Study Format:
1. Read passage aloud. What did you notice in the reading? What words or phrase caught your attention?
2. Read passage aloud a second time. What questions would you ask the text?
3. Read passage aloud a third time. What do you hear God calling you to do or be in response to this text?
Interesting Ideas to Consider:
• This week’s text—and the rest of the Gospel texts until Transfiguration—are from what is called the Sermon on the Mount. While presented by the writer of Matthew’s Gospel as a speech given in one setting on a hill in Galilee, it is more likely a collection of the teachings of Jesus throughout his ministry.
• Grouping the teachings of Jesus together into sections is one of the hallmarks of Matthew’s Gospel, there are five such gatherings of material with the Sermon on the Mount being the most famous. The others are the Missionary Discourse (chapter 10), the Parables of the Kingdom (chapter 13), the Community Discourse (chapter 18), and the Eschatological Discourse (chapters 24-25). We’ll read sections of the other speeches over the summer.
• The Sermon on the Mount is broken up into three sections, one dealing with the law (5:17-48), one with worship and religious practice (6:1-18), and the last with trusting and serving God in social relationships and actions (6:19-7:27). These seem to correspond to a well-known rabbinic saying, “By three things the world is sustained: by the law, by the Temple service, and by deeds of loving kindness.”
• The Sermon on the Mount is given before any of Jesus’ miracles are directly recorded. This is the common order in Matthew’s Gospel, first Jesus would teach, then he would demonstrate how to live out his teachings. However, the verses right before the sermon, Matthew 4:23-25, tell of Jesus going throughout the countryside teaching and healing, though no specifics are given. This places Jesus’ instructions in the context of mercy; people are healed without making any confession of faith, before they have even been taught about faith. Healing is dependent on the initiative and grace of the kingdom of God, not on any confession or understanding by the community.
• Luke also has a Great Sermon, but in Luke it is set not on a mountain, but on a plain. The mountain setting is important in Matthew to link Jesus to Moses, who went up Mount Sinai to talk to God and receive the Ten Commandments. Jesus is not the new Moses, but he is the continuation of the promise of Moses, and the Law Moses brought. Tradition (and tourism) has designated a “mount of the beatitudes,” but the mountain is more theological than geographical. Mountains in scripture are a place of revelation.
• Verses 1-2 indicate the audience for the sermon was the disciples, but Jesus had only called four at this point. Also, by the end (7:28), there is a crowd. The writer of Matthew is using the disciples not as a reference to the Twelve, but as a stand-in for the post-Easter Christian community, the church. The real hearers of the sermon are the readers of Matthew’s Gospel, so us.
• Verses 3-11 are commonly called The Beatitudes, but what is a beatitude? Beatitude comes from the Latin translation of the Greek word makarism, which is a statement in the indicative mood (verb form which states a fact) beginning with a form of the adjective makarios, meaning “fortunate,” “happy,” “in a privileged situation,” “well-off,” etc. Simply, beatitude is the Latin translation of the Greek word which in English is translated “Blessed.” Clear as mud?
• Beatitudes are not unique to Jesus, it is a common form in wisdom literature (like Proverbs) and in prophecy (like Isaiah).
• The beatitudes declare an objective reality, not a feeling. So “blessed” is the correct translation, rather than a feeling like “happy.” The opposite of blessed is not unhappy, but cursed. It is a description of one’s relation to God, not of one’s sense of their own well-being.
• Similarly, the indicative mood (statement of fact) should be taken seriously. These aren’t suggestions for living better or demands for conversion; they are marks of the church.
• There is an ethical dimension to the Beatitudes as well. There is a feeling of performative language. They do not merely describe what is, they bring into being the reality they declare. The form is not “if you will x, then y” but “those who are x will be y.” They are not entrance requirements for outsiders but declarations about insiders. And because of this, the community does not just hear itself blessed by God, but is called into action to act in accord with the coming kingdom. Because God says the poor in spirit inherit the kingdom of God, then when the church is poor in spirit, not only are they blessed, but they are moved by God into the action living in the kingdom of God and even bringing the kingdom of God on earth.
• One difference between Matthew’s Gospel and Luke’s Gospel is the focus of the beatitudes. Luke’s are directed to physical realities, where Matthew’s, without leaving out the physical, also encompass the spiritual. For example in Luke, “Blessed are the poor” (Luke 6:20) refers to literal poverty. In Matthew, “blessed are the poor in spirit” encompasses physical poverty as well as those who are spiritually poor, who lack ego or a strong sense of self-worth.
• V. 4, “blessed are those who mourn.” It is not in mourning that people are blessed, but in promise that a characteristic of the people of God is lament for the ways the kingdom of God has not yet been fulfilled. It is communal, rather than individual mourning. The community is not resigned to the present condition, but mourns that God’s kingdom has not yet come.
• V. 5 “inherit the earth” was probably a reference in OT times to the promise of land for Israel, but here it is a metaphor for participation in the renewed earth of the kingdom of God.
• V. 6, that word “righteousness” again. Righteousness, remember is doing the will of God, even if that differs from how the law of God has been interpreted by the people of God.
• V. 7, as the exception that proves the rule, “mercy” does refer to concrete acts of mercy, rather than an attitude of being merciful. The reason for this is because doing acts of mercy could be seen as a form of weakness, so not a behavior the world would reward, though God does.
• V. 8, the word “pure” has taken on in modern context a moral status, often dealing with sexual purity. However, the Greek word is more in the sense of “undivided.” An undivided commitment to monotheism, to one God, instead of the various gods who seek to parcel out our loyalties.
• V. 9 “blessed are the peacemakers” has subversive undertones. Roman emperors referred to themselves as “peacemakers” and “Sons of God.” Coupled with the rest of the beatitudes, we see how Jesus is re-meaning Roman propaganda. Being a peacemaker in the kingdom of God is not a passive attitude, but positive action for reconciliation. To simply not engage is not peace; it is acceptance of the unpeaceful status quo.
• V. 12, “rejoice” seems like an out of place response to v. 11. But rejoicing in the face of persecution is not about having a martyr complex, rather it is about the joy of being a part of the beloved community, and thus out of step with the realities of the present age.
• The two key words in all the beatitudes: “are” and “will.” This gets to that tension of the already and not yet of the kingdom of God. Already the kingdom is here, in the person of Jesus Christ, and yet not yet as the kingdom of God come into fullness. We live at the uncomfortable tension of both those realities.
Works Sourced:
Boring, M. Eugene. “The Gospel of Matthew.” The New Interpreter’s Bible Volume VIII. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995.
Powell, Mark Allan. Fortress Introduction to the Gospels. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1998.
No comments:
Post a Comment