11012020 – Matthew 5. 1-12
More radical stuff, coming from Jesus…
From his lips to our ears…
Get ready, because it is AIMED at ALL of us.
No place to run.
No place to hide.
No place to disappear to.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, and those who are meek.
Blessed are those, who are down-and-out, rejected, destitute, without a home. They have honor with God.
They are not despised.
They are not rejected.
They are lifted up.
They are held in high esteem.
They are blessed by God.
Yep, this could be called, could be labeled as “preferential option for the poor.”
We are talking active compassion.
Just another instance, another occasion of Jesus turning everything upside down.
No one ever.
Nobody.
Would have associated “blessings” with the poor or the grieving.
Blessings were only for the fat, the wealthy, the landowners, the powerful, the elite…
God has obviously blessed them with their power, prestige, and wealth.
Like he must have (literally) given it to them…
Like a present.
As in “a gift.”
He favors “those people.”
That kind.
That’s what people thought, that’s what people believed.
God’s favor.
His blessings…his approval, his goodwill, his support, his commendation, his liking…could never be for “those other people.”
Definitely not “that” kind…
And yet,
Jesus says, they are wrong.
They have it all wrong.
God’s favor has always been on those who have been left behind.
Those who have been left out…
God’s blessings are for the little, the least, the lone, the lost.
His blessings are for the marginalized ones, the poor, the lost, the bereft…
These are the same folks who constituted the major constituency for Jesus. These were his people. These were his followers. The voiceless. The powerless.
And they found his message of God’s favor to be empowering and uplifting.
What is this NEW TEACHING?
Was he saying all these people have honor with God?
MERCY IS and always has been an attitude of God.
And it is to be EXACTLY this ATTITUDE that God’s people are to reflect in the world.
The cause of justice. The cause of equality. The cause of lifting up and supporting is to be the role of God’s own people. We are to stand with the persecuted.
STAND with the dejected, the rejected, the sad, the depressed, the dispirited.
We have to be reminded again, that in the time of Jesus, 90% of the people were poor.
They lived on the fringe.
They existed on the edge.
They truly were disenfranchised.
The majority of the people seemed to be sad, depressed, downcast, discouraged, downhearted, despondent, unhappy, the miserable.
These are THEY, who desperately need to be lifted up.
And WHO will be there for them?
WHO will lift them up.
Just so you know, there are those scholars who believe – these verses are some of the most ancient recorded words in the EARLY CHRISTIAN WRITINGS.
It is assumed these words go back to year 40 in the common era. They were among the first written down and savored…and passed around.
HERE-doing the will of God is everything.
DOING the will of God is everything.
You know, let your righteousness exceed that of the Pharisees.
Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the Kingdom of God, but those who DO the will of my father…
A person who hears these words of mine and DOES THEM is like a man who built a house upon the rock, and the winds blew and the floods came but it did not destroy it.
Remember when Jesus said,” My mother, my brothers, and sisters are those WHO DO the will of my father.”
This is not about works righteousness mind you. It is not about working your way into heaven.
It is about doing what is right and just and good. It is about being on God’s side…and not the side of the world.
And these words, are directed at YOU and ME. So, where do you side?
Amen.