All Saints’ Day
Year A
Psalm 34:1-10, 22 (Year A All Saints’ Day) is an individual thanksgiving hymn. The psalm has a close relationship to Psalm 25, but not necessarily the same author or the same situation. The Psalm is acrostic, each verse beginning with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the letter vav missing. It also means loosely connected thoughts between the verses. The grateful poet invites other afflicted persons to join him. It praises the Lord for deliverance from trouble. The mis-identified incident in I Sam 21:11-16 and the lack of connection between that text and this psalm are indications of the secondary nature of all the superscriptions in the psalter. Verses 1-3 introduce the psalm, reminding us that the Lord intends that our entire lives serve the glory of the Lord. The witness of the individual is also an invitation to the community. The poet testifies that he will bless or praise the Lord at all times, as his soul (nephesh) boasts in the Lord. Since the reference to himself and his soul are in parallel, the psalm suggests the person is a psychosomatic unity, for “I” and the “soul” are one. He invites the lowly or humble to hear and be gland. He encourages others to magnify and exalt the name of the Lord with him. The poet begins by stressing the human activities of blessing, praising, boasting, magnifying, and exalting the Lord. Verses 4-10 recount the answer the Lord gave to the prayer and the reason for the offering of praise as it becomes a testimony by the poet in the community. The easy movement between individual and community expresses their deep union. The passage offers a goldmine of religious aphorisms. The sought the Lord and the Lord answered by delivering him psychologically from his fears. He urges the community to the look to the Lord and be radiant and not experience shame. Referring to himself, this poor soul cried and the Lord heard and saved him from every trouble. The angel of the Lord, a guardian angel who is a member of the heavenly court, or a manifestation of the Lord, encamps around those who fear the Lord and delivers them. He encourages the community, in an image found only here in the Old Testament, to taste and see that the Lord is good, which is why the early church used this psalm for Holy Communion. Happiness or blessedness is with those who take refuge in the Lord. Note the human activity again, as the human being seeks the Lord, looks to the Lord, cries to the Lord, and even tastes and sees the Lord. Yet, we should also note the divine activity. The Lord answered, delivered, and hears. He encourages the holy ones to fear the Lord, for then they will have no want, for though young lions suffer want and hunger, those who seek the Lord lack no good thing, for the Lord sustains them. In verse 22, standing outside the acrostic form of the psalm, providing the happy conclusion that the Lord redeems the lives of those who serve the Lord, condemning none who take refuge in the Lord.
Revelation 7:9-17 (Year A All Saints’ Day) contains a vision of heaven. John sees a multitude of people. Following the vision of the 144,000, that number merges with the uncountable multitude, suggesting that we should have no anxiety, for both groups will reeive the supreme happiness of eternity. The multitude comes from every nation, and the stand before the Lamb, robed in while, symbolizing both victory and purity. Their victory was in not allowing the seductions of sin to win their lives. The robes are a gift of God in 3:5 and 6:11. Here, the free choice of human agents bestows them. They receive a new being. They appear with palm branches, rooted in the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles, a symbol of victory among the faithful ones. They also cry out in a loud voice that salvation or victory (soteria) belongs to our God. Victory belongs to the one seated on the throne and the Lamb. He reintroduces the heavenly actors described in Chapter 4, angels, elders, and the four living creatures. The sense of an unmitigated divine victory still directs the praise of these heavenly beings. This vision occurs after six of the seals of judgment have unleashed horror upon the earth. This vision provides an insight into what lays beyond judgment. Thus, the vision now includes seven ascriptions of praise to God: blessing, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, honor, power, and might. The author marks relief from the harrowing revelation of the seven seals by seven ascriptions possessed by God. As happens often in the biblical vision tradition, John relates a question/answer segment, where one of the elders asks who those are who are dressed in white, and John responds that the elder knows, and the elder informs him they are those who have come out of the great ordeal described by the opening of the six seals of Judgment. The fact that they have come may mean they are the faithful Christian maryrs persecuted under Roman law, and thus by Nero or Domitian, and the great ordeal or tribulation could refer to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. This great ordeal is the grim conflict of loyalties. The verb "to come" has a more progressive meaning. This entire passage, a momentary hiatus from the horrendous visions revealed by breaking the seven seals, is more concerned with describing how things should be and will be than with events already past. The multitude of white-robed celebrators represents all faithful Christians who survive the tribulations because of God's loving protection. These who have "washed themselves" may have joined battle with a warrior Messiah or died a martyr's death. Verses 15-17 are set forth in a series of three-line stanzas. In both form and content, these final verses remind us of traditional Hebraic prophetic literature. The text repeats much of the image in Isaiah 49:10, where prisoners are free, and will no longer be hungry or thirsty, and they will receive shade from sun and shelter from the wind. They are before the throne, they worship continually in their new priestly office in the heavenly temple, a symbol of the community of the new covenant, and the one seated on the throne will shelter them. They will have their necessities met and God will protect them from danger, for the Lamb will be their shepherd who will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear. These words have brought comfort to many. The connection of these verses with 21:3-4 confirm that we are reading a prolepsis of the end.[1] Now they rest from their labors. Now they are in the presence of the great shepherd who wipes away all tears and guides them to the waters of eternal life. Note that these saints, robed in white, are in a great processional, a great parade moving around the throne of God. You and I today are part of that long, more than 2,000-year processional moving toward the lamb. The Lamb will guide us to the springs of the water of life. The saints are those who walk before us, those who show us the way.
