The Beatitudes

Last week and this week in Come Follow Me we are studying the Sermon on the Mount and the Sermon on the Plain. I again struggled to think of what to write since so much has already been said about the Sermon on the Mount. For my primary lesson and for this blog, I decided to focus on the Beatitudes.

When I was younger, the beatitudes bothered me a bit. They felt like such a heavy burden. I felt like I had to be all the things listed to be acceptable to God. I could see being a peacemaker, meek, and hungering and thirsting after righteousness, but did God really want me to be poor in spirit, mourn and be persecuted? I think I was in my late 30's or early 40's when I realized that Jesus was talking to a crowd that probably were mourning, felt poor in spirit, and had been persecuted. His words were meant to comfort, not admonish. That helped me feel better about the sermon.

Something that is still a challenge for me is understanding some of the terms. What does it mean to be poor in spirit, meek, and pure in heart. I decided to use my Greek skills and my cool Bible Vocab app to see if I could gain any insight on the words.

So here are the beatitudes in English, from Matthew 5 JKV

[3] Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
[4] Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
[5] Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
[6] Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
[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 they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
[11] Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
[12] Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

First of all, the term Beatitudes comes from Latin not Greek. The first word of each verse is Beati, which really does mean blessed. The word in Greek is "Μακάριοι" and I think it probably is better to call them "beatitudes" instead of "makaritudes". The "to be" word ('are' in English) is absent in Latin and Greek. It is just understood, but it is not unusual to leave it out in either language after an adjectival verb form. As for the things we are "blessed" for, I decided to do a word search in Greek to see where each word is used again in Matthew to try to get a sense of what they mean.

3. Poor in Spirit: The word for poor is πτωχοὶ and is used in Matthew 11:5, Matthew 19:21, Matthew 26:9, &11. In each case it describes a person who is in poverty physically. I think we need to think about how someone in poverty feels and somehow apply that to our spiritual wellbeing. I think it describes spirit lacking and want.
4. Mourn: πενθοῦντες It is a participle, suggesting: those who are mourning now. It is used only once more in Matthew, Matt 9:15, when Jesus says the guests at the wedding can't mourn when the bridegroom is with them. It is used again in Mark 16:10 when Mary goes to the apostles who are mourning to tell them Jesus had appeared to her. (not sure why this is double spaced.)
5. The meek: πραεῖς, It is used in Matthew 11:29, and Matthew 21:5. I think that second passage is illuminating because it is when Jesus was entering Jerusalem on the donkey during the triumphal entry. He was being praised by all around him, but he was staying humble, knowing what was ahead of him.
6. Hunger and thirst: πεινῶντες καὶ διψῶντες. Again, these are participles: they are hungering and thirsting right now. The hunger word comes up in Matt 4:2, Matt 12:1,&3, Matt 21:18, and both appear in Matt 25:35-44. That parable is the only place in Matthew where the thirst word appears. It makes you think that when Jesus said, "I was hungry, and you gave me meat: I was thirsty, and you gave me drink" he might not have been talking only about physical food and water.
8. Pure in heart: καθαροὶ τῇ καρδίᾳ the word for heart is one we recognize, cardia, like cardiac arrest. The word for "pure" shows up in Matt 23:26, Matt 27:59, and also Luke 11:41. It seems to represent a ritualistic cleanliness. The heart is washed clean, like Jesus washed the feet of the apostles.
9. Peacemakers: εἰρηνοποιοί interestingly, this doesn't appear anywhere else in the New Testament.
10-12 Persecuted δεδιωγμένοι It shows up in the next three verses, and the later in the chapter in verse 44. It is also in Matt 10:23, and Matt 23:34. Each time, Jesus is warning the apostles that they will be persecuted. I guess it is clear the Jesus saw persecution in the apostles' future and wanted to give them solace in advance.


I hope this was helpful. I think I gained a couple of insights from it.

The Marriage at Cana

Before I get started on The Marriage at Cana, I want to give a plug for Tim Mackie's five part series about the Book of John on Youtube. It is taken from a conference he gave for pastors about how to teach the Gospel of John.  He has crazy good insights about the structure of the book as a whole, and how different themes propagate through the narrative.  

So, the marriage at Cana.  This story has always been a little problematic for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  All our lives we are taught that drinking alcohol is a no-no.  In church artwork, especially in that created for children, you can always tell the "bad guy" because they are the one with a wine glass in their hand. So understanding that creating 150 gallons of wine and serving it at a wedding--after the guests are already drunk--is a good thing takes a little bit of mental and moral acrobatics.  

Even if you are not a "Mormon" it is easy to question why this miracle is as important or impactful as healing a blind person, or raising the dead. Whom does it help?  What lasting impact does it have to make sure a wedding is well supplied with good wine? If you believe, as I do, that John wrote his gospel to specifically mention certain meaningful events that the other gospel writers left out, then you have to ask the question, why did John see this miracle as particularly meaningful?

