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Matthew 5:312

John P. Meifr Interpretation 1990 44: 281 DOI: 10.1177/002096430004400307 The online version of this article can be found at: http://int.sagepub.com/content/44/3/281.citation

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a n d well-managed "sacred cows" are always in d a n g e r of becoming golden calves. T h e promise is that finally God "does n o t deal with us according to our sins, n o r requite us according to our iniquities" (Ps. 103:10). God does what the people c a n n o t or will n o t do; God r e m e m b e r s a n d is faithful to the point of bearing h u m a n sinfulness. Israel's disobedience in Exodus 32:1-14 was not the e n d of the story. Peter's denial a n d the disciple's unfaithfulness were n o t the e n d of the story. T h e c h u r c h ' s history of disobedience has n o t e n d e d the story of God's dealing with a chosen people. T h e c h u r c h is saved by grace!

JOHN P. MEIFR

Professor of New Testament The Catholic University of America

Matthew 5:3-12
HE MOST DANGEROUS passages in the Bible are the familiar ones, because we do n o t really listen to them. T h e sharp stone of God's Word, s m o o t h e d down by the river of time, n o longer cuts. Instead of being challenged by h a r d t h o u g h t or h a r d choices, we lean back a n d savor pretty words. No pericope in the Gospels is m o r e exposed to this familiarity that breeds c o n t e n t m e n t than the beatitudes in Matthew's Gospel. Nine beatitudes, nine spiritual b o n b o n s . No sooner is "Blessed are the p o o r . . . " intoned than eyes b e c o m e glassy or moist, the heart is strangely warmed, and n o o n e notices that Jesus the revolutionary is heaving a verbal g r e n a d e into o u r homiletic garden. This soporific effect of the too-well-known is the reason I am willing to be b r a n d e d a vulgarian for preferring the translation "Happy are the p o o r Yes, to be sure, it sounds flat a n d insipid by comparison, conjuring u p Peanuts cartoons of "Happiness is. . . ." But the traditional "blessed" inevitably gives people the impression that they are being verbally showered with blessings from God. They miss the vital point that the beatitudes do n o t trace their lineage back to Israel's liturgy a n d the kind of cui tic blessing ( berk) at h o m e there. In such liturgical blessings, it is God, n o t Israelites, who are declared "blessed" with the cry baruk (in Greek, eulogetos). God is "blessed" in the sense that he is praised a n d t h a n k e d for the marvelous deeds he has wrought for Israel as a whole a n d for individual believers. T h e beatitudes Jesus speaks come n o t from this liturgical context b u t from Israel's wisdom tradition, which struggled to define true happiness, stipulate its conditions, a n d celebrate its rewards. T h e beatitudes ofJesus echo the wisd o m tradition of those psalms which cry out ashr (in Greek, makanos) : "Happy is everyone who fears Yahweh, who walks in his ways, for you shall eat the fruit
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of the labor of your h a n d s " (Ps. 128:1-2). H e r e we have the basic form of the beatitude: (1) an initial declaration that s o m e o n e is happy; (2) an adjective, participle, or relative clause, usually in the third person, that describes the behavior or attitudes of the happy individual a n d so implicitly defines what makes for true happiness; (3) a promise, sometimes introduced by "for," that proclaims the rewards sure to attend such behavior a n d attitudes. T h e beatitudes of the Matthean Jesus follow this pattern exactly: (1) Happy are (2) the p o o r in spirit, (3) for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. H e n c e , t h o u g h parts of the Sermon on the M o u n t may be diffused with a Moses typology, the Jesus of the beatitudes is m o r e like an archetypal wisdom teacher or eschatological Solomon, revealing to the p o o r of Israel the path to true happiness. In the beatitudes, h e is n o t Jesus-who-replaces-Moses, h a n d i n g down a new set of T e n (or Nine) C o m m a n d m e n t s ; h e is m o r e like Jesus Ben Sira, teaching his disciples the way to be genuinely happy. Yet an Old Testament wisdom teacher might well be amazed by Jesus' definition of happiness a n d the transformation it entails. Conservative in its t h o u g h t a n d forms, the wisdom of ancient Israel did not change readily. T h r o u g h o u t the New Testament period a n d beyond, o n e stream of Jewish wisdom preserved the beatitude very m u c h as it had found it, with its traditional message of good conduct receiving its just reward in this life. But there also arose a second stream of Jewish wisdom, o n e that felt forced to rethink a n d transfigure the good news the beatitude proclaimed. For a funny thing h a p p e n e d to wisdom on the way to the first century. It ran into J o b a n d Ecclesiastes. It ran into the bad news that the good are n o t always rewarded in this life, as traditional wisdom h a d insisted. It also ran into the Maccabean martyrs, brutally tortured a n d b u t c h e r e d , deprived of all happiness in this life, assured of happiness only if there was a life to come. In short, wisdom ran into apocalyptic. T h e basic connection between right c o n d u c t a n d just r e c o m p e n s e was n o t broken but projected o n t o a cosmic screen, with r o o m for a type of