Suffering is so much a part of human life. One can hardly imagine human life without it. Certainly, suffering is deeply engrained in nature. Living things are born, eat other living things, and die. If that were not difficult enough, we inflict suffering upon self and others through our sin. One of the beauties revealed in the Book of Revelation is that through it all, God will preserve us. This world is not all there is. God has an eternity planned for us, engaged in worship and praise, wiping away every tear.
This passage invites us to reflect upon our destiny and thus upon heaven and eternal life with God. I do not think it too negative of a view of most of us today that we are firmly rooted in this earth. We bind ourselves firmly to the earth. We may well need to loosen the ties of this world by strengthening our bond with eternity. The vision contained in this passage can console us in the loss of friends and family, of course. Those who have fallen asleep have not perished. Far from losing life, they have gained the fullness of their lives. The dangers of this life are gone. They surround the throne of the one who sits on the throne and the Lamb. Thoughts of eternal life can inspire, encourage, and strengthen us to lead lives worthy of that divine election and calling. The passage makes it clear that the joy and blessedness of eternity comes for those who have endured the suffering of the great tribulation. Thus, they were not necessarily fortunate on earth! They are there because the Lamb was slain for them.
I would note that the multitude in Revelation sees this brightness because they gather around the throne of God in worship together. In that time to come, that throne is the place where they get their questions about life answered. However, what John’s vision shows us is that in that place of worship, they jointly perceive what they need to know, that the Lamb is their shepherd. As we live on this side of eternity, what we need to know is that God is still here in this life, that God has not left us, and that the Lamb is our shepherd as well. Moreover, corporate worship can bring us that assurance; it can give us a glimpse of the divine perspective. It is significant that we do not go to church for private devotions. We go there as part of a congregation, and we get some of the uplift we need from fellow worshipers. Therefore, it is no wonder that in the eternal age to come, the author does not describe those gathered around God’s throne one by one but as an uncountable multitude. They grew to be so many because they were already following Jesus in company with each other when they were on this side of eternity. However, standing here among the people of God, in the place of worship, we can sense the truth: that good is stronger than evil, that there is something that nothing can take from us because God has given it to us. Furthermore, we together know that nothing — nothing — can separate us from the love of God.
In one sense, the church is always changing as it moves into new cultures and new generations. In another sense, the church is always out of step with the times in which it seeks to minister. At its best, it seeks to be faithful to the apostles founded and the faithful have continued throughout the centuries. It can be frustrating to see church buildings with ancient symbols and clergy wearing robes with symbols that no longer gain immediate recognition. The music is not from the top ten. The book from which it reads is ancient. The church is full of old words and old ideas. “We never did it that way before” may well be the seven last words of a dying church. At the same time, the church always needs to consider the new considering its faithfulness to the old. Whether or not the new still looks like the church of the apostles ought to matter to us. Yet, it also looks to the future with the hope of the people of God gathered from across generations and cultures to offer praise and worship to God.
