One of my preaching professors reminded us to preach grace because we are all too good at preaching law for ourselves. And today’s Gospel is no exception. We live in a world dominated by rules and condemnation and motivated by rewards, so immediately, we hear Jesus’ teaching as a to-do list – a moral or ethical checklist we should pursue if we want to have God’s blessing.
But God’s blessing isn’t anything we can earn – that’s what makes it God’s action for us; there’s nothing we can do to earn God’s love and nothing that can separate us from God’s love.
So if that’s not what
Jesus is on about, what is he saying?
It’s helpful to remember that, for Matthew, Jesus is the one fulfilling all righteousness, the Messiah of whom the ancient prophets told. In his Gospel, Matthew draws parallels between Moses and Jesus. And scholars draw parallels to the traditional “five books of Moses” or the Pentateuch and the five speeches by Jesus that Matthew records.
Our gospel today begins with the first twelve verses of his initial sermon, the Sermon on the Mount. Following the parallel to Moses, this speech corresponds with Genesis, when God spoke creation into being. Only now, Jesus is speaking the new creation, the kingdom of heaven, into being.
In these first twelve verses, known as the Beatitudes, Jesus is addressing the disciples, but he’s not talking about the disciples. Instead, he is drawing attention to the reversal that God is bringing about in the world.
In ancient Israel, suffering, disease and poverty were all considered to be signs of being out of God’s favor or at least signals that the person had some fatal flaw or made some irredeemable mistake.
In contrast in the Roman Empire, divine blessing belonged to those who were members of the Roman Senate, soldiers and kings. Divinity was something bestowed on, or withheld from, leaders after their death. The Empire celebrated loyalty, victory and conquest, and proclaimed that the Roman Empire was eternal and everlasting. The images of these values were everywhere, in sculpture and art, even on the coins used in commerce.
So it is against this religious and imperial landscape that Jesus goes up a mountain and begins to teach.
And immediately he tells his followers that the ones who have God’s blessing, the ones whom God honors, are not the religious leaders, the powerful politicians or the battle proven conquerors but the meek and the merciful. They are not the ones who have demonstrated loyalty to the emperor, but those who have been persecuted and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. They are not those whose peace comes from the Pax Romana – the “Roman Peace” inaugurated by Augustus – but the peacemakers who work for shalom, the well-being and peace of others. And finally, the blessed are not those who propagate the Empire, but those who are pure in Spirit, or singularly focused on God.
What Jesus describes is what the kingdom of heaven, here on earth and among us, looks like.
And, because we live in the “already but not yet”, what he describes are the marks of what will be when God’s will is accomplished. And it is a transformation that only God can initiate.
In the last two verses of our gospel reading, Jesus changes from saying “Blessed are they” to saying, “Blessed are you.” It’s one word but with that one word, Jesus makes it clear that while this transformational coming of God’s kingdom is God’s will and work, his followers have a role, and it’s not always going to be comfortable.
The words from the
psalmist and the prophet Micah guide us here. What will please the Lord?Lead a blameless life.
Speak truth from your heart.
Do justice, love
kindness and walk humbly with your God.
Comparing his followers to those ancient truth-tellers, Jesus invites us all to participate in this new creation, this new way of being in relationship and community with each other. In the same way that Moses brought the ten commandments to the Israelites and told them how God envisioned them in relationship with God and with each other, Jesus tells us how to see the people in our lives, community and world: to see them through God’s eyes, with God’s blessing upon them, even, and perhaps especially, when the rest of the world won’t.
Recently in
confirmation, our middle-school students used their own words to write their
own beatitudes. Some of the ones they wrote said,
“blessed are the ones
who aren’t as fortunate as others for they will always be in God’s presence”;
“blessed are those who
grieve because they realize what is most important in life”;
“blessed are those who
are bullied for they will be strengthened by God”; and
“blessed are those starving for God’s grace for they will be overflowing in love”.
God wants us, God’s children, to imitate Jesus when we look at God’s people and show others how God’s blessing or honor, and God’s love, flood the world, soaking each one of us in God’s grace.
As we go into the world today and this week, may we have our eyes opened to see as God does.
Let us pray…
Good and gracious God,
We give you thanks for
your Son Jesus who shows us your love.
We thank you for your
grace, for your forgiveness, that we cannot earn, and we thank you for your
promise that nothing separates us from you.
Open our eyes to see our
siblings and neighbors as blessed and honored in your sight.
We pray in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment