TOMORROW IS OUR SEPTEMBER CHURCHWIDE BIBLE STUDY. 6:30-8:00 PM. Traveling to the Galapagos to swim with the turtles? Planning on climbing Kilimanjaro? Gotta get your hair did? Cancel your plans and be at Bible study instead. —AF

MATTHEW 5:1-12

1 Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.
2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Remember our 2 keys to understanding Matthew:

1. The first key to understanding Matthew is to see everything about Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel as connected to and fulfilling the Old Testament story. In every passage, ask, “How does this information about Jesus relate to the Old Testament story?”

2. The second key is to see Matthew as an instruction manual for discipleship. It is meant to give readers what they need to know to become a disciple of Jesus of Nazareth. In every passage ask, “Of all the things Matthew could have told us, why did he think that we needed to know this to be apprentices of Jesus?

The Sermon on the Mount is a great example to show how these two keys fit together and help us understand what we’re reading.

1. In the Old Testament, Moses comes down from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments and the Law because the Lord wants to teach the Israelites how to live well. Here, we see Jesus is like a new Moses, and he’s teaching his followers (on a mountain) what it will take to live the good life. In fact, Jesus is doing more than what Moses did, because the words of Jesus fulfill the purpose of the Law (5:17-20).

2. As the rest of Matthew’s Gospel unfolds, we’ll see that Jesus will model the qualities he describes in the Sermon on the Mount; his teaching here is an invitation to enter into the life that he’s living—it’s an instruction manual for his disciples.

We will see that the Sermon on the Mount is a summary of life in the Kingdom of God; the rest of the Gospel gives us specific examples of what that life looks like.

THE KEY TO UNDERSTANDING THE BEATITUDES

The Sermon on the Mount begins with some strange statements about the good life. They are a summary of the subsequent teaching of Jesus, and a shorthand picture of his entire life. These statements are called “The Beatitudes” because of the way Jesus begins each statement saying “Blessed are....”

Jesus sees the world as a fundamentally good place for those who trust God, and he begins his teaching by telling his hearers that even difficult personal circumstances cannot keep them from experiencing the blessedness that comes from trusting God. It's always important to pay attention to context; the crowds Matthew mentions in 5:1 are described in the previous verses at the end of chapter 4 like this:

"Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought to him all the sick, those who were afflicted with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, and paralytics, and he cured them. And great crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and from beyond the Jordan." [4:23-25]

Jesus has been proclaiming the kingship of God and telling people that it has arrived, and many of the people to whom he has been speaking are sick, broken, down-trodden, unimportant, etc. And it is to those people that Jesus says, "You are in the position to flourish— you are in the right spot for the good life." Why? Because Jesus has brought the Kingdom to them!

That insight has made all the difference to me. All of those people--the poor in spirit, the mourning, the ones who hunger for righteousness--all of those people find the answer in Jesus, who is ushering in the Kingdom—there is nothing that precludes them or anyone else from learning to live in the Kingdom right now.

And you know what? It's still the same today. Because of what will happen, you live now as if it’s already here, thereby bringing it further into reality.

So, even when really bad things happen—like being persecuted for doing the right thing—you can flourish because you know that God sees it and will vindicate you.

The Beatitudes are about how to have a flourishing life by living now in the truth and hope that those who trust Jesus and follow him will receive joy now and in the age to come, eternal life.

When you live with that trust and hope, you flourish.