Values of the Kingdom

Transcription

1 S The 6th Sunday after Epiphany (A) - 12 February Values of the Kingdom John Zondag, First Presbyterian Church, Portage la Prairie, Man. Scripture readings: Micah What does the LORD require of you? Psalm 15 - LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary? 1 Corinthians God s foolishness vs. human wisdom Matthew The Sermon on the Mount: The Beatitudes Note: The readings are actually those for the 4th Sunday after Epiphany, Year A Three weeks ago, we read Matthew s account of the beginning of Jesus ministry. We read Matthew s summary of the message that Jesus proclaimed: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near (Matthew 4.17). We read how Jesus recruited his first four disciples, all of them fishermen: Peter, Andrew, James, and John (Matthew ). We read how Jesus began traveling throughout the region of Galilee, teaching and healing (Matthew 4.23). And we read how people flocked to him from all over not only from Galilee itself, but also from Judea, the region east of the Jordan River, and even the Dekapolis, which was largely Gentile territory (Matthew ). That reading took us to the end of Matthew Chapter 4, and today s reading from the beginning of Chapter 5 comes immediately afterward. In Chapters 5, 6, and 7, we have a block of Jesus teaching that has come to be called the Sermon on the Mount. It s called that because Matthew presents it as a single speech by Jesus, given on a mountainside, primarily to his disciples, but probably to others as well. A careful reading of the Sermon on the Mount shows that it s more likely a collection of various teachings of Jesus rather than an accurate transcript of a single sermon or address. One of the unique features of Matthew s Gospel is that there are five such collections of Jesus teachings, the others being in Chapters 10, 13, 18, and 24 and 25. Each of these collections of sayings concludes with the same or similar words: When Jesus had finished saying these things, dot, dot, dot (Matthew 8.1; 11.1; 13.53; 19.1; 26.1). The Sermon on the Mount is the first and also the longest of these collections of Jesus teachings, and the teachings in this collection all have to do with the values of the kingdom of God. In commenting on the Sermon on the Mount, theologian Fred Craddock has said that a good title for it would be Life under the Reign of God, or The Law of Christian Society. 1 The teachings all have to do with how the people of God should act not only toward God, but also toward each other. In the Sermon on the Mount we find teachings such as Turn the other cheek, Love your enemies, Do not worry, and Do to others what you would want them to do to you. We also find the Lord s Prayer, as well as teaching on charitable giving and on fasting. Aside from the one-sentence summary of Jesus teaching that we read in Chapter 4, this is the first teaching of Jesus that we run into in the Gospel of Matthew. We could say that the Sermon on the Mount serves as Jesus inaugural address. The Sermon on the Mount begins with the passage in today s reading, a series of brief sayings called the Beatitudes. The Beatitudes serve as an introduction and prologue to the Sermon on the Mount.

2 S The 6th Sunday after Epiphany (A) - 12 February There are nine of them in all. The first eight are brief and all follow the same pattern; the ninth one, on the other hand, is longer, and doesn t quite follow the same pattern as the rest. The Beatitudes all begin with the word Blessed Blessed are the poor in spirit; Blessed are those who mourn; Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, and so on (Matthew 5.3, 4, 6). The word Matthew uses in his original Greek is makarios, which means not only blessed, but also fortunate, happy, or even enviable. The Good News Version of the Bible translates this word as happy. Theologian David Buttrick prefers to translate it as congratulations so his translation of the Beatitudes is, Congratulations to the poor in spirit; congratulations to those who mourn, and so on. 2 Each Beatitude, except for the final one, is a simple two-part saying, in which the first half declares a specific group of people to be blessed or happy, and in which the second half gives a reason: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, and so on. For the first and eighth Beatitudes, the reason given is the same: theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5.3, 10). For the six Beatitudes in between, however, the reasons given are all different, and are all in the future tense: they will be comforted; they will inherit the earth; they will be filled; they will be shown mercy; they will see God; they will be called children of God (Matthew 5.4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9). What Jesus is implying here is that these things will happen in the age to come, when the kingdom of God has been fully established in the world. In other words, then, they are not just reasons, but also promises. Notice also that four of these promises use passive verbs: will be comforted; will be filled; will be shown mercy; and will be called children of God. What Jesus is implying here that it is God who will do those things. He could just as easily have said, God will comfort them ; God will fill them ; God will show mercy to them ; and God will call them his children. In the Beatitudes, Jesus commends particular attitudes and behaviors, and in some cases, offers consolation to people who find themselves in difficult or unpleasant situations, by promising that there will be some kind of reward, compensation, or vindication in the age to come. There are Beatitudes in the Gospel of Luke as well, but there are only four of them, rather than nine; and, although they are similar to the ones in today s reading, the overall message is slightly different. In Luke s Beatitudes, Jesus offers words of comfort and consolation to people who get the short end of the stick in the present. The first three of Luke s beatitudes read as follows: Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. (Luke ) In other words, those who suffer in the present age will find their fortunes reversed in the age to come. As well, Luke s Beatitudes are accompanied by a series of corresponding Woes to those who get the long end of the stick in the present. They read as follows: Woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. (Luke ) In Luke s version of the Beatitudes, then, Jesus promises a simple reversal of fortunes in the age to come, God will turn the tables, so that the poor will have plenty and the rich will have to do without, and so on.

