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Matthew 5:1-12
The Beatitudes
1Now 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, saying:
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.
Starting today, the daily lectionary switches from readings in Mark to readings from the part of Matthew’s gospel that we call “the Sermon on the Mount.” And since today’s reading is the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, we should probably stop for a minute to talk about this section of Matthew.
We might start by saying that a lot of Bible scholars don’t think it was really a sermon at all. They say it’s more likely just a collection of his most important teachings that originally appeared together in an Aramaic-language document. But even though it’s probably not a single sermon, there’s a common theme that seems to go through these teachings. They kind of paint a picture of what the followers of Jesus are meant to be like as we are transformed by growing in our relationship with him. The sermon on the mount seems to illustrate what the followers of Jesus are to be like as a kind of “counter-culture.”
But it’s interesting that Matthew or whoever compiled the Sermon on the Mount chose to begin this compilation of Jesus’ teachings with the section that’s our gospel reading for today – the part we call the Beatitudes. It’s interesting because this part is so different from the rest of the Sermon on the Mount.
For one thing, the rest of the Sermon on the Mount can be read as a series of rules we’re meant to obey – as commandments on how we’re supposed to live and act as followers of Jesus. But the Beatitudes can’t really be considered ethical instruction. You can’t really say that Jesus is commanding us to be “poor in spirit,” or to be mournful, or to try to be persecuted. The Greek verb forms in the Beatitudes are not “imperative” – they don’t tell us what to do. Instead, they’re “performative” – they make something true by saying it, as a wedding officiant says, “I now pronounce you joined in marriage.”
It also has to be said that the Beatitudes are very counter-intuitive. When we read some of them, at least a part of our brains says, “Wait a minute! That can’t be right!” That’s because the beatitudes seem to be saying that it’s a blessing to be poor, and that it’s a blessing to be mourning and to be persecuted and so on. Most of us who find ourselves in those circumstances don’t feel like it’s a blessing.
But the Bible scholars have suggested a couple of ways of reading and understanding the Beatitudes that might help make sense of them.
One way of understanding the Beatitudes sees them as distinguishing between what the followers of Jesus might experience in this world, and what we will experience when the kingdom of God comes to fulfillment. The scholars say it can help to insert the words “in this world” after the first part of each of the Beatitudes, and the words “in the kingdom of God” in the last half. For instance, “Blessed are those who mourn [in this world], for they will be comforted [in the kingdom of God]. That works better for some of the Beatitudes than for others, but it helps to express what Jesus seems to have been getting at.
Many of those who followed Jesus were people who had a hard row to hoe in this world – people who were poor or rejected or oppressed. And even when they encountered Jesus and started following him, life was still hard for many of them.
For one thing, almost all of the first disciples were Jews, and they tried to continue practicing their Jewish faith even after they started following Jesus. But eventually, most of them were rejected by their fellow Jews. And that meant that many of them were rejected by their families, too, because the families didn’t want to risk being thrown out of their synagogues. So these Beatitudes might have been words of great comfort to many of those who heard Jesus speak them.
And they would probably have been even more comforting to those who read them in the Gospel of Matthew when it was published forty years or so after Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to heaven. Because according to the scholars, by then persecution was beginning to pick up steam, with the Romans persecuting the church, too. When the great fire of Rome occurred in 64 AD, Emperor Nero blamed Christians for setting the fire, and the Christian persecution really began in earnest.
The fact that Matthew chose to put the Beatitudes at the beginning of this collection of Jesus’ teachings probably indicates that the early church understood them to be very important. For those who were suffering rejection and persecution in the world, the Beatitudes would have represented a series of very important promises. In the kingdom of God, those people were promised comfort, and a sense of belonging and welcome, and a profound sense of intimacy with God. That must have brought a good deal of comfort to people who were trying to follow Jesus in a time of trouble and persecution.
It’s worth taking a minute to think about another way of understanding the Beatitudes. Some scholars suggest that they’re meant to point to Jesus himself, rather than his followers. These scholars say the point might be that Jesus had been “poor in spirit” (and in this case, that means humble, not spiritually deficient), and had now been given the kingdom. That he had been mourning at his crucifixion, but now had been comforted. That he had been meek, but had now inherited the earth. And so on.
If that’s what Jesus had in mind, then the Beatitudes would have helped his followers understand that he had gone through all the same trouble that they were going through. So the Beatitudes would also be a reminder to those who suffer for Jesus that he had gone through all this first.
However you read the Beatitudes, the truth is that even in our time, some of the followers of Jesus are still being rejected and persecuted – and even killed. And anyone who is genuinely committed to living in imitation of him will probably find there’s a cost to their discipleship. So the promises in the Beatitudes apply even now to those who claim his name and struggle to live in imitation of him.
Let’s pray. Lord, we thank you for the promises you made when you walked among us, that in the struggles we face in this world, we can have the hope and the confidence that we will share in the blessings of the kingdom you are bringing about. And when we face the mild hardships of our time, help us to be inspired by the faithfulness of our Lord and Master Jesus in the great hardships he faced. Amen.
Blessings,
Henry
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