out their salvation”. (Phil. 2:12-13)

The Blessings on those who pursue righteousness and justice are outpourings of worship. It acknowledges the blessing that it is for one to serve another human being and thus to see the imago dei present in all– a glimpse of the divine.

6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

Blessed are they who desire to follow the commands of the Lord, not blessed are those who do. Desire, being the operative word revealing the strength of God’s grace.

BEATING THE DRUM FOR JUSTICE – Bryan Stevenson, the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative– an organization committed to serving those on death row– was once speaking at a small rural church in Alabama. The entire time there was an elderly man in the back giving him the eye.

As the crowds greeted him after the talk, he noticed the man, who had a wheelchair had been wheeled to the front by a young man. As soon as he had a chance the elderly man grabbed Bryan asking him–

“Do you know what you’re doing?” X3

You’re beating the drum for justice.

“C’mere, c’mere, c’mere,” and he grabbed me by my jacket, pulled me close to his wheelchair, turned his head and said, “Do you see this scar I have behind my right ear? I got it trying to register people to vote in Greene County, Alabama in 1963.” He turned his head. “See this cut? I got that in Philadelphia, Mississippi during Freedom Summer in the 1960s.” Turned his head again and said, “You see this dark spot? That’s my bruise. Got that bruise in Birmingham, Alabama during the children’s crusade in 1963.” And then he looked at me, he says, “People think I’m some old man sitting in a wheelchair covered with cuts and bruises and scars, but I’m going to tell you something.

These aren’t my cuts. These aren’t my bruises. These aren’t my scars. These are my medals of honour.” And he grabbed my hand and said, “You just keep fighting for justice. When they knock you down, you get back up. Try to fall on your back so you can look up and know which way you have to go.”

Blessed are those who ache for justice!

The Jewish theology that would have soaked Jesus’ own imagination has no category for righteousness before God disconnected from human charity or social justice. The prophet Amos has a particularly harsh warning for any who separate their conduct towards their neighbor from their worship.

This fourth beatitude is a posture that yearns for Christ’s coming kingdom to break into the world setting all things right

The fourth beatitude connects the marginalized to the center– it shifts from populations to postures.

The beatitudes generally must be read eschatologically, and the fourth specifically. This is to say that Jesus is announcing the reality of his coming Kingdom and that these are those who will be blessed by that future reality. Any moral or ethical application of the beatitudes is in order to live in alignment with the coming future.

7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

Blessed are the merciful cannot be a cold statement of extending apathy or uncaring.

It is a statement of becoming understanding, warm, empowering. It is defending the potential in all people.

The merciful put themselves under others to support them.

The Christ in Matthew twice quotes Hosea 6:6–

“for the Lord you God desires mercy not sacrifice.” – Hosea 6:6

The proof of Gospel understanding makes one more merciful not more severe.

In the greek the they, of “because they will receive mercy” is emphasized. Those that exercise mercy will receive the same from their heavenly father. It is the same as in the Lord’s Prayer– “as we forgive our debtors”.

Mercy extended to others is mercy received.

Being a merciful, forgiving, or loving person is not a condition for God’s grace, but it is a necessary consequence. Only this conclusion makes sense with the fifth beatitude, the Lord’s Prayer, or Matthew’s Gospel as a whole.

8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Blessed is the person centered on God at their core. Blessed is the person who clearly identifies Christ as their “true-north”.

Brunner rightly points to the difficulty one has in putting a figure on the specific action(s) Jesus is directing his audience of disciples to. It is almost as if he is blessing their core and not their hands.

“Because they will see God”– those centered on Christ will have the gift of being able to identify God at work. Those living in the world, know how difficult purity of heart is. Thus the challenge to live in this beatitude is rewarded with knowledge of God.

Augustine interprets this as faith that works by love.

This must be interpreted as a purity at the heart of the disciple overflowing into all aspects of life. Following the demise of purity culture, one can be quick to dismiss this as not applying to sexual purity. Some have assigned it to honesty in business dealings. I believe all those interpretations must be given a hearty “amen”.

The one that will be blessed is the one seeking to center their lives on God, and in their seeking they will be rewarded.

On interpreting this beatitude, Matthew’s Jesus offers another way of saying this found in Matt. 22:36-40;

“36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

In our loving of neighbor, we will see the face of God.

Three blessings on those who create peace.

9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

Peacemaker could be translated “wholemaker” (brunner). For we are in the work of comprehensive welfare. (Jer. 29:7)

We often think of peace as tranquility of mind or absence of violence or conflict. But biblical shalom is so much more than that!

The hebrew concept envisions a circle with each one of us at the center in right relationship with the whole of our community. To bring peace is to bring community.

Blessed are the reconcilers, the community-makers, the includers.

Peacemaking could be identified as the theme of Matthew 5. For the antithetical commands that follow in 5:21-48 (You have heard it said…(1)anger is murder…(2)lustful intent is adultry…(3)divorce is adultry…(4)swearing oaths is dishonesty… (5)eye for an eye is violence…(6) love your enemy...) are practices of peacemaking.

What is so confounding about this beatitude is how close it comes to works righteousness, for those that are working to bring welfare to all people will be called “children of God”. Those working to eliminate poverty, enmity, domestic violence, and disease are identified as the Children of God.

The liberation theologians have identified something core to this beatitude, that the confrontation of evil structures is core to peacemaking work. Biblical shalom cannot remain an internal virtue, it is an outward practice. When liberation activity becomes self-righteous hate is when we must resist.

Any movement that always identifies the evil as external is to be resisted because the Christian movement is as self-critical as it is social-critical.

Note that in chapters 9 and 12 of the gospel are marked by Jesus’ conflict with social and spiritual forces. Christian conflict must always be defined by the shape and practices of Jesus, always.

10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The life of Jesus embodies this beatitude with tragic potency; those working to see justice, goodness, and beauty in the world will be crushed by the world.

For those who are really walking as disciples of Christ, bitter unpopularity is what should be expected.

The reward of the first beatitude and the reward of the eighth is word for word duplicates. Which seems to be Jesus’ way of rounding this teaching and bringing it full circle.

SPIRITUAL PRACTICE

Redefine your aspirations & get to know the other

Jesus blesses three kinds of people–

Those who are the humble poor.

Those who pursue righteousness and justice.

Those who create peace.

Using those blessings, how do our standard evaluations of true Christianity measure up?

It seems to me that our standard is off–

Those who read bible and pray daily.

Those with impeccable church attendance.

Those who tithe or give to the church

“The Beatitudes of Jesus are nothing short of a revolution of evaluation. We see in those whom Jesus blesses those who truly are the Jesus people of this world, and what he calls to our attention about them are not the sort of elements that often go into our evaluation methods.” –Scott McKnight