I would not be here today if it were not for all those saints who put up with me in Sunday school and told me the stories of Jesus, who taught me in a college religion class, and guided me when I was confused, and put their arm around me when I wanted to give up. I am thinking of a multitude that I could not possibly name today, I think of the faith, hope, and courage of my mother. I think of Joe, Ed, Wayne, Dwayne, Robert, Bill, and on and on. I expect that you are also thinking about the people who put you here today, the saints who nurtured you in this faith and to whom you owe your commitment to Christ.
We give thanks for these saints, all of them, and acknowledge our indebtedness to them. We give thanks for the saints who surround the throne of the lamb. Name them, claim them, give thanks to God that they were there for you.
I conclude with a prayer.
I am grateful, O God, that your Spirit is at work within me, nudging and stretching me, causing me to grow, to think, and to present myself in worship. Sometimes, it takes courage to do so. Suffering is so much part of a human life that I can hardly imagine a human life without it. Suffering seems deeply engrained in nature as well. As friends surround me, I sense again that I could never live alone. Worship reminds me that this life, which I receive as your gift, is not all that it can be or will be. Let my worship be an expression of my gratitude for what you are doing now, yes, but even more, that you bring our lives to its fullness and completion.
I John 3:1-3 (Year A All Saints’ Day) contains many well-known themes in the New Testament. He wants to get the attention of the readers with the opening imperative for them to see or behold the precious gift they have received in God calling them children of God. Believers have become dear children. The intimacy of the parent and child relation also suggests dependency and trust. He uses the word to express the fundamental relationship humans have with what defines their identity. In typical Johannine thought, one’s parentage is either divine or evil. Thus, the relation a believer experiences with the Father through Christ places the believer at odds with the world. The Father calls believers to a separate way of life, one that necessarily creates division. The love of God not only positively transforms the community’s relationship with God, but it also changes the relationship of the community with the world. They will suffer rejection, just as Jesus did. The “world” that does not know them must have included the Jewish groups who viewed them as blasphemous, the Gentile groups who did not understand their customs, and members of their own group who had left the fold (2:19-20). There is a sense they felt rejected on all sides, but this was of no concern to those who have the assurance of the love of God. He refers to his readers as beloved and that they are the children of God now, a reminder that prior to their conversion and entrance into the community they were children of the world. The mood is more one of the danger “the world” is to “us.” This letter will hold out the possibility that even some within the beloved community will reveal themselves to be dangerous. The ethical stance is personal, suspicious, and inner-directed. Such a view of the world can lead to withdraw from the world. Despite all these tendencies, if we read the letter as part of the canon, we will see that it is part of an internal conversation regarding church/world, believer/unbeliever that includes some tensions with which believers in every generation and culture will have to wrestle. Despite its ominous tone, the promise that the love of God is a gift through Jesus Christ reveals the grace and power of the gospel. Moreover, God's love forms community and orders the relationships between believers. It reaffirms the promise that the Father is to reveal more to the believer who keeps the faith, revealing what they will be as children of God. The future will be a new manifestation of the love that has accomplished the gift of becoming children of God. John is offering a brief reflection on time. His point is that on the path in time, objects and people exist only in anticipation of what they will be in the final revelation that only the end can clarify. We can rightly refer to that end as eternity. The clarity the end brings is the entry of eternity into time. In the end, the distinction between time and eternity dissolves as time itself disintegrates into the fullness that eternity represents. In the end, the totality of life arrives, along with the true and definitive identity of the finite and temporal. The future is that toward which the finite and temporal aim. Therefore, the future becomes the basis for the lasting essence of each individual creature that finds duration in its time and place. Finite things must relate to their eschatology.[2] They already have the knowledge that when the revelation of Christ occurs by the Father, they will be like him, living as reflections of the love of God. This revelation will occur because they will see Christ as he is. They have already gone through a radical change in becoming children of God, but when the final disclosure brought by the end arrives, they will change even more to see Christ as he is. Further, this hope purifies them. The children are like the parent. They live in the love of God and have the firm hope of a glorious future. The revelation of this glorious future has not yet taken place.[3] The resemblance between the believer and Christ will be in the realm of righteousness. To be a child of God is to begin a journey in the faith that will lead to a more profound knowledge of who Christ is, in his fullness. Furthermore, this journey will lead to a deeper, personal, moral purity; the believer will become like Jesus.
