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Beatitudes: The Eight Teachings in Five Weeks

 Matthew 5:1-12

August 3, 2003

¹When Jesus^£ saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. ²Then he began to speak, and taught 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 receive 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 for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

¹¹“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely^£ on my account. ¹²Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

God's way is not like our ways…

A woman was at work when she received a phone call that her daughter was very sick with a fever. She left her work and stopped by the pharmacy to get some medication for her daughter. When returning to her car she found that she had locked her keys in the car. She was in a hurry to get home to her sick daughter, she didn't know what to do, so she called her home and told the baby sitter what had happened and that she did not know what to do.

The baby sitter told her that her daughter was getting worse. She said, "Maybe you can find a coat hanger and use that to open the door".

The woman looked around and my goodness, there was an old rusty coat hanger that had been thrown down on the ground, who knows,  possibly by someone else who at some time or other had locked their keys in their car. Then she looked at the hanger all unraveled and straightened out and said, "I don't know how to use this."

So she bowed her head and asked God to send her some help. Within five minutes an old rusty car pulled up, with a dirty, unkept, bearded man who was wearing an old biker skull rag on his head. The woman thought, "Great God. This is what you sent to help me????" But, she thought of her daughter feverish and sick waiting for her at home and she was desperate. She thought to herself, "At this point, Anybody will do!"

The man got out of his car and the poor woman cautiously approached him and even before he turned around from shutting his door, she said meekly "Excuse me sir, my daughter is very sick......I stopped to get her some medication and I locked my keys in my car, I must get home to her. Please, can you use this hanger to unlock my car."

He turned around, all huge and intimidating and smiled a big sly smile.  He said, "SURE, I can help," and walked over to the car.  In less than a minute the car was opened.

She hugged the man and through her tears she said, "THANK YOU SO MUCH..... You are a very nice man."

The man smiled again and replied, "Lady, I am not a nice man!  See, I just got out of prison today. I was in prison for car theft and have only been out for about an hour."

The woman hugged the man again and with sobbing tears cried out loud....."THANK YOU, GOD, FOR SENDING ME A PROFESSIONAL!!!!" [1]

This is a story that deals with prejudice, forgiveness, courage and God's Providence

It is also a story, a parable, like so many of Jesus' own "Kingdom Parables", which characterizes the Kingdom of Heaven.  You know the type, "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed…the smallest of seeds that gives birth to the most huge trees.[2]

This little story about the poor woman locked out of her car, helped by a fallen angel, is reflective of the spirit of the Beatitudes. 

⁵“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

⁷“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

It's been quite a few weeks since we've all been here together, in the intervening weeks, you've had some wonderful people stand here in my place, and perhaps you've forgotten a few things about what we had been considering in our weekly look at scripture.  Way back in May, we began a look at the Sermon on the Mount, at the Golden Rule "do to others as you would have them do to you," which actually comes at the end of the Sermon, later in chapter seven.  We looked at various spots along the sermon and spoke about what sets the Sermon on the Mount apart from the rest of the teachings of the New Testament, and some of those themes we'll return to here today. 

But mostly, today and for the next month, until Rally Day, we'll look at a particular section of the Sermon on the Mount that we looked at briefly also back in May, the Beatitudes. 

The Beatitudes are inside out, upside down, paradoxical and even, I tried, to argue back in May, somehow perverted using the standards of the world. 

"How can the meek inherit the earth? And How can those who mourn or are persecuted be thought of as Blessed?" we asked in general terms back in May.  The Beatitudes are certainly out of step and out of synch with the way things really are in the world, aren't they?

Nonetheless one preacher considering this section of scripture reminds us that so many worldly philosophers over the years have used the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount as points within their own philosophies.

He says, "For example, Leo Tolstoy, the Russian novelist, wrote that if all people would only practice the ethics of the Sermon on the Mount, society would be transformed into a utopian kingdom. Mahatma Gandhi, an Indian Hindu, loved the Sermon on the Mount. Like Tolstoy, Gandhi thought that if only people practiced the Sermon on the Mount, all problems would be solved, and peace and harmony would prevail throughout the world.

The fourth-century Roman emperor, Julian the Apostate, had his own interpretation of this passage, an interpretation that actually falls right in line with the cruel and hateful worldly philosophies that Jesus' words wish to oppose.  This Emperor reportedly said, 'Let us then confiscate all the properties of Christians, for the Bible says, 'Blessed are the poor; they will inherit the kingdom of God.'"[3]

Jesus taught the Sermon on the Mount, and it and the Beatitudes have been used over the centuries to describe and reflect Jesus' entire message about the nature of the Kingdom of Heaven, and just how different this Kingdom is from the earthly, worldly kingdoms we're accustomed to seeing here in our experience.

