Will The Meek Inherit The Earth?
Sermon
Every so often in our national press, there's a call for a return to the Ten Commandments, a call which is quite often mirrored within church congregations. Although the Ten Commandments were given by God long before the time of Jesus and Jesus gave us just two commandments to supercede and sum up the Ten Commandments, there's still a feeling that if only the world would return to observing the Ten Commandments all our troubles would be over.
John the evangelist is touring the country this year with a series of ten talks based on the Ten Commandments, and is already drawing huge crowds. So it seems that the Ten Commandments do hold a special place in people's minds. Perhaps the attraction of the Ten Commandments is that they are a set of rules which can be kept or not, giving the impression that if you stick to the rules you're OK. But that was the sort of Old Testament philosophy which Jesus denounced when he saw it in the Pharisees, telling them quite clearly that life was less about keeping the rules and more about building a personal relationship with God.
Personally the Ten Commandments produce in me an image of Charlton Heston with a long white flowing beard, striding down the mountain with a stone tablet tucked under each arm, so I prefer to look at what has often been considered their New Testament counterpart, the Sermon on the Mount or The Beatitudes.
But based on some of the Wisdom literature of the Old Testament, which often begins "Blessed is..." or "Blessed are..." the Beatitudes aren't really a set of rules in the way that the Ten Commandments are a set of rules, but are more guidelines for life - and unexpected guidelines at that.
As he so often did, Jesus takes the accepted wisdom of society and turns it on its head. As the story he told of the Pharisee and the sinner praying in the temple shows, important religious people were accustomed to letting their prayers be heard, and were proud of their religiosity. They seized every opportunity to demonstrate how well thy were keeping the rules. But Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." It isn't those who display their religious prowess who are especially blessed, but more those who have the humility to recognise that spiritually speaking, they are far from perfect.
Luke's "Sermon of the Plain" (Luke 6:20-49), which is similar to but different from this account of the Beatitudes in Matthew's gospel, is an even harder saying and would have been considered almost unbelievable by first century Jews. Luke has Jesus say, "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God." But every good Jew knew that people were poor because either they, or their ancestors had sinned in some awful way. Wealth was a reward from God for living a good life, so it was inconceivable that the poor would be blessed by God over and above the rich. And in terms of the world, it's also fairly clear the poor aren't necessarily blessed simply by virtue of being poor. The poor struggle to survive, and it's difficult in worldly terms, to see how that struggle can possibly be a blessing from God.
In his gospel, Matthew sometimes has a way of working round difficulties, so perhaps he's softened up the original words of Jesus in order to render them more palatable to his (Matthew's) audience. "Blessed are the poor in spirit" is easier to accept and more obviously logical than "Blessed are the poor." But there are scholars who believe that as a rule of thumb, the more difficult the saying of Jesus, the more likely it is to be authentic. Those sayings which were too difficult for the early church to explain or to follow were sometimes subtly changed by the gospel writers.
But Matthew often looks back to the Old Testament and bases his gospel on Old Testament sayings which would have been familiar to his readers. In the Old Testament, the poor (anawim) are those who are without material possessions and whose confidence is in God (see Isa 61:1; Zep 2:3; in the NAB the word is translated lowly and humble, respectively, in those texts). Perhaps Matthew added in spirit in order either to indicate that only the devout poor were meant or to extend the beatitude to all, of whatever social rank, who recognized their complete dependence on God.
"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted" is another difficult saying, and although it's one of the phrases which are usually read out at the beginning of funeral services, I have yet to meet any mourners who consider themselves blessed by their bereavement. They may feel numb, resentful, angry, sad, despairing - or a host of other strong emotions - but they don't feel blessed.
But again, Matthew may be thinking of an Old Testament text. Isaiah 61:2 says "(The Lord has sent me) . . . to comfort all who mourn." Those who mourn will be comforted by God himself, and the new promise of eternal life which Jesus not only brought, but which was shown in his own life by his resurrection to new life after death, gives a whole new meaning to Isaiah's phrase.
