The Problem with the Beatitudes

In the New Testament we find four accounts of the life and ministry of Jesus – the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Now, of these four gospels, it’s the gospel of Matthew which gives us more of the words of Jesus than any of the other Gospels. It is from Matthew’s gospel that we read today – a small section called the Beatitudes at the very beginning of the Sermon on the Mount.

The Sermon on the Mount isn’t really a sermon, we just call it that. It’s actually a collection of teachings – teachings of Jesus about the way we should live in relationship to God, and in relationship with one other. In the Old Testament, the heart of moral teaching is called the Ten Commandments. In the New Testament, it is the Sermon on the Mount. These two bodies of teaching have been the most influential moral instruction in the Western world. Their wisdom has been inspirational in the formation of nations and, at the other end of the scale, in the way we relate to one another as individuals and in families.

My mother always turned to the Sermon on the Mount when she was dealing with us five kids growing up. Whatever we did, wrong or right, she would find something in the Sermon on the Mount, to address what we were doing. In fact, she looked for it in political candidates. I remember the election of 1968. I was twelve years old.

My mother came back from the polling booth set up at the local school, and I said to her, “Who did you vote for?”

She said, “For the NDP - for David Lewis to be Prime Minister.”

Now, I didn’t know too much about politics at the time, but I knew that some people didn’t like the kind of policies the NDP were putting forward. I’d heard rumours. I said to her, “But Mom, isn’t David Lewis a communist?”

And she said, “That’s not true. It’s just the way some people talk.” She went on, “I don’t care what people say. I think he’s the one politician who would come nearest to putting the sermon on the mount into the practice of government.” She was very idealistic.

Later on, like the rest of us, she became a little disappointed in Ottawa, but she actually believed that the sermon on the mount could – and should - be implemented by the government. It’s very central to our way of life. It always has been. Maybe because of the way in which I was raised, it’s also been a strong influence in my own life.

I need to tell you, the Sermon on the Mount has a very unusual beginning. It doesn’t begin the way I expect to begin. This is moral teaching, but it doesn’t start out with, “do this, “don’t do that”, “stop doing this”, “start doing that”. It begins with a word of blessing. It’s called a beatitude. It’s sometimes called a benediction. It’s a word of God’s favour.

And so the instruction of Jesus as to how we should live in the presence of God begins with a blessing.

The favour of God is upon you.

Profoundly happy are you …

blessed are you.

That’s a strange way, isn’t it, to begin instruction on how people are to live? But if that seems strange, let me tell you something that’s even stranger. And that is, many people have trouble,hearing this blessing. Even though it’s said – and it’s said by Jesus – they have trouble hearing it .

Now I know some people have trouble hearing this because they have a hard time with good news. I think it’s a personality problem. They enjoy bad news. They don’t listen to good news. They don’t really care for good news. Good news seems to bother them, and I think someone saying “blessed are you” , they’re not listening. If they said, “cursed are you”, well, let me hear more about that please. That’s just the way they are. They absorb – kind of wallow in – luxuriate in bad news.

I know people if you ask them, “Well, I understand you went to the doctor for a check up. How did it go?”

“Well the doctor said I was in good shape.”

“Wonderful!”

“But winter’s coming, and there’ll be a lot of germs.”

Or students, you say, “So, how were your grades last semester?”

“I had an 84% average.”

“Wow, that’s great!”

“Yeah, well they say next semester’s tougher, so I’m going to kind of wait and see …”

You know anybody like that?

“I understand there’s going to be a wedding in your family. Wonderful! Weddings are such happy occasions!”

“Well, I’m kind of holding back on this one, you know, some marriages don’t work out … and we want to kind of wait and see …”

Do you know people like that?

They can’t possibly hear Jesus say, “Happy are you. Blessed are you. The favour of God is upon you.”

They can’t handle it. I know some people who can’t handle something like this because they always associate religion with being miserable. Religion is activated when people are in bad shape. When they’re sick, or there’s death, if there’s illness. Then out comes the prayer and the talk of God. And even in churches, I know some churches that will permit groaning and moaning, but won’t permit laughter or applause. It’s out of order - why!?

I see it in some ministers. Ministers these days are extremely well trained to help people when they’re in crisis – when there’s illness, when they’re in the hospital, facing surgery, a death in the family. They’re trained to be able to talk, to pray and to minister, and to be present in a wonderful way. And that’s extremely important, and I would in no way take away from it. But the difficulty is, some of these ministers don’t know what to do with people who are doing well and are happy, and still employed – the marriage is still together and the children are not in jail yet. And what does a minister do for them? They don’t know what to do. So they just wait around, circle overhead, sort of like a vulture, waiting for them to fall.

