A Great Reward in Heaven
Rev. Mark Schaefer
Kay Spiritual Life Center
January 30, 2011
Micah 6:1-8; Matthew 5:1-12
Micah 6:1-8 • Hear what the Lord says:
Rise, plead your case before the mountains,
and let the hills hear your voice.
Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the Lord,
and you enduring foundations of the earth;
for the Lord has a controversy with his people,
and he will contend with Israel.
‘O my people, what have I done to you?
In what have I wearied you? Answer me!
For I brought you up from the land of Egypt,
and redeemed you from the house of slavery;
and I sent before you Moses,
Aaron, and Miriam.
O my people, remember now what King Balak of Moab devised,
what Balaam son of Beor answered him,
and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal,
that you may know the saving acts of the Lord.’
‘With what shall I come before the Lord,
and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings,
with calves a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with tens of thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?’
He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
Matthew 5:1-12 • When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:
‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
‘Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
I. BEGINNING
Yesterday, Allison and Anne and I had the privilege of participating in a training at the Mission Center of the Baltimore Washington Conference. The training day involved lessons on a number of different topics including spiritual leadership, engagement in the community, and small group development. But the day got off to a good start with a presentation on the deep United Methodist commitment to social justice. Beth, the social justice advocate for the conference, brought out the teachings of Walter Brueggemann, the teachings of John Wesley and the Social Principles of the United Methodist Church. But the kicker was, as always, these eight verses from the prophet Micah.
To make his prophetic point, Micah presents his message in the form of a lawsuit. God, frustrated with Israel’s failure to live up to the covenant, hauls Israel into court, with the mountains and the hills as jurors:
Hear what the Lord says:
Rise, plead your case before the mountains,
and let the hills hear your voice.
Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the Lord,
and you enduring foundations of the earth;
for the Lord has a controversy with his people,
and he will contend with Israel.
God begins his case by wondering what has God done that Israel should be so unfaithful. Had God not delivered the people from bondage in Egypt? Had God not sent prophets and the law? Had God not delivered them from their enemies?
Israel responds by wondering just how many sacrifices it is that God wants from them. “Thousands of rams? … Tens of thousands of rivers of oil?” Israel asks, somewhat sarcastically. No, the prophet responds. Not that.
He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
Bam. It’s justice, God wants from us. Not empty sacrifice. Justice.
These verses were on my mind a lot over these past few days. On Friday, in the class that I teach, we covered the Prophets of Israel. We ended with Micah. “Do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with your God.” Damn straight. And then last night, I had the privilege of speaking at a Chi Alpha event about sex trafficking. Again, there was Micah, exhorting the church to remember to do justice for those who are oppressed, those who are on the margins of society.
This has been a full on Micah-inspired Weekend of Justice. And so tonight’s reading, straight out of the lectionary, just finishes the weekend off right. Justice, baby. Justice.
II. THE BEATITUDES
But then, looking at the other reading for tonight from Matthew, I have to wonder: what on earth is Jesus talking about? I mean, listen to some of this stuff again:
‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
…
‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
‘Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
I don’t know about you, but that sounds like an awful lot of delayed gratification to me. All the present tense verbs describe the present state: poor in spirit, those who mourn, meek, hunger and thirst for righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, persecuted for righteousness’ sake, reviled and persecuted on Jesus’ account… But all the good stuff is in the future: will be comforted, will inherit the hearth, will be filled, will receive mercy, will see God, will be called children of God, and then the kicker—’your reward is great in heaven.’
And on top of it all, Jesus is declaring these poor folks to be “blessed”. What is that about?
III. PIE IN THE SKY, BY AND BY
I’ll tell you what that sounds like: too much of that “pie in the sky, by and by” nonsense that too many people have been told for far too long. Don’t worry about your suffering now, it will all be better in heaven. I’m sorry that you’re poor now, but God really loves poor people, so you’ll have it great in heaven. Oh, are you suffering? Well, Jesus suffered, too, so you’ll have a special place in his heart… in heaven. Being persecuted? No matter: your reward will be great… in heaven.
