Few things are as polarizing as the Sermon on the Mount. We either want to embrace it as the heavenly picture of how we truly ought to be, or we want to repel it as some unreachable judgment on which once and for all reveals how dreadfully out of touch Jesus of Nazareth was with humanity.
In Dallas Willard’s amazing book The Divine Conspiracy he helps re-imagine the Sermon on the Mount. His take is that Jesus isn’t imposing a new, intensely more severe pathway to God that we could never reach, but rather, He’s simply shining a light on the way it is when God’s rule finds its way into the here and now. Jesus calls it the Kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of the heavens. Here’s how I read Matthew 5:3-12 in this light…
The crowds gathered and Jesus, sensing a teachable moment sat down and called His disciples to Him. Seeing those He had called and those who were willing to gather – fishermen, blue-collar working stiffs, the marginalized of society – He started to teach about the Kingdom where God’s rule is the present reality.
He said, ” In this world we walk around in, don’t be mistaken, the ones who are blessed are ones who spiritual bank account is absolutely empty. They’re absolutely poverty stricken in spiritual matters, but they’re blessed because even right here today God’s Kingdom has come to them (He said that knowing that He was proof of what He was talking about).
When you go around and you encounter those who are mourning, don’t be overwhelmed with grief and hopelessness, the blessing of God is on them as they find comfort in Him.
You’ll walk right by the timid ones who are quietly trying not to be noticed, never making a stir. Pay attention over the long haul and you’ll see that in the Kingdom economy, the timid and mousy ones are blessed as the Father is plased to bequeath all cration on them, just as a gift.
There are some who are trying and failing to some degree or other to make it with their own goodness. They care about what God says is right and wrong. Some are tangled in a web of self-righteousness and some can hardly lift their heads from guilt & shame. Still, they want wants important to God (They may be misguided, but it makes no difference to the Father) and so god calls them the blessed ones because He’s made provision for what they want most.
You say that you’ve got to look out for #1, and make sure everyone gets theirs. God says the ones who give a hand up to the down and out are the ones who truly receive blessing and live blessed.The day is coming and has come already when those will be shown mercy above and beyond what you can imagine.
You know that guy who you snicker at? Well, the one you call a prude and uptight and holy roller, from my perspective and the way Father sees it, that guy has paid a huge price, so the King bestows great blessing on him. He, in his purity, gazes into the very face of the King.
The ones who build bridges instead fo picking sides, their blessing is that they are heirs by birth, children of the Royal Family.
Then there are some who pay a higher price. Some are beaten and whipped, made fun of, cast out and utterly reviled. Those will experience things that you can’t even imagine because of me. Trust me when I say those, like the spiritually bankrupt, my father will bless with the Keys to the Kingdom.
This is countercultural stuff. It’s not a matter of doing these things, it’s a matter of letting them be a part of you. It’s realizing that even when others cursed you and your condition because of what comes from following me, you’re in good company. the greatest of men and women, the very heralds of God received the same. Rest assured, God see’s blessing differently. You are of a coming Kingdom. Learn to see it and live within it…”
So, how then shall we live? Twenty-first century realities reach and stretch and try with all their might to reduce this message to irrelevance. More than that, society as a whole has rejected much of what Jesus seemed to teach. Granted, it’s a difficult pill to swallow.
Time keeps coming, and we’ve got to choose how we’re going to face it. Culture stands, a fortress on the horizon, and on the hill above is a dying man, beaten and whipped by a mighty government system and a well entrenched secular and religious culture.
We all have chosen and continue to chose the lenses through which we interpret the world and what happens in it. My hope is to see and discuss what the world could look like through lenses where blessing is pronounced upon the least of these.
*NOTE: for another interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount, go here.
