Archive for the ‘beatitudes’ Category

Blessings (and responsibility)

February 7, 2026

Fourth Sunday after Epiphany

Matthew 5:1-12 (some thoughts)

Marian Free

 

In the name of God whose thoughts are not our thoughts and ways are not our ways. Amen.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Right there we have a clear indication that Matthew’s voice is very different from that of Luke who doesn’t qualify or try to expand the meaning “of poor”.  Luke simply says: “Blessed are the poor,” making it quite clear that those who are not poor are not included. He makes this even more explicit in his second major departure from Matthew’s wording: “Woe to you who are rich.” Unlike Matthew, Luke’s beatitudes are followed by a list of woes – to the rich, the full and the laughing. (This is consistent with Luke’s agenda which is to make explicit God’s preference for the poor and marginalised – think of the Magnificat which is mirrored here.)

 

It is often assumed that Matthew has spiritualised the Beatitudes, taken the sting out of them – we don’t have to actually be poor to belong to the kingdom of heaven, we can simply be humble, aware of our spiritual poverty. That said, being “poor in spirit” doesn’t seem to be a commendable state of being, certainly not one that would seem to warrant the status of blessedness! So we are left with something of a mystery.

 

Beatitudes simply means blessings. They are not unique to the gospels but are found throughout scripture. There are seven individual beatitudes in the Book of Revelation. What we know as The Beatitudes is a group of blessings which are found only in the gospels of Matthew and Luke.

 

Scholars believe that the authors of both Matthew and Luke used Mark’s gospel as their starting point and that they had another common source (for convenience called Q or ‘source’) from which they drew material. Each them also appears to have had access to teaching that was unique to them. (For example, only Luke records our favourite parables – the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son.) Both authors follow Mark’s ordering of events, but because they were writing independently, they have used their common material quite differently. Matthew for example begins his first block of Jesus’ teaching with what we call “The Sermon on the Mount”. Luke includes much of the same material, but splits it into two parts – a sermon and a travel discourse. Another difference between the two gospels is that while Matthew places Jesus on a mountain for this important block of teaching, Luke places Jesus on the plain. It is possible that Matthew, addressing a largely Jewish audience, uses the mountain to draw out the similarities between Moses the giver of the law and Jesus the new law-giver. For the writer of Luke who was writing for a largely Gentile audience, the allusion to Moses would have been missed.

 

In Matthew, this block of teaching or “Sermon on the Mount” takes up all of chapters 5 through 7 and, while links between the different sayings can be discerned, it is basically a collection of individual sayings which have been collected by Jesus’ followers and recorded together. It is very unlikely that Jesus would have simply have stood on a mountains and reeled off a list of proverb-like sayings. It is much more feasible that Jesus said many, if not all these things, but said them in conversation, over meals, or while journeying with his disciples as the occasion arose. Then after his death his followers would have repeated them when they met together and finally someone would have gathered them into a collection something like that which we have today.

 

Returning to Matthew’s record of the Beatitudes, perhaps they are not as starkly different from those of Luke as I have made out. Warren Carter suggests that, in much the same way as Luke, the first four beatitudes that are recorded by Matthew, refer to the oppressive situation in which believers find themselves and the Sermon as a whole addresses the ways in which the Kingdom of God is breaking in to address those situations. He argues that the first beatitude has less to do with being humble and patient as I suggested above, but refers to those who are “materially poor and whose spirits are crushed by economic injustice, deprivation of resources and few options.”

Blessing of the meek (the third beatitude) is proclaimed in Psalm 137. The first four beatitudes emphasize God’s actions “promising divine reversals in both the present and the future.” Carter suggests that the next five beatitudes turn our attention to human behaviours which contribute to the building of the kingdom – doing mercy, making peace and, when necessary accepting persecution in the cause of justice and peace.

Jesus begins his ministry saying: “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” In this collection of sayings, beginning with the Beatitudes, Jesus begins to set out what the kingdom might look like – what God will do, and how we are called to respond.

Whatever Jesus’ original meaning, we who are relatively well-off and who are not under the thumb of an oppressive and exploitive colonial power are blessed. We are blessed because we already have glimpses of the kingdom. We are blessed because we know what it is to be in relationship with the living God. We are blessed because Jesus has shared our existence and demonstrated that it is possible to grow into our divinity. And we are blessed with the power of the Holy Spirit.

With those blessings comes responsibility – the responsibility to play our part in making the kingdom a reality on earth, to work for justice and peace, to hunger and thirst for righteousness to challenge unjust structures and to confront oppression of any kind.

Like most of Jesus’ sayings, the Beatitudes come with a sting – the blessings are ours, but so too are the responsibilities. We who are blessed should become a blessing for others.

 

 

 

 

 

Tags:, ,
Posted in beatitudes, Matthew | Comments Off on Blessings (and responsibility)

Blessed are. .

