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Exegesis: European Laity-SeminarJuly 28, 2008 – Bishop Rosemarie Wenner
Bible study Matthew 5: 3 – 10
This morning, we want to consider the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount together. In his diary, John Wesley called the Sermon on the Mount, “the most noble compendium of the Faith” (entry from the 17th of October, 1771). He dedicated 3 sermons to the Beatitudes alone – and each of those sermons longer than this whole exegesis. We are aware then, of the challenge we are facing when we consider the Beatitudes here this morning. The real challenge though, is the consideration of these words of scripture, butrather in doing that which the preacher on the mount invites us to do. This applies not only for the Beatitudes but for the whole Sermon on the Mount. The former President of the GermanRepublic, Richard Freiherr von Weizäcker said, “The great conflicts of our time could be solved if we humans found the strength to act, personally and politically, according to the Sermon on the Mount.” I agree with Richard von Weizäcker: the world would be different and many conflicts could be resolved if we would live by the Sermon on the Mount. But should our object really be to exert ourselves more and more to live by the Sermon on the Mount? Is this sermon a law that we have to fulfill – but fail to do so, again and again? Where, then, is the Gospel, die message of liberation?
Just to get this said at the beginning of this exegesis: we will not do justice to the Sermon on the Mount if we divide it up into “encouragement,” and “challenges.” Some exegetes saw the Beatitudes that we are considering this morning, as encouragement that precedes the claims on our lives that come later on the sermon. I, along with many others, am convinced that the Sermon on the Mount – including the Beatitudes – weaves encouragement and challenges together: Jesus, in whom God’s salvation breaks through in the middle of this world attracts followers along the way. In chapter 4 of the Gospel of Matthew, we hear how Jesus calls his disciples: they drop everything and follow him. They see how Jesus heals the sick and unambiguously signals that God desires and accomplishes salvation. And then they hear Jesus’ words. The Sermon on the Mount has,particularly, to do with the disciples. It is, however, heard by the whole multitude of people and it is an invitation to all to follow Jesus. Whoever decides to have anything to do with Jesus lives with the promise that God’s Kingdom is beginning and shows trust in this promise by hearing and doing Jesus’ words. Thus – and only thus – in hearing and doing – does the faith show its power.
Let us now hear the Beatitudes as we read them in Matthew 5: 3 – 10:
The Beatitudes
3Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. 4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 5 Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. 7 Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. 10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of justice, for theirs in the Kingdom of Heaven.
“Blessed,” – the Greek word, “makarios” means “happy” in its whole and unsurpassable sense. Whom would we call happy? When are we happy? Together, we would probably come to many and different descriptions – but normally these descriptions would not have much in common with the Beatitudes. In human terms, happiness usually has to do with success, with having enough or even with having more than enough. Magazines report about the happiness of the rich and beautiful. They are praised as being happy and they serve as models for all normal humans: one should be: so rich, so famous, so beautiful! That would be happiness!
The Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount show something of an opposite picture. Those who are praised here as“happy” have nothing to show for themselves in terms of their own brilliance and/or wonderful accomplishments. For these reasons, many people want to shove these verses aside as quickly as possible. The poor, the hungry, the mourning, the persecuted …are supposed to be happy? That doesn’t sound very likely. For many others, the Beatitudes possess a huge fascination. Here perspectives seem to open up for those who, up to now, were among the losers. This morning, we want to take the trouble to carefully listen to the Beatitudes:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of God.”
As is the case with the next two beatitudes, this first Beatitude is also found in the Gospel of Luke (Luke 7:20-21). Luke, however, speaks of the physically poor – not from those who are “poor in spirit,” Luke also speaks about the hungry and about those who cry – without any other modifiers or qualifications. The evangelist Matthew has spiritualized the pattern from the common source of Jesus’ sayings that he shared with Luke. Does Matthew thus take the concreteness from these first three Beatitudes?
No! Also in Matthew, the poor are called happy. But it is not only the physically poor. Thus the circle of those addressed by this Beatitude is widened. The point though, remains the same; the Kingdom of Heaven is for the poor. I want to understand it as Dietrich Bonhoeffer did, who said, “The construction of opposition between Matthew and Luke has no basis in the scriptures. In Matthew, it is not about a spiritualization of the original Beatitudes in Luke, nor is it in Luke about politicizing the original attitude expressed by the Beatitudes. In Luke, poverty is not the reason for the Beatitudes nor is it a renunciation of the reasons in Matthew. Rather, with respect to both poverty and renunciation, spiritual or political – justification is only by the call and promise of Jesus, who, alone, makes the Beatitudes what they are and who, alone, is the sole basis for the Beatitudes.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Nachfolge, 1937).
