Tag: Persecution

Anchored in God, Hope Comes

“‘Dear Lord God, I wish to preach in your honor. I wish to speak about you, glorify you, praise your name. Although I can’t do this well of myself, I pray that you may make it good.’”[i]

Introduction

Lately, I’ve heard much about hope and our need to have it. Considering that we are immersed in socio-political events (both national and global) that are chaotic and tumultuous, this plea to the keeping and having of hope makes sense. Have hope! Cling to hope! Hope is all you need! Those exhorting us to hope see hope as the antidote to the creeping threat of despair and our increased paralysis to do anything. Hope is seen as the foundation and motivation to keep on keeping on as we feel lost in a sea of unmanageable events. It’s the supposed driftwood keeping us afloat among the raucous and stormy waves.

Unfortunately, the pleas to cling to hope above all else render the human being turning in on themselves. Hope becomes this illusive thing that we fight to have while finding ourselves increasingly unsure about what it means or even feels like to have hope. Hope is strangled in our death-like grip as we strive to keep it refusing to let go. We kill hope as we burden it with power it doesn’t have, forcing it do magic for us. We are convinced by those who encourage us to have hope that hope is the only way through events feeling way bigger than we are. And the more we fight to keep and have our hope, the more we turn in on ourselves; sadly, this trajectory will secure we not only lose touch with hope but will also lose touch with her little sister perseverance.

We can’t cling to hope thinking that it will keep despair away. It won’t. Hope isn’t the antidote to despair (it’s not even a good antonym for it). Comfort is the foundation of the reversal of despair. Encouragement, too. Once we have these two things in place, then, and only then, can we begin to make space for hope to show up. This is why Peter in our epistle does not tell his audience to cling to hope. Rather, he anchors them in something bigger, something outside of themselves, something that will comfort them and encourage them.

1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11

Peter begins his final thoughts to his audience with endearment and encouragement. Calling them Beloved, he writes,

…do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal occurring among and in you to test you as taking place as alien to you. Rather, rejoice! according to which you are having a share of Christ’s passion so that also you might rejoice jumping for joy in the revelation of his glory. If you are defamed in the name of Christ, [you are] blessed because of the Spirit of glory, namely the Spirit of God, is resting upon you (4:12-14).

Peter knows that his audience will face persecution for their faith in Christ (from their neighbors and not as sent by God), especially as they participate in God’s mission of the revolution of love, life, and liberation in the world. [ii] Peter has already addressed the manifold fruit that comes from faith that will cause them to stand out. So, they will be tested[iii] and persecuted. There is no way to live in such a way that is both faithful to the proclamation of Christ crucified and raised and without test and trial.[iv] So, they must remember who and whose they are. Peter’s use of “beloved” in address isn’t just a nice way to address his audience; it’s a way of reminding them that their faith unites them to Christ in his belovedness of God. This is important because the testing and persecution that will happen is not bad but good, and Peter must try to help them reframe these experiences in the name of Christ.[v] Thus, as Christ is beloved of God so, too, are they. This also goes for their “fiery ordeal” and the persecution that will come because of their faith (in the name of Christ); as Christ suffered[vi] at the hands of errant humanity, so, too, will they.[vii] To experience both is to be “blessed”;[viii],[ix] again, just as Christ is blessed.[x] For Peter, it boils down to identification:[xi] if the believer is eager to identify with Christ’s blessedness and belovedness, then they must prepare to and welcome identification with Christ’s foundational[xii] suffering; there’s no option to have the former without the latter. So, Peter encourages them, rejoice now because you will rejoice later,[xiii] cloaked and covered in divine glory just like Christ.[xiv] (They are not to rejoice in or because of their suffering, but only because of what is to come in Christ.[xv])

Peter then shifts the focus away from his audience to God.[xvi] In light of what has been said,[xvii] Peter urges them, Therefore, humble yourselves under and toward the strong hands of God, so that God might elevate you in time (5:6). By centering God in the text, Peter gently directs the audience’s attention to God. There’s movement here; it’s more than just turning one’s head but directing one’s self, one’s body toward and under God. The only way to do this is through humility; in humbling themselves, Peter’s audience can direct their entire selves toward and under God. It’s here—under and toward God—where Peter’s audience will find their comfort and their protection, their foundation and stability, their sustenance and their fortitude, and (even) their hope and perseverance. He does not direct them inwards, but outwards toward God, the divine parent and loving progenitor of Christ, all of Creation, and of the faithful whom Peter addresses. Those who bring themselves low will be brought high by God.[xviii]

Thus, Peter can further beseech his audience,

Cast all your anxiety upon God, because this one, God, cares about you. Be sensible, be alert. Your opponent, the devil, walks about as a roaring lion seeking something to drink down. Oppose him, solid in faith, having perceived that your siblings in all the cosmos are undergoing the same kind of sufferings (vv7-9).

Peter’s audience need not bear their own anxiety as if no one is in their corner.[xix] Peter has spent the entirety of the letter telling them they are not alone even when they suffer for doing good and especially when they are anxious facing the reality of the suffering that will come. Peter’s audience can cast their cares on God because this one, this God, the parent of Jesus Christ with whom they identify, have God in their corner. This is important to remember[xx] because an adversary is on the loose, looking to devour[xxi] the faithful; [xxii] the faithful will only have success in opposing the opponent when they cast their entire selves toward and under God’s mighty hand of protection. This explains why Peter admonishes them to resist by faith, being clear minded and alert like a soldier on watch ready to resist incoming attack.[xxiii] It is not that they will resist this adversary by memorizing scripture passages or blindly holding to certain dogma and doctrine;[xxiv] rather, it’s about humbling oneself and being protected under the strong hand of God who will strengthen those who know they are weak apart from God. Peter’s audience is encouraged to find their support and strength[xxv] in God by faith; they can be comforted in knowing that the God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will also raise them both from the dead and into glory like Christ.[xxvi] God will help God’s people because God has helped God’s people in Christ. [xxvii] God will triumph over evil because God has already in Christ. Peter then takes this encouragement one step further and broadens their awareness to include their siblings who also suffer similarly; they are truly not alone.[xxviii]

