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The Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany, Year A, 2011
Matthew 5: 1-12
The Rev. Ronald N. Johnson
The
Gospel passage for today is well known among Bible
readers, and because of the pattern of expression, “blessed are the
poor;
blessed are the meek; blessed are those who mourn, the passage is
usually
referred to as “the Beatitudes.”
Let me read them to you again, in an abbreviated form:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit; theirs is the kingdom of heaven”
“Blessed are those who mourn; they shall be comforted.”
“Blessed are the meek; they shall inherit the earth.”
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness; they shall be satisfied.”
“Blessed are the merciful; they shall obtain mercy.”
“Blessed are the peacemakers; they shall be called sons of God.”
“Blessed are those persecuted because they are righteous; theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
“Blessed
are you when you are tormented because of the Lord;
your reward will be great in
heaven.”
If
you think about it, this is really radical thing. It
goes against the expected. It goes against
what one would normally
consider fortunate or blessed. I, for
one, don’t want to mourn and I surely don’t like it when I’m forced to
be meek. That just goes against the grain. Being merciful is all right and being a
peacemaker is a good thing, too, but no one likes being persecuted and
certainly we don’t want to be tormented because of our religion. So I think that it is realistic to say that
when Jesus preached this sermon, called elsewhere the “Sermon on the
Mount,”
his audience was left shaking heads and wondering how he could possibly
mean
what he was saying.
But,
mean it he did, because purity of heart, love of
charity and passion for righteousness, justice and mercy are attributes
that
God himself considers to be those of a lover of God and a justified
servant of
the Almighty. In other words, these are
the attributes of a Christian and, according to Scripture, the Lord
expressly
states them, himself.
These
are not easy things to embrace. They are
not easy to follow in life. They require
great strength of character and
personal courage. They require
determination and dedication. Most of
all, they require an almost impossible capacity for empathy and
forgiveness
that truly enables the disciple of Jesus to love unconditionally. Most of us fail in the execution when we try
to live out these attributes. That
failure has a simple description. It is
sin. Sin is the failure to live
according to the principles established by God.
The
remarkable thing about Jesus is that he did not
sin. The remarkable thing about Jesus is
that in spite of every obstacle put in front of him, in spite of every
torment,
trap, trick or torture, he did not sin.
Jesus not only preached the beatitudes; he lived the beatitudes,
every day
and every moment of his life, all the way to the Cross.
There
are some scholars who try to link our Lord’s
beatitudes with Moses’ “Ten Commandments.”
Without going into any depth, this is based on an argument that
Matthew’s Gospel targeted a Jewish audience and that Matthew tried to
parallel
the life of Jesus with the life of Moses.
Whether this was really Matthew’s intent, I do not know. But I do know that you can make a link with
the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes if you think of the Ten
Commandments as
a prescription for life in the Old Covenant, the Covenant God made with
the
ancient Jews. The Beatitudes are clearly a prescription for life in the
New
Covenant between us and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ., a covenant
made and
bound in his blood.
If we are disciples, if we have committed to following the Lord as best we can, living in faith and doing our best to truly be, as Martin Luther said, “a little Christ to our neighbor,” the Beatitudes are our guideposts. We do not deceive ourselves that we will always be true and faithful, but with faith, hope and commitment, and a little trust in the Holy Spirit to boot, we will do pretty well. If we are faithful, if we are loyal disciples, if we truly embrace the concept that we should love the Lord our God and love our neighbor, I think that we can count it as a given that we will be seen as righteous in the eyes of God. Amen.
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