Another issue with the story that is enigmatic is Jesus' short interchange with his mother.  She states, "They have no wine," and he replies, "Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come." And Mary takes this as an offer to help, and orders the servants to do anything that Jesus asks.  (John 2:3-5).  What is up with that?

This is where Tim Mackie came in for me this week.  He related this whole story to a passage in Isaiah 25:6. 

"And in the mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all the people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined. "...

Then vs. 8 "He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth; for the Lord hath spoken it."  

This is clearly a messianic prophecy.  If you think about what this prophecy is saying, that Jesus will make a feast where there is very good wine, and then he will end up dying to save his people, isn't that basically the book ends of the gospel of John?  Why is not this reference in the footnotes?  I think by including this story here at the beginning of his narrative, John is clearly referencing this Isaiah passage.  It is his first argument in his case that Jesus is the promised Messiah. He suggests as much in vs 11: "This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory."  He goes on with each of the stories he includes, to show how Jesus fulfilled messianic prophecy again and again.  

What does this have to do with his conversation with Mary?  So, here's a question.  If an angel came to you as a teenager and told you that you were going to be the mother of the Son of God, the Messiah, and then you did, having, "known no man", and there were angels and shepherds, and wise men etc., do think, after all that, you might be motivated to learn all you could about what the Messiah was going to do? Do you think that each time in synagogue when they read a messianic passage, you might sit up and pay close attention?  Assume Mary was familiar with this passage from Isaiah.  She finds herself a feast and there is an issue with the wine. Of course, Jesus is familiar with this passage as well, (he quotes Isaiah more often than any other prophet).  Do you think there might have been some little gesture going on between mother and son, like, "Ok, son, we are at a feast, and, you know, the whole 'feast of wine on the lees' thing?"  

Jesus is maybe smiling indulgently, "you know it isn't time for that yet. right'  Then the mother's eyebrow goes up, and the son sighs and nods, and the mother delightedly commands the servants to do whatever he asks.

Of course, there are many more symbolic interpretations of this.  This is foreshadowing the crucifixion, where Jesus sweat blood instead of water (Luke 22:44), and where water gushed out of his side along with blood when they pierced him (John 19:34). This is also a symbol of the Atonement, in that the jars that were filled with water were "after the manner of the purifying of the Jews," (John 2: 6) In other words, the jars were supposed to contain water that a Jew would use to wash their hands and feet to become ritualistically pure before eating, or after they had touched something that was unclean.  The story suggests that it isn't the water of the Mosaic law that would make one clean, but "my blood of the new testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins" (Matt 26:28).  

There is much more here and, again, my post is getting long. I just want to make another comment from Tim Mackie that I think is insightful.  In the Old testament, prophets like Jeremiah, and Ezekiel perform public "signs" or, like, street plays, that are symbols of things to come.  I think John sees this miracle at the marriage at Cana (and other miracles he is going to recount later in his narrative) as one of these signs that are meant to be symbols of things to come in Jesus' story.  Seeing Jesus' actions in that Old Testament style framework I think will be instructive as we move forward in John. 

 

The Temptation of Jesus

 In some ways it is harder to decide what to post on the New Testament sections we have been reading than it was for the Old Testament.  I was discovering so many new things last year as I went through the Old Testament, but I have studied the New Testament closely before, that I am not getting as many "new" insights.  

Plus, so many other people have written about the Temptations of Christ.  I feel like it is common knowledge that the three temptations represent three general kinds of temptations all people face: the temptation to gratify physical desires, the temptation to seek worldly fame and wealth, and the temptation to misuse power to assuage your own insecurity. Always the point it made that Jesus quotes scripture to resist each temptation as an example of how we can also resist temptation.

I guess the question I want to explore today is what is this passage doing in the whole text.  More specifically, what reference does it make to the Old Testament narrative that the people of Jesus' time would have recognized. We have already seen that Matthew, in particular, is trying to show Jews that Jesus fulfills Old Testament types.  So where in the Old Testament do we see a person (or group of people) going into the wilderness to be tempted?  The most obvious answer is the Children Of Israel. Let's look at the parallels.

The Children of Israel leave Egypt by passing through the Read Sea
        Jesus goes through baptism 
The Children of Israel enter the wilderness where they are tested
        Jesus goes into the desert to be tempted
The Children of Israel are in the wilderness 40 years
        Jesus fasts for 40 days
The Children of Israel face a food trial, and are given miraculous "bread" or manna
        Jesus is tempted to make bread from stone miraculously 

Moses leads the Children of Israel to the mountain to meet God

        Jesus is taken to the mountain and promised he could rule as God over all the earth

Moses builds a tabernacle which becomes the symbol that God is with them

        Jesus is taken to the temple and tempted to prove that God is with him. 

I think that the pattern of being lead to the wilderness to be tried and tempted is one that Jews would have recognized.  The Exodus narrative was one of the most important stories in Jewish tradition.  The house of Israel left the wilderness purified and ready to spread Jehovah worship throughout the promised land.  Jesus leaves his wilderness experience ready to spread the gospel to the Jews, and ultimately to the whole world.