Beatitudes – Jesus congratulates

The first part of the Ser­mon on the Mount is about «city deve­lo­p­ment». God is the crea­tor and buil­der of the city, which is visi­bly situa­ted on a moun­tain (Matthew 5:14). The vir­tu­es from the Beati­tu­des are some­thing like the ent­rance gate to this city and at the same time a descrip­ti­on of the cul­tu­re that pre­vails the­re. Peo­p­le who dance to God’s music make up this city, the King­dom of God.

The first part of the Ser­mon on the Mount is about «urban deve­lo­p­ment». Austria’s Vien­na, Germany’s Frei­burg and St. Gal­len in Switz­er­land bear the label «model city». Thus it was writ­ten about St. Gal­len: «In a Euro­pean city com­pa­ri­son, St. Gal­len scores excel­lent­ly. The eas­tern Swiss metro­po­lis is a strong regio­nal eco­no­mic cent­re with a low tax bur­den, a high­ly qua­li­fied work­force and a rela­xed housing mar­ket.«Modern cities invest lar­ge sums in urban deve­lo­p­ment. Urban deve­lo­p­ment is a pro­fes­si­on that can be lear­ned in spe­ci­al­ly deve­lo­ped degree programmes.

In the Ser­mon on the Mount, Jesus reve­als hims­elf to a cer­tain ext­ent as a city deve­lo­per who sets out to rea­li­se his king­dom in the form of a city. In Matthew 5:14–16 we dis­co­ver that this city is made up of peo­p­le. «A city that lies on a moun­tain can­not remain hid­den»(Matthew 5:14 NGÜ). The city should be visi­ble from afar. It is the city whe­re God is the King. He is the crea­tor and builder.

The congratulations

Sin­ce the sen­ten­ces in Matthew 5:3–12 all begin with «Hap­py to prai­se are…»(Luther: «Bles­sed are…») are intro­du­ced, this sec­tion is also cal­led the Beati­tu­des. The first two ver­ses of Psalm 1 also begin with the same words. So it is like a con­gra­tu­la­ti­on for a basic decis­i­on made in life or a chall­enge to make one. This decis­i­on con­cerns the ques­ti­on of which com­mu­ni­ty we want to loca­te our lives in, and thus beco­mes the gate­way to God’s city. Jesus chal­lenges us to think careful­ly about the music we want to dance to. It is important to remem­ber that the music we dance to will rub off on our lives and cha­rac­ter. From Psalm 1 we know: A flou­ris­hing life (not a pro­blem-free) life is found in dancing to the music of God.

The­se con­gra­tu­la­ti­ons speak to all tho­se who have set out to learn to dance to the music of hea­ven with Jesus and in his com­mu­ni­ty, that they are ther­eby cal­led sons and daugh­ters of God. They are part of God’s future pro­ject, the city on the moun­tain, the King­dom of God movement.

The virtues

The Beati­tu­des con­tain eight the­ses. If we read them from Psalm 1, we dis­co­ver in them eight vir­tu­es that distin­gu­ish the cha­rac­ter of a per­son who dances to the music of the king­dom of heaven.

Humi­li­ty
«Hap­py are tho­se who are poor befo­re God»(V.3 NGÜ). Humi­li­ty must not be con­fu­sed with self-aba­se­ment and sub­mis­si­ve­ness. It is rather the cou­ra­ge­ous accep­tance of rea­li­ty: He, God is the Crea­tor and Sus­tai­ner, I am His «poor» (i.e. depen­dent and nee­dy) crea­tu­re. From the Jewish tra­di­ti­on, the per­son who pro­fes­ses the creed of Isra­el is hum­ble: «Hear, O Isra­el! The LORD our God, the LORD is only. The­r­e­fo­re you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.»(Deut 6:4f EU).

Suf­fe­ring from the hard­ship of the world
«Hap­py to prai­se are tho­se who mourn»(V.4 NGÜ). The term Pity is often unders­tood as a fee­ling that occurs spon­ta­neous­ly when we see peo­p­le in need. But a vir­tue is more than a spon­ta­neous­ly trig­ge­red fee­ling. It is about a deep con­cern in the face of need in the world. Peo­p­le who are about to hear the music of hea­ven and dance to it suf­fer when they see stumb­ling huma­ni­ty – of which they are also a part. It is about see­ing the world through the eyes of Jesus and wee­ping over it.

