blessed, part 1

 

One of the things Matthew wants us to know about Jesus is that he is the new Moses. So, Matthew structures his Gospel in five sections, reflecting the first five books of the Bible—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy—the Torah, or Law of Moses.

Each section concludes with a collection of Jesus’ teaching.

The first section reflects Genesis, with its origin stories of human beings, made in God’s image, and how they have forgotten themselves, their humanity, but have not been forgotten by God.

The second section reflects Exodus, with stories of Jesus delivering people from the various manifestations of captivity to death.

The third section reflects Leviticus, showing how Jesus is both priest and tabernacle, the presence of God in our midst.

The fourth section reflects Numbers, the ordering of the people, the Church and how we relate to one another.

The fifth section reflects Deuteronomy, the second telling of the Law, with its emphasis on the consequential choice between life or death.

The first section concludes with the largest block of Jesus’ teaching, which came, very early on, to be known as the Sermon on the Mount. And Jesus begins with a series of blessings.

To bless is to recognise, and affirm, the inherent, God-given goodness of a thing. And that goodness is a participation—a part—in the goodness of God. When Jesus, who is who God is as a human being, and who a human being is fully in God, says, ‘Blessed are those who mourn,’ he is not simply saying that God identified with those who mourn. He is saying that to be a person who mourns is to be human as God in Jesus is human. To be a person who mourns is to be like God, for God is a God who mourns, as humans mourn.

The poor in spirit inherit the kingdom of heaven because God is poor in spirit. Jesus is humble, not because he hides God’s arrogance but because he reveals that God is humble, comes to us demanding nothing, offering his life to all who will freely choose him.

Those who mourn know comfort because God mourns. God is not unmoved by death, even though he knows that death does not have the final say. The One who will call Lazarus out from the tomb nonetheless stands at his friend’s tomb and weeps for him, with his sisters.

The meek inherit the earth because God is meek. The One who spoke all creation into being submits himself to learning to speak sitting on his mother’s lap. The One through whom, by the Spirit, the Father spoke to Moses, submits himself to learn the very words he had spoken to Moses, at the school attached to the synagogue where every child in the village would commit the Torah to memory. (At some point, the Word made flesh would come to recognise these words as his own—as himself—given to him, to us, by the Father.)

Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are filled, because God hungers and thirsts for righteousness. Literally, Jesus—God, the One who made the grain that is threshed and the olives that are pressed and the cattle on a thousand hills and the grapes that are trodden underfoot—experiencing the limitations of being hungry and thirsty, experiencing dependence on his neighbours, on honest exchange for honest labour.

The merciful receive mercy because God is merciful. The One who refuses to add to the burdens that weigh people down, including the unbearable burden of taking up stones as judge, jury and executioner of our fellow humans.

The pure in heart see God, because God is pure in heart. The One who has a human heart, which will be pierced by a lance, releasing the blood of violence spent on the ground—a prayer crying out, like that of his brother Abel, crying out for forgiveness for his murderer, the one guilty of fratricide—and, alongside the blood of violence, the living water of the Holy Spirit.

The peacemakers are called the children of God because God is a peacemaker. The One who delivers people from the demonic howl that afflicts them—and who permits the demons to drown, and so to be joined with him in death, and, freed from the grip of sin, to rise with him to new life, for the Christ comes not only to reconcile the children of Israel, or even the children of Eve, but all creation, seen and unseen, to their Creator.

The kingdom of heaven belongs to those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, because God is persecuted. Brought to false trial; scourged; nailed to a tree—wood, and thorns, twisted, co-opted into violence against their Creator; marred beyond recognisable human form: that we might be rescued from all violence.

Those who are reviled and persecuted and have evil claims made against them are blessed because this is God’s experience in the world.

And so Jesus speaks the Word that is his very self, that we might see God for God’s sake and for ours; and that we might see how to be human as God, in Jesus, is human. To be fully human. To be blessed, a co-incidence of human and divine blessing in the world.

Matthew 5.1-12

5 When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him.
2 Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:
3 ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 ‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6 ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7 ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
8 ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9 ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
10 ‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
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, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.