Thoughts going in, Sunday Jan 30th

Matthew 5:1 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them. 3 He said: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. 10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Well, there’s certainly a LOT swirling around in my mind as this Sunday approaches and we begin an extended series in the “Sermon on the Mount.” The first thing that should be mentioned is a word or two about Matthew’s organizational approach to his Gospel.

Few people realize that the Gospels are *not pure chronological ‘news reports’ of the life & times of Jesus. This becomes evident whenever we try to ‘harmonize’ the Gospels with each other (a fruitless task). These are first century ‘evangelions,’ not 21st century investigative journalistic endeavors. Each Gospel writer was inspired to tell the Jesus story, but each one did so with his own distinct style and flair. In Matthew’s case, it is well-established that he divided his material/story into MAJOR DISCOURSES, each ending with an identically phrased ‘finale statement.’ As there are five such discourses—and given the Jewish ‘flavoring’ of Matthew’s Gospel—more than one expert has suggested that Matthew saw his Gospel as the Church’s Torah (the Jewish Torah consists of 5 books, Genesis—Deuteronomy).

Which brings me to my next point. When it comes to the Torah, whether Jewish or Christian, the old Lutheran concept of law/gospel distinction does not apply. Law/gospel distinction is both a hermeneutic (a lens through which texts are interpreted) and a tool for sermon development. It works very well. Many, many passages of the Bible can be approached with the law/gospel lens. One asks what are God’s demands being addressed in the passage? That’s the law—which we, as poor miserable sinners, fail to meet perfectly. What then is the solution? The solution is God’s free gift of salvation in Christ Jesus our Lord—the gospel. That is all well and good for many passages of Scripture. However, there are times when the law/gospel distinction actually gets in the way and muddies the waters.

This is true when it comes to the *demands of the Gospel, for instance. In law/gospel distinction, it is the *law that carries demands; the gospel is all God’s free gift. Yet, we realize from our reading of the Bible that the Gospel has demands: “*BELIEVE on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved,” is a perfect example. It’s a gospel message with the demand/command to believe. It’s a monkey-wrench in the law/gospel distinction approach.

There’s also another one, having to do with the Torah. Whether one uses the term Torah, or Law of Moses, or any other term, there is a tendency among most Christians to think of these texts as **LAW** in the law/gospel context; in other words, as containing ALL DEMANDS, with no gospel. All of those “thou shalt nots...” tend to support this view. And yet, this was certainly NOT old testament Israel’s way of seeing their own texts, or for that matter, their relationship with God.

Consider Psalm 1—a very relevant passage considering its stylistic relationship to our text in Matthew. It begins: 1 Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; 2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night. A casual reading of verse 2 makes this hypothetical ‘man’ of the psalm sound quite boring. All he does is sit around & read the rules; all he does is read God’s ‘village ordinances’ from sun-up to sundown. Here’s a better translation of the text: 1 Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; 2 But his delight is in the Torah of the Lord, And in His Torah he meditates day and night. What’s the difference? The difference is this: the Torah is *more than just the ‘thou shalt nots,’ it’s the whole story of redemption from the Old Testament perspective. It tells the story of God’s loving embrace of Abraham and his descendants; of God’s covenant faithfulness to them in leading them out of bondage, through the Red Sea, preserving them in the wilderness, and then bringing them to the Promised Land. The Torah is the story of salvation. YES, it contains demands (law), but there is also MUCH gospel to be found therein.

That finally brings me to this Sunday’s text from Matthew’s Gospel, and the question: is it ‘law or gospel?’ The answer is yes. This is Matthew’s Torah. Jesus has gone through the waters of baptism, been sustained in the wilderness of temptation, and now ascends the mountain just as Moses did. And from there, the voice of God echoes just as it did at Sinai; the voice of God in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. What follows are nine ‘beatitudes’ (from the Latin, for blessing).

So, "who are those blessed by God?" In Jesus' day, it would seem that the few, the 1% of the population that constituted the ruling class, the landed gentry were the ones blessed by God. After all, they lived in wealth and comfort. In contrast to this, the various schools of the Pharisees developed a spirituality around hyper ritual observance. In this way, adherents could consider themselves blessed by God even if they weren't wealthy. Jesus alone, however, turns the whole question upside down so as to include the lowest of the low. Who are the most blessed? Who is most highly esteemed by God?. 'The poor, the mourner, the meek, and the one who hungers for righteousness, etc;' of course this is Jesus HIMSELF. He is all of those things to perfection; and he is *most blessed of God. But the point is, we are TOO when this life of Christ shines forth in our lives.

Cheers,

TM