I’m sorry, but after a weekend of Micah’s exhortations to justice, I am finding that attitude just a little bit wanting, aren’t you?
Isn’t this exactly what critics of religion always say? Isn’t this what Karl Marx was saying about religion when he wrote:
Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo. [1]
And it wasn’t just Marx. An Anglican clergyman, Charles Kingsley, canon of the Church of England, four years after Marx wrote that quote, said:
We have used the Bible as if it were a mere special constable’s hand book, an opium dose for keeping beasts of burden patient while they were being overloaded, a mere book to keep the poor in order. [2]
During the Bolshevik Revolution, the Communists accused the Church of contributing to the oppression of the workers and peasants of Russia by promising them that all their sufferings would pay off one day… in heaven. They didn’t see the church as part of the solution, but as part of the problem, promising the disenfranchised that all their sufferings would one day be rewarded in the next life.
Well, I’ve never found that satisfying. That idea has always rubbed me the wrong way. Are we supposed to tolerate all manner of injustices, oppressions, sufferings, and violence, because it’s all okay–it’ll work out in heaven? It’s one of the reasons I can’t stand it when people say at a funeral, “It’s alright–So-and-so is in a much better place now.” They are particularly prone to say this when the person has had some tragic death: died too young from an illness, died as a result of violent crime. All this “reward in heaven” stuff sounds like a convenient excuse to avoid having to actually do anything in the here and now.
I don’t know about you, but I’m with 19th Century British Prime Minister William Gladstone who wrote that “Justice delayed is justice denied.” And I’m with contemporary German theologian Jürgen Moltmann who wrote that the injustices suffered by the dead are not atoned for by their deaths. Those injustices remain and the dead themselves remain with us, calling out for justice. Their blood, like Abel’s, cries out from the earth.
So, what is all this Beatitude nonsense? I’m blessed because I’m poor, merciful, peaceable, and persecuted because my reward is great in heaven? What do we want? Justice. When do we want it? Now. Not “by and by” or “in heaven”.
IV. REVERSAL OF FORTUNE
The Beatitudes in Matthew are not unlike other aspects of Jewish literature. In fact they present a model that is found in the Biblical wisdom literature and the writings of the prophets. In the wisdom literature, like in Proverbs, beatitudes are phrases pronouncing the blessing of those in fortunate circumstances, based on observation and experience and declare their present reward and happiness. [3]
“Happy is the one who is never without fear, but one who is hard hearted will fall into calamity.” Prov. 28:14
When the prophets use this formula, they declare the present or future blessedness of those who are presently in trouble, but who will be vindicated by God at the coming of the Kingdom.
“For the Lord is a God of justice, blessed are those who wait for him.” (Isaiah 30:18)
In some ways, these other formulas make some sense. They describe things that can be noted through ordinary observation: people who have some caution will be happier than reckless people who’ll get into trouble. Those who wait for God will get vindication when God shows up.
But Jesus’ beatitudes are harder than that. They are counter-intuitive. No one in their right mind would say that the meek–of all people–would inherit the earth. In fact, one comedienne said that the meek will inherit the earth, but then we can just take it right back from them, since they’re all just a bunch of meek. It is downright bizarre to someone who is persecuted will have the Kingdom, and that people who are reviled and persecuted are “blessed” and should “rejoice and be glad.” No, this is not an ordinary statement of wisdom. Nor even an ordinary prophetic vision.
One commentator notes that the beatitudes are “prophetic utterances that are not independently true.” That is, no one would independently verify that the persecuted are indeed blessed. But they depend on the truth of the speaker. In the prophetic tradition, the truth of the prophet was dependent on the prophet’s being an authentic spokesperson for God. And so the beatitudes are true on the basis of the authority of the one who speaks them. [4] In fact, the Beatitudes have little to do with the objects of the statements, and everything to do with the speaker.
