Blessing as Freedom

Epiphany 4A | January 31, 2005
Matthew 5:1-12

In his article, "Matthew's Beatitudes: Reversals and Rewards of the Kingdom," Catholic Biblical Quarterly 58/3 (1996) 460-79, Mark Allan Powell argues for a two-part structure to the beatitudes. The first four are "reversals for the unfortunate." The second four are "rewards for the virtuous." I like Powell's sense of the structure of this text, but instead of reversals and rewards, I prefer to talk about freedom in the beatitudes.

The first four declare freedom from

• despair (blessed are the poor in spirit),
• grief (blessed are those who mourn),
• want (blessed are the meek) and
• injustice (blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness).

The second four declare freedom for

• healing (blessed are the merciful),
• integrity (blessed are the pure in heart),
• peace (blessed are the peacemakers) and
• faithfulness (blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake).

Powell's reading of "blessed are the meek"—that the meek are those in economic need—may not be a usual reading of the text, but he makes a strong argument for it. The meek are not "the humble" but instead, "the humiliated." They are lowly not because they mean to be virtuous but as a result of having been flattened by the powerful.

I summarized "blessed are the merciful" with the word healing because "to show mercy" in Matthew is often to provide physical healing (9:27; 20:30, 31; 15:22; 17:17). However, mercy in Matthew is bigger than just physical healing and involves activities as varied as giving alms, eating with outcasts and forgiving sins.

Will any of this preach? I'm not sure I'll preach on this text, but if I did, I might talk about how the beatitudes begin to paint a picture of what the world looks like when the Lord's Prayer (also part of the Sermon on the Mount) is answered: "thy kingdom come; thy will be done…" we pray. Jesus is saying, "In the kingdom, in that place where God's will is done perfectly, these people are blessed by receiving freedom from lack and freedom for steadfast love." This description of the kingdom is not just philosophical or hypothetical. Just before the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has said, "… the kingdom of heaven has come near" (Matt 4:17). The beatitudes start to describe what the reign of God will look like as God's will is done on earth as it is in heaven, an eventuality that is at hand.