The Baffling Beatitudes

Matthew 5:1-12

Growing up in mainline denominations, Lutheran and Presbyterian to be exact, there were certain parts of Scripture we had to memorize. While there might be disagreement about the validity of other parts of Scripture, there was no disputing that these passages reflected the highest form of moral truth. The four principle passages were the Ten Commandments, the 23rd Psalm, the Lord’s Prayer and the Beatitudes.

In the thirty years that I have been a Christian, I have read these four passages of Scripture many times along with the rest of the Bible. The Ten Commandments, the 23rd Psalm and the Lord’s Prayer are fairly straightforward. But the Beatitudes are difficult to understand and as I have studied them, reading commentaries on others who have studied them, the confusion about how to understand this teaching of Jesus became obvious.

The problem with the Beatitudes is that they make us uncomfortable when we read them. We don’t like what we read and so try to find an interpretation that makes them more user friendly. Over the last two thousand years that Christians have struggled with the Beatitudes, there have been five main interpretations.

During medieval times, a view called perfectionist legalism developed. This stated that there was a higher standard for disciples of Jesus – understood as clergy and those in monastic orders – but that “normal” Christians were not subject to this teaching.

Martin Luther viewed them as an impossible ideal that forces us to realize our sinfulness and helplessness and turn to God.

Albert Schweitzer viewed them as being only for the disciples of Jesus who expected Jesus to return in their own lifetime.

Dispensationalism teaches that these are teachings for the millennium and only meant to be an example for us in this present age.

Protestant liberals have viewed the Beatitudes as a mandate for social change that will usher in the Kingdom of God by reforming society.

Robert Schuler, a few years ago, published the “Be Happy Attitudes” in his attempt to water down the hard teaching of these words of Jesus.

Can you see how much people have struggled to understand these words of Jesus? In each case, the teaching of Jesus has been pushed off or minimized so that it does not have to apply now, so that it is not something I have to do in the here and now.

So how do we read this teaching of Jesus? The Beatitudes, along with the rest of the Sermon on the Mount, are Jesus’ teaching on Kingdom ethics so the first thing we need to do to understand the Beatitudes is to understand a bit about the Kingdom of God.

Take a look at the sheet in your pew titled, “The Kingdom Ethic”.
[Explanation of Helmut Thielicke’s view of overlapping of Old and New Aeons using two hula hoops]

1. The Old Age represents the fallen world from the time of man’s first sin until the establishment of God’s Kingdom on earth. The New Age represents essentially and predominantly the Kingdom of heaven on earth, which is mostly yet to come.

2. But these two ages overlap. The Old Age began with the fall and ends when Christ returns. The new Age began with the coming of Jesus and goes on into eternity.

3. Thus these two ages overlap. The overlap began with the coming of Christ and will end when Christ returns. This overlap is the age of the church and is dominated by grace.

4. In this overlap, we are still limited by the Old Age. Satan has been defeated but has not yet been cast into oblivion. Christ has been made King but has not yet been seated on his throne.

5. We are limited by the Old Age and yet are to live in the New Age. Kingdom law is not meant for a future time but for the present.

6. Thus only a partial fulfillment of the Kingdom ethic is possible. We will fail but failure is not subject to the legal penalties of Kingdom law. We live in this tug and pull between the Old and New Age and rely on God’s grace

When we read the Beatitudes, or the rest of the Sermon on the Mount, we need to read them with this understanding in mind. These teachings are for us today. We dare not push them away into a future age because they seem too difficult for us to obey. Remember what happened when Jesus taught the disciples about wealth and riches and said that it was easier for a camel to go through the needle of an eye than for a rich man to enter heaven?
25 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”
26 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Just because a teaching of Jesus is difficult does not allow us to push it off.

These teachings are for us today and yet we will not be able to perfectly obey them. We are still living in the Old Age. Satan is active and roaming around trying to trap us. He has not yet been cast into oblivion. We will fail as we attempt to live up to the standards of the Kingdom ethic.

These teachings are for today and when we are not able to live up to their standards, we throw ourselves on the mercy and grace of Jesus. We live in the age of mercy and grace. God does not give us what we deserve and he gives us what we do not deserve.

This understanding of the Kingdom of God is a most critical one. We are not waiting for the Kingdom of God. It is here with us. When Jesus came he brought the Kingdom of God with him. The Kingdom of God is not far off. It is as present with us as the air we breathe. It is right here.

When we have this understanding, we carry with us a sense of expectancy. Jesus and his disciples were walking down the road when they saw a man who was born blind. The disciples saw an intellectual question:
“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
But Jesus saw a man in whom the Kingdom of God was about to break through.
[Jesus] spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes.  7 “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

Because we live in this overlap between the Old and New Age, we live in a world of sin with all the effects of sin but we live with the imminent expectation that the Kingdom of God will at any moment break through into a person’s live, into a community, into a nation.

We may have given up praying for the salvation of some person but the Kingdom of God is pressing in, ready to burst out. There is always hope. The Kingdom of God does not need to come from far away. It is here, It is present.

We may have gotten tired of praying for healing but the moment when the Kingdom of God breaks through and healing takes place is just a moment away. It may be this morning. It may be next week. It may be next year or it may be when we receive a new resurrection body. But it is near and imminent. This is truly a transforming perspective.

And we need to take this perspective with us when we read the Beatitudes and the rest of the Sermon on the Mount.

This morning I want us to take a look at Dallas Willard’s interpretation of the Beatitudes, taken from his book, Divine Conspiracy.

He says it is very important for us to pay attention to the audience Matthew says Jesus had for this teaching. In the verses just preceding the Beatitudes there is a description of what Jesus has been doing.

23 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.  24 News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed them.  25 Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.