Throughout Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus is presented as the long awaited messiah, the anointed deliverer king. Yet, Jesus reverses expectations of human kingship. He does not rule in might and violence. He does not rule by force or terror. But by gentleness and meekness. In fact, Matthew quotes a line from Isaiah and says that “He will not break a bruised reed or quench a smoldering wick.” Matt 12:20 (citing Isaiah 42:3). And so just as Jesus’ kingship shows a reversal of the ways of the world, so too do those to whom his kingdom belongs. Christ’s nature and the nature of his disciples are intimately related.
In fact, all of the Beatitudes speak as much to the nature of Christ as they do to the community that follows him. The proclamations about the meek, the poor in spirit, the peacemakers, all reflect not some strategy for how to get ahead in this life (a bad strategy, by the way), nor are they a strategy for how someone enters heaven. In fact, the beatitudes are unconditional. They do not say, “If you are poor, then you will get into heaven” or “Whoever is persecuted, will be have a great reward in heaven”. They simply declare the reality that already exists. The beatitudes describe the life of the early church as a community of discipleship that is already participating in the reality of the kingdom, not a set of individual ethics. The beatitudes do not describe nine different kinds of people who get to go to heaven, but rather make nine different “declarations of blessedness, contrary to all appearances of the eschatological community living in anticipation of God’s reign.” [5]
The “heaven” being spoken of is not a place we go to when we die. It is a reality that is breaking into the world even now. A reality that Christ himself is bringing.
And because of that, that this is something that is happening in the here and now, It is clear then that there is an ethical side to the beatitudes. The community that hears itself pronounced as blessed now, not at some indefinite time in the future, understands that it is not to remain passive, but acts in accordance with the coming kingdom that is breaking in upon the world.
And the way that community acts, is described in the rest of the Sermon on the Mount: to be the salt of the earth, the light of the world. To live with a righteousness that exceeds the scribes and the pharisees. To practice, as Jesus says, “justice, and mercy, and faith.”
V. END
I guess I was a little too hard on the beatitudes earlier. Because it becomes clear that the beatitudes then are not excuses for injustice, they are the warrant to go and work for justice. They are not passive instructions on how to cope with suffering. They are a reminder that while we may suffer, we do so because we are actively working for a reality that turns the world on its head.
These words of Jesus are not in contradiction of the message of Micah, they are the fulfillment of the vision of Micah. For we are the community called to live our lives as kingdom people now. We are called to live our lives faithful not to the way the world is organized and run, but to the ways of the Coming Kingdom.
We are indeed called to be poor in spirit, placing our trust in God and not in our own power or wealth.
We are called to mourn, not resigned to the present condition of the world, but lamenting it and longing for the kingdom.
We are called to be meek, as a testimony to the king who reigns in gentleness.
We are called to hunger and thirst for justice and righteousness.
We are called to be merciful, for the sake of our merciful God.
We are called to be pure in heart, not dividing our affections between God and anything else, but centered.
We are called to be peacemakers, restoring communities of wholeness as a sign of God’s shalom.
We are called to commit to righteousness and witness, even though it may put us at painful odds with the world.
This world can be hellish at times. There is oppression. There is hate. There is injustice. There is violence. When we live as Christ’s blessed people, when we live out lives of meekness and gentleness, lives of poverty in spirit, lamenting the world, but living lives of justice and righteousness, then we have our reward. For, when we live that way, we reflect the one whom we live for. And when we do that, this all too hellish world shall get a glimpse of heaven.
Notes
[1] Marx, K. 1976. Introduction to A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right. Collected Works, v. 3. New York.
[2] http://www.archive.org/stream/frederickdenison00mastuoft/frederickdenison00mastuoft_djvu.txt
[3] New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. VII, p. 177
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid., p. 178
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