In closing, Peter reminds his audience,

Now, the God of all grace, the one who called you into God’s eternal glory in Christ, after suffering a little while, God, God will mend, fix, strength, and establish you; to God be the strength forever and ever. Amen (vv10-11)

What they will experience and endure for this little bit while still here in the temporal realm will be vindicated in the coming of Christ and the resurrection of the dead; God will not let God’s people endure suffering while here on earth and not follow through with restoration that comes in eternal glory for those who are located in Christ by faith.[xxix] At this point, Peter’s audience can have hope; here, they can receive hope because of all that has occurred before them and on their behalf. In remembering and recalling Christ and God’s work in and through Christ and what will come for those who are in Christ by faith, Peter’s audience can believe that this God is faithful to who God says God is and this is the foundation and the source of their hope. And it’s this hope born from this assurance that then gives them the necessary perseverance they need to endure the chaos and tumult that is present and will come.

Conclusion

When we think about hope we think about something we expect to happen in the future. In this way, hope is that thing that can disappoint rather than please. When hope fails to produce material or spiritual alterations to our life, it makes sense to ditch it. If my hope keeps presenting as dreaming of phantoms of good and better, then it’s nothing but that which perpetually disappoints me. The mythological carrot of sadistic King Future luring on the peasants of the present eager to steal their labor and love.

Another problem arises when we cling to hope as if it is the thing that will save us. As we do this, we turn in on ourselves, digging deeper eager to mine hope from the subterranean self. But it’s not there; it’s not deep in us like a precious ore waiting to be excavated. Our persistent digging only makes matters worse because in this instance it is all up to us.

Hope rides in neither with blind optimism about the future nor ruthless determination to have it. It’s comes with remembering and recalling; specifically, it comes in remembering and recalling what God has done in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. When I’ve read through the First Testament and the recorded stories of Israel’s journey and walk with God, Israel’s hope in God is a ripe present hope based on historical stories hallmarking the past: we hope now because God has done… Today we can press on because yesterday God saw us through it. These ancient stories of God’s journey with Israel and God’s work in Christ reminds us that what is isn’t ever all there is. We live in the collision of the possible with the actual, in what has been and what will yet be. Here in is hope’s realm.

Hope always takes up residence in the present with every anthology of the past stacked against her walls. Hope comes to us as we remember what is right now, isn’t all there is right now because in the past what was wasn’t all there was; all things are possible with God. Hope comes as we remember possibility. Hope comes with the whisper filled wind of history surging and coursing around our fatigued bodies causing us to remember. And as we remember, we find ourselves accompanied by hope and then perseverance.

[i] LW 54:157-158; Table Talk 1590.

[ii] I. Howard Marshall, “1 Peter,” The IVP New Testament Commentary Series, eds. Grant R. Osborne, D. Stuart Briscoe, and Haddon Robinson, (Downers Grove: IVP Press, 1991), 151. “[Peter’s Christians are to see themselves as] suffering at the hands of those opposed to God and his sovereign rule, and as part of the cost of bringing salvation to the world.”

[iii] Peter H. Davids, The First Epistle of Peter, TNICTNT, ed. F.F. Bruce (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990), 164-165. “The picture of a refiner’s fire was picked up in the Intertestamental period as a picture for testing (therefore ‘to test you’)…”

[iv] Davids, The First Epistle of Peter, 164. “…our author turns toward the future. All the careful and considerate living possible will not prevent persecution…”

[v] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 165. “Thus these Christians are to see what is happening to them as a refining process that will reveal the genuineness of their faith…and therefore be to their ultimate benefit. While painful, this type of suffering is not something they should think strange, but something they should welcome.”

[vi] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 165. “there is a second reason why the readers should not think their ordeal is strange: it is the same type of thing that Christ received and thus it is an indication of their identification with him.”

[vii] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 164. “Thus he encourages the Christians in Asia Minor, ‘do not be shocked’ as if what is happening ere ‘strange,’ using vocabulary familiar from 4:4….Do not think it is foreign; do not think that this ought not to happen.”

[viii] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 167. “On the one hand, they are blessed now if this is the case…The very persecution is a sign of their blessedness. On the other hand, they are ‘insulted because of the name of Christ.’ To be so insulted is not simply to recive a rebuke…but as is the case in the contexts in which the term appears elsewhere in the NT and the Greek TO…it means to be rejected by the society (or even by humanity). And the reason they are rejected is ‘the name of Christ’; that is, because of their association with Christ either because of their life-style or because of their direct confession…Thus it is that because of their association with Christ their social group now rejects them; they are outcasts. But that is not their true state, for peter tells them they are blessed.”

[ix] Marshal, 1 Peter, 153. “To be insulted publicly is, by normal reckoning, a source of misery. But Peter echoes Jesus and says that, on the contrary, appearances are deceptive. IN fact, you are blessed.”

[x] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 164. “…these Gentile converts had no experience of being a cultural minority. Before their conversion they were perfectly at home in their city. And instead of rebelling against God they had accepted the gospel message. But now they were experiencing cultural isolation and personal hostility, not what they might have expected as the blessing of God. Well might they have wondered if something had not gone wrong. Thus our author reassures them: persecution is not something ‘strange’ or foreign to their existence as Christians. What is happening is right in line with Christ’s predictions.”

[xi] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 166. Identification with “…Christ’s suffering during his life on earth, especially his death on the cross.”

