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Sermon 1-30-11
“Blessings and Requirements”
Matthew 5:1-12
This Matthew reading begins the Sermon on the Mount in which Jesus presents
a summary of his entire teachings. In preparation for his address, Jesus
had spent the previous night praying or meditating in a cave in the hills
north of the Sea of Galilee. In the morning he came down, probably to a
natural amphitheater, and sat on a rock. Rabbis traditionally taught
sitting down, so this was a signal to the crowds following him to settle
down and listen.
Jesus began his talk with a series of related statements that we call the
Beatitudes from the Latin word for ‘blessings.’ These were designed to
prepare his listeners for the with-God life. He spoke in Aramaic, a kind of
old Arabic, which was the common language of the whole region. Luckily for
us, the original Aramaic text that Matthew and Luke translated from has been
copied and preserved. Aramaic itself was spoken and used in Christian
worship in parts of Syria, Iraq and Turkey until after WW I when the region,
then known as Assyria, was partitioned.
The design of the Beatitudes indicates that Jesus wanted them to be simple,
memorable and evocative. Their meter in Aramaic suggests they were also
designed to be sung. Unlike Greek and English which have large vocabularies
of words with specific meanings, Aramaic tends to allow for multiple
meanings of single words. In particular, since the Semitic worldview at the
time was that the physical and the spiritual domains, the inner and the
outer, were not separate, but interpenetrate one another, Aramaic words
simultaneously convey a physical and individual as well as a spiritual and
universal meaning. One example is “ruha” which in Aramaic means both
‘breath’ and ‘spirit.’ Another is the understanding that heaven and earth
were not separate, but coexistent in time and space.
The upshot of all this is that multiple different translations of the
Beatitudes can be appropriate. Matthew and Luke give us one through Greek,
a language based on a Western worldview. I’d like to offer some additional
translations so that we can have a fuller understanding of what Jesus was
telling that crowd – and us - through their language. An Aramaic scholar,
Neil Douglas-Klotz* has been a big help with this.
1. Blessed are the
poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus’ listeners came from an agrarian economy. The Aramaic word translated
from the Greek as ‘blessed’ in all the Beatitudes is ‘tubwayhun.’ In
the physical sense, tubwayhun means ‘ripe’ or ‘ready for picking’ when
referring to crops. Referring to people, it means ‘realized’ or ‘prepared’
or ‘in the proper time and place.’ This leads to the additional senses of
‘happy’ or ‘integrated,’ even in harmony, both physically and spiritually.
In Aramaic, the word that we translate as ‘repentance’ is literally ‘return
to tubwayhun’ or ‘return to ripeness or readiness.’ So, implied in the
Beatitudes is a call to repentance.
Have you ever wondered why the Bible tells us crowds followed Jesus wherever
he went? One reason might have been that they had nowhere else to go. They
were homeless. This was the consequence of the heavy taxation imposed by
the Romans on Palestinian merchants and landowners. The middle class was
effectively bankrupted and destitute. For these people, Jesus with his
miracles provided food, medical care and hope, so they followed him.
Now we can come to another understanding of poor in spirit. In
Aramaic the literal meaning of the words is holding one’s breath, not in the
sense of not breathing, but of holding onto or cherishing breath as one’s
last possession, of finding one’s home in the breath. Today we can still
think of breath as our first possession when we are born and the last when
we die, or ‘breathe one’s last.” Our home, Jesus is telling us, is in our
spirit, not in our physical form or in our possessions.
The phrase Kingdom of heaven in Aramaic conveys the sense of an
earthy vision or calling for an individual. This calling is nested within
God’s purpose when we remember that the physical and the spiritual were
intertwined in Jesus’ listeners’ worldview. From this nestedness comes both
alignment and empowerment. This first Beatitude could then mean, Happy,
ready and able are those whose life is focused on their Lord.
