Blessings

Matthew 5:1-12

“The best thing since sliced bread,” hearing that I cannot help and wonder what people said before sliced bread.  Many times in human history there has been moments that improve life, in many various ways.  One of the greatest in history was when God gave Moses the Decalogue, better known as the Ten Commandments, or my favorite name for them comes from a Sunday School curriculum, “The ten best ways.”  Moses went up the mountain to met God as they were wandering between the promised land and Egypt.   God rescued them from Egypt, but there was a risk that they would turn back to Pharaoh.  Some even wined that it would be best to go back to what they knew in Egypt, or worse establish a state like Egypt in the Promised Land.  Thus God establishes laws for the people as a covenant between God and them, and thus between people.  These Ten Best Ways are to establish a new society here on Earth, a society free from Pharoh and in relationship with God (the story continues with breaking and coming back to the covenant throughout the Hebrew Bible).

In this passage from Matthew, Jesus, who is God, is on the mountain.  He does not tell the people not to come up, rather He is going up to rest, as I read it.  He sees the crowds and goes up the mountain.  There are many other scriptures that share that Jesus did need time alone, and time of rest and thus support this idea.  The clincher for me is that it says that the Disciples were the ones who followed, which usually refer to the twelve, and while it may be more or less then the twelve, it was not a crowd if He sat to tell them of these blessings.  These blessings are for those who believe; for the insiders.

The Beatitudes are different from the Ten Best Ways, as they are not simply rules that apply to society in relationship with God, but are telling the believers through the promise how radical Grace is.  First of all, they use to verbs, “are” and “will.”  Meek are blessed, and will inherit the Kingdom. While Jesus is telling us that the meek, the persecuted, the poor, the hungry, the peacemakers, pure in heart, merciful, and those mourning, are Blessed, they still need to await the fulfillment of the promise, the New Covenant.  Christianity is not sliced bread, it does not promise to take away the headaches and the pain, but we are blessed knowing we will be with God’s inevitable victory.  The Ten Best ways are also a covenant, and the promise does not insure no trouble or pain, but its promise is fulfilled with the freedom from Pharaoh and a new society. 

These blessings being to the believers, the insiders, thus the church, is important.  To tell someone that are poor (in spirit or financially as per Luke) that they are blessed, or if meek, that they are blessed, would not make sense to them unless they believe in Jesus and the new covenant.  These blessings are for those that know they are part of the Body of Christ, the Church.  While not everyone is poor, hungry, pure of heart, etc. there are people in our midst who are, and we know that we are all blessed not because we have the greatest military, but have enslaved ourselves to each other, including those that are not considered by society to be a blessings. 

Jesus went to the cross, scolding Peter for cutting of the guard’s ear and even healing the victim.  Jesus did not call the Heavenly Hosts down to rescue him from the cross.  Jesus took on the violence and modeled what it means to be a blessing.   His resurrection demonstrating the promise to come for us all, victory over death.  Paul writes, “For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:18)  So for us to say “God died for your sins” to someone who doesn’t understand salvation through Jesus will think us foolish, just as the blessings seem foolish to outsiders, until they understand Jesus as savior.  Thus model and preach Jesus’ love for humanity, Love for that person.  Tell them your story how you realized God loves you and sent His Son to live with us, and they will with the help of the Holy Spirit understand the blessings and thus what happened on that tree.