[xii] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 166. “Instead of focusing on Christ’s present suffering in the church, Peter focuses on the church’s sharing in Christ’s foundational suffering, not in a salvific sense (there is no hint in 2 Peter that this sharing either forgives their sin or adds to the work of Christ), but in a sense of identification and real unity. In other words, as the Christians suffer because of their identification with Christ, they enter into the experience of Christ’s own sufferings.  This experience creates a re-imaging of their own suffering, which will allow them to see the real evil as an advantage as their perspective shifts.  This process is precisely what each of the passages in 1 Peter that use this language does; each encourages a reimaging of suffering as an identification with Christ (and thus a type of imitatio Christi is encouraged in how they behave in the suffering situation) that will lead to an eventual participation in his glory.”

[xiii] Marshal, 1 Peter, 152. “He is talking about rejoicing that, when suffering does come to us, we can see it as a sharing in Christ’s suffering.”

[xiv] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 168. “Thus those suffering for Christ experience through the Spirit now the glory they are promised in the future…Indeed, their very suffering is a sign that the reputation (glory) of God is seen in them, that the Spirit rests upon them. They can indeed count themselves blessed.”

[xv] Marshal, 1 Peter, 152. “…Peter is not urging Christians to seek suffering, even suffering for Christ.”

[xvi] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 186.

[xvii] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 186. If all that has come before is true, then “the duty of the believer is not to resist (either attacking the persecutor or raging against God), but to ‘humble p[himself] under the mighty hand of God.’”

[xviii] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 186. “…they are to see God’s work behind their suffering and submit, allowing themselves to be brought low, for his purpose is that ‘he may exalt you in due time.’”

[xix] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 188. “When pressures come on the Christian the proper response is not anxiety, for that comes out of a belief that one must take care of oneself and a lack of trust in God. It is rather a trusting commitment to God….in the assurance that God indeed cares and that his caring does not lack the power or the will to do the very best for his own.”

[xx] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 189. “Thus, after writing his comforting thoughts about God, Peter must go on to warn…[the devil] is on the prowl.”

[xxi] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 191. “The goal of the hunt is to find someone to devour.”

[xxii] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 190. “The devil is not a neutralized foe, but one who is seeking the destruction of the believer.”

[xxiii] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 189. “…here…the meaning is not literal soberness as opposed to drunkenness, but a clear-headedness that comes from a freedom from mental confusion or passion. Likewise alertness, which in military contexts refers to a soldier on watch, is opposed to mental and spiritual lethargy…. that would prevent one from recognizing and meeting an attack on one’s faith.”

[xxiv] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 191-192. “The devil is resisted by being ‘firm in faith.’ The concept is not that of holding certain doctrines firmly, which is a meaning of faith found in the Pastorals…but that of remaining firm in one’s trust in God.”

[xxv] Marshal, 1 Peter, 171. “What Peter is talking about is not putting strength into believing but drawing strength from what we believe.”

[xxvi] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 195.

[xxvii] Marshal, 1 Peter, 172. “During this period of affliction God will help his people.”

[xxviii] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 192-193. “One thing that will make their commitment firmer is the awareness that they are not suffering alone. It is not ‘just me’ who is suffering or even ‘just us,’’ laments that make the suffering seem unfair and unjust, but ‘our brotherhood throughout the world.’”

[xxix] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 196-197. “The one who has planned and promised is also the one to whom belongs the power to fulfill. This is indeed assurance for his readers.”

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Being Divine Salt and Light

“‘Dear Lord God, I wish to preach in your honor. I wish to speak about you, glorify you, praise your name. Although I can’t do this well of myself, I pray that you may make it good.’”[i]

Matthew 5:13-20

After promising his disciples that they will be persecuted, Jesus immediately adds,

You, you are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses savor, by what will it be made salty? It is yet worth nothing if not to be tread down under people after being thrown out. You, you are the light of the cosmos. A city situated on a hill is not able to be hidden. No one kindles a lamp and places it under a basket but upon the lampstand, and it shines for all who are in the house. In this way, let your light your light shine before humanity… (vv13-16a).

Keeping in mind that Jesus hasn’t had a week off between his last statement and this one like we have, these verses are a corresponding instructional[ii] product of his promise to the disciples that they will be persecuted and the other blessed statements. The disciples are expected to participate and continue the work of Christ, which is both salt and light in the world. Thus, the disciples will also be light and salt in the world because they will—by faith and the presence of the (coming) Holy Spirit—continue God’s work revealed/made tangible in Christ.[iii] Because of their identity with Christ, because of their faith in him, because of their union with God through the Holy Spirit, the disciples won’t be able to be anything else but salt and light in the world…just like the prophets before them—caught up in the divine pathos. So it happens with those God calls to be disciples (prophets).[iv] Jesus exhorts the disciples: go and be lights, go and be salt; btdubs, you haven’t a choice in the matter (you are salt and you are a light hanging form a lampstand for all to see, not by your own doing but by God’s). And this will bring both wanted and unwanted attention, thus the previous statement about being persecuted.

Thus, the negative statements in these verses are not so much a curse (e.g. be salt or else!), but a practical statement of an either/or situation: salt salts or it doesn’t, when it doesn’t it’s thrown out and trampled; a light lights or it doesn’t, when it doesn’t it doesn’t help anyone. Jesus is setting up a practical if/then: those who are salt and light are those who are called by God to participate in the divine mission of God’s revolution of love, life, and liberation;[v] they are to help the birthing of the reign of God amid the kingdom of humanity (which, by the way, will bring attention and persecution). A world that is void of divine justice, is a world that is awful to live in; the disciples are to bring the salt to make this world a better place to live in; they are to be the light that exposes human injustice and draws people unto the truth of God’s reign and justice.[vi]

But here is an important point: all of this is done by God’s power and presence in and with them. The disciples are not mustering up their saltiness and lightyness of their own free will and choice; they’re being used to salt and to light (they are these things). Without the divine calling (“come and follow me”), without this divine power (baptism of water and Spirit), without the incarnate Word (the gospel[vii]), one can’t be the salt or light of which Jesus speaks—not unlike when the words of a false prophet fall to the ground (there to be trampled upon, words that do not expose and bring to God).