Non­vio­lence
«Hap­py to prai­se are the meek»(V.5 NGÜ). Meekness is often misun­ders­tood as soft­ness. When Jesus rides into Jeru­sa­lem on a don­key as the Mes­siah King, he is cha­rac­te­ri­sed as «meek». But this does not pre­vent him from going straight to the temp­le and dri­ving out the mer­chants. It beco­mes clear that meekness must not be unders­tood in the sen­se of soft­ness. It is about the inner strength that enables non-vio­lence and trusts com­ple­te­ly in God.

Lon­ging for justice
«Hap­py to prai­se are tho­se who hun­ger and thirst for righ­teous­ness»(V.6 NGÜ). This vir­tue fol­lows on from the second vir­tue: Tho­se who see the world with God’s eyes and suf­fer from hard­ship also car­ry within them a lon­ging for a more just world.

Mer­cy
«Hap­py to prai­se the mer­ciful»(V.7 NGÜ). Out of the con­s­ter­na­ti­on in the face of need and the lon­ging for a more just world, a hel­ping atti­tu­de ari­ses which leads to cor­re­spon­ding actions. Mer­cy can be unders­tood as action that ser­ves jus­ti­ce. God does not want to see reli­gious ritu­als (sacri­fices), but mer­ciful action (Hosea 6:6). In Matthew 25:31–46 this vir­tue is unfold­ed and con­cre­ti­sed in the «six works of mer­cy»: Feed the hun­gry, give drink to the thirsty, wel­co­me stran­gers, clo­the the naked, visit the sick and the imprisoned.

Puri­ty (cla­ri­ty) of the heart
«Hap­py to prai­se are tho­se who have a pure heart»(V.8 NGÜ). This vir­tue is not about a sin­less heart or impu­ri­ty that needs puri­fi­ca­ti­on. It is about the heart as the cent­re of the per­son being sin­ce­re and trans­pa­rent. What is requi­red is clear focus, unam­bi­gui­ty and con­se­quent action.

Wil­ling­ness for recon­ci­lia­ti­on and peace
«Hap­py are tho­se who make peace»(V.9 NGÜ). It is about the vir­tue of affir­ming, lon­ging for and pro­mo­ting peace from the bot­tom of one’s heart. The pro­gram­ma­tic announce­ment of the Mes­siah on Christ­mas night is: «Glo­ry and honour to God in the hig­hest, and peace on earth to the peo­p­le on whom His good plea­su­re rests.»(Luke 2:14 NGÜ).

Wil­ling­ness to endu­re resis­tance for the sake of justice
«Hap­py are tho­se who are per­se­cu­ted for the sake of righ­teous­ness […] when you are insul­ted and per­se­cu­ted for my sake, and the worst things are unjus­t­ly said to you»(V.10+11 NGÜ). When the first seven vir­tu­es beco­me life-defi­ning in a per­son, it must be expec­ted that now and then someone will fall under the wheels of a socie­ty that does not live such vir­tu­es. The inner rea­di­ness to some­ti­mes be insul­ted or even oppres­sed for the sake of the king­dom of God beco­mes a vir­tue its­elf. If we have the way of Jesus befo­re our eyes, let us pro­ve our­sel­ves to be dancers of God in this vir­tue as well. In ano­ther place, the­re is talk of car­ry­ing the cross.

How do the­se vir­tu­es beco­me ours? Like father like daugh­ter or son. The hea­ven­ly Father embo­dies the­se vir­tu­es. When we abide in Him and dance to His music, inner atti­tu­des flou­rish that matu­re into vir­tu­es and ulti­m­ate­ly make up a person’s cha­rac­ter. This is meta­mor­pho­sis – the lar­va beco­mes an adult being.

