Matthew 4:23 - 5:12: Who Is Really Well Off?

Before diving into a study of the Sermon on the Mount (just the beatitudes, here), there are two things that must be settled in the mind of the person reading, if they plan on getting anything at all from it.1. The author of the sermon was brilliant. This may seem like an unnecessary step, but you would be surprised. If a person approaches the sermon as if it is anything other than the work of a genius, they will eventually view it the same way we might view a picture a small child gives us. We will be thankful for it, but since we don't think it is the work of a master artist we will look quickly, hang it on the fridge to look at from time to time, and be on our way. But when we approach it as we would a Van Gogh, for instance, we might just let it come over us, as we ponder what each section means, and how it connects to the following section.2. We must look at the sermon as one sermon. More specifically, we must view it as a sermon that expounds on Jesus' primary message, "The availability of the kingdom of the heavens." Many people look at it is a few disconnected wisdom sayings that were gathered together. If this is true then it would be impossible to obey, and even harder to understand. But if we view it as a whole sermon, we will do the hard work of seeing how each section connects and makes the whole, then we can obey it.There are really 4 questions that every thoughtful person considers in their lifetime. In Matthew 4:12-22, Jesus gave an answer to the first question by shining a light on the darkness, and revealing that reality is God and his kingdom. He then began inviting everyone to repent, and enter in.In this passage I believe he sets out to answer the 2nd question:

Who is well off?

The passage begins with Jesus teaching and healing a crowd full of various representatives of society. The poor are there with their sick loved ones, those possessed by demons are there, paralytics are there, and people from every strip of land in the region have gathered around Jesus to hear his message and be touched by him.The people living in this day lived within a culture of honor and shame. That many of them were sick already put them in the shame category. If they were women–shame. Unclean–shame. Many of them just because of the condition of their everyday life would've fallen into a category of shamefulness. They would've been looked upon with pity or the kind of sympathy that says, "It sucks to be you."These are the people who are surrounding Jesus as he begins to speak his, "Blessed are the ________ for _________, formula. This formula would not have been new to many of them. They may have read The Wisdom of Sirach which announced its own beatitudes (See image).

Sirach's beatitudes are not shocking. Indeed, they are unremarkable because they are assumed by the masses. Who wouldn't want to rejoice over their children, or speak to attentive listeners (I'm a preacher, I really want this one!). So maybe when Jesus opened his mouth to begin speaking they thought they were going to hear the same old news that never included them.

Imagine the shock that came over them when they heard him say, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." These likely had never been called blessed, unless you include the times they were called a bless-ed nuisance. But now they are hearing a message that, if true, changes everything for them.

Jesus is not suggesting that they are blessed because they are in their condition, he is not telling them to all go and become poor in spirit, as many people teach. He is telling them that in their lowly condition they, too, can experience blessing, because they can enter the kingdom. And as they enter the kingdom they will encounter a divine reversal that fills their lives with blessing.The poor in spirit: As Martyn Lloyd Jones says, "what our lord is concerned about here is the spirit; it is poverty of spirit. In other words, it is ultimately a man's attitude towards himself." A person who is poor in spirit is not a humble person necessarily. Humble people think of themselves little, people who are poor in spirit think little of themselves. The world has different names for them: Loser, Nobody, Zero, No-good. But in the kingdom of heaven they will find that their status has been reversed, because they are now in relation to the king of the kingdom. This makes them giant like.The mourners: Think of a person who is stricken with grief. Perhaps a parent whose child has died, or a father whose income supports his family, and he hears the news that he just got laid off. No matter the reason, to mourn is not to be viewed as well off, it is to be in an unenviable condition. But as they enter the kingdom of heaven, they will find comfort that goes beyond measure.The meek: In Aramaic (Jesus' language) the word was praus. It is not merely humble or gentle, but it describes a person who has no capacity to resist. Think of an individual that never asserts herself, therefore she never gets her way. Think of a kid being bullied, he wants to resist, but can never bring himself to do it. In the economy of this world such a person is to be pitied... In the kingdom, the whole earth is their domain, because the whole earth belongs to their father. "The Lord is their shepherd, they shall not want."Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are a nuisance: Consider the Prophets, John the Baptist, Martin Luther King Jr., the abolitionists, and do-gooders in general. Many of these may be celebrated now, but they where a nuisance to everyone in their day. This is the reason many were killed. Unfortunately their hunger and thirst goes unfulfilled in the kingdom of this world... but as they enter the kingdom of heaven, they find a bountiful quantity of the righteousness they were seeking.The merciful: Not simply those who are nice, but those who are merciful to a fault. Like people who let you run up a tab knowing you will never have the capacity to repay it. They do so because they see the world from your perspective, and they pity you. The worldly wiseman will rightly call them fools. They will never get their due, and will always end up on the bottom. That is, until they enter the kingdom. Then they are recipients of mercy which supersedes any kind they ever handed out.The pure in heart: People whose longing for purity is never fulfilled, both in outsiders and in themselves. Their longing for purity may even be a pain in themselves. See Psalm 24:3-4. Every time they white glove test their heart they find one more dot. In the eyes of this world they will never find what they are looking for. In the reality of the kingdom they will see God, and when they do they will finally lay their eyes on the holiness that they've been seeking–they will see God.The peacemakers: Think of it in terms of Jesus' day. The peacemaker was one who likely tried to create peace between two forces that hated one another. Jews and Romans, or Jews and Samaritans, or any opposing groups. When you try to create peace between enemies, you likely become the enemy of the two enemies. The peacemaker is in an unenviable position. They are viewed as a sell out because they refuse to take sides. No matter though, in the kingdom of heaven they resemble the prince of peace.The persecuted: These suffer physical or emotional attack because of their commitment to doing what is right. Think of a whistleblower (maybe called a snitch) who becomes persona non grata, because they reveal instead of conceal. Like those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the world sees them as a thorn in the side. The only justifiable response is to remove the thorn. While they may not be at home in the kingdom of this world, they will find a warm welcome in the kingdom of heaven, and will experience the blessing of God in this life.By declaring the down people as up, Jesus effectively opens wide his kingdom to everyone who would enter therein. When the world frowns and pities someone because of their condition, Jesus says, "Blessed are you."

Who is supposedly blessed in this picture?

And in a world that relentlessly sends messages to us about who is well off and who isn't, the apprentices of Jesus must learn to join him in pronouncing beatitudes to those who seem un-blessable."So," as Dallas Willard says, "we must see from our heart that: Blessed are the physically repulsive, Blessed are those who smell bad, The twisted, misshapen, deformed, The too big, too little, too loud, The bald, the fat, and the old... the flunk-outs and drop-outs and burned-outs. The broke and the broken. The drug heads and the divorced. The HIV-positive and herpes-ridden. The brain-damaged, the incurably ill. The barren and the pregnant too-many-times or at the wrong time. The overemployed, the underemployed, the unemployed. The unemployable. The swindled, the shoved aside, the replaced. The lonely, the incompetent, the stupid. The emotionally starved or emotionally dead... Even the moral disasters will be received by God as they come to rely on Jesus, count on him, and make him their companion in his kingdom. Murderers and child-molesters. The brutal and the bigoted. Drug lords and pornographers. War criminals and sadists. Terrorists. The perverted and the filthy and the filthy rich. The David Berkowitzs (“ Son of Sam”), Jeffrey Dahmers, and Colonel Noriegas."This is the gospel. This is the good news.So, who is really well off?Anyone who is living in the kingdom of God.