Jesus continues, that your good works might be perceived and might esteem your Father who is in the heavens (v16b). It’s as if the light that they have by faith in Christ and the presence of the Holy Spirit will illuminate (for all to see) their being the salt of the earth.[viii] To be salt of the earth is to cause the earth to be savory (tasty;[ix] thus good and well-pleasing) and also to preserve it so it doesn’t rot[x] and become corrupt(ed) (two uses common to the historical context[xi]). To be salt is to be active in the world to the benefit of others[xii] (being unsalty in the world is like being nothing).[xiii] And it’s the light that shines through them that will expose them as salt to the benefit to the neighbor and the entire cosmos; Jesus’s scope of the disciples saltiness and lightyness, according to Matthew, is all encompassing; it’s massive.[xiv] The salt and light born of faith is loving deeds;[xv] those who love, those who participate in bringing life, those who hunger and thirst for liberation from captivity (for others and not only for themselves), are the salt and light making the world better, more enjoyable, a place that not only sustains but causes life to thrive (for both salt and light are necessary for such conditions of grown and thrive[xvi]). And the depth and breadth of their loving (faithful) activity is a (divine intended) result of being members of the blessed ones just mentioned; like Abraham and Sarah and their family, the disciples are a blessing to be a (public[xvii]) blessing to others and the world.[xviii] In this way, God’s name will be esteemed because of the disciples[xix] (a fulfillment of the petition in the Lord’s prayer to come, let your name be hallowed!).

Thus, Jesus continues to speak of the law and of righteousness (justice),

Do not consider that I came to destroy the law or the prophets; I came not to destroy but to complete. For, truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth might pass away, one iota or one distinguishing point will not at all pass away from the law until all might come into being. …  For I say unto you, if your justice is not over and above, much greater than the scribes and pharisees, you might not at all enter into the kingdom of the heavens (vv17-20).

Jesus completes or fulfills the law and the prophets by being the substance of the promise, in doing what is expected therein, and embodying the heart of the law and not just the words; [xx],[xxi] rather than discard or destroy, he takes up into his being even the smallest strokes of the law (the iotas and distinguishing points).[xxii] Jesus is bringing into being that which the law and the prophets have been pointing to; “carry[ing] them into a new era of completion.”[xxiii] He does so through his orientation in the world that is the product of God’s love for humanity (for God so loved the cosmos…); the law was to be a tool used to structure fractured human love. However, the scribes and Pharisees often missed this component paying attention (instead) to the rubric of the law, the acting out of the words of the law rather than the intent, the “weightier matters” of the law.[xxiv] Thus the law has gone “undone” or not completed; Jesus is here to do such doing and completing. Jesus expects his disciples to participate in this doing and completing, too. How? By being one of the blessed ones, by being the salt and light of the world, by being his followers in the world now (while he is here) and (especially!) after he leaves; by being those who publicly live out what he taught and lived out.[xxv] It is in this way (Jesus’s way[xxvi]) that their righteousness (their Christ defined divine justice) will exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees (human defined justice). It’s not about doing the law better and harder than the scribes and Pharisees;[xxvii] it’s about doing it the way Jesus did it:[xxviii] by faith working itself out in loving deeds for the wellbeing of the neighbor and the world to God’s glory.[xxix]

Conclusion

The good and not so nice expectations offered in the first part of Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount, give way to the why…why do the disciples need to be concerned with identifying with the poor and those who mourn, being gentle, seeking and desiring justice in the world, being merciful and clear of heart, having an eye to making peace that surpasses understanding, and preparing for being persecuted? Because this is how they add life-sustaining flavor to the world and preserve it from decay; because this is how they become the light shining the light of Christ into the world, ushering everything it touches into the divine presence.

The beatitudes are not a personal pursuit of individual and autonomous righteousness, a means to a self-centered end. In post-modern America, we—each of us—want to know—before endeavoring to participate in a plan, offering a solution to a problem, fulfilling a request, or doing a task—what’s in it for me? We want to know how we will benefit from our investment (whatever form it takes). But what Jesus laid out in the beatitudes and solidifies here in this portion of chapter five is that our reward lies in being found in and participating with the reign of God that is meant not only to bring glory to God but to also bring well-being to the neighbor. Not our own happy state and satisfaction is in mind here; being so oriented is antithetical, according to Matthew, to the goal of the proclamation of the gospel. As disciples of Christ, those who follow Jesus out of the Jordan, we are to put ourselves aside (not deny ourselves as if we didn’t exist) and to intentionally put the needs of the neighbor first (which is exactly what God does in Christ). It is through this other-orientation that disciples are recognized as the salty salt of the earth and the lighty light of the whole world; and this goal—becoming the salt and light of the world—is precisely the goal of the law and the prophets, it is the goal of our encounter with God in Christ, it is the goal of our faith eager to work itself out in loving deeds.

In other words, Beloved, we are blessed to be a blessing; we are loved to be love, to be salt, to be light in the world bringing everything and everyone whom we touch and encounter into the life giving, loving, and liberating encounter with Godself in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.

[i] LW 54:157-158; Table Talk 1590.

[ii] Anna Case-Winters Matthew Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible Eds Amy Plantinga Pauw and William C. Placher (Louisville: WJK, 2015), 78. Moving into the instructional portion of the sermon on the mount

[iii] Case-Winters, Matthew, 78-79. “It is prefaced with ‘salt and light’ sayings addressed to the disciples in a way that points them toward their mission in the world. Neither salt nor light exists for its own sake. The salt needs to stay salty to fulfill its function and the light needs to be lifted up to give light.”

