Blessed
based on Matthew 5:1-12
by Richard Gehring
In Monty Python's 'Life of Brian,'
there is a scene in which the main characters find themselves on the
edge of the crowd as Jesus is preaching his Sermon on the Mount.
Because of their distance from Jesus--and because there are other
conversations going on around them--it is difficult for them to
understand what Jesus is saying. This situation leads to interchanges
that go something like this:
'You hear that? Blessed are the
Greek.'
'The Greek?'
'Mmm. Well, apparently, he's going to
inherit the earth.'
'Did anyone catch his name?'
'Oh, it's the meek! Blessed are the
meek! Oh, that's nice, isn't it? I'm glad they're getting something,
'cause they have a heck of a time.'
'What was that?'
'I think it was 'Blessed are the cheesemakers.''
'Ahh, what's so special about the cheesemakers?'
'Well, obviously, this is not meant to
be taken literally. It refers to any manufacturers of dairy products.'
One can hardly blame those in the
crowd for being confused about what Jesus is saying. Frankly, a lot of
us are still confused about his words nearly 2000 years later. Chances
are many of us here have memorized our New Testament text for today at
some point in our lives. Along with the Ten Commandments and the 23rd
Psalm, this is certainly one of the best-known passages in the
Bible.
But while we may know what it says, we still struggle with
understanding what the Beatitudes mean. What does it mean to
hunger and thirst for righteousness? Who exactly are the poor in
spirit? Who are the pure in heart? And what does it mean to be meek,
for that matter?
Actually, one of the biggest obstacles we have to deal with in
understanding this passage is defining what Jesus means by the very
first word he speaks: 'Blessed.' What does it mean to be blessed?
There are a number of modern translations that use the word 'happy'
instead of 'blessed.' I have to admit, however, that I don't much care
for this translation. It just doesn't make sense. I mean, 'Happy are
those who are sad?' That's how the Bible in Basic English translates
verse 4. But it's a blatant contradiction of terms. If you are happy,
then you cannot be--by definition--sad; and vice-versa.
Then there's the Good News Translation of verse 11: 'Happy are you
when people insult you and persecute you and tell all kinds of evil
lies against you.' Today we have a word for people who are happy when
people do terrible things to them. We call them masochists; and it's
not a healthy way to live. Frankly, it's what I see in fringe groups
like Fred Phelps' Westboro congregation. There's an attitude of, 'If
everyone's so upset by what we do, then we must be right.' I simply
cannot accept that Jesus is condoning such practices.
The simple fact is that Jesus never
promises happiness to his followers. He promises forgiveness.(Matthew
9:2) He promises justice.(Luke 18:7-8) He promises abundant life.(John
10:10) He promises 'a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.'(John 4:14) But he does not promise happiness. And while we may
regard 'the pursuit of happiness' as one of our foundational rights as
Americans, to be blessed is simply not the same as being happy.
Nor is blessing the same as success.
We have a tendency to think of blessings in terms of material goods.
Having plenty to eat is a blessing. A home to live in is a blessing.
Getting a good job is a blessing. There's a whole theology that's been
developed in recent years called the 'Prosperity Gospel' that equates
blessing with wealth. If you name and claim it, you'll be 'blessed'
with everything you could possibly need and so much more. These are
very popular teachings that you can hear from a number of prominent
televangelists.
The broader church has recognized the
Prosperity Gospel as a heretical idea. Yet while we may be
uncomfortable with this association between wealth with blessing,
there is still a sense among many American Christians that at least
creature comforts are blessings. Freedom is a blessing. Health is a
blessing. Protection from harm is a blessing.
There is certainly an element of truth
in all these statements. Yet they can also very easily lead us to
conclude that those who do not have these things are therefore not
blessed. The poor and hungry must not be not blessed. The sick or
disabled must not be not blessed. Those who are abused or in prison
must not be not blessed. One might even conclude that they are cursed.
That is a widespread attitude in our time; and it was in Jesus' day as
well.