reward that was p o s t p o n e d from this life to the next. Happiness in this life was redefined in terms of patient e n d u r a n c e amid the eschatological woes, an e n d u r a n c e to be crowned with a reversal of fates a n d vindication when God's kingdom finally came. H e n c e the Hebrew form of the Book of Daniel ends n o t with a beatitude such as we find in the Book of Psalms or Proverbs b u t rather with an eschatological beatitude: "Happy is the o n e who waits with patience a n d so arrives" at the promised consummation (Dan. 12:12). Apocalyptic gave cagey wisdom a paradoxical twist: Happy are the unhappy, for God will make them happyon the last day. It is this paradoxical, eschatological wisdom that the one-greater-thanSolomon proclaims from the M o u n t of Beatitudes. Happy are those who hunger a n d thirst for justice (salvation), for they will be satisfied (fed to the full with it) at the eschatological b a n q u e t (Matt. 5:6). Happy are the lowly who are persecuted for the sake ofjustice (because they live according to God's will), 282
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for they will reign in the Kingdom of Heaven (5:10). Yes, those who are persecuted a n d slandered should skip with joy, for their reward is great in heaven (5:11-12). Clearly, the beatitudes of Jesus are eschatological to the core. H u m a n happiness is n o longer defined by a wisdom limited to a h u m a n future, b u t by God's promise focused o n God's future. T h e m o u r n e r s , the meek, the merciful are declared happy now (see v. 11) because they are certain that they will find consolation, inheritance, a n d mercy on the last day, when God sets things right. T h e future t r i u m p h of God, n o t the present misery of humanity, determines what true happiness is, however covert its operation in this present age. Yet is there n o t a d a n g e r in this kind of wisdom, a d a n g e r highlighted especially in o u r own day by liberation theologians? This message of eschatological h o p e easily becomes pie-in-the-sky religion, the classical opiate of the masses. For centuries o n e type of Christianity readily lent itself as a p r o p to the powers that be by p r e a c h i n g to the wretched of the earth: "Put u p with your poor, oppressed state in this world, a n d God will reward you by reversing your lot in the next." As history shows, the d a n g e r liberation theology diagnoses is all too real. Strange to say, though, this charge of pie-in-the-sky religion might be raised m o r e logically (I do n o t say correctly) against the form of the beatitudes found in the favorite Gospel of the liberation theologians, Luke. Luke's version of the beatitudes (Luke 6:200-23), while probably reflecting m o r e faithfully the form of the beatitudes in the Q d o c u m e n t , is arguably m o r e o p e n to the accusation of inculcating a religion of passivity. In Luke, those who are literally poor, hungry, weeping, a n d ostracized are exhorted to h o p e for the lifting u p of the lowly on the last day. O n e might claim that the Lukan beatitudes t e n d to emphasize a "passive" stance of waiting for the Lord to actand n o t h i n g more. As is well known, Matthew, in his version of the beatitudes, "generalizes" or "spiritualizes" poverty a n d h u n g e r , transforming t h e m into i n n e r attitudes available to all Christians. Yet Matthew does something m o r e than that, something that forestalls any "pie-in-the-sky" reading of the beatitudes. His particular redaction of the beatitudes stems partly from the fact that Matthew, h e r e as elsewhere in his Gospel, is a "mesher." T h a t is to say, Matthew tends to mesh into a single u n i t traditions that Luke keeps apart. For instance, on the grand scale, Luke writes two separate volumes, a Gospel a n d an Acts of the Apostles. Matthew writes an Acts too, b u t h e writes it right in the middle of his Gospel. H e n c e the key word "church," which Luke, with good historical sense, restricts to the Acts of the Apostles, is inserted by Matthew into the h e a r t of his Gospel story (16:18; 18:17). T o take a n o t h e r example, Luke keeps the Marcan material of the public ministry in blocks distinct from the blocks m a d e u p of Q a n d the special Lukan source. Matthew merrily meshes Mark, Q, a n d his special Matthean material, weaving a not-so-seamless g a r m e n t t h r o u g h o u t his
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Gospel. Even in the small compass of the beatitudes, Matthew proves a mesher. H e has welded two lists of different types of beatitudes into an artistic whole, a whole so esthetically pleasing that he has practically obliterated Luke's version from the memory of the ordinary Christian. From Q Matthew received the list of the four beatitudes also seen in Luke, a list beginning with the anawlm (traditionally translated in this case as "the poor") and e n d i n g with the persecuted (Matt. 5:3, 4, 6, 11-12). These beatitudes, like their counterparts in Luke, primarily speak h o p e to those unable b\ force of circumstances to act o n their own behalf, those who must wait in patience for God's salvation. With this list, however, Matthew dovetails a notably different list of beatitudes, one he inherited from his M tradition. This list, too, begins with the anawlm (traditionally translated in this case as "the meek") and ends with the persecuted (5:5, 7, 8, 9, 10), but this M