Just the Beginning

 

Matthew 5:1-12

 Jesus, having started by proclaiming light in darkness, and God’s Kin-dom over empire, even having called fishers to follow Him, began His ministry with a sermon.

 Jesus on a mountain, like Moses on Sinai or like Mt. Zion, the place of God’s revelations and instruction, sat with His disciples, the posture of a teacher with student/followers.

 His first sermon discourse starts with makarioi - privileged recipients of God’s favor are, recipients of God’s fortune and happiness are, hailed ones by God are…

 And He offers the first four of eight beatitudes for those who are oppressed by empire, promising a reversal of fortune at the hands of God, whose presence is known by Jesus in the world. 

 The Poor in Spirit are going to be the favored recipients of God’s fortune because the inhumane conditions that have crushed their spirits by crushing their hope in life itself are to be reversed as they inherit the Kin-dom of heaven lived on earth.  No longer will their spirits be dragged down and put in despair by the exploitation, oppression and destruction of empire’s ways in the world.  The lack of resources that has put them in despair in their spirits will be reversed in their favor when Jesus’ Way is lived in the land, even in the known world.

 Those who mourn are going to be recipients of happiness in God because the destruction of lives and deaths that they mourn will be vindicated by the God who hears the blood of God’s beloved cry out.  They will no longer mourn, but will be comforted when God’s Kin-dom has come on earth and destroys the loss and death that is left in empire’s wake.  Jesus’ Way of compassion and empathy will console those who mourn by reversing the ways of destruction and death to ways of life abundant and sustainable in this part of God’s Kin-com, here and now.

 The meek are going to be hailed by God because their current lack of agency and power in the world at the hands of empire will be reversed, and their long wait in faithfulness will end with the inheritance that those who were brashly ruthless held them down, back and out from under empire’s rules.  God’s Kin-dom rule will restore the lands and fortunes of which they were deprived by those who in their arrogant hubris believed they had entitlement.  They will inherit it all in God’s great re-distribution under Jesus’ Good News Way.

 Those who hunger and thirst for justice are favored ones by God because they know what is right and just, and have a value for it.  They have been subjected to all manner of blatant injustice and unrighteousness by those who believed that they were above any code of conduct in the world, simply because they could force their will on others.  God’s Kin-dom will restore what is right and equitable so that all have Shalom (completeness, wholeness and well-being that lead to peace), which will mean a real peace and no false claim of peace like the Pax Romana which meant order maintained by coercive power for the sake of the elites who unjustly oppress God’s children.  They will be satisfied, finally, who value justice and equity in the world.

 The last four beatitudes lift up those who exhibit God’s Kin-dom values already, even under empire’s insidious, established as normative ways.  This exposes the ways of empire as ungodly, contrary to the influence peddled by adherents of the empire way in the world.  These are those who ACT in the world by living agaph in it, thus resisting empire and restoring God’s Way, the way of Jesus in this part of God’s Kin-dom, here and now.

 Considered weak or idealistic and therefore unrealistic to the devotees of empire, the Merciful are hailed by God because they provide those who have had their lives and hopes for life decimated with necessary resources for life, compassion and forgiveness when needed because of the extremes they have been forced to face under empire’s way.  The merciful do not believe that they are better than others, but empathically act on behalf of even “the least,” considering them equal as sisters and brothers.  They extend active love to the ones from who everything has been taken by those falsely believing themselves to be superior in the world.  They show God’s mercy by doing so, demonstrating that they have a value for God’s mercy by living it themselves.  These are merciful with the stranger, the enemy and those who have “sinned” according to empire’s punitive and controlling rules, just as Jesus does.

 The pure in heart receive God’s favor because they have not succumbed to the duplicitous, quid pro quo and guile-filled ways of societal hierarchical relationships under empire.  They have resisted the devious, ulterior motives and have not sunk to the ruthless lows of those who deal with others deceitfully for their own gain.  The pure in heart know what is right and just and they have acted accordingly, regardless of the societal pressure to get ahead of others or at their expense, by any means necessary.  They have chosen transparency instead of hidden agendas and consistency in word and action over the hypocrisy rampant and pervasive among those who value empire, much like Jesus who teaches us God’s Kin-dom way.

 The peacemakers receive God’s inheritance as heirs because they have not given in to the abuses of power wielded by the ruthless who want to rule over and control the lives of God’s children.  They are lifted up as God’s offspring because they actively employ the things that make for peace in the world – the equity, equal value of others, respect, honor and generosity that assure the Shalom of everyone in the world.  Their peace is a real peace, unlike the Pax Romana-style oppressive, controlling, coercive, brutal and unjust order maintained by a police state, because their peace is made through shared power out of equal value for all of God’s children.  It is the active resistance to bullying which is God’s Kin-dom Way, which is Jesus’ Way.

 The persecuted are recipients of joyful happiness, rewarded with the fortune of God’s Kin-dom because they live truth and light in love, regardless of the way that the world of empire punishes them for it.  They face the resistance and ridicule, the ostracizing and even discrimination that others dish out who serve empire with great devotion.  The truly persecuted pay the price for following Jesus’ Way because empire desperately needs to show others that Jesus’ Way is wrong, thus justifying their horrible injustices perpetrated out of greed, lust for power over others and desire for status above others.  The persecuted expose the evils of empire’s “normative” ways of being in the world as the dominant culture, so they must suffer for it under empire, just as did Jesus.  Matthew’s Jesus personalizes this with His student/followers by saying that YOU can rejoice and be glad when you are persecuted for teaching and living the agaph of Jesus’ Way, because you are in the company of the prophets of old and the saints who dwell in God’s light.

 Wow!  What a sermon!  Actually, this is just the prologue!  Amen.