What kind of person is invited into the kingdom? Matthew 5
The season after Epiphany is about manifestation. This is what we have been talking about on Sundays. We see things about Jesus that were previously hidden. … In last week’s Gospel reading, Jesus began to gather the Apostles who would come to reconstitute the 12 tribes of Israel. We also read that Jesus called people to repent, saying that the Kingdom of Heaven has come near.
To be citizens of this new kingdom means a different way of being- a different way of thinking and acting- which is why we are called to repent. Repenting means to change our mindset. …
Today’s Gospel reading begins the Sermon on the Mount, which is chapters 5-7 of Matthew. It is an answer to the question: What is a citizen of the kingdom of God like?
Our readings today speak about a life aligned with God. We read in Micah,
“what does the LORD require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).
And in Psalm 15 we read,
“O LORD, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill? Those who walk blamelessly and do what is right and speak the truth from their heart (Ps 15:1-2).But, a bit of a curve ball is thrown into our reading from 1st Corinthians. Here we learn that the way of Jesus (the way of the Kingdom) is of such a different kind that it will seem strange. We read,
“God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong" (1 Cor 1:27).
As we hear the teachings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, there are parts that seem strange to us.
Jesus will teach,
Jesus will teach,
“You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgement.’ But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgement” (Matt 5:21-22).
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matt 5:27-28).
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, (Matt 5:43-44).These are strange teachings to many people. … The Beatitudes are similarly strange. It’s not intuitive that the poor, the mourning, or the meek are particularly blessed. When we feel poor, we don’t usually feel blessed. When we are mourning the loss of someone we love, we don’t feel blessed. Being meek often feels like we are getting walked on, and that doesn’t feel blessed. … Paul’s words point to the strangeness of God’s ways,
“God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong (1 Cor 1:27).
Either these teachings are nonsensical, … or there is a profundity to them that goes beyond our normal ways of going through the world.
Jesus opens the sermon on the mount with the Beatitudes. We might think of them as the welcome mat to the door into the kingdom. … Kingdoms have entrance requirements. To enter Canada, you need a valid passport and to have a particular legal standing (you can’t be a wanted criminal, for example).
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus describes the character of the citizens of God’s Kingdom, and he begins with the entrance requirements. But he doesn’t give requirements that most of us would give. The language he uses is the language of being “blessed”.
Human societies generally (which the Bible calls “the world”) would say, “Blessed are the rich in spirit”, but Jesus says, “blessed are the poor in spirit”. The world would say, “blessed are those who don’t know loss”, but Jesus says, “blessed are those who mourn”. The world would say, “blessed are those who are confident and assertive”, but Jesus says, “blessed are the meek (or gentle)”. The world would say, “blessed are the righteous who live surrounded by justice”, but Jesus says, “blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness”. The world would say, “blessed are those who have received fair compensation from those who have wronged them”, but Jesus says, “blessed are the merciful”. The world would say, “blessed are the shrewd”, but Jesus says, “blessed are the pure in heart”. The world would say, “Blessed are those who know no tension in their relationships”, but Jesus says, “blessed are the peacemakers”. The world would say, “blessed are you when people understand and appreciate you”, but Jesus says, “Blessed are you when you are persecuted for righteousness’ sake”. The world would say, “blessed are you when people speak highly of you”, but Jesus says, “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account”.
From a worldly perspective, this is a strange list of conditions to consider “blessed”.
There are interpreters who believe that these are conditions to imitate. … For example, some say that we are to recognize the poverty of our souls (our need for God) and so recognize our poverty of spirit. … We are to mourn over our sin. … We are to learn to become meek, and to hunger and thirst for righteousness, and so on. I think there is value to reading the Beatitudes this way, and there is a long tradition of doing so, but I don’t actually think that is what Jesus was getting at.
I don’t believe that we are supposed to try to imitate these conditions- as if it’s a checklist for being blessed by God. I don’t think Jesus is telling us to work at being “poor in spirit”, or to find a way to “mourn” in order that we can be blessed. … Perhaps, we can think about imitation when we get to the beatitudes about being merciful or being peacemakers, but that way of looking at the beatitudes doesn’t really seem to work all the way through the list of Beatitudes without doing some significant mental gymnastics.
I think that Jesus is saying that whatever condition you find yourself in, you can be a part of the Kingdom of God.
I once heard a joke about a man travelling the back roads high in the Cumbrian hills in England. He was trying to find the little town of Alston, but he gets lost and he stops to ask directions from a farmer that was just coming out his gate. … The farmer thinks for a moment and he says, “well, I can tell you how to get there, but if I was you, I wouldn’t start from here”. Through the Beatitudes, Jesus is saying that wherever you are, that is a perfect place to enter the Kingdom of God.
