Living Into the Beatitudes

February 2, 2020

St. John’s United Church of Christ, Union, Illinois

Micah 6:1-8; Matthew 5:1-12

This is the beginning, according to Matthew. Jesus has been baptized, overcome temptation in the wilderness, and called his first disciples. He is already famous for teaching and healing. The crowds have gathered to hear what he has to say. And he begins with “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (5:3). What is he trying to tell us? That it is a good thing to be poor in spirit? What if I am rich in spirit? What if I’m doing just fine?

He goes on. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (5:4). Well, that’s nice. Widows and orphans deserve to be blessed, what with all they’ve been through. Then things get a little more strange. “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth” (5:5). Well that just doesn’t make any sense, now, does it? The bold and the strong, they’re the ones who will inherit the earth, obviously. You can’t get ahead in this world if you’re meek. You have to take what’s yours, and if you have to take it from someone weaker than you, too bad for them.

“Blessed are the peacemakers…” (5:9). There is a scene in Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979) in which people at the back of the crowd are too busy talking to hear what Jesus is saying. “I think he said, ‘Blessed are the cheese-makers.’”

In our culture, if you’re peaceful, you’re likely to be seen as unpatriotic, or un-American. If you are merciful, you’re soft on crime. If you’re meek, you’re asking for someone to push you around. In our culture, competition, power, and fear are the driving forces. Even if you think the Beatitudes are a nice idea, it is all too easy to see them as sentiment and not a practical guide for living.

But Jesus wasn’t just saying how nice it would be if people were more kind. He wasn’t saying that we should just get used to how things are, put up with oppression and injustice, and wait for the kingdom of heaven. Jesus was saying that we should live this way. Jesus was saying that we should be meek, or humble, merciful, peaceful, and that we should desire to live in right relationship with God. And Jesus wasn’t just talking to the disciples; he was taking to the crowd, and by extension, to us.

What if we looked at the Beatitudes as a whole, with one thing leading to the next? What if we took these blessings seriously, and not just metaphorically? Can we try to understand the Beatitudes as a guide for living, a set of principles which are an alternative to the way we usually view the world through the lens of our competitive consumer culture? There are three principles for living that can be found in the Beatitudes, according to Charles Cook, Professor Emeritus of the Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas.[1] The principles are simplicity, hopefulness, and compassion.

If we read the words as they are, and not try to layer meaning on them, they point to a way of life in which simplicity is valued. Those who are meek are humble. If you are humble, you are open to the idea that you don’t know everything. You are open to the idea that God has not yet revealed everything, and there is yet more light and truth to be found. The humble ones know that they are only a part of the bigger picture. It takes humility to understand that we don’t own this world; it was given into our care by God. In caring for the earth, we care for that which belongs to God.

In a world filled with things that can cause us to fear, we need courage. If we hear what Jesus has to say, if we live our lives with humility, peacefulness, and mercy, we will be blessed with courage. In caring for others, we find that we have strength. If we live within our means, rather than grasping for more and more, we find that we have been blessed with abundance, with all that we need to live and more. The way of simplicity can free us from our culture of greed.

Do you have hope that things will get better? Many people no longer believe that. As the gap between rich and poor grows wider, as the divide between those on the left and right grows deeper, hope for the future seems to be getting lost, and is replaced by cynicism. The mantra of cynicism is “That’s just the way it is, get over it.” That way of thinking takes these words of Jesus, “For you always have the poor with you” (26:11), and turns them into a pronouncement rather than a call to always recognize and care for those among us who are poor.

Who are the poor in spirit? In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus says, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God” (6:20). When you have next to nothing, faith in God can be the most important thing in your life. But poor in spirit can also mean those whose spirits are broken. If you lived in Roman occupied Galilee in the first century, your spirit as a nation had been broken. You were, as a people, oppressed, downtrodden, and brokenhearted. Yet, you are still God’s chosen people. Remember that, and it can give you hope. Jesus echoed the promise of Isaiah 61: God sent him “to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted (61:1).

Hopefulness is the second principle of living into the Beatitudes. Christ offers hope to the hopeless. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (5:6). The day will come when right will win out over wrong. When we live in hopefulness, we know that mercy, humility, peace, and love will one day be the norm rather than the exception. When we face the world with hope, we know that it is darkest just before the dawn, and that the dawn will come. Because we live in Christ, we know that even though the road ahead leads to the crucifixion, it will also lead to the resurrection.

Hopefulness is what empowers us to believe that God’s kingdom is coming, and righteousness will claim the victory. “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (5:10). These words inspire the kind of hope that moved the Pilgrims to set out for a new world, even though some would not live to see it. This hope caused the revolutionaries to set a course for independence, even though it would cost the colonies dearly in blood and treasure. This spirit of hopefulness allowed the abolitionists to keep fighting to end slavery against those who would use the same bible to keep the Africans in bondage. Hopefulness and faith in the kingdom of heaven empowered women to demand the right to vote, the descendants of slaves to demand an end to discrimination, and gay and lesbian people to demand the right to marry the ones they love.

The most powerful principle of living into the Beatitudes, the key to walking in the steps of Jesus, is compassion. Compassion is much more than pity. To pity another means that you feel sorry for them. Compassion is more than sympathy. To be sympathetic means that you share the feelings of another. To have compassion means more. It means that what hurts you hurts me. Compassion means that when you mourn, I mourn with you, and thus you may be comforted. We are in this together. You share my humanity. You are part of my family.

Compassion is the principle that led Jesus to break so many of the Laws of Moses. Compassion led Jesus to heal the man with the withered hand on the sabbath (12:10). Compassion led Jesus to touch the leper and heal him (8:2-3). Compassion led Jesus to perform miracles, such as feeding the five-thousand (14:14-21). Compassion gives us a hunger for justice and a thirst for righteousness. With compassion we can be merciful, we can seek peace, we can see the other as an extension of ourselves. With compassion we can love our neighbor as ourselves.

Compassion is the principle that is motivated by love. It was love that gave us Jesus: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son” (John 3:16). It was love that carried Jesus to the cross. It is compassion and love that can give us the power to endure persecution for the sake of Christ. “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (5:11-12).

When we live into the Beatitudes, when we allow simplicity, hopefulness, and compassion to guide our lives, we will be able to bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, endure all things” (1 Cor. 13:7). When we live in love, we know that the kingdom of heaven is near.  Amen.

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[1] Charles James Cook, "Pastoral Perspective on Matthew 5:1-12" in David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, General Editors, Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary, Year A, Volume 1 (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), 308-312. Cook is Professor Emeritus of Pastoral Theology, Seminary of the Southwest, Austin, Texas.