Matthew 5:1-12 (Year A All Saints’ Day) Matthew provides a setting for his collection of sayings by Jesus referred to as the Sermon on the Mount and begins the proclamation of the kingdom with a presentation of the Beatitudes, which are from both Q and M.
If we are to give priority to the understanding of the Christian life to the teaching of Jesus, then the Beatitudes need to receive careful attention. People often praise the beatitudes. It seems as if people rarely read them. We can easily praise them, but our words are empty when they fail to consistently to translate into action.[4] "Jesus did not `think what the day thought (Nietzsche).'" Those who think today’s conventional, expectable thought see it fade and disappear with the day. These Beatitudes are fresh, radical, and thus capable of unsettling and healing anyone in range.[5]
One should imagine a discussion between Jesus and his students organized around a problem they are pondering. The rabbi in that day would crystallize his teaching with a short and memorable saying. The beatitudes here are the result of that process. They are profound statements. Yet, they would make little sense without some of the background just suggested. These beatitudes are inviting us to reflect upon what “success” means to God. Jesus wants to clarify for the disciples and for the people what it means to follow him. These sayings of Jesus are wisdom sayings. Their design is to bring us to a place of insight concerning what Jesus thinks genuine happiness might be. If we spend some prayerful time spending a day using it as a mantra or brief prayer, letting its truth sink into our hearts, we will be far closer to what Jesus wanted. What is your calling? What should you do with your life? What really matters? The vocation of such a one is to daily seek to learn what it means to be Christian in the historical setting one finds oneself. Here is the challenge for us today. Your happiness may not be where you think it is. If we listen carefully, Jesus will turn our sense of happiness upside down.
Part of the beauty of the beatitudes is that all to whom they apply will have a share in the coming salvation, whether they ever heard of Jesus in this life or not. The reason is that they factually have a share in Jesus and his message, as the Day of Judgment will make obvious.[6] Congratulating the poor without qualification is unexpected, even paradoxical, since one usually reserves this for those who enjoy prosperity, happiness, or power. The congratulations to the weeping and the hungry are expressed vivid and exaggerated language, which announces a dramatic transformation. Chapter 6 will give the version of the Lord’s Prayer we find in Matthew. “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” One can easily imagine Matthew viewing the beatitudes as giving some content to the will of God as Jesus understood it and as how the rule of God comes even now, in the prayer and life of the people of God, even as they look forward to the coming fullness of that rule. Moreover, the Beatitudes feature three ways humankind experiences the blessings accompanying the unfolding of the kingdom — as those who need good news, as those who help share good news and as those who are willing to work for the sake of good news even at personal cost.
The Beatitudes receive their name after the Latin adjective beatus (“fortunate”) that stands at the beginning of verses 3-11 in the Vulgate. The word in Greek is Μακάριοι and one best translates it as “happy” or “blissful.” Beatitudes acknowledge praise due to an individual for some deed or quality and are thus not asking God to bless those who do such things. "Blessed" is a formula of congratulations in relation to piety, wisdom, and prosperity. Μακάριοι is associated with the joy and peace associated with a relationship with divinity. These are not statements, but punctuation. How Blest, How wonderful. There is an emotional quality of blessedness and joy. There are other beatitudes in 11:6, 13:16, 24:46, Luke 11:27-28, Revelation 1:3; James 1:12; Romans 14:22; and John 20:29.
The statements are synthetic rather than analytical. Happiness comes to people who possess characteristics like this. They describe the life-direction of the one following Jesus. They stand opposite to current ideas of happiness and good fortune. Jesus is giving people added information about themselves. The presence of Jesus makes these persons blessed.[7] Jesus saw a new world coming. Jesus himself was a sign of that new world, the first outbreak of the rule of God, a signal that, by the grace of God, reality was making a fundamental shift. The beatitudes may seem like an unrealistic way to live. However, if we ponder them deeply, and considering the proleptic appearance of the rule of God in Jesus, they become a powerful invitation to live in an unusual way.
The first eight of the nine beatitudes form a single unit in Matthew 5:3-10; the refrain “theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (5:3, 10) acts like a set of bookends for the material between them (scholars call this common literary structure an inclusio). The ninth beatitude in 5:11-12 thus lies outside this literary unit.