February 17, 2025

Epiphany 6 – 2025

Luke 6:17-26

Marian Free

In the name of God who promises joy to the grieving, hope to the despairing and life to the dying. Amen.

The last thing we need when we are feeling low or when everything seems to be going against us is glib, pious words. When you are grieving: “He/she is in a better place.” (What was wrong with where they were?) “God wanted another angel.” (Couldn’t God get another angel without taking my child.)  “She died doing what she loved.”  “There’s another star in heaven.” “It’s all part of God’s plan.” Or when you’ve lost your home to flood or fire: “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” “Every cloud has a silver lining.”

Such trite, albeit well- meaning comments only exacerbate a person’s pain and leave them feeling unsupported and misunderstood. What many people want when they are overwhelmed with grief or struggling with their life circumstances is for someone to sit with them through the pain, to acknowledge that life can be unfair, and that tragedy is random and usually undeserved.

All of which makes me wonder about the blessings pronounced by Jesus in this morning’s gospel. Are they just superficial platitudes to help his followers (mostly the poor), to more fully embrace their situation? Is Jesus just patting the poor and hungry on the shoulder and saying that it is OK to be poor and hungry because they are blessed?  Is he encouraging the sorrowful to swallow their grief and move on? Surely not.

Those of us who have lived through straightened times know that there is nothing blessed about being poor.  It is hard to find a blessing in worrying about how to feed your children or in sending them off to school without the proper uniform or books. There is nothing blessed about relying on charity to pay your bills or worrying about where to live or knowing that you will never get ahead – that life will be one long struggle. Likewise, it is difficult to find a positive side to hunger or sorrow and, unless one has a martyr complex, it is hard to imagine that it is blessed to be hated, excluded reviled and defamed. “Rejoice and jump for joy!” who would have the energy to dance and if you did. wouldn’t such a reaction only inflame the negativity already directed at you?

Perhaps for the poor, the hungry and the grieving, there is more comfort to be found in the “woes” – that is if one takes comfort in the suffering or punishment of others, or if one delights in other people being “brought down to size.”

We are most familiar with the Beatitudes as they occur in Matthew 5.  Matthew has eight blessings compared to Luke’s four and Matthew has spiritualised Jesus’ words thus removing them from the realm of everyday experience, and in some way diminishing the pain of real poverty, sorrow and hunger and the accountability of the rich, the fed and the grieving. 

It is of course impossible at this distance to determine Jesus’ actual words, but Luke’s record is consistent with Luke’s agenda, in particular his attitude to the the rich and the comfortable and his emphasis on God’s preference for the poor, the marginalised and the excluded[1]. 

Luke’s version of the beatitudes is firmly grounded in earthly reality. His beatitudes could be said to be a timely message for our times. Times in which the gap between rich and poor is increasing and in which the rich use their wealth to influence the decisions of our policymakers and the reporting by our media. Times in which wealthier nations continue with life as usual while poorer nations are paying the price of a changing climate with famines, natural disasters and rising sea levels. Those for whom this present life offers little will find comfort in Jesus’ words that they will be blessed – not now, but when the kingdom comes. Those who are comfortable in this life, and more especially those whose comfort, security and wealth are a consequence of exploitation, self-centredness and an insatiable need for more would do well to heed Jesus’ warning that there will be consequences for their actions.

It is easy to believe that we, Jesus’ disciples are off the hook. After all I don’t imagine that there are any among us who could count ourselves among the very rich and that none of us has tried to enrich themselves at the expense of others. I imagine that we all try to be generous in our support of organisations that feed, clothe and house the poor. All of us will have had reason to grieve and many of us will have tried to make a stand for what is right (though probably not to the extent of being excluded defamed or reviled).  

We cannot dismiss the fact that the woes might be addressed to us. After all, we. who are. comfortable are in some way complicit in the current state of the world. Whether it is our need for security, comfort and safety that has caused to put ourselves first (without realizing how that impacts on others).  At the same time, many of our choices directly contribute to inequities in our own nation and in nations beyond our borders. (Do we know who makes our clothes, how our coffee is sourced, whether our suppliers are adequately compensated for the time, cost and effort it costs to. put food on our. supermarket shelves?)

In pronouncing the blessings and woes Jesus is inverting the usual norms of our society. Worse, he is upending the social structure. Blessing the marginalised and overlooked and, condemning those who create and sustain inequities between people, who preside over unjust structures who enrich themselves at the expense of others and who turn a blind eye to the suffering that is everywhere.

Blessed  are those who see the world as it is and who try to address the inequities such that all are blessed.

[1] All of which is particularly interesting if, as we think, the person to whom he is writing is a person of means.

Tags:, ,
Posted in beatitudes, Luke's gospel | Comments Off on Blessed are. .

