Göttinger Predigten
Göttinger Predigten im Internet hg. von U. Nembach
All Saints Day , 11/07/2010
Sermon on Matthew 5:1-12, by Andrew D. Smith
"Blessed are they..."
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. The Gospel reading is the text for the sermon today.
When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, it's no mistake that in Matthew's Gospel Jesus goes up on a mountain to begin his teaching career. Just like the greatest teacher and prophet of all, Moses, the lawgiver, Jesus goes up on the mountain. But Jesus goes up on the mountain not to listen and write as Moses did, but to speak and teach. And what follows are what we know as the beatitudes.
He opened His mouth and began to teach them, saying,
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.
The first three of the Beatitudes are beautiful. There is not a peaceful religion in the world what could find anything wrong with them. Everyone who is sensible and somewhat moral at all will agree with these. It is in fact these three that get confused with the next four that people confuse Jesus with a great teacher on the level of Buddha or Mohammed. But then the next four come and there is a hint at something bigger. Jesus is talking not about just being nice to each other. Righteousness. Mercy. Purity. Peace. Jesus uses big words, eternal words, at least hinting at if not identifying something bigger, something transcendent, something eternal.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
And this is where most people stop when looking at the Beatitudes. They stop after seven. If they know anything about Moses at all, they know there's supposed to be Ten, but seven is nice so we'll stop here. But you can't stop here. You have to keep going. Seven is not Ten. Seven of the Ten won't do.
Eight. Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Persecuted, um excuse me? What are we supposed to do with that. Why would anyone want to persecute us just for doing the right thing and being peaceful and all that. I wish I'd stopped at seven. I don't like eight.
Nine. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. I don't particularly like being insulted and I definitely don't want to see any of that biblical style persecution that usually ends with the loser in a box somewhere. Mormons and Jehovah's witnesses get a lot of comfort from this text but I doubt very seriously Jesus had in mind the persecution that comes to folks who wear dark pants and shirts and ties while riding bicycles or distributing Watchtower. That's a healthy thought; that takes the idea of persecution off me. I don't like it when I think my clothes are out of style, I certainly I don't want to suffer any persecution. I really wish I'd stopped at seven. I don't even want to read ten because it's got to be worse than insults and persecution.
Ten. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
That sounds kind of nice. At least I'm in good company with the prophets. Wait just a minute; didn't the prophets get killed for being prophets?
I apologize to many of you for the last 6 minutes. It was a stream of consciousness experiment. For those of you who are much more linear and logically constructed it was point 1. More to the point it might read like, the Beatitudes, though widely received as the most identifiable and well-known of Jesus' teachings, they are actually better understood from a framework of classic Christian teaching rather than extracting the bits we like and leaving the rest like chaff. If read this way, we get to a right understanding of who the blessed are and what Jesus means by that.
If you've ever taken a cruise on a cruise ship, you know life is pretty good, lots of people waiting on you, steward to tidy up your stateroom, incredible meals. It be nice to live like you live on a cruise ship for the rest of your life. Well taken care of, well fed, well entertained. It would be magic. So sorry that's not how life works. It's a lot harder than that. Life can be really tough.
Sorry, I'm not trying to be a spoil sport today but today, All Saints Day, is a reminder that no matter how bad things get, we win. Even if the government were to outlaw Christianity and start to lop of the heads of those who prayed, we still win. Take the antiphon for the Introit, straight out of Rev. 7. Who are these John sees? These are they who have come out of the great tribulation! They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. Who are they? They are those who have gone before us and one day they will be us! We can't be insulted or put to shame; our refuge is in the Lord. And there's more good stuff from Psalm 31. Not a bad one to have memorized, either. Why? Because we win! In Christ, we win.
You might say, how can I be winning when I feel like I'm on the verge of losing? Truth is, we were losing, in fact we had lost already when Jesus Christ came to set things right and make us his blessed ones. Happy is not quite going cut it in my translation of the Beatitudes. I know what the translator is trying for but he just doesn't get there with happy. The amplified Bible might be headed in the right direction here. "Blessed (happy, [1] to be envied, and [2] spiritually prosperous--[3] with life-joy and satisfaction in God's favor and salvation, regardless of their outward conditions) are the poor in spirit (the humble, who rate themselves insignificant), for theirs is the kingdom of heaven!
4Blessed and enviably happy [with a [4] happiness produced by the experience of God's favor and especially conditioned by the revelation of His matchless grace] are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted!(1)
5Blessed (happy, blithesome, joyous, [5] spiritually prosperous--[6] with life-joy and satisfaction in God's favor and salvation, regardless of their outward conditions) are the meek (the mild, patient, long-suffering), for they shall inherit the earth!(2)
But we're still not at the point where we like any of this blessedness because of how we get it. There is no "Blessed are you" when everything works out for you like you planned. There is no "Blessed are you" when your plans for your life seamlessly match up with God's. There is no "Blessed are you" when you're old and you still don't need daily meds. There is no "Blessed are you" when you're young and you don't catch a debilitating, life-ending disease. That's not how the beatitudes work.
It's tough work trying to preach the Beatitudes as Christ meant them to be heard. We live in the most prosperous nation the world has ever seen with freedoms unparalleled in the scope of human history. We not only have freedom to believe in God, or anything else we choose, we don't have to nominally believe in our leaders' gods. That's freedom, folks. Let's face it, persecution in the United States has to do with whether you're a blond or a Chicago Cubs fan. Persecution in other parts of the world, where religion and personal faith really matter, is real. In places like Chad and the Sudan, Malaysia, Iran, and China Christians still experience the kind of persecution Jesus was talking about on a mountainside so long ago.
I pray that you never have to experience that kind of persecution ever in your lives. So persecution for us is deeply personal. It's when cancer strikes or arthritis. But that's not really persecution. Cancer cells don't multiply faster because you believe in Jesus, do they? But could the old evil foe be using disease or dishonor you to persecute you? Who knows? He might. Regardless, we have a refuge in Christ our Lord. In him we are blessed and will rejoice on that last day when we join the choir invisible and come out of the great tribulation having washed our robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. This is the feast of victory for our God. Alleluia. Rejoice and be glad that God counts you among his blessed. Amen.
And may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep watch over your hearts and minds in faith in Christ Jesus. Amen.