In the world Jesus lived in, The Beatitudes listed examples of people who were generally not considered blessed by God. They were evidence that God’s face was not turned towards you. … In Jesus’ society, both “poverty” and “spiritual poverty” would have been evidence of God’s lack of blessing. But Jesus says that if you are spiritually poor the kingdom is available to you. You can start right where you are. He won’t leave you spiritually poor, but that is a fine entry point into the Kingdom of God.
If you are deep in mourning (painfully grieving the tragic loss of someone you love) you can still be a part of the Kingdom of God. You don’t have to wait until the tears have dried up. You are welcomed into the kingdom even in the midst of your tears.
If you are meek or timid in a world that values the strong and assertive, the Kingdom is for you too. You can enter into the kingdom.
You don’t have to be righteous. You don’t have to have everything figured out. You don’t have to have had every wrong righted in your life to see God’s blessing in your life. You can come sick and broken and wronged, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, because you are lacking those things. That is a fine place to start.
The last few beatitudes speak of living in a messy world. Jesus is essentially saying you don’t have to wait until people have all stopped abusing you to be in the kingdom. The only reason to be merciful is when someone has wronged you in some way and you don’t get the retribution you deserve from them and let the matter go. You show mercy, but it implies that you are living in a world where people have wronged you. … To be pure in heart implies a single-mindedness, integrity of desire, that might lead to a deep dissatisfaction with the messy world. Maybe they are considered naïve by the world. (I knew a young man when I was an electrician. The boss asked him to work on Sunday, and he said he couldn’t because he had church. The boss told him that there was a time when he had to lose his naiveté. He earned no browny point with the boss with his purity of heart.) But even in the midst of that struggle to keep your heart pure, you are already being welcomed into the Kingdom. … In a world full of violence, those who work for peace are welcomed into the Kingdom even in the tension, before peace is accomplished. … In a world where you will be persecuted and hated for doing what is right, even in that moment you are welcomed into the Kingdom. … These are places of tension with the world. They don’t feel like particularly blessed conditions. But Jesus is saying these are perfectly fine places to enter the Kingdom of God.
Wherever we are and whatever we are going through we are welcomed to take our first steps into the kingdom. Living in the kingdom of heaven (while on earth) isn’t a promise to live a stress-free life. Living the kingdom on earth for Jesus meant a cross. Living in the midst of suffering and struggle doesn’t mean you are excluded from the kingdom or from God’s blessing. If you struggle because your spirit is poor, or because you are mourning, or because you are timid, or because you thirst and hunger for a righteousness and justice you don’t have, or because you are merciful when you would rather get the retribution that you deserve, or because people see your pure heart as naïve, or struggle for peace in the midst of conflict, or struggle to speak truth even when it means you will be treated badly because if it. Even in the midst of these struggles, you are welcome to live the life of the kingdom. Even on the cross Jesus was living the life of the kingdom.
The Beatitudes teach us that the Kingdom of God does not wait for perfect conditions. It breaks in right where we are. It meets us in our poverty, our grief, our longing, our efforts to show mercy, our desire to keep our hearts true, our work for peace, and even in the places where we are misunderstood or opposed.
So, as we go from this place, we go with the promise that the Kingdom we taste now in part will one day be ours in full: comfort, mercy, righteousness, and the joy of seeing God face to face.
Blessed are you, for the Kingdom of Heaven is open to you. Amen
Jesus opens the sermon on the mount with the Beatitudes. We might think of them as the welcome mat to the door into the kingdom. … Kingdoms have entrance requirements. To enter Canada, you need a valid passport and to have a particular legal standing (you can’t be a wanted criminal, for example).
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus describes the character of the citizens of God’s Kingdom, and he begins with the entrance requirements. But he doesn’t give requirements that most of us would give. The language he uses is the language of being “blessed”.
Human societies generally (which the Bible calls “the world”) would say, “Blessed are the rich in spirit”, but Jesus says, “blessed are the poor in spirit”. The world would say, “blessed are those who don’t know loss”, but Jesus says, “blessed are those who mourn”. The world would say, “blessed are those who are confident and assertive”, but Jesus says, “blessed are the meek (or gentle)”. The world would say, “blessed are the righteous who live surrounded by justice”, but Jesus says, “blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness”. The world would say, “blessed are those who have received fair compensation from those who have wronged them”, but Jesus says, “blessed are the merciful”. The world would say, “blessed are the shrewd”, but Jesus says, “blessed are the pure in heart”. The world would say, “Blessed are those who know no tension in their relationships”, but Jesus says, “blessed are the peacemakers”. The world would say, “blessed are you when people understand and appreciate you”, but Jesus says, “Blessed are you when you are persecuted for righteousness’ sake”. The world would say, “blessed are you when people speak highly of you”, but Jesus says, “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account”.