The spiritually poor, those are people whose confidence is not in material or spiritual riches, but who expect everything to come from God, who consider themselves as lowly and humble. Humble means to recognize one’s own limits and the limits of being human – and to acknowledge God as God. It means to see God from the standpoint of a beggar: we are beggar-poor before God, regardless of how much money we have or how many things we possess. We cannot buy for ourselves community with God. We cannot earn God’s future– neither by spiritual exertion nor by huge accomplishments. We cannot buy life for ourselves. Good for us, when we recognize that. The poor, who have no possessions, are in less danger of trusting in their own wealth. They can, therefore, serve as models for the rich and indeed some followers of Christ have renounced their riches freely. Those who know their poverty before God are promised the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of Heaven dawns with the work of Jesus for the salvation of the world. All who totally place their faith in Jesus are part of that kingdom -which will be perfected at the end of time – visible to all.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
Here, too, Luke formulates things more concretely, “Blessed are you who cry now, for then you shall laugh.” Mourning will be transformed into joy. Comfort is promised to those who are sad. I want to present two historical examples of exegesis that characterize mourning in different manners: John Wesley considers in this Beatitude those who suffer from separation from God. He says in his sermon on the Beatitudes (John Wesley: Lehrpredigten Nr. 21): “They suffer in their seeking of God.” And he says further: “Blessed are those who, ‘strive for God’s recognition,’ and always renounce every other comfort. They will be strengthened by the comfort of the Holy Ghost through a new revelation of His love through the irrevocable testimony, that he accepts them as being loved.”
Do we know the kind of suffering that Wesley is talking about here? Is God so important to us that we suffer when we experience him as a distant or absent God? Do we yearn to know God better, to live in community with Christ?
Dietrich Bonhoeffer described the suffering of Jesus’ followers as a suffering from estrangement from this world: “Those who suffer are, then, those who, renouncing that which the world knows as happiness and peace, are ready to live; those who cannot be in tune with the world, who cannot make themselves to be as the world is. The world celebrates and they stand on the outside; the world shouts and sings, ‘enjoy your life,’ and they mourn. They see that the ship aboard which festive rejoicing is going on, has a leak.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Nachfolge). When we consider what the historical situation in 1937 was, when we consider how many Christians in Germany then were rejoicing with the strong rather than supporting the Jews who were being shoved further and further towards the edge, then this exegesis of Bohnhoeffer’s take on a new sharpness. This doesn’t have to do with taking the fun out of life, but rather, in perceiving, in the footsteps of Jesus’, where the joy of one person is being paid for by the joy of another and then to have the courage of living in solidarity with the underdog.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
“Meek,” this word doesn’t occur much in our everyday lives. The translational variations of scholars at this point in the Bible are particularly numerous, “pious” says Gaechter; “is passive resistance,” sayx Schalom Ben Chorin; “Meekness does not put up with that …someone else is subjected to force and injustice,” says the Swiss reformer Zwingli. The evangelist Matthew has Jesus saying in Chapter 11:29, “I am gentle and lowly in heart.” And in meekness, Jesus rides a donkey into Jerusalem (Matthew 21:5).
The meek don’t count on force and power, they trust in the strength of friendliness and mildness. They follow Jesus, who uses no instruments of power, but rather follows the path of love. Whoever lives as Jesus will receive that which many people try to obtain by force, namely, “to inherit the earth;” the meek will take over the land of promise and live there in peace.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after justice, for they shall be satisfied.”
Hunger and thirst are strong needs. We sated Middle Europeans can, perhaps, scarcely imagine how it is to be really hungry and thirsty: whoever is hungry wants, for certain, something to eat. Whoever is thirsty doesn’t need anything but water. Jesus called those happy who totally commit themselves to justice. This should be the most important thing.
John Wesley considers the hunger and thirst after justice as a yearning for the living God. Whoever totally yearns for God needs more than religion. That person needs even more than to follow the three simple rules: “Do good, avoid evil, use the means of grace to remain connected with God.” In his Sermon Nr. 22, John Wesley considered all that as part of the surface of the faith, “But the faith he (that is, he who hungers and thirsts after justice) desires is this: the recognition of God in Jesus Christ…this is the faith, the justice for which he thirsts and cannot rest, until he thus finds peace in God.”
