Before reading Matthew 5:1-12, I encourage you to consider substituting “honored” or “envied” instead of “blessed,” as some scholars have suggested. This truly changes the weight of the passage from “those who have it rough now will get a prize in the end” to “those who suffer offer us a deeper understanding of God’s active presence.”
At the risk of sounding dismissive to suffering, I must confess that it’s hard for me to read this passage without the influence and theological questioning of the recently deceased, Terry Jones, a founding member of the Monty Python comedy troupe and the director of the film, The Life of Brian. For those who are unaware, The Life of Brian was a satirical and sacrilegious parody of the life of Jesus of Nazareth.
There is a scene in the film in which Jesus is delivering his “sermon on the mount” which includes the Beatitudes of Jesus. The camera pans wide from the masses, and the further out it goes the harder it is to hear him. We are left with Brian, his mother, and a crowd of misfits, including a wealthy Greek who is obviously a citizen of the Empire and the regional common folk, all flanked by Roman Centurions. They are confused over who Jesus is blessing. The wealthy Greek thinks he said, “the Greek” and wants to know who it is.
One woman finally says, “Oh, it’s the meek! That’s nice, ‘cause they have a heck of a time!” Meanwhile, a religious splinter group walks by saying, “What Jesus fails to realize is that the meek are the problem!” Good thing that’s all just satire, right?
Of course, we know that good satire lifts up the obvious flaws that none of us are willing to see, much less admit to being a part of. The Life of Brian, and for that matter our readings today, confront us with three primary flaws that keep us from experiencing God in our midst: What’s in it for me?; I feel bad for them, but not enough to identify with them; and If they would stop being them and either go away or come be “us,” then we would not have this problem.
If we are honest, those three perspectives describe us when we hear Jesus talk about blessing the poor, the meek, those who grieve, and those who are persecuted for speaking out in his name. That’s because, for those of us that feel like we pretty well have it together and are doing our best to be decent humans, there is one more thing that we covet above all else that sets us at odds with others – winning!
Whether it is through our team or the dream team we bet on in fantasy football, we are a culture that values winning. Even when our celebrities become drunk on power and go off the rails with overconfidence, we love it!
We love to win and hate to lose, and that’s what makes passages like these so hard to get our heads around. We say to ourselves, “Is this satire? Does God really want to turn all that makes society function upside down? It has to be metaphorical, right? God just wants those who suffer to know that suffering won’t last forever and for everyone else to know they should just try to be as nice as they can to each other, right?”
Well, not exactly. In Micah 6, God really is calling Israel out because they haven’t been as kind as they are able to be to those who suffer. Their King has enacted reforms – you see nothing in the Bible is divorced from the politics of the day in which it was written – but at the end of the day they are just going through the motions with God. As a people, they are all becoming more vulnerable to foreign powers, and they call out to God. “What do you want?” They ask, “Tithing? A building campaign? My firstborn child?”
No, God wants something more. God wants your heart. God wants your compassion to balance out your judgment. God wants us to do the fair thing that leads to an unfair thing. Seek justice. Make space for it. Call for it in the night. Look for opportunities to create fairness. Fall in love with being kind. In Hebrew this word is hessed, and it means so much more than being nice. It means showing mercy.
Showing mercy is not something we do to earn God’s favor, it’s what we do because we’ve already received God’s favor. What God wants from us is not just a way of thinking or feeling or acting. It is a way of being in the world. That’s what was so hard for the church in Corinth. They were a mixed bag of Roman citizens and Jewish dissidents and people who knew that the present system was just not right. They weren’t radicals or revolutionaries, but what they were doing was. Living in Christian Community was radically different because it broke down boundaries of race, class, and citizenship.
Paul wanted them to remember that their citizenship was in heaven and they were following the way of someone whose faith made him an enemy of the state. Paul wasn’t saying, “Go start a protest!” He was saying, “Final authority rests in God, and when you follow Jesus it means you have a different set of priorities. It means you care for others as you do yourself.”
This same Jesus was the one who stood on a rolling hill to speak about God’s love. Matt Skinner, Professor of New Testament studies at Luther Seminary, speaks of standing on the same hill and realizing that Jesus would have seen the city of Tiberias being built off in the distance. This means that as he spoke about the spiritual poverty of the day he was not just talking about what would be. He wasn’t just giving advice on how to get into heaven, as though God wants us to be miserable in order to really feel the bliss of heaven.
He was, however, saying, “This is how you win. When you realize that God is with you no matter how bad things have gotten or how bad they will get, that is winning.” That’s just great, isn’t it? But what does it have to do with the Super Bowl?
Funny you should ask. Thirty years ago there were some kids in a small presbyterian congregation in South Carolina that asked that same question. Somehow they became aware that there were hungry people in their community, and they decided to do something about it. They decided to tackle our nation’s most unifying event and make it a force for good. They made soup and sold it to raise money for a local food pantry.