list has a m o r e activist tone than the Q list. Those declared happy include those who show7 mercy to others, those who act single-mindedly in pursuit of God's will ("the p u r e of heart"), and those who make peace. In these activist beatitudes, even the persecuted suffer "for justice' sake," that is to say, because they do God's will (a favorite t h e m e of Matthew and his tradition). In this list, the persecuted are so because they act. Matthew the mesher thus weaves a splendid tapestry of the passive and active dimensions in Christian living. It is a tapestry that still depicts the woof and warp of our Christian existence today. All of us, to be sure, must on the most basic level of our lives wait u p o n God, h o p i n g in his power to save us where we could never save ourselvesfrom a present of meaningless suffering and a future of eternal nothingness. H e r e the passive beatitudes function as a barrier against any subtle return to Pelagianism or self-salvation. But in Matthew this barrier does not create a prison where Christians must wait passively for a future that they have no part in forming. Preciselv because God's future promise impinges on and molds our present lives, we who hear and believe the message of Jesus in the beatitudes are energi/ed, galvanized, empowered to reflect God's saving action in our own Christian action. Precisely because the spirituallv p o o r see t h r o u g h the shoddy promises and props of this world's power and wealth, preciselv because Jesus' disciples refuse to accept this world as the absolute goal or mainstay of their existence, they have the courage to show God's mercy, to make God's peace, to "do the right thing" willed by God in the face of persecution. T h e saving action of God that touches them in Jesus' beatitudes is also the saving action they are empowered to imitate. Their unlimited love reflects the family resemblance they derive from their heavenly Father (5:44-48). Thus, in Matthew the mesher, the beatitudes call for a u n i q u e trust in God wiiich in turn enables a u n i q u e imitation of God. Whatever this is, it is n o t pie-in-the-sky by a n d by. Not surprisingly, in Matthew's Gospel imitation of God the Father involves 284
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concretely imitation of Jesus the Son (3:17), Jesus o u r b r o t h e r (12:49-50). Even in the beatitudes, Matthew intimates that the divine action we are called to mirror has already been mirrored for us in Jesus. It is hardly by accident that Matthew uses "meek" (the Greek word is pras) only three times in his Gospel: once of the disciples (5:5) and twice ofJesus (11:29; 21:5), the meek teacher a n d king. In 11:29, Jesus the wisdom teacher a n d apocalyptic revealer has just t h a n k e d the Father for having revealed t h r o u g h him the secret relationship of Father a n d Son to m e r e childrenno doubt, to the p o o r a n d meek disciples felicitated in the beatitudes. T h e n , assuming the solemn mantle of Wisdom herself, Jesus s u m m o n s all the heavily b u r d e n e d to come to him, to learn in his school of wisdom, a n d thus find peace a n d rest for their souls. T h e reason why they should come to this particular school lies in the person of Jesus himself: "For I am meek a n d h u m b l e of heart. . . . my yoke is easy, my b u r d e n light." To learn a n d accept the instruction, the way of life, the "yoke" of Jesus is to learn not just from or about Jesus; it is ultimately to learn Jesus himself, Jesus the meek and h u m b l e , Jesus the archetype of the anawlm . We find a similar message in 21:5, where Matthew proclaims that Jesus, as he rides into Jerusalem on the way to his passion, fulfills Zechariah's prophecy concerning the messianic king: "Say to Daughter Zion: Behold, your king comes to you, meek and seated u p o n a donkey." Curiously, Matthew omits Zechariah's further description of the king as "just a n d saving." Obviously, Matthew is n o t against such a description of Jesus, as 1:21 makes clear ("he shall savehis people from their sins"; cf. also 27:19). Rather, Matthew wishes to focus intensely on the paradoxical quality of this messianic king who comes to Zion n o t on a war horse but on a donkey, the animal of peace. For all the talk of a "triumphal entry," the Matthean Jesus enters his royal capital n o t as the t r i u m p h a n t king who conquers t h r o u g h force but as a meek, peaceable king who will win his kingdom at the cost of the cross. It is as the meek a n d h u m b l e leader of those anaioim he has taught that this King advances to the ultimate impoverishment of death. As Flannery O ' C o n n o r observed: "You can't be p o o r e r than dead." By his teaching, by his living, and finally by his dying, Jesus the wisdom teacher a n d revealer identifies totally with those he calls happy in the beatitudes. In felicitating others, he deftly describes himself. In the end, then, the beatitudes are the autobiography of Jesus, a perfect self-portrait by the Master. Jesus the meek teacher of wisdom a n d meek king of the universe, Jesus crucified a n d risen, is the only fully happy m a n who ever lived. We disciples slowly learn his path to happiness as we walk his way of wisd o m , his way of the cross. Happy are those who discover on the way, like a treasure h i d d e n in a field, the Christology h i d d e n in the beatitudes.

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