– District Superintendent, Mike Frese
How God encounters us through the reading of scripture and the mediation of the Holy Spirit is always multivalent. We hear different themes, stirrings, understandings and appropriations depending on our physical, psychological context. Given this fact, truncating the possibilities of interpreting the Beatitudes to merely two options is reductionistic. However, given that this is merely a newsletter article and not a dissertation, I hope these reflections will be helpful.
The Beatitudes: An Invitation
Remembering that in Jesus’ day, Israel was an occupied land and the people were oppressed by their economic, political, social and even religious context. The might of Rome and the ruling elite presented an ethic of power, coercion and economic influence. The majority of people were pushed out of the opportunity to fully exercise their potential and their humanity.
Matthew states that Jesus’ public ministry began with a simple pronouncement, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near (is at hand)” (Mt. 4:17). As he begins his message to crowds who had gathered, he offers them the Beatitudes. In each of the Beatitudes, Jesus offered to those who felt left out, cast aside or crushed a vision of who was welcomed, even blessed in the kingdom which he announced. Whoever they were, however society defined them and whatever their past, the kingdom
of God had a place for them. It was a welcoming and gracious realm. All were welcome and all were valued. This message still captivates and invites us today.
The Beatitudes: A Calling
Many scholars have noted that Matthew is the gospel that appears to be most oriented to a Jewish audience. It continuously notes how the actions surrounding Jesus fulfilled prophecies found in Jewish (Old Testament) scriptures. Some commentators also have identified 5 large sections of Jesus’ teaching that could be seen as analogues of the 5 books of Moses. In this passage, Jesus ascends a mountain and then speaks about covenantal obligations and interprets parts of Jewish law. This certainly harkens back to Moses on Mount Sinai, receiving and sharing the 10 Commandments. This episode in the Exodus story defines who the people of Israel were called to be as those who lived in a unique relationship with God.
From this perspective, the Beatitudes are a declaration of who the people of God are to be and how they are to live in the world. Those that follow Jesus are to create a counter-cultural community that reverses the ethic of empire and coercion. The community of Christ is to be a place where values and virtues are different from the world. We live by a different set of rules, both spoken and lived out by a suffering, servant Savior. Jesus-followers are called to create space where the hurting, oppressed and lowly are not only accepted or tolerated, but they are affirmed in the blessedness of their dignity as children of God.
Obviously this is not an either/or proposition. These two trajectories remind us of what we are invited into and who we are called to be. We are to be a community of grace, where all who feel demeaned and devalued by life and the systems of society find welcome. We are to be a gracious community that lives into (never perfectly) the ethic of the kingdom of God. May we both find our place and do our part.