Since then their efforts have grown to become a national movement as congregations across the country collect food and money and they distribute it locally to hungry people. As cool as that is, unless it changes the way we relate things to those who are hungry, then it’s no better than the empty sacrifices in Micah. Unless we become connected to those who hunger in a way that seeks to end poverty and the food deserts and the lack of access to healthcare and childcare and wages that keep people out of poverty, then we will never win.
You see, the problem of poverty is not our adversary. The problem is whether or not we are on the right team. If we define winning by our cars and homes and bank accounts without concern for anyone but ourselves, then we are not on the same team as God. If we define winning as being moved with compassion so that we realize that our neighbor’s problems are our problems, then we will see that we are a little closer to the goal.
You see, the metric for success that Jesus sets up for us is not being carried on everyone’s shoulder. Success doesn’t necessarily mean being trampled by the crowd either, but that could happen. Success means connecting our brokenness in the light of faith and finding something holy, and something wholly different!
Winning by crossing the goal together is not just a wish and a prayer. That’s the actual purpose of faith. There’s a new book on my “must-read” pile called Just Mercy that talks about the way that might look. Bryan Stevenson founded the “Equal Justice Initiative” in 1989, after realizing that the justice system was biased against the poor and particularly against minorities. One such case was Jimmy Dill, a man who received the death penalty in spite of serious concerns that he did not receive the adequate legal assistance necessary to ensure a reliable conviction and sentence in his case. Here’s what Mr. Stephenson learned from defending Mr. Dill:
“We are all broken by something. We have all hurt someone and have been hurt. We all share the condition of brokenness even if our brokenness is not equivalent. I desperately wanted mercy for Jimmy Dill and would have done anything to create justice for him, but I couldn’t pretend that his struggle was disconnected from my own. The ways in which I have been hurt—and have hurt others—are different from the ways Jimmy Dill suffered and caused suffering. But our shared brokenness connected us.”
At the end of the day, what does the Lord require of us – both as a people and as individuals – but to seek justice, love mercy, and walk in a way that recognizes the sovereignty of God?
Is it enough to just try really hard? Maybe, but we can’t do it alone. Faith is a team sport. Personally, I feel like we’re on the winning team! We just have to remember that when we feel beaten down. The Lord is with us, and we will know it in those times we see justice and mercy holding hands. That is how I pray it might be with me, and I pray the same for you as we march down the field ever closer to the kingdom’s goal. Amen!
At the risk of sounding dismissive to suffering, I must confess that it’s hard for me to read this passage without the influence and theological questioning of the recently deceased, Terry Jones, a founding member of the Monty Python comedy troupe and the director of the film, The Life of Brian. For those who are unaware, The Life of Brian was a satirical and sacrilegious parody of the life of Jesus of Nazareth.
There is a scene in the film in which Jesus is delivering his “sermon on the mount” which includes the Beatitudes of Jesus. The camera pans wide from the masses, and the further out it goes the harder it is to hear him. We are left with Brian, his mother, and a crowd of misfits, including a wealthy Greek who is obviously a citizen of the Empire and the regional common folk, all flanked by Roman Centurions. They are confused over who Jesus is blessing. The wealthy Greek thinks he said, “the Greek” and wants to know who it is.
One woman finally says, “Oh, it’s the meek! That’s nice, ‘cause they have a heck of a time!” Meanwhile, a religious splinter group walks by saying, “What Jesus fails to realize is that the meek are the problem!” Good thing that’s all just satire, right?
Of course, we know that good satire lifts up the obvious flaws that none of us are willing to see, much less admit to being a part of. The Life of Brian, and for that matter our readings today, confront us with three primary flaws that keep us from experiencing God in our midst: What’s in it for me?; I feel bad for them, but not enough to identify with them; and If they would stop being them and either go away or come be “us,” then we would not have this problem.
If we are honest, those three perspectives describe us when we hear Jesus talk about blessing the poor, the meek, those who grieve, and those who are persecuted for speaking out in his name. That’s because, for those of us that feel like we pretty well have it together and are doing our best to be decent humans, there is one more thing that we covet above all else that sets us at odds with others – winning!
Whether it is through our team or the dream team we bet on in fantasy football, we are a culture that values winning. Even when our celebrities become drunk on power and go off the rails with overconfidence, we love it!
We love to win and hate to lose, and that’s what makes passages like these so hard to get our heads around. We say to ourselves, “Is this satire? Does God really want to turn all that makes society function upside down? It has to be metaphorical, right? God just wants those who suffer to know that suffering won’t last forever and for everyone else to know they should just try to be as nice as they can to each other, right?”