[iv] . T. France The Gospel of Matthew The New International Commentary on the New Testament. Gen. Ed Joel B. Green (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007), 175. “Here the light which Jesus brings is also provided by his disciples, who will soon be commissioned to share in his ministry of proclamation and deliverance.”

[v] Ernesto Cardenal, The Gospel in Solentiname, translated by Donald D. Walsh (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2010), 94. “Julio: ‘By liberating it. Because a world filled with injustice is tasteless. Mainly for the poor, life like that has no taste.’”

[vi] Cardenal, Solentiname, 94. “Elvis: ‘…Christians don’t have that Christian taste. They’re simpleminded, insipid. Only the ones who are struggling for a just society are the ones who have that taste of salt.’”

[vii] Cardenal, Solentiname, 95. “Marcelino: ‘I think that “salt” is the Gospel word given to us so that we’ll practice it and pass it on to others, practicing love, so that everybody will have it. Because salt is thing that you never deny to anybody.’”

[viii] France, Matthew, 177. “The metaphor of v. 15 is now explained more prosaically, with the ‘light’ shed by disciples interpreted as the good that they do.”

[ix] Cardenal, Solentiname, 94. “Adan: ‘It seems to me its because every meal should have salt. A meal without salt has no taste. We must give taste to the world.’”

[x] Cardenal, Solentiname, 94. “And Doña Adela, a little old woman with a weak voice: ‘We are the salt of the world because we have been placed in it so the world won’t rot.’”

[xi] France, Matthew, 174. “The two most significant uses of salt in the ancient world were for flavoring and for the preservation of food, and either or both of those uses would provide an appropriate sense here: the disciples are to provide flavor to the world the live in …and/or they are to help to prevent its corruption.”

[xii] Case-Winters, Matthew, 79. “These metaphors imply a turning outward toward mission in the world. The impact of the followers of Jesus upon others is part of the message here. Something good and desirable is given that will cause them to give glory to God.”

[xiii] Case-Winters, Matthew, 79. “These metaphors imply a turning outward toward mission in the world. The impact of the followers of Jesus upon others is part of the message here. Something good and desirable is given that will cause them to give glory to God.”

[xiv] Case-Winters, Matthew, 79. “The scope of this blessing is the widest possible…”

[xv] Cardenal, Solentiname, 95-96. “Felix Mayorga: ‘Maybe the light is the good people, who practice love. Everyone that has a good spirit and loves others, he is the light of the world.’”

[xvi] France, Matthew, 173. “Sir 39:26 lists salt as one of the essentials for human life…’The world cannot endure without salt.’ Disciples are no less essential to the well-being of ‘the earth,’ which here refers to human life in general.’”

[xvii] Case-Winters, Matthew, 79. “The community of disciples cannot be a closed community, an ‘introverted secrete society shielding itself from the world.’ Its witness is public.”

[xviii] Case-Winters, Matthew, 79. “The universal scope of divine blessing through the people of God is consistent with the theme in Hebrew Scriptures of ‘blessed in order to be a blessing’ (Gen. 12:2; 22:80) and called to be a ‘light to the nations’ (Isa. 2:2-5, 42:6; 49:6).”

[xix] Case-Winters, Matthew, 79. “The gifts/functions of salt and light are not self-contained; they are meant to be shaken out and shining forth. Followers of Jesus need to be salty and we have to shine. Are we ‘salt of the earth’ kind of people? Are we ‘shining examples’ of God’s light in the world? Do people have cause to praise God (v. 16) because of us?”

[xx] Case-Winters, Matthew, 79-80. “Jesus’ fulfilling the law and the prophets can have several dimensions of meaning:

  1. That Jesus brings into being what the law and prophets promised. Reference to the fulfilling of the law is often made just before Matthew quotes something from the Hebrew Bible.
  2. That Jesus himself does what the law and prophets in fact require of us. His life is molded by the law, and it defines his vocation and the conduct of his life.
  3. The Jesus teaches and lives the deeper meaning of the law, which is best understood in terms of the love command on which ‘hang all the law and the prophets’ (22:450). All the laws concerning tithing, ritual purity, and Sabbath observance remain in place, but they are subordinate to the love command. Love exceeds these. It requires more and not less than the law.”

[xxi] Case-Winters, Matthew, 80. “All three of these dimensions seem to be involved in Jesus’ relations to the law and the prophets as variously presented in the Sermon on the Mount.”

[xxii] France, Matthew, 186. “The jots and tittles are there to be fulfilled, not discarded, and that is what Jesus has come to do. They are not lost, but taken up into the eschatological events to which they pointed forward.”

[xxiii] France, Matthew, 183. “In the light of that concept, and of the general sense of ’fulfill’ in Matthew, we might then paraphrase Jesus’ words here as follows: ‘Far from wanting to set aside the law and the prophets, it is my role to bring into being that to which they have pointed forward, to carry them into a new era of fulfillment.’”

[xxiv] Case-Winters, Matthew, 80. “The commandments of Torah are not all of the same weight. Jesus argues later that love and compassion for the neighbor outweighs matters such as cultic observance…He chides the scribes and Pharisees because they ‘tithe the mint, dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy and faith.’ Jesus’ own life is an exemplar of attending to the weightier matters.”

[xxv] France, Matthew, 183. “From now on it will be the authoritative teaching of Jesus which must govern his disciples;’ understanding and practical application of the law.”

[xxvi] France, Matthew, 187. A different type of doing the law that is different from scribes and pharisees “That will mean in effect the keeping of the law as it is now interpreted by Jesus himself…”

[xxvii] France, Matthew, 189. “The paradox of Jesus’ demand here makes sense only if their basic premise as to what ‘righteousness’ consist of is put in question. Jesus is not talking about beating the scribes and Pharisees at their own game, but about a different level or concept of righteousness altogether.”