Look at this list of people. ill with various diseases, suffering severe pain, demon-possessed, those having seizures, the paralyzed.

What was life like for these people? Remember that the common view was that illness was the result of sin. Each of these people were blamed for their problem. They were not contributing members of their community. They were not asked to stand and read Scripture at the Synagogue. They were not asked for their wise advice. They were liabilities to their communities. They lived on the fringe of their communities. They did not contribute to the welfare of their community. They begged for a living.

And Jesus healed them. Jesus demonstrated who he was and what he was inaugurating. “The Kingdom of God has come”, Jesus announced with his ministry of healing. Jesus demonstrated that the Kingdom of God had come and then he went up the side of a mountain and began to put into words when he had just demonstrated.

Dallas Willard uses this context to understand the Beatitudes.

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
These are the ones who have no spiritual insight. They are ignorant of the Bible. They can’t pray or lead a service. They have no spiritual insights to offer. Why are they blessed? Because the Kingdom of God has come for them. The Kingdom of God is here to transform them.

4 Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
These are the ones who have lost a son or daughter and are paralyzed with grief. These are ones who have lost their life savings in an economic downturn and have no money with which to face old age. These are ones whose spouse has left them for another person. They are blessed because the Kingdom of God has come and can turn their tears into laughter. What has been lost is nothing compared to what will be gained.

5 Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
These are the ones who never assert themselves. Ones who always back away from any conflict. These are the doormats of life. They take abuse from others, deserved or not. If they do assert themselves, it is an inappropriate eruption due to repressed anger at having taken it for so long. They are blessed because the whole earth belongs to their heavenly father and he will provide for them what they need.

6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
Longing for righteousness can be a lonely experience. Such people are sometimes called idealists and mocked for their idealism. Bleeding hearts. These people are blessed because they will be filled with a righteousness that will fill the world.

7 Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
People who show mercy can be taken advantage of. Worldly wise people call them suckers. In business they are called poor business people. They extend credit where credit should not be extended. They forgive debt at the cost of their own profits. They are always ready to give someone another chance. They are blessed because the mercy they have shown others is overwhelmed by the mercy that will be shown to them.

8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
These are the ones who appear to be “too good” for others. They walk around with sweet smiles on their faces. They always say the right thing. They never swear. They look for perfection and they expect perfection. If you slip up, they are sure to notice and point it out to you. You can never relax in their presence. They are blessed because the perfection they seek will be found when they see God face-to-face.

9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.
Peacemakers are rarely trusted by either side in a conflict. They are in a lose-lose situation. To resolve the conflict, both sides must give up something they highly value so they distrust the one who attempts to be a peacemaker. They are blessed because the Kingdom of God is a peaceable Kingdom. When they work for peace, they do the work of God.

10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
These are ones who suffer because they take a stand for what is right. These are ones who stand up in class and say that the exam had been passed around the day before and suffer the anger and abuse from their classmates afterwards. These are the whistle-blowers who expose corporate sin and cause the corporation to lose money and contracts. They are blessed because they are sustained by God in doing what is right, even at the cost of personal suffering.

11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.  12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
These are the ones who are ridiculed for what they believe. These are the ones who are used as scapegoats for society’s ills. These are the ones who are martyred for their faith. They are blessed because when they suffer, they share in the sufferings of Christ.

The Beatitudes point out that we are blessed, all are blessed, every person on the face of the planet is blessed because the Kingdom of God is at hand. The Kingdom of God is ready to burst through, straining to burst through into this present age.

The good news of the Beatitudes, the reason why we are blessed, is that there is no entrance exam into the Kingdom of God. There is no need to apply and wait anxiously for your application to be decided upon. You don’t have to be of a proper social class, don’t need to have the right kind of friends, don’t have to wear the right kind of clothes, don’t have to be born of the right kind of parents. You don’t have to be a certain kind of body weight, or height or skin color. You don’t have to look like a magazine model. You don’t have to have ten fingers and toes.

You don’t even have to have lived the right kind of life. You may have been an immoral person taking advantage of any and every person you encountered. You may have murdered and raped. You may have been a child molester. You may have swindled money from elderly people to fatten your own bank account. It does not matter. You are blessed because the Kingdom of God is present with you as is the air you breathe. It is straining to burst into your life to transform you, to bring new kingdom life. There is no person who is without hope.

The crowds around Jesus who had been healed saw a demonstration of the Kingdom of God and then heard a verbal presentation of the same thing. What they experienced was confirmed by the words of Jesus.

This is how Dallas Willard understands the Beatitudes. Is this what Jesus meant when he taught the crowds? I don’t know for sure, but when I read this interpretation of Dallas Willard, it rang true with me. If it is not how Jesus meant his words to be understood, this interpretation still speaks truth.

The Kingdom of God is present, not a distant promise. It is here, as close as the air we breathe. And the Kingdom of God is good news for every person on the face of the planet. The Kingdom of God is like treasure buried in a field. You look at the field and can’t tell it is there. But it is. In each person is a treasure just waiting to be discovered. So in the words of a Paul Simon tune, blessed are the sat on, spatted on, ratted on. In each and every person you meet, there is hope. The Kingdom of God is not far off.

And blessed are you.
The Kingdom of God is here. There is hope for each person. Are you facing a difficult situation and can’t figure how to resolve the problem? Do not be discouraged. Are you consumed with anxiety because of some financial or health problem? Do not give up hope. Continue praying. Have you been praying for something or someone for a long time without seeing any positive results? Continue praying, continue sharing your faith. Continue loving. Blessed are you and blessed are those for whom you care and blessed are those with whom you interact each day.

Today in your life you are this close to seeing a miracle as the kingdom of God breaks out into the open in your life or the life of someone near to you. So blessed are you.