Well, not exactly. In Micah 6, God really is calling Israel out because they haven’t been as kind as they are able to be to those who suffer. Their King has enacted reforms – you see nothing in the Bible is divorced from the politics of the day in which it was written – but at the end of the day they are just going through the motions with God. As a people, they are all becoming more vulnerable to foreign powers, and they call out to God. “What do you want?” They ask, “Tithing? A building campaign? My firstborn child?”
No, God wants something more. God wants your heart. God wants your compassion to balance out your judgment. God wants us to do the fair thing that leads to an unfair thing. Seek justice. Make space for it. Call for it in the night. Look for opportunities to create fairness. Fall in love with being kind. In Hebrew this word is hessed, and it means so much more than being nice. It means showing mercy.
Showing mercy is not something we do to earn God’s favor, it’s what we do because we’ve already received God’s favor. What God wants from us is not just a way of thinking or feeling or acting. It is a way of being in the world. That’s what was so hard for the church in Corinth. They were a mixed bag of Roman citizens and Jewish dissidents and people who knew that the present system was just not right. They weren’t radicals or revolutionaries, but what they were doing was. Living in Christian Community was radically different because it broke down boundaries of race, class, and citizenship.
Paul wanted them to remember that their citizenship was in heaven and they were following the way of someone whose faith made him an enemy of the state. Paul wasn’t saying, “Go start a protest!” He was saying, “Final authority rests in God, and when you follow Jesus it means you have a different set of priorities. It means you care for others as you do yourself.”
This same Jesus was the one who stood on a rolling hill to speak about God’s love. Matt Skinner, Professor of New Testament studies at Luther Seminary, speaks of standing on the same hill and realizing that Jesus would have seen the city of Tiberias being built off in the distance. This means that as he spoke about the spiritual poverty of the day he was not just talking about what would be. He wasn’t just giving advice on how to get into heaven, as though God wants us to be miserable in order to really feel the bliss of heaven.
He was, however, saying, “This is how you win. When you realize that God is with you no matter how bad things have gotten or how bad they will get, that is winning.” That’s just great, isn’t it? But what does it have to do with the Super Bowl?
Funny you should ask. Thirty years ago there were some kids in a small presbyterian congregation in South Carolina that asked that same question. Somehow they became aware that there were hungry people in their community, and they decided to do something about it. They decided to tackle our nation’s most unifying event and make it a force for good. They made soup and sold it to raise money for a local food pantry.
Since then their efforts have grown to become a national movement as congregations across the country collect food and money and they distribute it locally to hungry people. As cool as that is, unless it changes the way we relate things to those who are hungry, then it’s no better than the empty sacrifices in Micah. Unless we become connected to those who hunger in a way that seeks to end poverty and the food deserts and the lack of access to healthcare and childcare and wages that keep people out of poverty, then we will never win.
You see, the problem of poverty is not our adversary. The problem is whether or not we are on the right team. If we define winning by our cars and homes and bank accounts without concern for anyone but ourselves, then we are not on the same team as God. If we define winning as being moved with compassion so that we realize that our neighbor’s problems are our problems, then we will see that we are a little closer to the goal.
You see, the metric for success that Jesus sets up for us is not being carried on everyone’s shoulder. Success doesn’t necessarily mean being trampled by the crowd either, but that could happen. Success means connecting our brokenness in the light of faith and finding something holy, and something wholly different!
Winning by crossing the goal together is not just a wish and a prayer. That’s the actual purpose of faith. There’s a new book on my “must-read” pile called Just Mercy that talks about the way that might look. Bryan Stevenson founded the “Equal Justice Initiative” in 1989, after realizing that the justice system was biased against the poor and particularly against minorities. One such case was Jimmy Dill, a man who received the death penalty in spite of serious concerns that he did not receive the adequate legal assistance necessary to ensure a reliable conviction and sentence in his case. Here’s what Mr. Stephenson learned from defending Mr. Dill:
“We are all broken by something. We have all hurt someone and have been hurt. We all share the condition of brokenness even if our brokenness is not equivalent. I desperately wanted mercy for Jimmy Dill and would have done anything to create justice for him, but I couldn’t pretend that his struggle was disconnected from my own. The ways in which I have been hurt—and have hurt others—are different from the ways Jimmy Dill suffered and caused suffering. But our shared brokenness connected us.”
At the end of the day, what does the Lord require of us – both as a people and as individuals – but to seek justice, love mercy, and walk in a way that recognizes the sovereignty of God?
Is it enough to just try really hard? Maybe, but we can’t do it alone. Faith is a team sport. Personally, I feel like we’re on the winning team! We just have to remember that when we feel beaten down. The Lord is with us, and we will know it in those times we see justice and mercy holding hands. That is how I pray it might be with me, and I pray the same for you as we march down the field ever closer to the kingdom’s goal. Amen!
Comments