[xxviii] France, Matthew, 182-183. Jesus “the way in which he  ‘fulfills’ the pattern laid down in the law and the prophets.”

[xxix] France, Matthew, 190. “Those who are to belong to God’s new realm must move beyond literal observance of rules, however good and scriptural, to a new consciousness of what it means to please God, one which penetrates beneath the surface level of rules to be obeyed to a more radical openness to knowing and doing the underlying will of ‘your Father in heaven.’”

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Just like the Prophets

Psalm 15:1-2 1 God, who may dwell in your tabernacle? who may abide upon your holy hill? Whoever leads a blameless life and does what is right, who speaks the truth from [their] heart.

Introduction

Did you know that the Sermon on the Mount was probably given in the hills?[1] I mention this little detail because there are texts and stories, teachings and preachings that we’re very familiar with, so familiar that we are prone to pay them less attention. We take them for granted and lock them in some form in our memory. We are familiar with the tonality and the cadence of the textual rhythm. We can recite some of them from memory. We may be more familiar with some over others; we may even know the blessed statements show up altered in other gospels. Maybe it’s time we did what Jesus’s disciples did: follow Jesus and sit with this divine Rabbi, [2] listening (again) to these words meant for those who follow Jesus out of the river Jordan, even those of us who sit here these many years later. As we do, may we come into an encounter with the love and passion of God anew, for God’s Word seeks to awaken us from our slumber, provoke to animation calcified hearts, invigorate sluggish souls and exhausted minds, graft us into God’s mission on the earth,[3] and to place us into the great prophetic tradition of God’s representatives bringing God’s love and life and liberation to the captives.[4]

Matthew 5:1-12

Before beginning our dive into the statements, I want to address a little, teensy-weensy textual thing: the word, markarioi is fairly hard to render into English. The complication comes in that “‘Macarisms’ are essentially commendations, congratulations, statements to the effect that a person is in a good situation, sometimes even expressions of envy.”[5] This isn’t “blessed by God”,[6] but “happy”. They are happy who… However, this is misleading in our context because it is not as if the person is happy but that they find themselves in a happy place demanding envy from others.[7] In short, these statements are not merely colloquialisms about happy go lucky, but describe and commend the good life,[8] and not the good life or an ethic for back then but even now, for us.[9] To be envied is to do and be like this…

To be envied are the beggars for the Spirit, because the kingdom of heaven is theirs.[10]

The “poor in spirit” are not those who lack God or have weak character. Rather, these are the ones claimed by God but poor, those held captive by oppression, those refused the material liberation of God. [11] These people know their need for God, cry out to God, call on God, and take God as God. It is these who have the kingdom of God because they are with God[12] and loved by God and in this love the kingdom is now and to come.[13]

To be envied are the ones who mourn, because they, they will be comforted.

Like those before who are “poor in spirit” and those who follow (the meek and those who hunger and thirst), those who mourn have comfort in that they are those who are with God because God is in our suffering.[14] And in being with God, having God’s life and love there is the possibility that this heavy grief will not always be so, that there is more to this material existence than what can be seen and touched right now.[15]

To be envied are the meek, because they, they will inherit the earth.

Meekness here harkens back to “poor in spirit”, these are the ones who love their neighbor as themselves, serving the neighbor in their freedom, feeling compassion and sympathy for the plight of their neighbor. The meek live among the sufferers in this life and make it their aim to alleviate that suffering, to bring God close.[16] For these meek ones are servants of all, live by the law of love for their neighbor before God, and are the ones who inherit the earth at the expense of those claiming the earth for themselves now at the expense of their neighbor.

To be envied are the ones who hunger and thirst for righteousness, because they, they will be satisfied.

Those who are hungry are hungry for justice, those who are thirsty are thirsty for righteousness; and this hunger and thirst fuels the embers of the fires of God’s love and justice.[17] These are the ones who desire earnestly (2x!) to live into the calling of God on their lives made known through their baptism and faith in God, and to participate in God’s mission of love, liberation, and life in the world. These are they who step into the responsibility of representing God in the world and eliminating alienation and isolation.[18] By this activity they satisfy their hunger and thirst for justice and righteousness come.

To be envied are the merciful, because they, they will be shown mercy.

Just like those who judge will be judged and those who forgive will be forgiven, those who show mercy will be shown mercy. In other words, those who are merciful are those who offer grace to other fellow humans trying to get from point A to point B, those who share in the pain in the world and celebrate the joy, those who are willing to let go of societal standards of “an eye for an eye”.[19]

To be envied are the pure in heart, because they, they will see God.”

This is less about being sinless and more about being declared pure apart from your material and social circumstances that would render you “unclean” for lack of “outward purity”.[20] Godliness is about one’s trust and faith in and love of God made most manifest in love of one’s neighbor; it’s not about being ritualistically clean and upright thus removed from being able to love one’s neighbor no matter what.

To be envied are the peacemakers, because they, they will be called children of God.”