3 “Blessed (Μακάριοι) are the poor (πτωχοὶ), with Matthew adding to the Q version in spirit (πνεύματι), for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. "You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.” (The Message) They are in dire need of good news, and they will have it. This is in keeping with how Jesus approaches the lowly throughout Matthew. We can see the theme in other Jewish literature. The Lord looks upon the humble and contrite in spirit who tremble at the word of the Lord (Isaiah 66:2b). The Lord hears the oppressed and needy (Psalm 69:32-33). The pious shall give thanks, in parallel thought with the poor receiving the mercy of God (Psalm of Solomon 10:7, from around 50 BC-70 AD).[8]Matthew may shift the meaning from the poor economically to a quality of the inner life. Matthew has correctly interpreted what Jesus meant here. We have no one else upon whom to rely than God. That is our situation, whether we are aware of it or not. This poverty, true and saving despair, is the gift of the Holy Spirit and the work of Jesus Christ. In this, it resembles faith, of which it is a part. It is to know our sin and divine compassion, forgiving us our sins. It suggests despair about ourselves and the possibilities of existence.[9]The poor in spirit focuses upon inner life. It has in mind inner resources. It seems close to the ethical attitude of humility. It contrasts lack of sufficiency for life verses self-sufficiency. It suggests the poverty of human resources. In the Old Testament, the poor recognize their state of poverty before God. "Poor" people do not have to do something first. One must hear in this beatitude one's own lack. Although the economically poor are in view, Matthew’s version of the beatitude makes it clear that it refers to the poverty of people before God. In the history of influence, most of the ancients viewed this as a spiritual poverty, humility.
As Jesus speaks, the future kingdom comes. God's authority is behind him. The humble receive the promise of the kingdom. In doing so, the salvation that Jesus mediates consists of fellowship with God and the related life, which also embraces a renewal of fellowship with others. To have part in the rule of God is of the very essence of salvation.[10]
4 “Blessed (Μακάριοι) are those who mourn (πενθοῦντες), for they will be comforted (παρακληθήσονται). "You're blessed when you feel you've lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.” (The Message) If we are in the presence of one who mourns the natural reaction is one of pity and compassion. Yet, Jesus invites us to ponder that the blessing of God is upon them. They are in dire need of good news, and they will have it. This is in keeping with how Jesus approaches the lowly throughout Matthew. Mourning here is over one’s own sin as well as the sins of others. It suggests mourning over the state of the world. What a paradox Jesus discloses here, that we find our genuine happiness in mourning. We experience the suffering and pain of this world, not just for ourselves, I hope, but that of others as well. Evil is in us and around us, erupting in bedrooms and boardrooms, back alleys and battlefields. Your mourning is not the end, but the prelude to the comfort God will bring.
God will replace the mourning of this age with the comfort of the next age. We find the same emphasis in the prophetic promise that in the year of the favor of the Lord, comfort will come to those who mourn, providing for those who mourn in Zion, giving them garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and the mantle of praise rather than a faint spirit (Isaiah 61:2-3). It suggests strengthening and consoling. The promise of this passage is that the suffering and death of human history will not have the final word.
5 “Blessed (Μακάριοι) are the meek (πραεῖς), for they will inherit the earth. "You're blessed when you're content with just who you are - no more, no less. That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought.” (The Message) They help bring good news to others, committed to nurturing compassion and wholeness in the world according to the kingdom of heaven. They receive blessing to be blessings to others. We find a similar thought when the psalmist says the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant prosperity (Psalm 37:11). The beatitude is close to verse 3, and even closer if one translates into Aramaic. Gentle people who are trying to reject the power-hungry and violent ways of the world we live in. It speaks of the need for us to live God-controlled lives. Meekness is something like self-control. A truly meek person is one who has every instinct, impulse, and passion under control. They know themselves well enough to put themselves under the direction God gives them. It refers to those who acknowledge the will of God rather than their own. These do not need power, because their trust is in God. The sense is unassuming or undemanding. A look at Jewish parenesis shows that one can hardly separate the nuances of humility and kindness from each other. Without humility, for example, one cannot learn, for the first step in learning is the realization of our ignorance. Without humility, love becomes impossible, for the beginning of love is a sense of unworthiness. Without humility, we will not know true religion, which begins with a sense of our weakness and of our need for God.[11] The word does not mean the sickly weakness, milk-toast person. The Old Testament calls Moses meek. Jesus also was meek. It refers to a strong character; firmness combined with humility. In the Old Testament, it refers to gentleness, steadiness, and open to trust in God. Aristotle described ethical living as a mean, or mid-point, between two extremes. On the one extreme was wild and uncontrolled anger; on the other was a total lack of anger, a spineless resignation. In between was righteous anger, the middle way, or the golden mean. Aristotle used a form of this very same word translated here as “meekness” to describe a life lived in perfect balance.
