The Beatitudes

Intro to the Sermon on the Mount and The Beatitudes

Matthew 5:1-12

In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus retraces Israel’s story and proves to be the true Israelite.  The connections between Matthew and with Israel’s story are most pronounced in chapters 1-7.⁠ 

1:1 “Book of Genesis” / Gen. 2:4; 5:1

1:1-17 son of Abraham / Genesis 12-26

1:18-25 Joseph the dreamer / Genesis 37

2:1-12 Magi / Nations to Egypt for Joseph; promise to Abe

2:13-15 Herod kills children / Exod 1-2: Pharaoh kills children

2:14 Jesus reduced, flees / Exod 2: Moses rescued, flees

2:19-23 Jesus returns to Israel / Exod 3-4: Moses returns to Egypt

3:1-12 John announces judgment / Exod 5-12 Moses/Aaron bring judgment

3:13-17 Jesus passes through waters / Exod 16: exodus-Israel passes through water

4:1-11 temptation int he wilderness / Exod 17-19: travel to Sinai

4:18-22 Jesus calls disciples / Exod 18: Moses appoints rulers

Chs 5-7 Jesus teaches from mountain / Exod 20: Mt Sinai and Law 

When we come to the Sermon on the Mount, then, the meta story of Jesus as Israel should help us understand how the sermon functions.

Medieval interpreters understood the sermon to promote a high ethic only for clergy and monastics. Luther saw the impossibility of the sermon and taught that it was meant to show us our need for grace—the sermon was law in the condemning sense. Both of these views seem to impose a framework on the text that is not there. Jesus, while addressing the disciples directly (Matt.5:1-2) is also speaking to a wider audience (Matt. 7:28-29). Nowhere does Jesus indicate that he doesn’t really expect his followers to live out this sermon and its call to a deeper and more robust ethic. In fact, his followers righteousness should go well beyond that of the Pharisees (Matt. 5:20)

Jesus comes announcing the Gospel of the Kingdom: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  Many zealous Jews of the day would have been plotting, planning, and waiting for the right moment for a revolutionary overthrow of their Roman overlords to re-establish the kingdom of God in their own land. But Jesus is calling his followers to give up their agendas, to repent. What will repentance look like as they follow Jesus into this new kingdom? The Sermon imagines a new kingdom, a new social dynamic. 

But it’s all a fulfillment of the law that was supposed to guide Israel all along. Jesus comes to bring the law to its most mature, complete expression (Matt. 5:17-19). And he’s calling his followers to live into the calling of his kingdom. 

Israel followed Moses, was formed into a nation, and received the law from God via Moses. Israel was already redeemed by God’s gracious act of deliverance. They were already baptized by crossing the water of the Red Sea. Now, constituted as a family and nation, Moses delivers the law as their guide—this is what it will mean for them to be the people of God for the sake of the world (Ex. 19:5-6). 

So now, Jesus, whom Matthew presents as the new and greater Moses, having assembled followers will give instructions for life in his kingdom. This is not just a repeat of the Law. Jesus preaches the perfect sermon on the law. The sermon is gospel: it’s good news because it’s a message of Jesus’ kingdom. 

The Beatitudes 

Jesus begins the sermon with blessings. We can think of Moses announcing blessings for those who keep the law in Deuteronomy. He also announces curses. Does Jesus leave out the curses? No, he saves them for later. In Matthew 23, roughly matching the eight blessings of the Beatitudes, Jesus pronounces eight woes.

What does it mean to blessed? In Genesis 1-2, the Lord creates the world and on the seventh day announces a blessing, celebrating his creation. Mankind was created in state of blessing with God and his creation. The Lord promises to bless Abraham, which means prospering his family line, giving him land and nation. 

In Psalm 1, the blessed man is the one who loves God’s word and takes it in continually. This makes the man like a tree that bears the right fruit and the right time. Blessing is flourishing as a child of God, it’s living life in view of God’s word and his promises. But the blessings Jesus announces come to those who are clearly not in states of blessing; they are materially poor, mourning, meek, persecuted. What are we to make of Jesus blessings?

Jesus’s kingdom is an “upside-down” kingdom. He starts his ministry with the weak, the sick, the oppressed (Matt. 4:18-22). The Kingdom of Heaven breaks into the darkness places on earth. The blessing of heaven is brought forward into the present, such that even though one may suffer, that suffering is signpost of blessing. Jesus says both in the beatitudes that the kingdom of heaven already belongs to the lowly and that there are future blessing that await them. The Kingdom of God is already and non-yet. 

The Beatitudes are poetry and song, as Peter Leithart points out in The Gospel of Matthew Through New Eyes. Jesus uses the word “blessed” 9 times rhythmically. The first beatitude and the last beatitude promise the kingdom of heaven. In Greek, the first four beatitudes all begin with the “p” (Poor, mourn, meek, hunger—all begin with the Greek pi). The first four beatitudes are 36 words matched by the 36 words of the last four. Jesus preaches the kingdom, and opens his sermon by singing a song of blessing over the church.

Scot Mcknight suggests we group the beatitudes into three categories: beatitudes of humility, beatitudes of justice/righteousness, and beatitudes of peace. Jesus’ kingdom works its way out among the humble and it calls for humility. The materially poor are most primed to understand their deeper spiritual needs. Righteousness is the same work in Greek for justice. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness and justice will be those who also show mercy. The Lord calls for peacemakers: even in the face of persecution and insults. 

Each beatitude is counter-cultural but so is Jesus’ kingdom. Jesus is forming a counter-culture whose values will run against those of the surrounding culture. The Beatitudes are not commands, however; they are blessings and promises. Implicit these blessings, however, should make the church aspire to align with the sorts of people, attitude, and ways that Jesus is blessing. 

In the background of this passage is Isaiah 61, a prophecy that anticipates the coming Kingdom of God: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted…to comfort those who mourn…that they shall repay the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations…” The poor and the mourners are devastated by the conditions of exile—they are poor socio-economically because of this but its all connected to a deeper spiritual impoverishment. Into this situation, the promise is that the poor and mourners will one day rejoice at good news through the one on whom Yaweh’s spirit rests. Jesus at his Baptist is anointed and starts enacting Isaiah 61. The last blessing is expansion is really an expansion of the eight on the the theme of persecution. Because Jesus lingers here its worth considering that this blessing on the persecuted might help us understand all of the beatitudes. The persecuted are poor, they mourn, they long for God’s righteousness to be known, they are meek.

The Lord has not forgotten Israel. He is coming to them, reforming them. And also drawing in the nations.

But it all starts with blessing and beatitudes. 

Beatitudes and Flourishing

What does it mean to be blessed? The word “blessed” gets lots of play in mainstream culture. It’s hash-tagged on social media. Victorious athletes speak of being blessed. 

The beatitudes open up a surprising window on what it means to be blessed. In fact, this whole sermon in Matthew 5-7 will be Jesus painting on a canvas a full and detailed picture of what blessing and human flourishing looks like—what life in his kingdom is meant to be.