The Beatitudes and Countercultural Living
A quick test blog here. Nothing else.
After studying through the 5th chapter of the gospel of Matthew, I wanted to do a quick writing about how the sermon on the mount kicks off by addressing the beatitudes, which is a list of 8 spiritual qualities. But before I begin, the central theme is blessedness. Some versions of the bible translates it to "happiness", but blessedness here is referring to the inward peace that is not dependent on extrenal circumstances, as opposed to the original definition of "happiness" which shares with the same word root with "happen" and "happenstance", which in turn refers to external circumstances. Actually, when you think about it, the kind of blessedness is more external than external happiness simply because it's not found in the world but is only given by our Lord.
With that out of the way, there are two main points that I will mention throughout this article. One, the beatitudes are given in a certain order, and one follows the other in a sequence of events. Two, and this is the most important point, is that all of them go against the grain of both our current culture today and the ancient culture of Israel. This makes sense because if you think about it, the nature of humanity had remained the same throughout the 2000 years.
First, let's figure out the sequence. It goes like this: "Poor in spirit", then "mourning", then "humble", then "hunger and thirst after righteousness", then "merciful", then "pure in heart", then "peacemakers" and finally "persecuted". A pseron has to be as poor in spirit as a beggar and that causes them to grieve over their sins and inadequecies. However, that mourning doesn't lead to dispair, nor is it a superficial mourning that is only concerned with the consequences of sin. This leads a person to become humble. Humble, or "meek" doesn't mean someone who's a passive doormat whom everyone else walks on. A meek person gives up their rights but retains a rightful indignity whenever God's standards are broken. Jesus was meek and humble, but he showed his rightful anger when he chased the merchants out from the temple of Jerusalem. Having given up themselves, a person then seeks righteousness, or in other words, a right relationship with God. It can be said that a righteous person has a good relationship with God, and an unrighteous person has no relationship with God, so in this sense "righteousness" and "relationship with God" are interchangable. A strong desire for good relationship with God then leads to being merciful. Just like the unforgiving servant who was seemingly forgiven of a massive debt to his master in the eponymous parable, those who won't forgive others because they haven't received forgiveness from God first. On the other hand, those who show mercy proves to everyone that they have been forgiven and their mercy flows out of God. The pure in heart refers to a person who desire to have a clean inside, rather than "whitewashed outside and filled with corpses and bones". A pure heart then leads a person to become a peacemaker, who is someone who makes peace in interpersonal relationships. Like a meek person, a peacemaker gives up their rights for personal vengence but remains a strong warrior in faith. Finally, because all of this is so radically countercultural to the world in both ancient and current times, a believer will be persecuted in some way. I don't want to go into too much detail here but I will say that persecution can come in very sneaky ways. However, regardless of the circumstance, Jesus instructs us to not be upset, because the persecution that seems to fall upon us actually falls upon him, as when the Lord called Paul on the road to Damascus "Paul! Paul! Why are you persecuting me?". Also, we ought to be "exceedingly glad" because it's nothing new. Not only the anceint prophets were also persecuted, the same persecution continues on even to this day. We are not masochists who are only in it for the "rewards of heaven", so we ought to be glad when God freely gives His rewards to us.
Contrasting our current culture with the ancients, we are actually no different from the ancients who lived 2000 years ago. In ancient Israel where people actually believed more in karma than God (refer to Job's debate against his three friends which was recorded in pre-Abraham times), a person being poor and spirit and mourning over their sin was seen as someone who merely grieves over their seemingly justly deserved punishment and not genuine contrition. In today's world, we call all forms of mourning a disease that must be treated with psychiatric help, and the rest of us are drowning in this so-called "toxic posivity" where we must be happy all the time or there's something wrong with us. The ancients were not humble. In fact they prided themselves as being religious and above everyone else. Neither are we humble today. We clamour for all sorts of rights which had made us even more entitled than ever before. The ancients did not seek a relationship with God, but rather relationships with only members within their own circles where they see themselves as "righteous" and those outside of their circles are damned.. This echo chamber mentality continues today with the atomizing force of "brand of self" propelled by the likes of social media. The ancients were not merciful, but so prejudiced against outsiders that they wouldn't even help a drowning gentile. Even today, mercy is seen as a weakness by some, and some more even twist mercy and use is as a weapon to prejudice against those who they claim to be "not merciful enough". Just as Jesus condemed the ancients as being clean on the outside but filled with all mannters of filth on the inside, the people of today mask their impure insides with exterior goodness. So don't be surprised to find scandalous news breaking out every now and then. Peacemakers weren't valued in the time of the ancients, and neither are they valued today. Both we and the ancients fight tooth and nail for our rights. They sought not peace, but rather were eager to settle every trivial interpesonal conflict in the court of law. Today, we all use rights as a pretense to justify our hatred towards others, and then we use agreeableness to hide that hatred. Finally, the ancients did not take persecution well, except the few prophets who rejoiced in the hope of renewal and the promise of the Lord's coming. Even the disciples fled at the first sign of persecution. Many so-called Christians today take their guns and demand freedom and even start civil disorders just because they are unwilling to face persecution, and thus defile our Lord with their behavior.
The gospel calls us to a counterculture living, which is refered to as "salt and light" of the world. A salt to preserve whatever good is left in this corrupted and rotten world and the light for others to see in the darkness. I don't wish to continue onto that topic so I'll probably just end it here. Hope you all enjoyed the read.
