Macaroni Blessings (Blessed, Happy, & Settled in the Kingdom)

This blog is written as an assigned response to Paul Louis Metzger’s post, Blessed Are the Happy in Jesus, not Tortured, Cheated or Diseased Souls which introduces his series of posts on the beatitudes from Matthew 5:1-12. We also will consider these all in turn but first, we need to consider what sort of things beatitudes actually are.

So what is a beatitude? Simply put, beatitude is a term we use for a statement of blessedness. In the New Testament, when we read such declarative statements as “Blessed is/ are…” that are beatitudes. The name comes from the Latin word beatus. The earlier Greek word for the same thing is makarios (mä-kä'-rē-os) hence the other technical term for beatitude is makarism. This prompted my recent use of Macaroni & Cheese as an object lesson in a sermon. I will elaborate on this illustration later, but for now, let’s put it on the back burner to simmer. We need to ask what this word actually means.

 

So is it "Blessed", or "Happy"?
Traditionally, New Testament occurrences of makarios have been translated as “blessed”, but modern preachers and commentators have often opted for “happy” instead. In my opinion that creates a significant amount of cognitive dissonance. How can those described in these verses be happy? Certainly, it is not “happy” as we commonly use the word today. Let me describe it to you in the following four points:

·       The blessedness proclaimed in a beatitude or macarism is more than happiness as we commonly use the word. It is not dependent upon ideal circumstances and in fact, is often found in the most difficult of places. It is deeper, richer, and more enduring than that elated feeling that a random stroke of good fortune (“hap”) might produce. It is a holistic blessedness that is more shalom than smiley-face emoji, ☺.

·       A beatitude is neither something to be worked for like some kind of promotion or achievement level in a spiritual video game nor is it merely a wish for something we desire to be true. The beatitudes are too counterintuitive and counter-cultural for that. Rather, as Kenneth Bailey writes, “They affirm a quality of spirituality that is already present.”[1] Like a spiritual MRI, the beatitudes proclaim a truth we cannot see within the dominant worldview. So why is this kingdom quality already present? Because the true disciple has surrendered to the liberating love of the very present Savior King, Jesus Christ. Certainly, there is also the eschatological aspect that anticipates complete fulfillment in the future, but they are also present realities in the sight of God.

·       The beatitudes are not to be seen as a collection of individual attitudes, but rather as a cohesive whole. Too often we have approached beatitudes like the spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 12:4-11) that are given individually and pieced together for the common good. Such thinking gives us “plausible deniability” to explain any apparent lack of these attributes in our life. However, Matthew 5 is no bullet list of happiness hacks should we choose to take advantage of them, but an interrelated description of the citizen of the kingdom of heaven. Such thinking was to begin to transform the listener to that long-ago “Sermon on the Mount.” Some scholars argue over how many beatitudes there are, but in the end, it is apparent that no matter how you divide them, they really were intended and presented as a unit, a single picture, not merely a collection of independent blessings. Like the Snickers candy bar ad, “No matter how you slice it, it comes up peanuts!” The true disciple has all these nutty kingdom “attributes” present in them because the king has revealed himself to them and taken up residence within their lives. In fact, they may actually build on each other as Jim Forrest suggests in his insightful book, Ladder of the Beatitudes.

·       Such macarisms proclaimed in Matthew 5 are a peak behind the curtain, an amazing revelation of how God sees the reality of our lives. As a classmate of mine pointed out, he is naming the reality—blessed! Jesus is naming the kingdom as it really is, not as the world sees or values it.

Classic 3-D Glasses

We need to begin to see the world, and our lives, through Jesus' eyes. And as those who are poor in spirit, mourning, meek, hungry for righteousness, merciful, with pure/undivided affection, peacemakers, and not only endure persecution but with joy join the ranks of the prophets who looked for the coming kingdom.

As we approach the message of the kingdom of heaven, as found in Matthew 5-7, the text calls for us to repent of our own wisdom and our inclination to try to import the values of the world into the kingdom of heaven (see my pastoral post “Now it Begins…”).

Some of you may still be wondering about the macaroni metaphor. So how did I use Macaroni & Cheese as an object lesson? I used to think a plate of Kraft mac & cheese was happiness itself. I was comfortable with its hot bland yumminess. Over the years I began to put my own spin on it by adding some Parmesan cheese. Like all products that are marketed to us each day Mac & Cheese promised happiness. However, what I once thought was a blessing is now, in light of nutritional and overly processed food concerns, revealed to be something less…other…than what I thought.

 

This illustration fits into my metaphor exactly because those things that the world markets, values, and considers to be a blessing, are not the same as what Jesus proclaimed to be Makarios.