2.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
In
contrast to knowing our life’s purpose celebrated in the first Beatitude,
this one celebrates the part of us that is confused or in darkness or which
we deny. That’s the meaning of ‘mourn.’ The Aramaic word for ‘comforted’
means literally ‘knit back together.’ We might then translate this Beatitude
as, Ready, too, to live joyfully are those who feel conflicted or
confused for they shall be made whole in the Lord. This translation
preserves the contrast between two human inner situations, the ready and the
unready, that Jesus was addressing in these first two Beatitudes.
3.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
The word translated here as ‘meek’ in Aramaic means ‘to soften that which is
rigid within.’ This doesn’t imply turning to mush, but it is more like the
image of ripeness in ‘tubwayhun.’ Its a sort of spiritual toning, a balance
between strength and vulnerability. Emotionally, in the first beatitude we
relaxed, in the second, unwelcome feelings came up, and now in the third, we
embrace those feelings.
When we do this, “inherit the earth’ conveys the sense that we gather
strength from all of creation, inner and outer. The resonance of individual
inner harmony produces a sympathetic vibration in the cosmos, as the
vibration of one guitar string induces a vibration in its neighbors. Gandhi
had a similar thought, “Be the change you wish to see in the world,”
he said.
4. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will
be filled.
Without food and water, physical or spiritual, we cannot flourish. Just as
we gather around a physical Lord’s Table to be fed, this Beatitude calls us
to bring the disparate parts of our being together around an inner table.
Thus fed, thus harmonized, we can grow into who we really are, we can
fulfill our potential. That’s something to think about when we celebrate
communion in a few minutes.
5.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
‘Merciful’ is a translation of a Hebrew and Aramaic word meaning ‘coming
from the womb in the physical sense or emanating love in the spiritual
sense. This is a kind of welcoming and unconditional love, a radiance that
comes from deep within. With this in mind, we have the sense of being
reborn when we hear ‘they will receive mercy.’ Jesus’ listeners might have
understood this Beatitude as ‘The transforming love of God, as it flows
through us, in turn transforms us.’
6.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Her Jesus provided the culmination of the previous five Beatitudes. ‘Pure’
here really means complete or full or unified in all the physical, emotional
and spiritual senses. Thus ‘pure in heart’ means being an accurate
reflection of what God intends us to be, that which is necessary to fulfill
our destiny. Jesus says it another way later on in his sermon, “Be
perfect, therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect. ”(Mt. 5:48) The
Aramaic for ‘see God’ means literally ‘we will see, or be illuminated by,
unity everywhere.’ Listeners might have heard, “When put our full selves
into God, what we see reflected is oneness.”
7. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
The sense of the word ‘peacemaker’ here needs to be expanded to include
planting or cultivating peace on a regular or seasonal basis. Peace,
shalom, would have been understood to recall the stillness of the
beginnings of creation. Creation emerged from and is supported by that
stillness. This is the same stillness that Jesus experienced meditating in
that cave the night before. The last phrase ‘be called children of’ comes
from the Aramaic ‘to be hollowed out’ or ‘to become a channel for.’ We might
restate this Beatitude as, those who cultivate stillness within
themselves are ready to become pathways for God.
8.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is
the kingdom of heaven.
Here Jesus answers the questions, “What if we challenge the system? What if
we really do step into our full selves? What if we do take action and plant
peace?” ‘Persecuted’ means in its English root to ‘push something through’
or out, ‘to be driven beyond our boundaries.’ ‘Persecuted’ in this sense
means growth beyond who we think we are and who others may think we
are. And this is a blessed or ripe state. Finally Jesus returns to the
same words he used in the first Beatitude, ‘for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven’ which in Aramaic conveys the sense of a vision or a heart’s desire
for an individual. One translation of this Beatitude might be, We have
to step out of our comfort zone to live our dream of closeness with God.
Others could be, readiness requires work, or, inner ripeness
comes from outer warmth.’
Those are the Beatitudes, all of them with blessings and all of them with
requirements. In them, Jesus is assuring us that God is with us in this
time and place and that in that presence we are prepared to create the
kingdom of heaven, both inside and outside. Thanks be to God.
Amen.
*Douglas-Klotz is an American Sufi master living and teaching in Scotland. |
