Jesus' Deliberate Words

Jesus' Deliberate Words--July 15, 2016

"When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." (Matthew 5:1-12) 

I have a hunch that Jesus did not waste words.  And beyond that, I think it safe to say that Jesus, as we meet him in the Gospels, was one to choose his words carefully. 

You don't get stories where he blurts out one answer, then hears from his disciples that his latest parable didn't score well with the focus group, and then has to backtrack and "clarify" what he "meant all along," the way we are all used to with politicians. And you don't get any sense at all that Jesus would just ramble off-the-cuff on a given subject, until a random word salad eventually produced something insightful, like the old line about a room full of monkeys eventually typing Shakespeare.  We are pretty familiar with that from politicians, too, these days. Even when someone is upset, or surprised, or put off by something Jesus says, he doesn't bring in consultants to re-brand his message--he is willing to be unpopular. 

So if my hunch is correct, and Jesus chose his words deliberately, then let me pose a question: why would Jesus go to the trouble of listing off all these different groups of "the blessed" at the start of what we call the Sermon on the Mount?

That is to say, why doesn't Jesus just get up and say, "All lives are blessed," and be done with his sermon?

The follow-up questions are obvious--they practically ask themselves.  Doesn't Jesus think that everybody is blessed?  Doesn't Jesus think that all people are important to God?  Was Jesus just riffing on a theme of "blessing" and rambling off the top of his head--should we excuse him for focusing on certain people or categories of people as "blessed" because he was just speaking impromptu?

Or maybe... just maybe... are we willing to grant that Jesus chooses his words deliberately, and that he could have but chose not to make a broad sweeping generality about "all lives being blessed"?  Because if we are going to say that we "take the Bible seriously," then I don't think we have the option of writing Jesus off or ignoring both what he says and how he says it.  We are going to have to face the reality that Jesus deliberately chose to highlight God's blessing on "the poor/poor in spirit," the "persecuted," the "grieving," the "peacemakers," and such, and that Jesus could have, but chose not to say, something generic.

So, why?  Why would Jesus specially call out attention to, say, "those who mourn"?  Is Jesus saying that happy people are not blessed? Why would Jesus call attention to "those who hunger and thirst for righteousness/justice"?  Is Jesus saying that those who have not been denied justice are not blessed?  We could go on through the whole list we usually call the Beatitudes and ask the same question: by saying "Blessed are the... _________," isn't Jesus implying that some people are not blessed?

NO.  Just no.  This is one of those places where we can find ourselves getting all worked up where Jesus doesn't intend it.  And maybe it's also one of those places where we want to slant, or distort Jesus' words to keep him from making us uncomfortable where we need to be made uncomfortable.

The long and the short of it is, NO, Jesus was not saying that only the poor in spirit are blessed, or that only the grieving are blessed.  Just because he says, "blessed are you when people persecute you for my sake," it doesn't mean that all of us faithful disciples who are not being fed to the lions are not blessed, just because we don't live in the days of Nero.  No, but the people who are being persecuted are the ones who most need to know that they are blessed nevertheless.  And maybe we who are not being persecuted need to be reminded that those who do suffer for their faith and for doing the right thing are still blessed of God, and we cannot write them off.  We who are comfortable cannot just forget those who are suffering, simply because we aren't affected by their suffering.  Jesus announces blessing on them, and on others like them, so that we will not forget that God's blessing is given to those who are persecuted and suffer.

Both Matthew and Luke give us some version of these statements of blessing, and we don't get the sense from either of them that people walked away from hearing the Beatitudes saying, "I'm offended--why doesn't Jesus just say that All Lives are Blessed?"  They knew instantly that blessing on those who mourn did not rule out blessing for anybody who is not grieving, rather that those who mourn are particularly in need of the blessing of comfort.  Everybody who heard Jesus speak knew he had a universal view of human beings--that everybody matters to Jesus.  But within that, there are folks who particularly need to hear that God cares for them, and there are folks WE need to remember are not disposable or ignorable.  Jesus announces blessing on the poor in spirit, the brokenhearted, and the like, as a gift of grace--and when he tells the particular truth that these folks are blessed of God, it is not meant as a dig or belittling of anybody else.  But rather, these  are people who need to know that they are blessed, because there will be plenty of challenges to make them question it.

One of the things about grace is that God is smart enough and honest enough to know who most needs it.  And the person who has just been beaten up for standing up for someone else needs to know that they are blessed, and needs to hear it, probably moreso than the person who sat on their couch comfortably watching the game and eating chips in the comfort of air conditioning.  Both people--the one who got beaten up and the one who ate chips on the couch all day--may well be blessed of God... but the one who has been beaten up needs to hear that more than someone who wouldn't even notice the sound of a blessing over the background noise of the TV. 

Maybe we would do well to follow Jesus' example, to listen closely to his words in the Gospels, and to consider who are the people in your world and my world who most need to hear the gracious word that they are blessed.  God reserves the right to bless everybody, sure, but who are the people who have been so forgotten about that they need the reminder that they, too, are blessed? Let's look in this day for people who are already beloved of God, but to whom God might be sending you right now, to bring a concrete reminder of God's love from the beginning.

Lord Jesus, who calls us all blessed, help us to see those we have left in the margins, so that we can be your agents of blessing for all who need it.