Blessed are those who know themselves blessed

January 28, 2023

Epiphany 4 – 2023
Matthew 5:1-12
Marian Free

In the name of God our Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier. Amen.

“Bless you,” we say when someone sneezes – whether we are a person of faith or not. This habit derives from the 6th century when a sneeze was the first sign that someone had contracted the plague. Pope Gregory introduced the practice in 590 CE and by around 750CE it had become a common practice. At one time in our past, it was even thought that a person’s soul left their body when they sneezed, and that God’s blessing was required to avert such a disaster from occurring. We no longer believe such things, but the habit remains. “Bless you.”

“Bless you,” we say when someone unexpectedly helps us out. In extending a blessing, we are hoping that they will be blessed for their generosity. “Bless you,” we say, as shorthand for ‘God bless you’ when someone sets off on a journey. When we bless a traveler, we do so in the hope that throughout their travels they will be kept safe from harm.

A blessing, offered by one person to another is a short prayer, a wish for the well-being/health of another, a form of thanks, or a request that the one blessed be under God’s protection .

These forms of blessing are very different from the “beatitudes” that we encounter in Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount or Luke’s Sermon on the Plain. “Blessed are the poor in spirit” is not a prayer that the poor might have God’s blessing bestowed on them. It is a statement of fact, a description of a current situation – not a desire for something to happen in the future. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, Blessed are those who grieve” and so on. They don’t read: “God bless the poor”, but inform us that the poor, the grieving are already blessed. They are blessed in the present and at the same time (at least in three of the first four beatitudes) are offered hope for the future.

At first sight this doesn’t make sense. For those who know/have known what it is to count every dollar, who have sent their children off to school without breakfast, who cannot afford basic health care, being poor does not feel like being blessed – just the opposite . On the other hand, being poor does mean that there is nothing left to lose. Jesus is addressing his disciples – not the rich, the establishment or the rulers. Because they have little or nothing, the disciples can afford to give themselves entirely to the Jesus’ project. The kingdom of heaven is already theirs because they have already thrown their lot in with Jesus.

The apparently contradictory statements of the first four beatitudes are intended to help those who can, identify their present state of blessedness, to see what they do have rather than what they do not have. In other words, “Jesus gives to those in need by taking what is negative and planting in them something steadfast: deep inner joy, trusting the promises” (Chelsea Harmon). Hearing these words spoken by Jesus might enable someone to see what they already do have, and more importantly to understand that what God is promising for the future will make the present (however bad) bearable. The grieving are promised comfort, the meek will receive the world, and the hungry for righteousness will receive satisfaction! Jesus’ promises have the effect of changing the present, even if circumstances do not seem to undergo obvious change. To paraphrase Harmon, “there is more than one thing true about any situation. Disciples of Jesus can cling to and build their lives upon the deep hope implanted in them in order to live in the midst of the struggles and difficulties they face in this world.” The present circumstances of Jesus’ disciples might change for the better, but even if they do not, the future that Jesus offers is filled with promise.

Interestingly, after the first four beatitudes, there seems to be a change in direction. The first four beatitudes identify a person’s external situation (poverty, grief, meekness, hunger) as blessed and, without changing the situation, offer hope. The next three appear however to identify blessedness in a person’s internal qualities or in their actions and the “promises” the consequences of being those things: merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers – they will receive mercy, see God or be called children of God.

These apparently different sets of beatitudes are not opposites – one set spoken to the downtrodden (who need hope) and the other to the privileged (who have a responsibility to use their privilege for others). Instead, the latter set of beatitudes elaborates and spells out the consequences of the former. Those who have recognised that they are blessed, with the kingdom of heaven, the promise of comfort, the promise of the earth or the promise of fullness are liberated to stop focusing on themselves and to stop being concerned about their own future. Being freed from self-absorption, they are doubly blessed, because now they can look outwards and share their blessedness with others through showing mercy, being pure in heart and working for peace. Blessedness appears to extend outwards from the one who is blessed to all those who encounter that person.

A final beatitude sums up what it is to follow Jesus – to hold fast to the gospel, to speak truth to power, to maintain one’s integrity in the most difficult circumstances. This last, like the first, is evidence that those who are persecuted on account of Jesus, are, like the poor, already citizens of the kingdom of heaven. The former by their poverty, and the latter through their suffering, are able to fully identity with Jesus and therefore to belong to him and to his kingdom.

The beatitudes are not prayers or blessings, they are statements of fact. Jesus’ disciples, are, by virtue of being Jesus’ followers, already blessed and those blessing have consequences in the present or in the future. Such blessedness cannot be contained but will in turn be a source of blessing for others – salt for the earth, light for the world – as Jesus goes on to say.

We who are blessed, cannot help but be a blessing for others.

Blessed are those who know themselves blessed.

Tags:, , ,
Posted in beatitudes, Matthew, Sermon on the Mount | Comments Off on Blessed are those who know themselves blessed