 

We must repent and begin to see our situation through his eyes, his heart, and rest in his proclaimed “blessed” values. The world has an idea about what attitudes bring success, but they are of no value in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus' kingdom is truly counter-cultural...even in the church.

Coming Soon: My next post will take this thought further as I engage a classic quote from St. Augustine about just such kingdom “happiness.”

---

[1] Kenneth E. Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, 68.

 

“Now it Begins…” (Matthew 4:12-25)

This week we are preparing to spend time listening to the simple yet challenging words of Jesus Christ in Matthew 5-7, arguably his most famous teaching (what we call "The Sermon on the Mount").  This summer, if we are going to hear Jesus speak in his own voice, in a fresh way that penetrates our cultural conditioning, we will need to understand a few things before we begin.

The Nature of the Kingdom = "Good News!" (Matthew 4:12-16, 23-25)

Matthew’s narrative snippets are not as detailed as those of Mark or Luke and seem to be used primarily to frame five major discourses or sermons that some believe were intended to remind the reader of the five books of Moses. Daniel Wallace points out as much in his book Greek Grammar.

v. 12-16 Now when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee.  And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:

“The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
    the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—
the people dwelling in darkness
    have seen a great light,
and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death,
    on them a light has dawned.”

v.23-25 And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics, and paralytics, and he healed them. And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.      

This “kingdom of heaven” (or Kingdom of God in the other Gospels) was very good news for those who were oppressed—whether physically, politically, economically, spiritually, or “E) All of the above”. This gospel of the kingdom was proclaimed to those who would have thought they were the least likely to receive it. The good news of a new kind of kingdom came to the poor, the sick, the outcasts, the powerless; those who were outside the mainstream of Judaism…and even to Gentiles.  

A 19^th Century preacher, Charles Spurgeon summed up the uniqueness of this visitation,

The far-off ones were visited by him who gathers together the outcasts of Israel. Our Lord courts not those who glory in their light, but those who pine in their darkness: he comes with heavenly life, not to those who boast of their own life and energy, but to those who are under condemnation, and who feel the shades of death shutting them out from light and hope… What a mercy to know that to those who appear out of the reach of the usual means, to those who dwell “by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles,” Jesus comes with power to enlighten and quicken! If I feel myself to be an out-of-the-way sinner, Lord, come to me and cause me to know that “light is sprung up” even for me! (Charles H. Spurgeon, The King Has Come, 43)

So what was this message of good news? It is one that we often fail to consider to be positive.

The Message of the Kingdom =  “Repent” (Matthew 4:17)

From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Many of us have heard the word “repent” but what does it mean to repent? It means more than being sorry. It is not merely remorse, “Remorse sees the bitter end of sin; repentance breaks free from it. The result of sin brings remorse; a divinely commissioned call brings repentance.” (Kittel, 589) Repentance means more than a change of mind that produces a change in behavior. It really is a heart change involving a relational return to the Lord. “It echoes the OT prophets’ frequent summons to Israel to return to God, to abandon their rebellion, and come back into covenant-obedience.” (R. T. France, Matthew, 90) Repentance is a radical conversion…allowing God to remake, re-wire, and re-program you on every level…in preparation for entering the kingdom/kingship of God.

The Sermon on the Mount that we will examine in the coming weeks will require us to take up the challenge of thinking differently and loving differently.

Jesus makes it clear that the kingdom of heaven is different from the status quo. No matter how hard we try, we cannot smuggle our worldly ways into the kingdom of heaven (Rev. 22:14-15) whether it is our ways of …

·         thinking—I deserve what is good, what is better than you, even what is the best.

·         loving—as long as you love me

·         forgiving—as long as you don’t do it again

·         giving—for recognition

·         fasting—to get what we want

·         worship—to feel we are better than others

·         trusting—to relax only when we have a surplus.

"Jesus calls for a decisive response to a new situation, the arrival in his ministry of the kingdom of heaven." (France, 103) This is the repentance that is needed. But there is more to the message of the kingdom. It is not merely a divine directive, but a relational invitation. 

The  Invitation of the King = “Follow me” (Matthew 4:18-19)

While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them,

“Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

Is this not good news that Jesus invites people to follow him, walk with him, and learn from his life (words and works)? This time will be life-changing and world-changing, valuable beyond imagination, but it will often be counterintuitive and difficult. Our decision to follow Jesus in discipleship will be tested. There is a cost to be counted, as we can see in Matthew 8:18-22. But we need to settle the question from the beginning—am I willing to follow Jesus wherever he leads me?

Will you join us in following Jesus into the kingdom of heaven…even here on earth?

 

 

[This post about how we can prepare for greater cross-cultural engagement through Jesus' cross-cultural, counter-cultural, teaching from the Sermon on the Mount, was originally posted at http://ourlongview.blogspot.com/]