ALL WRAPPED AND READY TO GO:
BEATITUDES: GOD’S BLESSINGS!
EXEGESIS: The goal of exegesis is telos—seeing God face to face
To explain or interpret, especially Scripture; always done from the ancient languages of Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic
Two traditional interpretations of The Beatitudes
Monastic: Medieval Catholicism - hermeneutical key: 5:48. “Be perfect...”
There are two sorts of Christian believers:
1). Those with a ‘special calling’ - monks, nuns, priests
2) Everyone else
Theory of Impossible Ideal: following Luther
Hermeneutical key: because sin (total depravity) makes it impossible for anyone to fulfill these commands so the point of Jesus’ first sermon is to show forth the necessity of grace
Two Contemporary Approaches:
1). Social/scientific
2) Literary
SS: reconstruction of the Matthean community (ethnic, religious, retrieval of social memory, and relationships between different groups)
Literary: The specific text is always interpreted within the larger text - contextual;
3 questions of The Sermon Jesus gives:
1). To whom is it addressed?
2) Why this particular message
3) How can we as disciples live into this alternative community Jesus preaches and lives?
1). Jesus is preaching to His disciples and the crowds that follow Him every where he goes. He is offering what Dale Bruner calls, ‘preventive medicine’. That is, Jesus wants to do public health work, generate communities by offering words of hope, plenty, respect, support. The scaffolding of the upside down kingdom, to build our lives within the realm of heaven’s drawings rather than the the frame of competition, fear and scarcity that the world offers.
The political context is the Roman Empire and the religious context is the elite Jewish Establishment. The lesson here: those who receive God’s blessings ARE NOT the ones in power. Whatever the measurements within these societies, God does not bless their status or measure their value by their own accomplishments. God deems worthy and stands beside the weak, forgotten, justice-seeking, peace making, rabble rousers, the disquieted in the land. Those who are measured as of no account—in Paul’s telling words, “you who are ‘foolish’ in the eyes of the world by believing the message of the cross...” - these are the ones who are gathered in to live in the realm of heaven.
ALL WRAPPED AND READY TO GO:
Empire structures worth on this list:
Rich, happy, satisfied, ruthless, deceptive, aggressive, safe, well-liked; imagine The Wolves of Wall Street. In Jesus’ world, a world of encouragement and consolation, the valued are poor, weak, hungry, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, persecuted.
Let’s be honest: worldly values have not changed much since the 1st century. They are contextualized within given societies, but the demands of empire remain the same. Get the most, keep it, protect it, defend it, rig the system in your favor, measure yourself against your neighbor or co-worker or celebrity or sports star, on Instagram or Pinterest or Tik Tok. Never give up, never give in. You’ll be blessed-God wants you to be rich! Of course, if you are not, its on you. You don’t have enough faith.
‘God bless the poor in spirit, because THEIRS is the kingdom of heaven’
The very first group identified in Jesus’ powerful sermon, begins with ‘theirs’ a genitive of possession - the kingdom belongs to them and exists for them. Ergo - Those who are not poor in spirit are not in the kingdom. All those who claim they are ‘self-made’ those whose wealth masks their common human needs, those who reject relationships as necessary to flourish. Even those who think they are pretty darn good, not really full blown sinners, anyway.
Matthew takes the Hebrew word, anawin ‘poor’ literally, those who are crushed by the empire’s system - they who suffer in their poverty and beg for help. He translates Jesus’ Aramaic to suggest it is both temporal poverty as well as spiritual poverty that makes them cry out. It is a poverty that is lived out in the daily fabric of peoples’ lives but is structural in its economic framework.
For instance, we now know that the wealth created by the Slave Class in this country, and how the work of the slaves’ hands did not benefit them, rather their owners, which generates a 400% wealth inheritance difference between Anglo-Americans and African-Americans 200 years later. In a simplistic form, we can say, God helps those who cannot help themselves.
To be spiritually poor is to consistently recognize our personal failings, the inadequacy of our faith, the inability to neutralize our covetousness. We are sinners in need of grace every day of our lives. And it is true, by the foolishness of the cross, we are made saints in the realm of heaven. Beloveds!
We are called to live grateful lives because our impoverishment has been met by God’s amazing generosity. I am always taken back when I stop and realize Jesus’ glance is outward, toward the farthest ones away, who cower, below the weight of their enforced poverty.
ALL WRAPPED AND READY TO GO:
2). Jesus is the New Moses - Matthew wants us to understand. His Jewish audience recognizes the pattern: up on the mountain, Mt. Sinai, Moses receives the 10 commandments. Not long after their liberation from Egypt, right before they walk into the Promised Land. These instructions are not HOW TO ACQUIRE DIVINE BLESSING IN 10 EASY LESSONS! Instead, they are a means of living together, as a community, in response to God’s blessings.
So too, up on the mountain, Jesus sits down to teach, the proper decorum for a great rabbi. There, He offers the Beatitudes. As we say, these are not the entrance exams into heaven. Their verb form tells us so. They are not imperatives: go be poor, meek mourn, etc. They are indicative - this is the way things are right now, but Jesus says, let Me tell you how things are really going to be when the kingdom of God fully arrives.
I got to thinking about a contemporary list of beatitudes over the years. Maybe in language closer in to our daily lives:
God bless those who are lonely, right now
God bless this marriage falling apart, right now
God bless this childless woman, right now
God bless lgbtq people, right now
God bless Black Lives Matter right now
God bless Mexicans, Central Americans, Syrians, Iraqi Refugees, Iranians and other immigrants, right now
God bless all the Asian American communities, right now
God bless the divorced, right now
God bless the widowed, right now
God bless the broken-hearted, right now
We beg for God’s blessing in all our broken places, but not just for me and for you. ITs a plural word--God bless any who are poor in spirit, any who are mourning, any who are broken by life. By Jesus’ authority, may they be held in God’s hands. (Pause)
This leads me to ponder the phrase, “God bless America”. Why do these words leave me uneasy? (pause)
What does God require of us?
Micah answers the question, “Do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with your God. The Psalmist says, “walk blameless, do what is right, don’t slander or gossip, don’t charge interest; don’t harm the innocent; Paul says, “Hey, remember? You are the foolish! (The Greek word is mora, moronic) God calls to be His church. The only boast you can make? Christ, and Him crucified.” Words generate worlds - of hope and consolation; of witness and standing beside; of comfort and laughter. Words generate worlds - of inadequacy and failure; unforgivable shame and guilt; rejection and isolation. The hauntings can last a life time.
Into the abyss, Matthew’s Jesus preaches, “You want to be moral? Then be merciful. This is the framing of your ethics: mercy, in these words of Divine Gift. Jesus says and lives a arms wide-open posture, forgiveness on the tip of His tongue, a standing with, a reaching out, hey, here’s my hand, uh? It is a profound gesture first spoken and enacted at the moment of creation: God saw it was good, very good, the cosmos and the humans, be blessed, multiply, be good stewards of all that is in front of you. This blessing has never been cutoff, it is a through line to Jesus and now all the way to us sitting here today.
What you have been given? Mercy. Go give it away. You want a blessing? Go be a blessing: let humility be your watchword, bring peace to every situation you are in, open your heart wide open in generosity and forgiveness again, Oh, and you might be persecuted or reviled, as you live into the upside-down kindom. No matter—Jesus says - I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
All Wrapped Up and Ready to go!