Nonetheless, God's comfort in times of bereavement is unlikely to be a quick fix. God doesn't often remove all pain from human beings, but does give them the strength and endurance and help they need to handle that pain. And in due course, even the agony of bereavement can be healed. So those who mourn will definitely be comforted, although that comfort may not be immediately apparent but will become increasingly apparent as time goes by. Death no longer has the last word, and need no longer be responsible for destroying those lives which are left. Even after the most traumatic of bereavements, human beings can heal inwardly, because they can be comforted by God himself.
Perhaps the other difficult beatitude is "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." Like other beatitudes, it sounds like a lovely sentiment, but perhaps somewhat unrealistic. You only have to open the newspaper or turn on the television to realise immediately that the meek never inherit the earth. Here Jesus is probably referring to Psalm 37:11,". . . the meek shall possess the land." In the psalm "the land" means the land of Palestine and the meek who inherit it are those who obey God's will; here in Matthew's gospel it's more likely to mean the kingdom.
But why does Jesus proclaim that the meek will inherit the earth? It may well be that the meek will inherit the kingdom of heaven, but there are no signs that they'll ever inherit the earth. So perhaps Jesus is affirming that the kingdom of heaven is both here on earth now, and to come in the future in its full glory, after death. And those who inherit that precious kingdom aren't necessarily those whom the world would choose. Jesus expanded on this theme in Matthew 25:31-46, when he talked about the sheep being separated from the goats.
The beatitudes may not be quite the same as the Ten Commandments and require more effort both to understand and to follow, but they are guidelines for the new life in Christ. And the third Beatitude - that the meek will inherit the earth - spells out the reward for those who hold to this new life, rejecting the temptations offered by the world. For those who are able to do that, the Ten Commandments then resume their rightful place - before Jesus. Life after Jesus is infinitely richer than life before Jesus, and the Beatitudes help us to follow this new life.
So we can afford to be poor in spirit and to feel all our emotions, even those painful emotions caused by mourning. And we can afford to let the world get on with struggling for power and stand aside from that struggle, for we know that we meek will indeed inherit the earth.
John the evangelist is touring the country this year with a series of ten talks based on the Ten Commandments, and is already drawing huge crowds. So it seems that the Ten Commandments do hold a special place in people's minds. Perhaps the attraction of the Ten Commandments is that they are a set of rules which can be kept or not, giving the impression that if you stick to the rules you're OK. But that was the sort of Old Testament philosophy which Jesus denounced when he saw it in the Pharisees, telling them quite clearly that life was less about keeping the rules and more about building a personal relationship with God.
Personally the Ten Commandments produce in me an image of Charlton Heston with a long white flowing beard, striding down the mountain with a stone tablet tucked under each arm, so I prefer to look at what has often been considered their New Testament counterpart, the Sermon on the Mount or The Beatitudes.
But based on some of the Wisdom literature of the Old Testament, which often begins "Blessed is..." or "Blessed are..." the Beatitudes aren't really a set of rules in the way that the Ten Commandments are a set of rules, but are more guidelines for life - and unexpected guidelines at that.
As he so often did, Jesus takes the accepted wisdom of society and turns it on its head. As the story he told of the Pharisee and the sinner praying in the temple shows, important religious people were accustomed to letting their prayers be heard, and were proud of their religiosity. They seized every opportunity to demonstrate how well thy were keeping the rules. But Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." It isn't those who display their religious prowess who are especially blessed, but more those who have the humility to recognise that spiritually speaking, they are far from perfect.
Luke's "Sermon of the Plain" (Luke 6:20-49), which is similar to but different from this account of the Beatitudes in Matthew's gospel, is an even harder saying and would have been considered almost unbelievable by first century Jews. Luke has Jesus say, "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God." But every good Jew knew that people were poor because either they, or their ancestors had sinned in some awful way. Wealth was a reward from God for living a good life, so it was inconceivable that the poor would be blessed by God over and above the rich. And in terms of the world, it's also fairly clear the poor aren't necessarily blessed simply by virtue of being poor. The poor struggle to survive, and it's difficult in worldly terms, to see how that struggle can possibly be a blessing from God.