The promise is participation in the rule of God over the earth. The promise is that what life experience denied them on earth, influence apart from power and violence, will belong to them. One can accomplish this inheriting only partially now. Those who act with equanimity and sensitivity will normally get further than those who are rough of will.
6 “Blessed (Μακάριοι) are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (δικαιοσύνην), for they will be filled. "You're blessed when you've worked up a good appetite for God. He's food and drink in the best meal you'll ever eat.” (The Message) Happiness is for those who we actively seek doing the will of God. We need to fill our lives with the things of God. We must never stop hungering and thirsting. The wonder of humanity is not its sin, but that regardless of the depths of evil to which we can sink, goodness still haunts us. When embedded in the mud of our self-destructive and self-inflicted darkness, we never wholly forget the stars above us. God blesses those who do not stop hungering and thirsting.[12] They help bring good news to others, committed to nurturing compassion and wholeness in the world according to the kingdom of heaven. They receive blessing to be blessings to others. The Old Testament knows of hungering and thirsting for God's word, mercy, and presence. The Lord shall bring a time of famine and thirst for the words of the Lord (Amos 8:11). The Lord shall be the host of a feast for all peoples that includes rich food and well-aged wines (Isaiah 25:6). All who thirst are to come to the waters and those without money can come, buy, and eat, eating rich food that will satisfy truly (Isaiah 55:1-2, 7). They shall not hunger or thirst, for the Lord has pity on them will lead them by springs of water (Isaiah 49:10). The tears of the psalmist have been his food (Psalm 42:3). Some wandered in the wilderness, hungry and thirsty and fainting within, but the Lord delivered them from distress, for the Lord satisfies the thirsty and the hungry with good things (Psalm 107:4-9). Even such a background of the saying suggests they have not attained righteousness. It suggests continual hungering and thirsting, the longing of the pious. What they lack, they long for what only God can give. The “righteousness” to which Jesus refers receives a description in Matthew 5:20-48.
7 “Blessed (Μακάριοι) are the merciful (ἐλεήμονες), for they will receive mercy. "You're blessed when you care. At the moment of being 'care full,' you find yourselves cared for.” (The Message) Followers of Jesus show such mercy to others, for they are anxious to receive it themselves. They help bring good news to others, committed to nurturing compassion and wholeness in the world according to the kingdom of heaven. They receive blessing to be blessings to others. In a similar thought, we are to forgive neighbors the wrongs they have done and then the Lord will pardon our sins when we pray (Ecclesiasticus or Sirach 28:2). No one can count on God's mercy that does not also show mercy. It stresses the connection between God's love for humanity and neighborly love.
8 “Blessed (Μακάριοι) are the pure in heart (καθαροὶ τῇ καρδίᾳ), for they will see God. "You're blessed when you get your inside world - your mind and heart - put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.” (The Message) Such persons are willing to show the world in word and deed that there is nothing more life-changing than single-minded devotion to God. Yet, our focus is fuzzy at best, feeling pulled in all directions. They help bring good news to others, committed to nurturing compassion and wholeness in the world according to the kingdom of heaven. They receive blessing to be blessings to others. Those who have pure hearts will ascend Zion and abide in the Temple, seeking the face of God (Psalm 24:3-6). Other parts of the New Testament reinforce this theme. Christian instruction has the goal of love that comes from a pure heart, good conscience, and sincere faith (I Timothy 1:5). Those who call upon the Lord with a pure heart pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace (II Timothy 2:22). It suggests purity of heart as undivided obedience to God. The point is inner and moral purity, presenting the whole self to God. "Heart" is the center of human wanting, thinking, and feeling. The point is not opposition to the acts of worship prescribed in the Old Testament, including its sacrifices. Christian tradition has interpreted this beatitude in an ascetic manner. Yet, we must not interpret purity of peart in a way that would lead to removal from the world or to a form of piety suitable only for the religiously gifted. This quality will manifest itself as obedience toward God in the world.