So lets begin our look here into the core of the Sermon, at the Beatitudes.

The word "Beatitude" itself comes from a Latin word, beatitudo, which means blessedness.[4]  They are characterized by eight, maybe nine individual blessings that when read in the original Aramaic are found to rhyme like a poem.[5]  One biblical theologian says they "serve as abiding ethical directives for Christians in the world,"[6] and as I've said, they are also simply descriptive of the what the presence of God and the Kingdom of is like.

Each of the individual blessings is characterized by the phrase "Blessed are" followed by a group of people, like those "who are merciful," "those who are peacemakers," "those who are poor in spirit."  Each of these pronouncements of blessing is then followed by a reward that will be awarded to these blessed folks.  For instance, the peacemakers will be called children of God, the pure in heart will see God.

These pairings of blessing and reward however are not meant to be commands or even describing goals to shoot for, like "The early bird gets the worm," encourages us to be the early bird.  Because nobody in their right minds would suggest that Jesus' teaching would be to go out and become a mourner, or go out and be persecuted for its own sake.  These phrases are just descriptions of what rewards exist, in the Kingdom of Heaven for those who happen to find themselves in these particular circumstances.  They are more than anything else, a set of priorities and beliefs, a credo for the kingdom of heaven, emphasizing the things that are given attention in God's way.

Who are these privileged, blessed and rewarded groups?

The poor in spirit, are individuals that are not necessarily poor financially or "feeling poorly" in any way. The words poor in spirit describe an "interior disposition" a spiritual humility that apparently will be rewarded.

Mourners are not necessarily those who have lost family or friends or other loved ones, but those who are experiencing "sorrow for their sins."

The meek, are those who show humility and kindness.

Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, are those who have responded to "Jesus' offer of salvation" and the radical demand of God" to which they are "obliged."

The merciful, are those who perform acts of mercy.

The pure in heart are those that show an "unreserved commitment to the will of God" and to the righteousness God demands.

The peacemakers, are those who work for harmonious relations in the Christian community.

And there are two types of folks that are persecuted, which account for why some people say that there are eight blessings and some say there are nine, some separate the blessings reserved for the two types of persecuted folks.

Some of those persecuted are attacked for righteousness’ sake, which means they have already been persecuted, in the synagogues of the early, ancient church, and perhaps in today's world, in their own churches and communities of faith.

And others are the folks that will be reviled and persecuted and have all kinds of evil uttered against them falsely these are the folks that were about to be persecuted in the Roman world, outside the church and beyond.  Perhaps like those in our world today that are being persecuted for their faith in various places in the Middle East, China or Africa.

In the weeks to come, we'll break down these eight blessings and see how they each impact us today to live as Beatitudes people. 

What does it mean for us today that God honors and rewards and cares for peacemakers and mourners and the pure in heart?  What difference does it make in our lives?

It is said that during the Second World War some soldiers serving in France wanted to bury a friend and fellow soldier who had been killed. Being in a foreign country they wanted to ensure their fallen comrade had a proper burial. They found a well-kept cemetery with a low stone wall around it, a picturesque little Catholic church and a peaceful location. This was just the place to bury their friend. But when they approached the priest he answered that unless their friend was a baptized in the religion of the church he could not be buried in the cemetery. He wasn't.

Sensing the soldiers' disappointment and anger, the priest showed them a spot outside the walls where they could bury their friend. Reluctantly they did so.

The next day the soldiers returned to pay their final respects to their fallen friend but could not find the grave. "Surely we can't be mistaken. It was right here!" they said. Confused, they approached the priest who took them to a spot inside the cemetery walls. "Last night I couldn't sleep" said the priest. "I was troubled that your friend had to be buried outside the cemetery walls, so I got up and moved the fence."

Not too long ago, in the children's message I mentioned that the Beatitudes are like the constitution and the Bill of Rights for Christians.  In the Kingdom of God, the Beatitudes lay out the values and the priorities that describe the kingdom.

Like the priest, who by moving the fence of the graveyard of his church, as we come into God's Kingdom, the Beatitudes redefine our lives, redefine the boundaries of what is acceptable, what is our way and what are the things we will honor, obey and prioritize.  They help us to understand how to move the fence what to include in our lives, and also what to leave out.

I invite you in the coming weeks to come once again, and together let us hope to better understand the kingdom of God, and how we can allow that heavenly kingdom come to reality here in our world today.

Amen