In his gospel, Matthew sometimes has a way of working round difficulties, so perhaps he's softened up the original words of Jesus in order to render them more palatable to his (Matthew's) audience. "Blessed are the poor in spirit" is easier to accept and more obviously logical than "Blessed are the poor." But there are scholars who believe that as a rule of thumb, the more difficult the saying of Jesus, the more likely it is to be authentic. Those sayings which were too difficult for the early church to explain or to follow were sometimes subtly changed by the gospel writers.
But Matthew often looks back to the Old Testament and bases his gospel on Old Testament sayings which would have been familiar to his readers. In the Old Testament, the poor (anawim) are those who are without material possessions and whose confidence is in God (see Isa 61:1; Zep 2:3; in the NAB the word is translated lowly and humble, respectively, in those texts). Perhaps Matthew added in spirit in order either to indicate that only the devout poor were meant or to extend the beatitude to all, of whatever social rank, who recognized their complete dependence on God.
"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted" is another difficult saying, and although it's one of the phrases which are usually read out at the beginning of funeral services, I have yet to meet any mourners who consider themselves blessed by their bereavement. They may feel numb, resentful, angry, sad, despairing - or a host of other strong emotions - but they don't feel blessed.
But again, Matthew may be thinking of an Old Testament text. Isaiah 61:2 says "(The Lord has sent me) . . . to comfort all who mourn." Those who mourn will be comforted by God himself, and the new promise of eternal life which Jesus not only brought, but which was shown in his own life by his resurrection to new life after death, gives a whole new meaning to Isaiah's phrase.
Nonetheless, God's comfort in times of bereavement is unlikely to be a quick fix. God doesn't often remove all pain from human beings, but does give them the strength and endurance and help they need to handle that pain. And in due course, even the agony of bereavement can be healed. So those who mourn will definitely be comforted, although that comfort may not be immediately apparent but will become increasingly apparent as time goes by. Death no longer has the last word, and need no longer be responsible for destroying those lives which are left. Even after the most traumatic of bereavements, human beings can heal inwardly, because they can be comforted by God himself.
Perhaps the other difficult beatitude is "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." Like other beatitudes, it sounds like a lovely sentiment, but perhaps somewhat unrealistic. You only have to open the newspaper or turn on the television to realise immediately that the meek never inherit the earth. Here Jesus is probably referring to Psalm 37:11,". . . the meek shall possess the land." In the psalm "the land" means the land of Palestine and the meek who inherit it are those who obey God's will; here in Matthew's gospel it's more likely to mean the kingdom.
But why does Jesus proclaim that the meek will inherit the earth? It may well be that the meek will inherit the kingdom of heaven, but there are no signs that they'll ever inherit the earth. So perhaps Jesus is affirming that the kingdom of heaven is both here on earth now, and to come in the future in its full glory, after death. And those who inherit that precious kingdom aren't necessarily those whom the world would choose. Jesus expanded on this theme in Matthew 25:31-46, when he talked about the sheep being separated from the goats.
The beatitudes may not be quite the same as the Ten Commandments and require more effort both to understand and to follow, but they are guidelines for the new life in Christ. And the third Beatitude - that the meek will inherit the earth - spells out the reward for those who hold to this new life, rejecting the temptations offered by the world. For those who are able to do that, the Ten Commandments then resume their rightful place - before Jesus. Life after Jesus is infinitely richer than life before Jesus, and the Beatitudes help us to follow this new life.
So we can afford to be poor in spirit and to feel all our emotions, even those painful emotions caused by mourning. And we can afford to let the world get on with struggling for power and stand aside from that struggle, for we know that we meek will indeed inherit the earth.