Those born of God are born of love, of life, of peace. Thus, the peacemakers are not those who merely present a peaceful demeanor in the world, benefitting only themselves. These are they who “make peace” by causing reconciliation where there is estrangement, reuniting others, and letting love do what love does: turn the enemy into the beloved.[21]

To be envied are the ones who are persecuted on account of righteousness, because the kingdom of heaven is theirs. You are to be envied whenever people revile you both persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be fully of joy, because your reward is great in the heavens, for in this way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Of interest here are those who are blessed because they are persecuted and not only because they’re upright, but upright specifically related to following Jesus.[22] It’s not a lifestyle that is good, but one that adheres to the authority and principles of Jesus; this is the reason for the persecution. In adhering to the radical demands of Christ by pursuing justice, peace, mercy, and love in the world,[23] the disciples will end up challenging the self-conceptions of others who live according to the world[24] and persecution will follow. Then Jesus does something at the end of the text, according to Matthew, he draws a correlation between those who do his will with the prophets. Those who follow Jesus and do as he did are grafted into the great line of prophets, those who declare God’s kingdom come, those who advocate for the sufferers and oppressed are those who share in the great prophetic tradition and participate in the prophetic voice.[25]

Conclusion

Beloved, the “sermon among the hills” is the foundation of our ethical activity in the world. Loved by the radical God of Love made known to us in Christ, we love radically like God, risking our creaturely comforts and daring to stand out[26] we bring and declare this love into the world.[27] We’re called by and in faith to be born anew into a new life defined by God’s will and desire to seek and save the lost, to liberate the captives, to bring good news to the poor and destitute, those struggling to live and exist. We are created anew to be God’s representatives in the name of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit in the world. We are to feel our discontentment with the world because God is discontent with the way the world is for God’s beloved.[28] We’re to press into God by pressing into the plight of our brothers and sisters, in this the light breaks through the darkness, hope defeats hopelessness,[29] and love births life.[30]

The following is taken from Ernesto Cardenal’s poem, “Coplas on the death of Merton”,[31]

Love, love above all, an anticipation
of death
            There was a taste of death in the kisses
                        being
                                    is being
                                                in another being
            we exist only in love
But in this life we love only briefly
and feebly
            We love or exist only when we stop being
when we die
            nakedness of the whole being in order to make love
                                    make love not war
                        that go to empty into the love
                        that is life

[1] RT France, in his commentary, makes the compelling case that the location where Jesus sits and teaches his disciples in this pericope are “hills” rather than a mountain (which is the technical translation of to oros). France uses the corresponding text in the gospel of Luke which describes Jesus as going down to this location…

[2] R. T. France The Gospel of Matthew The New International Commentary on the New Testament. Gen. Ed Joel B. Green. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2007. 157-158.

[3] Anna Case-Winters Matthew Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible Eds Amy Plantinga Pauw and William C. Placher. Louisville, KY: WJK, 2015. 71-72. “The Sermon on the Mount, in its clarion call to a radically different way of life, does unmask the sinfulness of the life we now live—turned in on ourselves as we are. Indeed, it makes our need for God’s grace very clear, but the message also moves and motivates us toward the higher righteousness to which Jesus calls us. It does so not by giving a set of prescriptions to be followed in a legalistic manner but rather examples of life oriented by the love of God and neighbor.”

[4] Cardenal, Solentiname, 89-90. “WILLIAM: ‘And Jesus compares us with the prophets. The prophets in the Bible were not so much people who predicted the future as people who denounced the present. They were protesting against the celebrations in the palaces, the cheating on the weights and the coins, the things that they bought very cheap from the labor of the poor, the swindles of widows and orphans, the abuses committed by the mafias of priests, the murders, the royal policy that they called prostitution, the dependence on foreign imperialisms. And it’s true they also predicted something for the future-the liberation of the oppressed. Christ says that our fate has to be like the fate of those prophets.’”

[5] France, Matthew, 160-161.

[6] France, Matthew, 160-161. The Hebrew equivalent of Makarios is asre rather than the more theologically loaded baruk, ‘blessed (by God).’ The traditional English rendering ‘blessed’ thus also has too theological a connotation in modern usage; the Greek term for ‘blessed (by God)’ is eulogetos, not makarios.

[7] France, Matthew, 160-161. “The sense of congratulation and commendation is perhaps better convened by ‘happy,’ but this term generally has too psychological a connotation: makarios does not state that a person feels happy … but that they are in a ‘happy’ situation, one which other people ought also to wish to share.”

[8] France, Matthew, 160-161. “The Australian idiom ‘Good on yer’ is perhaps as close as any to the sense, but would not communicate in the rest of the English-speaking world!…Beatitudes are descriptions, and commendations, of the good life.”

[9] Case-Winters, Matthew, 71. “I would propose that the ethic of the Sermon on the Mount is a fitting ethic nor just for ‘the interim’ and not just tor an inner circle, but for followers of Jesus in all times and places. It has been pointed out that a new way of life is at the heart of the gospel call.”

[10] Translation mine unless otherwise noted

[11] Ernesto Cardenal The Gospel in Solentiname Trans. Donald D. Walsh. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2010. 82. “I said that in the Bible the poor are often called anawim, which in Hebrew means ‘the poor of Yahweh.’ They are so called because they are the poor of the liberation of Yahweh, those that God is going to liberate by means of the Messiah. It’s like what we now understand as the ‘oppressed,’ but in the Bible those poor people are also considered to be good people, honorable, kindly and holy, while their opposites are the oppressors, the rich, the proud, the impious.”

[12] France, Matthew, 165. “‘Poverty in spirit’ is not speaking of weakness of character (‘mean-spiritedness’) but rather of a person’s relationship with God. It is a positive spiritual orientation, the converse of the arrogant self-confidence which only rides roughshod over the interests of other people but more importantly causes a person to treat God as irrelevant. To say that it is to such people that kingdom of heaven belongs means (not, of course, that they themselves hold royal authority but) that they are the ones who gladly accept God’s rule and who therefore enjoy the benefits which come to his subjects.”

[13] Cardenal, Solentiname, 83. “And OSCAR’S MOTHER: ‘It seems to me that the kingdom is love. Love in this life. And heaven is for those who love here, because God is love’”

[14] Case-Winters, Matthew, 76-77. “The first four beatitudes declare blessing for those who were traditionally understood as being defended by God: the poor, those who mourn, the meek, and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, justice.”