Yet these very people who are
generally regarded as 'not blessed' are precisely the ones whom Jesus
pronounces as 'blessed.' Blessed are the poor in spirit.(v. 3) Blessed
are the meek.(v. 5) Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for
righteousness.(v. 6) Blessed are the persecuted.(v. 10) Blessed are
you when people revile you . . . and utter all kinds of evil
against you.(v. 11) These are not people who are happy with their
circumstances. They are not successful--at least not by the standards
most people would use to judge success. Yet according to Jesus they
are blessed. So what does he mean by that? What does it mean to be
blessed?
The answer to that seems to be found
in the descriptions that Jesus gives within the beatitudes
themselves--what he says the blessed folk receive. Mourners receive comfort.(v. 4) The merciful receive mercy.(v. 7) Peacemakers are
called God's children.(v. 9) The poor in spirit and the persecuted are
both promised the kingdom of heaven.(v. 3,10)
There are many different rewards
promised to the various categories of people. Yet they all have
something in common. They all transform the status of the person being
blessed. The hungry are filled.(v. 6) The grieving are consoled.(v. 4)
The meek are granted dominion over the entire world.(v. 5) All the
downcast, all the heavy-laden, all the outsiders are included. That's
the blessing. Those who have been excluded are included. Those who
have been left out are given a place to belong.
That's what the kingdom of heaven is.
It is the place where the first become last, and the last become first.(Matthew 19:30) It is the place where the powerful are brought
down from their thrones and the lowly are lifted up.(Luke 1:52) It is
the place where the greatest is the one who becomes as a
child.(Matthew 18:4) In God's kingdom, everyone has a place. Everyone
is welcome. Everyone is included. That's what it means to be blessed.
Furthermore, this set of blessings is
found at the very beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, a message in
which Jesus goes on to talk a lot more about what it means to live in
that kingdom. It is a kingdom based on faithfulness in all
relationships rather than following rules and regulations. It is a
kingdom based on love rather than retaliation. It is a kingdom based
on concern for others rather than consuming resources for oneself. It
is a kingdom based on personal responsibility rather than on judging
the actions of other people. It is, in short, an upside-down kingdom.
It is a total transformation of the social order in which those who
are regarded as the least important are made to be the most important.
It is a kingdom in which the meek are blessed and the pure in heart
are blessed and the persecuted are blessed because they all have found
a place to belong.
This is such a radical message that
the church has found a lot of ways over the years to interpret Jesus'
words in such a way that they don't have to apply to all of us. Some
would say that these teachings aren't meant for everyone. They only
apply to those special people who can actually live them out. These
are the people who are regarded as 'saints,' either officially or
unofficially. So folks like the Apostle Paul or Francis of Assisi or
Martin Luther or Mother Theresa, maybe they are blessed. But most of
us can't be expected to always be meek and merciful and peaceful. It's
just not practical to live that way. But at least we have good models
who can inspire us to do better.
Others would contend that Jesus never
really intended for us to actually live up to all these high ideals.
What he is doing here is, in fact, setting the bar so impossibly high
that no one can really be all these things all the time. Indeed, the
whole point of the Sermon on the Mount, from this perspective, is to
illuminate the fact that we are all in need of God's grace. For we
can't ever achieve these things on our own no matter how much we try.
Still others would accept that the
actions and the attitudes set forth here are meant to govern our
interpersonal relationships--especially relationships within the
church. But it's simply impractical to apply them to larger society.
Jesus, they might argue, never expected a corporation to be meek. He
didn't expect governments to be poor in spirit. He didn't expect
political parties or labor unions or chambers of commerce to be pure
in heart. That's not what he's talking about. So we can't apply these
principles to broader social institutions.
And, of course, many people read the
pronouncements here and see in them a description of another time or
another place. The Kingdom of Heaven that Jesus talks about is either
somewhere else or a future reality. He's describing what things will
be like after we die and go to heaven. He's telling us what will
happen when he returns to really establish his kingdom. Then we'll get
our reward. Then we'll be blessed. In the meantime, the poor in spirit
and those who hunger for righteousness and those who mourn simply have
to be content with the assurance that some day things will be better.
They may suffer in this life, but in the age to come God will make
everything right. After all, most of the beatitudes are presented in
future tense. The mourners will be comforted. The meek will
inherit the earth. The pure in heart will see God.