This quality of life has a hope for a future seeing of God that is more than private individual experience. The promise may refer either to seeing God in worship or to the eschatological seeing. When God reveals Christ to the world, we shall we shall be like him, seeing him as he is (I John 3:2b). In any case, “entering into” the rule of God has its definition materially as the vision of God.[13]
9 “Blessed Μακάριοι) are the peacemakers (εἰρηνοποιοί), for they will be called children of God."You're blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That is when you discover who you really are, and your place in God's family.” (The Message) It speaks of our need to work for peace and the justice that paves the way for peace. However, for most of us, we are lovers of peace and we want a peaceful existence in our own lives in which the strife and brokenness in our world does not bother us. Peacemakers are active. A person refuses to take sides in a dispute, steps between two parties, and tries to make peace. It suggests overcoming evil with good. This beatitude points to the commandment of love of enemies. Thus, Matthew is thinking not only of a peaceful living together of members of the community but thinks beyond the limits of the community. They help bring good news to others, committed to nurturing compassion and wholeness in the world according to the kingdom of heaven. They receive blessing to be blessings to others.
The promise is that God will name them as children of God. The Old Testament reserves the title for Israel. Jesus applies the name to anyone who exhibits the qualities of making peace.
10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted (δεδιωγμένοι) for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. "You're blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God's kingdom.” (The Message) The beatitude points us in the direction of the love of enemies. The world does not want the people of God to point them in the direction of setting things right with God and with each other. If one genuinely hungers and thirst for righteousness (5:6), one may find that suffering is the result. The persecuted are favorites of God. It refers to those who undergo fiery tests of loyalty to God. The implication is that right conduct before God brings persecution. Yet, we are not to think of masochism or sadism here. Rather, it does seem that the New Testament teaches that Christians should not look upon persecution as strange. They are not to avenge themselves. It gives an opening for all kinds of unrighteousness and folly and wickedness. In fact, such defenselessness may be dishonorable. Jesus calls upon his followers to love their enemies. The only answer seems to be that they resemble in a faint way the suffering of Jesus.[14] Christians are not to look upon honor in the same way that the rest of the world may do. Affliction in this world is not an unqualified bad and may be a good. Jesus makes it clear that working for the sake of good news can get you into trouble. Doing what is sacred is not always the safest choice in a world consistently indifferent to, if not the source of, the spiritual impoverishment and grief caused by lowliness that inflicts itself upon people. receiving blessing from God is challenging, if not risky, business. Jesus is fully aware of the cost of discipleship, indeed, fully aware of the cost of being the Messiah.
In fact, followers of Jesus receive blessedness, even when persecution occurs. Hatred by the world will in fact mean blessedness from God. Jesus promises them the kingdom of heaven. Again, in doing so, the salvation that Jesus mediates consists of fellowship with God and the related life, which also embraces a renewal of fellowship with others. To have part in the rule of God is of the very essence of salvation.[15]
11 “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, speaking of empowerment to participate in the kingdom for the sake of something bigger than personal satisfaction, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets, disciples becoming the successors of the prophets, who were before you. "Not only that - count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens - give a cheer, even! - for though they don't like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.” (The Message) The beatitude points us in the direction of the love of enemies. Here is precisely where the task of standing with and for the kingdom comes into play most fully, particularly whenever we confront the sad news of the world with the good news of heaven, no matter what the personal cost. One receives blessing from God especially when the world offers rejection. Such blessed boldness connects us to the same heavenly power that sustains Jesus and the prophets before him.
The ninth beatitude differs from the other beatitudes in that it is longer and less ethereal than the others are. However, note that its theme, persecution, is a theme the eighth beatitude introduces. Matthew here switches suddenly to the second person (“Blessed are you when people revile you ...”), and many scholars believe that the direct address implies that readers of the gospel may have felt harassed by Jewish groups like the Pharisees, with whom it is likely the author and his community were in conflict.