“They’ll go down sometime, Then when they go down, when the misery hits, then I’ll move in there and minister.”

There’s a lot of association of religion, just with misery. And when Jesus says, “Happy are you. Blessed are you. The favour of God is upon you.” They don’t know what to do with that.

I was a guest preacher at a church a few years ago, and I noticed in the worship bulletin, there was a section in there called “Moments of Fellowship.” The members of the church would stand and share things that were happening in their lives – share it with the rest of the people. It was a nice part of the service. Not necessarily my style, but there was nothing wrong with it. The first person who got up spoke of a wedding anniversary for her parents – 50th I think.

Someone else stood up and said, “My sister graduated from university.”

Someone else spoke of a niece who had a new baby.

We’re listening to all that, but the minister didn’t say anything. And then someone stood up and said, his grandmother had died.

And the minister said, you won’t believe this, he said, “Oh now there’s a good one! Do we have any more like that?”

You see what his problem was. Occasions of happiness – a graduation, a wedding anniversary, a new baby, nothing. Tell of a little sadness, and a death in the family, “Ah, now there’s something we can work with!” I felt sorry for the minister in a way, because either by disposition or training, he really had no way to handle a little bit of good news. How would such a person handle the beatitudes?

“Blessed are you … happy are you … the favour of God is upon your life …

And here’s another thing, some people always associate religion with being told, how bad they are.

I find there are people who think, that’s what a sermon is supposed to be like, “Oh, that was a good sermon. I felt miserable when I left the church. That was really a good one!”

In fact if you preach a sermon that’s full of joy and thanksgiving and blessing, someone says, “Well, it was a nice talk, but it didn’t seem like a sermon.”

Why didn’t it? Because some people have associated religion with just “picking on” people, and bringing a word of judgment on them for their failings. So fill the air with “ought” and “must” and “should” and someone says, “Okay, now that’s preaching.” Speak of God’s favour … God’s blessing, “Well, haven’t really started the sermon yet apparently …”

Have you ever been to a service on the Sunday of Thanksgiving, and the minister is preaching from that favourite Thanksgiving passage.

Jesus heals ten lepers. One of them comes back to say “thank you” and Jesus says, “Where are the nine. Were not ten healed? Where are the nine?”

And so for the sermon – for twenty or thirty minutes – the minister says, “Where are the nine? Where are the nine? We are all wretched and ungrateful people in the face of God’s great generosity!”

And you’re sitting out there in front of the pulpit and you’re thinking to yourself, “Well those nine, are where I would be if I had good sense! What am I doing here? I came to offer thanks. This is a thanksgiving service! Give us a break here!”

Just take us by the hand, and allow us to experience the size and depth of our inheritance as children of God, and say, “blessed are you!” Just take us by the hand and let us run our fingers through the unsearchable riches of God’s grace, and say, “the favour of God is upon your life.” Just once a year. Is that too much to ask? But now, here’s where I think the real problem is, why some people can’t handle the beatitudes. It’s because the beatitudes are at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus begins by saying, “Blessed are you, happy are you, the favour of God is upon your life.”

Is it possible some people think Jesus is saying these words of blessing a little too soon? I must admit, if I were giving the beatitudes, I would have given them at the end of the sermon on the mount, after all the teaching about what you ought to do, and ought not to do.

Then I would have said, “If you do this, and if you don’t do that, then you will get the blessing, if, if, if, then you get the blessing.

You see, you hold that over people’s heads. I never did, as a student, receive my grades at the beginning of the semester. I received them at the end.

“If you do all this - A. If you didn’t do it, your grade will be reduced.”

Why doesn’t Jesus just do that? Put it at the end, “If you do, If you don’t.”

Let me ask you a question. Do you in your family, kiss your children good-bye as they go to school in the morning? Or do you wait until they come home in the afternoon and give a report on their behaviour and their grades.

“If you do well at school, and score well on your test today, then when you come home we’ll give you milk and cookies and a hug.”

Or do you do it in the morning, before they’ve done a thing?

Your partner going off to work – do you embrace in the morning, or do you say, “Well, if you make some money today and keep your job, there’ll be a little hug for you this evening.”

Which way do you do it? You do it in the morning, don’t you? The children - you do it in the morning, don’t you? Yes, before it starts. Well, if you can do that, why does God have to wait until the afternoon? Why does Jesus have to wait until the evening, and say, “If you do all this, then …”

I want to remind you, that the word of God’s grace and God’s favour, comes first. We don’t earn it. We’re not evaluated, interviewed, graded, and then it comes! God’s favour comes first, in the morning, as God says, “Blessed are you, happy are you, run your fingers through the unsearchable riches of God’s grace, and know, “the favour of God is upon your life.”