[15] France, Matthew, 166. “For those who, as God’s people, find their current situation intolerable and incomprehensible, there are better times ahead.”

[16] France, Matthew, 166. “‘Meek,’ like ‘poor in spirit,’ speaks not only of those who are in fact disadvantaged and powerless, but also of those whose attitude is not arrogant and oppressive. The term in itself may properly be understood of their relations with other people; they are those who do not throw their weight about.”

[17] Cardenal, Solentiname, 86. “MARCELINO: ‘He blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice. Hunger and injustice amount to the same thing. Anyone who hungers for food also hungers for justice. They are the ones who are going to make social change, not the satisfied ones. And then they’ll be filled with bread and social justice.’”

[18] France, Matthew, 167-168. Dikaiosyne “It is thus better understood here not of those who wish to see God’s will prevail in the world in general or on their own behalf in particular, but of those who are eager themselves to live as God requires, those who can say, as Jesus himself is recorded as saying in John 4:34, ‘My food is to do the will of the one who me.’”

[19] France, Matthew, 168. “‘Mercy’ is closely with forgiveness, but is broader here than just the forgiveness of specific offenses: it is a generous attitude which is willing to see things from the other’s point of view and is not quick to take offense or to gloat over others’ shortcomings (the prime characteristic of love according to 1 Cor 13:4-7). Mercy sets aside society’s assumption that it is honorable to demand revenge.”

[20] France, Matthew, 168. “In the context of first-century Judaism, with its strong emphasis on ritual ‘purity’, the phrase ‘pure in heart’ might also be understood to imply a contrast with the meticulous preservation of outward purity which will be condemned in 23:25-28 as having missed the point of godliness…”

[21] France, Matthew, 169. “This beatitude goes beyond a merely peaceful disposition to an active attempt to ‘make’ peace, perhaps by seeking reconciliation with one’s own enemies, but also more generally by bringing together those who estranged from one another.”

[22] France, Matthew, 172. “A significant new note in comparison with v. 10 is that the cause of persecution is not simply ‘righteousness,’ the distinctive lifestyle of the disciples, but more specifically ‘because of me,’ a phrase which makes it clear that this discourse is not just a call to conduct but is grounded in the unique authority and radical demands of Jesus himself.”

[23] Cardenal, Solentiname, 88. “ALEJANDRO: ‘And he says that they are going to be persecuted because they seek justice, and for that also he blesses them. Because it’s clear that people who look for this kingdom have to be persecuted.”

[24] France, Matthew, 169-170. “The pursuit of ‘righteousness’ (v. 6) can arouse opposition from those whose interests or self-respect may be threatened by it. Already in the commendation of the merciful and the peacemakers these beatitudes have marked out the true disciple not as a hermit engaged in the solitary pursuit of holiness but as one engaged in society, and such engagement has its cost. As the following verses will spell out more fully, to live as subjects of the kingdom of heaven is to be set over against the rest of society which does not its values, and the result may be – indeed, the uncompromising wording of this beatitude suggests that it will be—persecution.”

[25] France, Matthew, 173. “Those who have spoken out for God have always been liable to the violent reprisal of the ungodly. In the light of that heritage, to be persecuted for the sake of Jesus is a badge of honor. The phrase ‘the prophets who came before you’ perhaps suggests that Jesus’ disciples are now the prophetic voice on earth (cf. 10:41; 23:34).”

[26] France, Matthew, 159. “The sharply paradoxical character of most of its recommendations reverses the conventional values of society—it commends those whom the world in general would dismiss as losers and wimps; compare the presentation of disciples as ‘little ones’ in 10:42; 18:6, 10.14; 25:40 (cf. the ‘little children’ of 11:25). The Beatitudes thus call on those who would be God’s people to stand out as different from those around them, and promise them that those who do so will not ultimately be the losers.”

[27] Case-Winters, Matthew, 77. “In a way the beatitudes are ‘more description than instruction;’ they are a kind of report from the other side of radical commitment for those who have entered into life within God’s community of love and justice. For those who have ‘crossed over’ there is genuine blessedness. They are living-even now-in the reign of God.”

[28] Case-Winters, Matthew, 78. “If we would-even now-live under the reign of God, there are implications. The alternative reality will chaff against the present reality. To love as God loves is to be discontented with the present reality. ‘Until the eschatological reversal takes place, it is not possible to be content with the status quo.’ In our discontent, we may pray with William Sloane Coffin, ‘Because we love the world. . . . we pray now… for grace to quarrel with it, O Thou Whose lover’s quarrel with the world is the history of the world…’”

[29] Dorothee Soelle On Earth as in Heaven: A Liberation Spirituality of Sharing Trans. Marc Batko. Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox, 1993. 50-51. “Christian hope in the tradition of the supernatural virtues, that is, of virtues poured into us by grace, is distinguished from the hope of the observer by sharing, cooperation, and participation. Chrisitan hope is hope in which I share in the production of another state. The hope of peace lives with the peacemakers and not beyond them. Participation in the struggle distinguishes this hope form the contemplative observation that is optimist once moment ad resigned the next.

[30] France, Matthew, 171-172. “Light is of no use under a bowl. It is the town conspicuously sited on hill which people notice. And the outcome of distinctive discipleship is intended to be that other people will notice and, though sometimes they may respond with cynicism and persecution, ultimately the light will have its effect and they will recognize and acknowledge the goodness of the God is its source, Disciples, therefore, must be both distinctive and involved. Neither the indistinguishably assimilated nor the inaccessible hermit will fulfill the mandate of these challenging verses.”

[31] Ernesto Cardenal Apocalypse and other poems Trans. Thomas Merton, Kenneth Rexroth, and Mireya Jaimes-Freyre. Eds. Robert Pring-Mill, Donald D. Walsh. New York, NY: New Directions Publishing, 1977. 47.

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