Beatitudes I

Turning to look at the Beatitudes after studying the parables is a way of getting back to the nonviolent core of the gospel. The story-telling of the parables includes a sense of imminent judgment, which is expressed sometimes in violent scenarios. It is challenging to divide the path between consequential human violence once the in-breaking of the gospel is ignored, and the appearance of a personally vindictive divine violence. The Beatitudes in Matthew are a clear statement of a nonviolent Kingdom of God. What follows is a summary of our studies over a number of weeks. (You must forgive if we slipped behind in the regular blogs, this is my humble--and convenient--way of catching up!)

The foundation beatitude is, understandably, the first one, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of the Heavens." (5:3) The basic meaning of "blessed", the one running through the whole list, is replete human happiness (see Genesis 30:13). Throughout the Old Testament it is associated with the teaching and practice of Wisdom (1 Kings 10:8, Proverbs 8:32 & 34). It is a teaching of how life can be filled with life. The Psalms especially connect this to relationship with the God of Israel (e.g. 33:12).

When Jesus applied this "happiness" to groups of people who, on the surface of things, should be the most miserable on the earth he was introducing the upside-down kingdom of God. He did this in and through his own person, on his own authority, addressing these groups and inviting them to relate to him. But at the same time he proposes a real, concrete sense of material reversal. This is more evident in Luke's version at 6:20-22. Matthew's version more strongly invites us into relationship with a new way, beginning in Jesus. But the background sense of concrete earthly reversal is not lost in Matthew.

A lot of confusion has occurred over "poor in spirit". It does not mean someone who is psychologically weak (a very modern psychoanalytic viewpoint) because the root meaning is actual poverty (as shown in Luke). What it means is a generative attitude among the poor whom Jesus addressed, a longing and expectation that God would make God's move to bring justice to the earth. This is to be "poor in spirit" and can by extension apply to all hearers of Jesus in every generation. The second part of the sentence talks of the "kingdom of the heavens (plural)", i.e, the unfathomable dwelling of God, and it is Matthew's round-about way of saying the "kingdom of God" (compare again Luke 6:20). What it means is that the God of all universes, the God of every level of existence, is intervening on their behalf and they can and will know that as of this moment.

The second and third beatitudes lead us directly into both the concrete and relational meaning of Jesus' teaching. "Blessed are those who mourn..." (5:4). Behind this lies the key prophetic text of Isaiah 61:1-2. It is the passage that Jesus read when he preached in his home-town synagogue at Nazareth (Luke 4:16-30). It seems to have been pivotal for his early ministry. The English translation of the first part of the prophecy in Isaiah speaks of a mission "to bring good news to the oppressed." The word that stands behind "oppressed" in the Hebrew is anawim... a term which refers to a group of people who were powerless in the land. They were oppressed peasantry defenseless against the power of the wealthy and the armed forces. Zephaniah 2:3 and 3:12-13 uses this term in a way that seems closely to describe Jesus' addressees in the Beatitudes: "Seek the Lord, all you humble (anawim) of the land...; I will leave in the midst of you a people humble (anawim) and lowly...the remnant of Israel." In Zephaniah a concrete condition of powerlessness becomes a relational condition of the covenant. Luke in his Greek version of the Isaiah prophecy has Jesus bringing "good news to the poor." In other words he renders anawim as "poor". It is very plausible that Jesus' original statement was on the lines of "happy are the anawim..."

The relationship between the Isaiah 61:1-2 passage and the first beatitude is now confirmed by the second beatitude, "Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted." Isaiah 61:2 goes on to describe the mission as one "to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor...to comfort all who mourn." The two beatitudes repeat therefore the categories of the prophecy in order.

Mourning is a condition of profound lack, usually associated with the death of a loved one. But in both the Isaiah prophecy and the second beatitude it signifies a much larger lack, the absence of justice and good in the earth. Mourning, however, by the very force of its emotion maintains a powerful relationship precisely to what is missing. This human emotion is used by Jesus to evoke an extremely powerful relationship to what is not yet. By maintaining this relationship Jesus' hearers look forward concretely to the consolation of God's justice and good. Jesus by his authority asserts that they will be comforted.

The third beatitude "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth" (5:5) brings us to the unmissable earthly core of what is expected and the key human relationship by which it is invoked. The term "meek" is understood in a degraded pathetic sense. Basically it licenses a class system of the willingly downtrodden and the willfully oppressive. Now the background to the saying is almost word for word Psalm 37;11, "The meek shall inherit the land, and delight themselves in abundant prosperity." And guess what, the Hebrew here behind "meek" is our friend yet again, the anawim! But there is a further twist in the prophetic literature which we must notice. It is one of greatest importance for Jesus. At Zechariah 9:9-10 we hear of a king who will come to Jerusalem "humble and riding on a donkey," one who will "cut off the chariot...the war-horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow..." The prophecy of a nonviolent king arriving in Jerusalem lies behind Jesus' "triumphal entry" at the beginning of the Passion, a connection directly cited by the evangelists Matthew and John.

The word "humble" in this prophecy is an adjective cognate with anawim, very close to it indeed, the word anayim... In the Greek this is translated "praus", the word for "meek" (the word used both in the Greek of Psalm 36 and Matthew's beatitude). Even in Greek praus stands in contrast to those who show brutality and unrestrained anger (Hans Dieter Betz), i.e. it means the nonviolent. But in the context of the gospel Jesus' explicit signaling of the Zechariah prophecy in his entry into Jerusalem gives final meaning to the word. It is the conscious, active, transformative program of nonviolence, something as far removed from pathetic "meekness" as may be imagined. Matthew uses the same Greek word in the famous passage "Come to me, all you that are weary...Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle (praus) and humble in heart..." (Matt.11:28-29).

Jesus is the greatest of the anawim, someone who takes their contextual nonviolence (either inability or unwillingness for violence), and makes it a profoundly consistent signal of something wonderfully new in the earth. He challenges all the powers of the world with this true meaning of being human and, ultimately, brings them crashing down. Indeed, "the meek, the nonviolent, will inherit the earth..."