Keep it simple. We often hear that advice. The truth behind it is that often, the insights we need to live a full Christian life are just that – simple. We are to love God with all our hearts. We are to love our neighbors as ourselves. In a sense, simple, is it not?
What are followers of Jesus supposed to look like? Well, they are to recognize their complete dependence upon God, concerned with the suffering in this world, meek before others, hunger and thirst for what is right, be willing to suffer for what is right, be merciful to others, have inward and outward purity, and make peace in a world divided. I am not suggesting that any of this is easy. Yet, it is simple and direct, as Jesus puts it, at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount.
Sure. It is so simple that if we are faithful to Jesus, we will spend our lives becoming like this. The beatitudes invite us to consider Christianity as a lifestyle, a way of being in the world that is simple, non-violent, shared, and loving. With all the centuries since shared the beatitudes, the church became an established religion in a way that sometimes avoided this type of lifestyle change. Thus, one could be warlike, greedy, racist, selfish and vain in most of Christian history, and still believe that Jesus is one’s “personal Lord and Savior.” The world has no time for such silliness anymore. The suffering on Earth is too great.[16]
If we follow Jesus, if our vocation in life is to learn to be Christian, then we need to let Jesus define for us that type of life will look like. Some parts of the Bible are clarifying moments. The Ten Commandments would be an obvious place to go for such a clarifying moment. For many of us, Micah 6:1-8 is a clarifying moment in declaring that God requires of the people of God only that they do justice, act with kindness, and walk humbly with God. It seems to me that Jesus had a clarifying moment toward the beginning of his ministry in Galilee in offering his inaugural sermon that Matthew has expanded into the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus has no intention of being a lone ranger. He wants people who will be faithful witnesses with him. He also wants to clarify for the disciples and for the people what it means to follow him.
The Beatitudes contain what Jesus considers to be the successful, well-lived human life. The promises affirmed here are for now provisionally and proleptically but will reach their fulfillment in the eschatological age. God will bring an unexpected bent of the world toward love, peace, and justice.
Living the type of life described here is not available only to followers of Jesus. The beatitudes describe a life any person of any culture or historical setting might adopt as the goal of proper character formation. If one adopts this direction in one’s life, one participates in the saving work of God now and in the gracious end toward which God is moving natural and human history. My point is this. A personal encounter with Jesus through the Christian message as a response of faith to it cannot be the universal criterion for participation in salvation or exclusion from it if we take seriously what the New Testament says about the love of God for the world that embraces all people. Hearing the gospel in a way that might bring personal encounter is historically contingent and cannot be decisive for eternal salvation. In their case, what counts is whether actual conduct agrees with the will of God that Jesus proclaimed. The message of Jesus is the norm by which God judges, even in the case of those who never meet Jesus personally. All to whom the beatitudes apply will have a share in the coming salvation whether they have ever heard of Jesus in this life or not. They have a share in the message of Jesus and in him, as the Day of Judgment will reveal. Further, the eschatological transformation contains an element of compensation for the sufferings and deficiencies of the present world.[17]
The proclamation of the rule of God involved reflecting upon discipleship and the relation of that discipleship to the Old Testament (Matthew 5:13-20, Year A Epiphany 5). Matthew provides another aspect of the proclamation of the rule of God by Jesus.
[1] Michel (TDNT, Volume 4, 888)
[2] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 3, 531, 603.
[3] Barth, Church Dogmatics II.2 [37.3] 608.
[4] Archbishop Desmond Tuto.
[5] Martin Marty, Emphasis Ja-Fe 1996
[6]
[7]
[8] And the pious shall give thanks in the assembly of the people;
And on the poor shall God have mercy in the gladness () of Israel;
[9] Barth (Church Dogmatics, I.2 [16.2] 265)
[10] Pannenberg (Systematic Theology, Vol II, 398)
[11] —William Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew (Westminster John Knox, 1968), 112-13.
[12] William Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew (Westminster John Knox, 1968), 116.
[13] Pannenberg (Systematic Theology Vol III, 528)
[14] Barth (Church Dogmatics IV.1 [59.2] 243)
[15] Pannenberg (Systematic Theology, Vol II, 398)
[16] Richard Rohr, shared by Rev. Dennis L. Stone, Terrace Lake United Methodist Church, Kansas City, Missouri.
[17]
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