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Matthew 5-7: an Introduction to Right Privilege

Jesus’ opening to the Sermon on the Mount speaks about the blessings of serving God and it is often referred to as the beatitudes: the word ‘beatitude’ comes from the Latin word for blessing.[1] These blessings -and indeed this whole sermon- speak about what it is like to be a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven. Now by ‘Kingdom of Heaven’, we don’t mean what it will be like ‘when you go to heaven’ because this passage speaks very clearly that these blessing occur here on earth. It says the meek will inherit the earth (v. 5) and further on in this sermon Jesus speaks about marriage, adultery, an end to divorce… and –of course- Matthew tells us, as recorded in Chapter 22 of this Gospel, that there is no marriage, let alone divorce, remarriage and adultery in heaven (Matthew 22:23-30, Mark 12:24-26, Luke 20:34-36). This whole sermon speaks to what life is like when we are citizens of God’s Kingdom living here on the equivalent of a divine work visa so to speak or more accurately, as a fifth column or an advance guard preparing the way for Jesus’ return. This sermon is about what life is like when you are a Christian in this place, in this time, and this is quite something.[2]


It opens with some wonderful words of comfort so let’s take a look at Matthew 5:1-16 this morning. The first two verses of this chapter are nicely setting the stage for Jesus’ sermon. Matthew often draws parallels for his readers between Jesus and Moses who has been called ‘the Great Law Giver.’ Moses of course received the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, the Law from the LORD atop a Mountain. This Law articulated what had demarcated the people of God (vv.17-18) and now that it is fulfilled, Jesus is sharing with us what life looks like for the people of God living in His proleptic kingdom.

This is interesting: we said that the word ‘beatitude’ comes from the Latin word for blessed. The Greek equivalent of this word is makarism and makarism refers to people in a privileged circumstance: those who are ‘fortunate’, ‘happy’, ‘well off’, ‘blessed’. It relates to the Hebrew world Shalom which means ‘peace’ and ‘well-being’ and this closely relates to the German word Heil. Those of us who have grown up in and around The Salvation Army, do you know what Heil means? Whereas we wear S’s on our uniforms the German Salvationists wear H’s on theirs. Heil means ‘Salvation’.[3] When our scriptures today say, ‘blessed is so and so because of this and that’, it is saying that we blessed people are saved and we are at peace. ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven’ means ‘saved and peaceful are the poor in spirit as they live in the Kingdom of Heaven.’

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