November 4, 2023 - All Saints (Transferred)
Galilee was outside of the mainstream of Israelite life. It wasn’t a religious or intellectual center. It had no real political power. But it was in contact with world trade and culture and consequently, it became a cosmopolitan region. People from varied ethnic backgrounds inhabited the area, making it diverse culturally and religiously. And so for that reason, Galileans were suspected of not being “Jewish enough”. Their mixed identity made them unclean and so they were rejected by the Pharisees and the priests of Jerusalem.
And then out of this context of the margins comes Jesus, who in the Gospel of Matthew is depicted as the Jewish Messiah. In chapter 5 of Matthew’s Gospel, he goes up a mountain like Moses, and he delivers the Sermon ont he Mount, which starts with the famous Beatitudes we heard today. Matthew seems to have taken Luke’s list of four (Lk 6:17-26) and added to them. He’s also spiritualized them a little (poor in spirit, hunger and thirst for righteousness, etc.). The original four beatitudes might have been: Blessed are you who are poor; blessed are you who are hungry now; blessed are you who weep now; and blessed are you when people hate you, exclude you, revile you, and defame you.
“Blessed” is an archaic way of expressing that certain groups are in God’s special favor. You can substitute “Congratulations!” for “Blessed” and this will also have a similar impact. Contrary to the dominant social values, these “blessed are…” statements ascribe honor to those who are unable to defend their positions or those who refuse to take advantage of or trespass on the position of another. The honor granted comes from God, not the usual social sources.
Jesus almost certainly formulated the first three congratulations in the version from Luke – those addressed to the poor, the hungry, and the weeping. They are the poor in spirit. For Matthew, they weren’t the economically poor but those unable to maintain their inherited standing in society because of misfortune or the injustice of others. A rich widow without a son was still a “poor widow” regardless of how wealthy she was; social misfortune, not economic misfortune, was that which made a person poor just as much as economic misfortune or oppression.
To be labeled as poor was to be unable to defend what was yours, to fall below the status at which one was born. Similarly, in today’s society, calling people “illegal” is to make them fall below the status at which they are born, because no person is ever born “illegally.”
The poor are those who are not given honor, while the rich are the greedy. Within the same context belong those who are persecuted unjustly and those who are reviled falsely. If persecution here means being driven out of their families, then it is no wonder that they are also hungry and mourning. They have lost their support system and are forced to beg for food. They are unable to maintain their inherited honor and have fallen in disgrace and shame. But despite all that, they are given the highest honor – the kingdom of heaven.
The merciful, those who are pure in heart, and peacemakers all have to do with moral qualities a person is to acquire. Peacemakers are those who strive for whatever is necessary for meaningful human existence. They will be honored with inclusion in God’s family – children of God.
Jesus, the marginalized and migrant Messiah, can bless others NOT because he has possessions that he can give (We know that he was poor.) or honor that he can grant (We know that he was without honor in society.), but because he is acutely aware of God’s presence, which he mediates to others. Going against the official theology of Israel, Jesus – as spokesman for the tradition of Galilee – blesses those who were despised by the society of the time. He turns the values of the time on their head by announcing that God blesses the unblessed. Jesus revalues what has been disvalues. He honors what has been shamed. He changes the way the game is played and redefines the source of honor. Acknowledgement of honor, he says, comes from God, and not from our neighbors.
The implication of Jesus blessing the marginalized is not that they should be happy in their deprivation, for even though they may be poor materially, they surely are rich spiritually. NO! It is more of an indictment of the society of the time for having forgotten its responsibility towards their neighbor. It is a warning to God’s people and a call to accountability; for if God blesses those whom you curse, there is something fundamentally wrong with your theology. In the end, Jesus is questioning the way God was being understood by the religious and political leaders of Israel at the time.
Two questions to take with you this week: If Jesus showed up today and had to give the Sermon on the Mount, who would be the ones he calls “Blessed”? Would they be the ones whom we currently curse?