At this point, alongside this interpretation that sees in the hunger and thirst for justice, the hunger for God’s love and the thirst for His acceptance, a reference to ethics should not be totally forgotten. “Justice,” in the Bible is that behavior demanded by God in the commandments, that initiates community and allows life for everyone. Whoever lives in God’s love will strive for justice on God’s earth. To Jesus, the preacher on the mount, justice has to do with our whole existence, therefore also our actions.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.”
Recently, on a train trip, I met a very severely handicapped older lady. She was underway with her husband and she tried to manage her way through a compartment in order to get to her reserved seat. Many fellow travelers wanted to help her, but she graciously refused any help. “I can make it alone!” As this lady took her place she said to her husband: “I wouldn’t have thought that the people would be so ready to help!” I thought to myself, what a pity that this woman couldn’t accept the help!
At the same time, I don’t know how I would react in such a situation. We all want to be strong, to do it alone, to show no weakness… and we all get into situations in which we are dependent on the sympathy and mercy of God and our fellow humans. Whoever receives mercy can become merciful to others.
If there is something that we Christians in our society here in Middle Europe ought to do, it is to show “mercy”; to God, the weak are welcome. We must allow ourselves to be infected by God’s tenderness for his creatures and we become ready to bind the wounds of those who fell prey to robbers today. We practice: “As God is with me, so am I to you!”
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
“To be pure in heart” – we meet this expression in the Psalms, for example, Psalms 51: “Create in me a pure heart, Oh God.” In common Jewish language the heart is the center of wanting, thinking and feeling. “Pure hearts” are people who totally align themselves with God. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “Whoever renounces one’s own good and bad, whoever thus stands in repentance and depends solely on Jesus, has a pure heart through the Word of Jesus.”
And with respect to the second part of this Beatitude, Dietrich Bonhoeffer refers to Jesus, “God will look only at the person who, in her or his life, looked only to Jesus, God’s son,” (both quotations from: Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Nachfolge).
Whoever sees God in Jesus will also perceive her or his fellow humans in whom Christ meets us: So as God came down into the depths, we should also go into the depths to be with the “…least of our brothers and sisters.” (Matthew 25).
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.”
The peacemakers, those are people who seek and promote peace. This means actively doing, not merely having a passive posture. John Wesley, who always interpreted the Beatitudes first in their relationship with God, speaks here of concrete action: “But in the total sense of the word, a ‘peacemaker’ is a who ‘does good to everyone,’ whenever the opportunity arises; a person who, filled with the love of God and the whole of mankind, cannot limit his efforts toward peace to his own family, his friends, his acquaintances or to his own group or to those who share his opinions – no, not even to those who share the precious belief with him. More than that, he steps over all the narrow borders …” John Wesley continued by saying that peacemakers do good to their fellow humans in a comprehensive sense, to their bodies and to their souls.
Whoever lives like this is not only called God child, he or she is God’s child. John Wesley says, “God will keep for them their spirit of child-likeness; yes, he will abundantly pour it into their hearts.” (All quotations from John Wesley: Lehrpredigten Nr. 23).
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of justice sake, for theirs in the Kingdom of Heaven.”
In this Beatitude, two cardinal concepts are again taken up and strengthened: “justice” and “The Kingdom of God.” Whoever is prepared to suffer for a just cause, to her or him, God will allow participation in His Kingdom - in the present and in the future. In preparation for this exegesis I looked again into the book by Ernesto Cardenale: The Gospel of the Peasants from Solentiname.” In this book, the Roman Catholic priest retells conversations that he had with people in Solentiname, a group of islands in Lake Nicaragua, about Gospel texts.
In a conversation about the Beatitudes, Ernesto Cardenale tells about a boy who reported about life in his village: when people there wanted to have a worship service, they had to register it with the local commandant. “The commandant said that these meetings are dangerous. And in that, this commandant was absolutely right, because these people were assembled to discuss the Gospel… ‘Jahweh’s poor,’ or the ‘spiritually poor,’ are always persecuted.” (Ernesto Cardenale: The Gospel of the Peasants from Solentiname, Jugenddienstverlag, 1976). In this quotation there is something ofthe explosiveness of the Gospel and thus, also ofthe Beatitudes: people who accept God’s promises do not leave the world as it is. They think “against the stream” and they act accordingly. They follow God’s path into the depths and thus, as followers of Christ, they are ready to change the world.