3 S The 6th Sunday after Epiphany (A) - 12 February In Matthew s version of the Beatitudes, however, the message is not quite so straightforward. For one thing, Matthew has no corresponding Woes, just the Beatitudes themselves. And for another, in Matthew, Jesus speaks not of those who are literally poor, but of the poor in spirit ; he speaks not of those who are literally hungry, but of those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Rather than promising a straight reversal of fortunes for those who suffer hardship in the present, Matthew s version of the Beatitudes appears to commend those who have particular attitudes and who act in particular ways, and, by implication, to challenge all followers of Jesus to have those attitudes and act in those ways. What does Jesus mean by being poor in spirit, then? Interpreters debate what Jesus means here, but I like the interpretation that Douglas Hare suggests in his commentary on Matthew: that Jesus is referring to an attitude of dependence on God that is often found among people who are poor, and is often lacking among people who are well off. People who are poor know that they depend on God to provide the things they need, whereas people who are well off often believe that everything they have is the result of their own efforts. To be poor in spirit, then, means to recognize that we depend on God for everything we need, and that everything we have ultimately comes from God whether we have nothing or whether we have more than enough. 3 For those who mourn, in the second Beatitude, Douglas Hare suggests that Jesus is thinking of the passage in Isaiah 61 in which the prophet says he has been anointed by the Spirit, to, among other things, comfort all who mourn (Isaiah ). In that context, the mourning had to do with the fact that Israel had come under foreign domination. In Jesus time, Israel was again under foreign domination, and the ones who felt it the most were those who were poor, because the system, particularly the taxation system, was rigged in favor of the rich and powerful. 4 Those who mourn, then, would be those in that society and also in our own, who mourn the unequal distribution of wealth, and the fact that, for so many people, life is a daily struggle for survival. In Beatitude number three Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth Jesus was no doubt thinking of two verses in Psalm 37 that say, A little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look for them, they will not be found. But the meek will inherit the land, and enjoy peace and prosperity. (Psalm ) The meek, says Douglas Hare, are non-violent people, who are humble and gentle in their dealings with others because they have humbled themselves before the greatness of God. 5 As for those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, in the fourth Beatitude, interpreters debate whether this refers to their desiring to be righteous themselves, or to their desiring the righteousness and justice that will be established in the world when the kingdom of God is established in all its fullness. Douglas Hare favors the latter interpretation, that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are those who yearn for the establishment of social justice in the world as a result of God s establishing his kingdom. 6 The meaning of Beatitude number five Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy is more straightforward than some of the others. It anticipates the line in the Lord s Prayer (which is also found in the Sermon on the Mount) that says, forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us (Matthew 6.12).

4 S The 6th Sunday after Epiphany (A) - 12 February To understand the sixth Beatitude Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God we need to keep in mind that the ancient Israelites attributed to the heart the activities that we attribute to the mind. When we think of the heart, we usually think of love and compassion; but to ancient Israelites, the heart was the organ with which a person thought, planned, and set priorities. To say someone was hardhearted, then, didn t mean that such a person was lacking in compassion; rather, it meant that such a person was stubborn. So, then, Douglas Hare argues that by pure in heart Jesus means people who are completely devoted to God; people who don t have mixed or divided loyalties. 7 The meaning of the word peacemakers in the seventh Beatitude is self-evident. They are people who not only strive to live in peace with others, but who also strive to create and promote peace by working for reconciliation between individuals or groups that are hostile to each other. In Beatitude number eight, Jesus speaks of those who are persecuted because of righteousness that is, people who face hostility from others because of their loyalty to God and their commitment to God s ways. It s no secret that those who promote fairness and justice in society often face opposition from those who benefit or profit from unfairness or injustice. And in the ninth and final beatitude the long one that doesn t follow the same pattern as the rest Jesus also speaks about persecution. He tells his listeners that those who experience persecution because of their loyalty to him are in good company that many of the prophets of the Old Testament had also experienced persecution because of their loyalty to God. In the Beatitudes, then, Jesus commends people who possess the values of the kingdom of God, both in their attitudes and their actions, by declaring them to be blessed, and by promising them vindication in the age to come. Implicitly, Jesus also challenges his followers to adopt these values, attitudes, and behaviors themselves. In this respect, then, the Beatitudes serve as an excellent introduction to the Sermon on the Mount as a whole, for, in the rest of the Sermon, Jesus has much more to say about the values of the kingdom of God, and he challenges both his original hearers and us today to adopt those values and live by them. The Beatitudes give us a picture of what life in the age to come will be like, and also of what people who are citizens of the kingdom of God in the present age are like. Needless to say, the values of the kingdom of God are counter-cultural in the present age, where the prevailing values are self-interest, aggression, and greed. Not only that, the values of the kingdom of God go against our own basic instincts that is, our sinful nature. It goes against our nature to acknowledge our dependence on God, to be non-aggressive and non-violent, to have undivided loyalty to God, to work for reconciliation and peace, and so on. It s no wonder, then, that people often feel that the values Jesus speaks of in the Beatitudes are totally unrealistic and out of reach for people living in this age. Yet, these values are in line with the ethical teaching of the Old Testament, and, in that respect, they teach nothing new. It s an old, old story that human beings and human society haven t turned out the way God wanted or intended. The Beatitudes, like all biblical teaching prod us in God s direction, and promise us that if we live by the values of the kingdom of God in the present age, we will be vindicated in the age to come. Footnotes: 1. Fred B. Craddock, et al., Preaching Through the Christian Year, Year A, Harrisburg, Pa.: Trinity Press International, 1992, p. 100

5 S The 6th Sunday after Epiphany (A) - 12 February David Buttrick, Speaking Jesus: Homiletic Theology and the Sermon on the Mount, Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2002, pp Douglas Hare, Matthew ( Interpretation commentary series), Louisville: John Knox Press, 1993, pp Hare, pp Hare, p Hare, pp Hare, p. 41