In the let­ter to the Thes­sa­lo­ni­ans Paul gives us ano­ther important hint con­cer­ning meta­mor­pho­sis: «We never cea­se to pray for you, that our God will make you rea­dy for the life to which he has cal­led you. And we pray that God will fill your good inten­ti­ons and what you do by faith with his power.»(2Thessalonians 1:11 NLB). Meta­mor­pho­sis pre­sup­po­ses good inten­ti­ons. The­se he fills with his power, so that we find the life to which he has cal­led us. Each of us could choo­se one vir­tue from the Beati­tu­de and make it our inten­ti­on. From this we could for­mu­la­te a goal for the year, wri­te this in the spi­ri­tu­al dia­ry and begin to ask for God’s power in this matter.

The promises

As alre­a­dy men­tio­ned: Whoe­ver allows hims­elf to be plan­ted in God’s com­mu­ni­ty and dances to His music is hap­py to be prai­sed. Real­ly? Are the peo­p­le who are poor, mour­ning, renoun­cing vio­lence and per­se­cu­ted real­ly «hap­py to be prai­sed»? Are they not to be pitied? Recent­ly a woman said that she was at war with God right now! The reason is that the­re are things in life that do not go smooth­ly. Suf­fe­ring, pres­su­re and resis­tance are part of a life with God. Never was­te a cri­sis! They pro­mo­te growth and matu­ri­ty. Regard­less of how para­do­xi­cal the Beati­tu­des sound and how your life is going at the moment: You are hap­py to be prai­sed when you have plan­ted your life with God. Then you are like a blos­so­ming tree by a stream. Heat and drought can do not­hing to you.

The eight the­ses of the Beati­tu­des all have the same struc­tu­re: Con­gra­tu­la­ti­on – Vir­tue – Pro­mi­se. The con­gra­tu­la­ti­on is in the pre­sent ten­se, the pro­mi­se in the future ten­se. A per­son who dances to the music of God is alre­a­dy dancing to hap­pi­ness. And yet we live in pro­vi­sio­na­li­ty. The best is yet to come: life in the city of God, whe­re He dwells in the midst of His sons and daugh­ters and estab­lishes His king­dom. Someone once said: «It is good that we do not yet know what it will be like in the hea­ven­ly city, other­wi­se no one would want to live.«Alre­a­dy hap­pi­ness and deep peace, but not yet in maxi­mum per­fec­tion; this is the life of a per­son who has ent­rus­ted his life to Jesus.

The Beati­tu­des descri­be the future of tho­se who are cal­led God’s daugh­ters and sons with eight dif­fe­rent pro­mi­ses: To them belongs the king­dom of hea­ven / they will be com­for­ted / they will recei­ve the earth as a pos­ses­si­on / they will be fil­led / they will find mer­cy / they will see God / they will be cal­led sons of God / to them belongs the king­dom of hea­ven. The idea of this glo­rious wealth should trig­ger a reac­tion in us: «Rejoice and be glad! For a gre­at reward awaits you in hea­ven»(Matthew 5:12 NGÜ).

Jesus came to earth to build God’s king­dom. He wants to do this with us humans. When we loca­te our lives in Jesus and ent­rust our­sel­ves to Him, we beco­me city buil­ders along­side Him. Vir­tu­es and our cha­rac­ter play an important role in this. They form the cul­tu­re of this future city. You are cor­di­al­ly invi­ted to be a buil­ding block of it!

Possible questions for the small groups

Read Bible text: Matthew 5:1–12; 2 Thes­sa­lo­ni­ans 2:11

1. Read through the eight the­ses of the Beati­tu­des. What fee­lings and thoughts come up?
2. What is the dif­fe­rence that our vir­tue and cha­rac­ter for­ma­ti­on should make up the cul­tu­re of the city of the living God and not just our pri­va­te piety?
3. Which of the eight vir­tu­es men­tio­ned appeals to you most? Which ones would you like to pro­mo­te in your life?
4. Read 2 Thes­sa­lo­ni­ans 1:11. For­mu­la­te an inten­ti­on regar­ding vir­tu­es, wri­te it in your dia­ry and pray for it daily!