But there is another way of
understanding Jesus' words--to accept that Jesus actually meant what he
said in the Sermon on the Mount. He wasn't just creating an impossible
ideal. He was telling his disciples what he really expected of
them--how he expected them to act--with the help of the Holy Spirit, of
course.
And he wasn't just talking about
certain relationships. He was talking about all of them: our
relationships with the person in the next pew, and with our neighbor
down the street, and with those of different faiths or no faith, and
even with drug dealers and terrorists and leaders of oppressive
regimes. All of these are relationships that are governed by the same
principles.
Furthermore, we Jesus was talking to
us--to all of us. We can't just set a few people up on a pedestal and
say, 'Well, I'm no Martin Luther King or Dorothy Day or Desmond Tutu.'
These aren't values that only a select few are called to live by. They
are the general guiding principles for all who call themselves
followers of Jesus.
Finally, he wasn't just talking about
someday in the future or life on some other plane of reality. He was
also talking about how we are to live right here, right now. For the
poor in spirit and the persecuted are promised that 'theirs is
the kingdom of heaven.' Not just that it will someday be
theirs, but that it already is. While the kingdom that Jesus talks
about has not yet been revealed in all of its fullness, it has already
been established. We are already invited to live as citizens of God's
kingdom. And the beatitudes that Jesus proclaims are a foundational
description of just what that kingdom looks like. In these first few
verses of Matthew 5, Jesus is introducing this kingdom to his
followers. He is trying to explain to them the ways in which that
kingdom is already breaking forth in the midst of a broken and
despairing world.
Indeed, one of the biggest errors that
many of us make in reading the beatitudes is to read them as a set of
commandments. We think that Jesus is telling us, 'Be poor in spirit.
Be meek. Be merciful. Be peacemakers.'
But that's not what Jesus says. These
are not commandments. The beatitudes are presented as statements of
fact. The poor in spirit are blessed--right now--because the kingdom of
heaven belongs to them. Those who mourn are blessed because
they will receive comfort--not just after Jesus comes again, but
already now within this community of faith that Jesus is creating as
the expression of God's kingdom on earth in the present. The merciful
are blessed because they will see God--not only when they die
and go to heaven someday, but already now in the acts of mercy that
they offer and in the faces of those to whom that mercy is extended.
Each of the beatitudes is a statement of how these blessings are
already being lived--and will continue to be lived out--within the
fellowship of believers, and extending out to those who are still
seeking to be welcomed and included by God's radical hospitality.
In the end, Jesus' blessings are not
offered to the Greek or to the cheesemakers. Nor, for that matter,
does he give a special blessing to manufacturers of dairy products in
general. Though, of course, none of these categories of people are by
any means excluded from the blessings, either. The blessings are given
to those who might be least likely to be seen as blessed. They do not
promise happiness or success. Instead, they affirm God's presence
right now in the midst of suffering and hardship, and promise a
transformation of the social order through the ongoing work of the
Spirit in the lives of God's people.
I talked earlier about some of the
modern translations of the beatitudes that I don't particularly care
for. But there is one contemporary paraphrase of this text that I
think does a pretty good job at getting at what Jesus is really
saying. It comes from Eugene Peterson, a noted pastor, scholar and
poet who has published a paraphrase of the entire Bible known as
The Message. I'd like to close this morning by reading Peterson's
version of the beatitudes. You might want to follow along in your pew
Bibles as I read from The Message to compare what it says to
the more traditional interpretation as I start with verse 3:
'You're blessed when you're at the end
of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.
'You're blessed when you feel you've
lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the
One most dear to you.
'You're blessed when you're content
with just who you are - no more, no less. That's the moment you find
yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought.
'You're blessed when you've worked up
a good appetite for God. He's food and drink in the best meal you'll
ever eat.
'You're blessed when you care. At the
moment of being 'carefull,' you find yourselves cared for.
'You're blessed when you get your
inside world - your mind and heart - put right. Then you can see God
in the outside world.
'You're blessed when you can show
people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That's when you
discover who you really are, and your place in God's family.
'You're blessed when your commitment
to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper
into God's kingdom.
'Not only that - count yourselves
blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies
about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too
close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when
that happens - give a cheer, even! - for though they don't like it, I
do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My
prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.'
