“Then, Jesus began to speak, and taught them.” Matthew 5:2
As a Mennonite Anabaptist, one thing my tradition has taught me is to look to the Sermon on the Mount to understand Jesus’ teaching about the Kingdom of God. Yes, Jesus teaches about many topics, and in the gospel according to Matthew there are 4 other “sermons” that contain important teachings on various topics. But to focus in on Jesus’ teaching about the Kingdom of God, the Sermon on the Mount is where we turn.
Over the course of the next several months, I will be sharing my reflections on each of the beatitudes. These reflections are based on a sermon series at did in my congregation, Toledo (Ohio) Mennonite Church. These reflections are an intentional effort to keep the Sermon on the Mount at the heart of our biblical engagement at Toledo Mennonite Church, and I hope and pray they will spur thought and growth with you as well.
Before getting into each beatitude, I want to say a few words of introduction in this article.
First, the beatitudes are sayings of Jesus at the beginning of his Sermon on the Mount. Biblical scholars trace five sermons that Jesus gives throughout the Gospel According to Matthew. The Sermon on the Mount is one of those sermons, and each one contains important aspects of the gospel. The part of the Gospel that Jesus communicates in the Sermon on the Mount about the righteousness of the kingdom of God. The beatitudes begin this sermon by introducing important characteristics of Jesus and his kingdom.
You will notice that the beatitudes contrast with the values of the world. Jesus does not say blessed are the powerful, the important, the rich, and the strong. Rather, he says blessed are the humble, the meek, the poor in spirit, etc. Because the beatitudes run counter to the thinking of the world, Jesus’ kingdom is an “upside-down kingdom.” It looks all upside down and backward from the world’s point of view. And it is! But remember, God’s foolishness is greater than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is greater than human strength (1 Corinthians 1:18-25). The beatitudes give us a description of true strength, courage, and love in action.
Second, the beatitudes are often misunderstood. Sometimes they are misunderstood as a legalistic duty; that one must be poor in spirit to enter the kingdom. Other times people think the beatitudes are simply a special gift given to certain people; that the heroes of faith exemplify these beatitudes but they aren’t for everyday people, or that one person might be gifted with meekness while another person gifted in mourning.
This is not the case. The beatitudes are to define the righteousness of all believers and all Jesus-centered communities. They are not for only a select few. At the same time, the beatitudes aren’t something that a person must achieve in order to gain entrance into the Jesus community. Instead, as a person follows Jesus in community with other disciples, the Spirit brings about the righteousness of the kingdom in them. It would be more accurate to think of the beatitudes not as a legalistic duty but as a fruit of the Spirit. Naturally, fruit needs to be cultivated and tended, but God gives the growth.
Finally, we must say that the entry point into the beatitudes, and for the life of the kingdom, is repentance. In the Gospel According to John, Jesus confronts the leaders of the religious people who thought they had no sin (John 9:40-41). In the letter of 1 John, the apostle says that if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves (1 John 1:8). The only way into the righteous life of the kingdom is through an ethic of repentance. We grow in the beatitudes only to the degree that we recognize and confess (to God and one another) the ways we have failed. We know what it means to be poor in spirit only when we recognize how we have attempted to be self-sufficient. We know what it means to mourn only when we recognize the areas that we don’t want to acknowledge as being broken.
We are fallen beings, conditioned by the ways of the world. As I said in the beginning, the beatitudes are upside down, even for long-time, faithful Jesus followers. If we say we have no sin, or if we think we’ve mastered the beatitudes, we should take another look. Most likely, we don’t need to look any further than how we’ve each missed the mark as it pertains to the beatitudes. However, when we recognize it, confess it, and use it as a self-reflective moment, God’s Spirit works in our contrite and sincere hearts and minds to bring about the righteous fruits of the Kingdom of God.
The beatitudes describe the righteousness of the kingdom, they grow in us by the work of the Spirit, and we enter into them through repentance. With these three things in mind, we are prepared to examine each beatitude.
Joel Shenk is the pastor of Toledo Mennonite Church and lives in Toledo with his wife and two daughters. Originally from Scottdale, PA, Joel studied at Hesston College, Eastern Mennonite University, and Fuller Theological Seminary. He has been pastoring since 2010 and is also an amateur blacksmith apart of the RAW Tools disarming network turning guns into garden tools. He likes baseball and is an avid fly angler.
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