From a worldly perspective, this is a strange list of conditions to consider “blessed”.
There are interpreters who believe that these are conditions to imitate. … For example, some say that we are to recognize the poverty of our souls (our need for God) and so recognize our poverty of spirit. … We are to mourn over our sin. … We are to learn to become meek, and to hunger and thirst for righteousness, and so on. I think there is value to reading the Beatitudes this way, and there is a long tradition of doing so, but I don’t actually think that is what Jesus was getting at.
I don’t believe that we are supposed to try to imitate these conditions- as if it’s a checklist for being blessed by God. I don’t think Jesus is telling us to work at being “poor in spirit”, or to find a way to “mourn” in order that we can be blessed. … Perhaps, we can think about imitation when we get to the beatitudes about being merciful or being peacemakers, but that way of looking at the beatitudes doesn’t really seem to work all the way through the list of Beatitudes without doing some significant mental gymnastics.
I think that Jesus is saying that whatever condition you find yourself in, you can be a part of the Kingdom of God.
I once heard a joke about a man travelling the back roads high in the Cumbrian hills in England. He was trying to find the little town of Alston, but he gets lost and he stops to ask directions from a farmer that was just coming out his gate. … The farmer thinks for a moment and he says, “well, I can tell you how to get there, but if I was you, I wouldn’t start from here”. Through the Beatitudes, Jesus is saying that wherever you are, that is a perfect place to enter the Kingdom of God.
In the world Jesus lived in, The Beatitudes listed examples of people who were generally not considered blessed by God. They were evidence that God’s face was not turned towards you. … In Jesus’ society, both “poverty” and “spiritual poverty” would have been evidence of God’s lack of blessing. But Jesus says that if you are spiritually poor the kingdom is available to you. You can start right where you are. He won’t leave you spiritually poor, but that is a fine entry point into the Kingdom of God.
If you are deep in mourning (painfully grieving the tragic loss of someone you love) you can still be a part of the Kingdom of God. You don’t have to wait until the tears have dried up. You are welcomed into the kingdom even in the midst of your tears.
If you are meek or timid in a world that values the strong and assertive, the Kingdom is for you too. You can enter into the kingdom.
You don’t have to be righteous. You don’t have to have everything figured out. You don’t have to have had every wrong righted in your life to see God’s blessing in your life. You can come sick and broken and wronged, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, because you are lacking those things. That is a fine place to start.
The last few beatitudes speak of living in a messy world. Jesus is essentially saying you don’t have to wait until people have all stopped abusing you to be in the kingdom. The only reason to be merciful is when someone has wronged you in some way and you don’t get the retribution you deserve from them and let the matter go. You show mercy, but it implies that you are living in a world where people have wronged you. … To be pure in heart implies a single-mindedness, integrity of desire, that might lead to a deep dissatisfaction with the messy world. Maybe they are considered naïve by the world. (I knew a young man when I was an electrician. The boss asked him to work on Sunday, and he said he couldn’t because he had church. The boss told him that there was a time when he had to lose his naiveté. He earned no browny point with the boss with his purity of heart.) But even in the midst of that struggle to keep your heart pure, you are already being welcomed into the Kingdom. … In a world full of violence, those who work for peace are welcomed into the Kingdom even in the tension, before peace is accomplished. … In a world where you will be persecuted and hated for doing what is right, even in that moment you are welcomed into the Kingdom. … These are places of tension with the world. They don’t feel like particularly blessed conditions. But Jesus is saying these are perfectly fine places to enter the Kingdom of God.
Wherever we are and whatever we are going through we are welcomed to take our first steps into the kingdom. Living in the kingdom of heaven (while on earth) isn’t a promise to live a stress-free life. Living the kingdom on earth for Jesus meant a cross. Living in the midst of suffering and struggle doesn’t mean you are excluded from the kingdom or from God’s blessing. If you struggle because your spirit is poor, or because you are mourning, or because you are timid, or because you thirst and hunger for a righteousness and justice you don’t have, or because you are merciful when you would rather get the retribution that you deserve, or because people see your pure heart as naïve, or struggle for peace in the midst of conflict, or struggle to speak truth even when it means you will be treated badly because if it. Even in the midst of these struggles, you are welcome to live the life of the kingdom. Even on the cross Jesus was living the life of the kingdom.
The Beatitudes teach us that the Kingdom of God does not wait for perfect conditions. It breaks in right where we are. It meets us in our poverty, our grief, our longing, our efforts to show mercy, our desire to keep our hearts true, our work for peace, and even in the places where we are misunderstood or opposed.
So, as we go from this place, we go with the promise that the Kingdom we taste now in part will one day be ours in full: comfort, mercy, righteousness, and the joy of seeing God face to face.
Blessed are you, for the Kingdom of Heaven is open to you. Amen
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