The Kingdom Movement

A Literary & Pastoral Study Guide to the Gospel of Matthew

The Inspiration of Matthew,

by Caravaggio

 

On the King's Errand

Devotional Reflections on Matthew's Gospel

 

Influential Ambassadors, Part Two:  Mt.5:5 – 6

 

5:5 Blessed are…

 

Not surprisingly, Erica’s family was less than thrilled that Erica had become a Christian in college.  Her parents were devout Buddhists; in fact, her grandfather’s brother was a priest. As time went on, however, Erica’s parents began to see positive changes in their daughter.  ‘Mom and Dad saw my rebellious spirit becoming more obedient, my selfishness turning into helpfulness around the house, and my pride turning into humility when I made a mistake—because before becoming a Christian, I never used to apologize for what I did wrong.’  The Shinyas could not argue with Erica’s transformation, and eventually accepted her decision to leave the family faith.  

 

5 Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the land.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

 

         In the beginning, God placed humanity in a land, a garden land, representing the beauty of the God-nourished life.  Israel understood themselves as a partial restoration of that original vision.  For they, too, lived in a garden land.  Psalm 37 says repeatedly, ‘The meek shall inherit the land’ (Ps.37:11, 18, 22, 29, 34).  What is ‘meekness’?  For Israel, meekness was contrasted with self-will and military power, especially in the Psalms and in the Book of Chronicles.  Israel was tempted to seize their inheritance by their own strength, but they needed to respond to God’s leading.  While I’m sure that continued to be part of Jesus’ meaning, I suspect Jesus is expanding that idea to mean that people must never be inwardly self-sufficient.  We must encounter Jesus by the Spirit to live God-nourished lives. 

The fourth beatitude builds on the third.  Israel longed for the Sinai covenant (Dt.27 – 29) to be fulfilled so they could live in the fullness of the garden land again, with a healed human nature (Dt.30).  The term for this is ‘righteousness.’  Israelites was said to be righteous when they were faithful to their covenant with God (e.g. Ps.1:5 – 6; 7:7 – 9).  But God could also be said to be righteous, too (e.g. Ps.7:11, 17), and the Jews longed for God to fulfill the covenant, too – i.e. to be righteous Himself (e.g. Rom.3:1 – 8).  So I think Jesus is probably referring to the Jewish longing for both Israel and God to be righteous.  Why?  Because Jesus himself was representing both Israel and God as he fulfilled both sides of that covenant.  As God, Jesus was visiting Israel personally and circumcising the human heart (Dt.30:6; cf. 29:4) at long last.  As a human being, Jesus was truly being Israel, and receiving God faithfully into his humanity in a way no man or woman had ever done before.  If we’ve hungered and thirsted for this good God to renew humanity to live with Him in the original human vocation He designed from creation, then we have hungered and thirsted for righteousness in this full sense.  Only in Jesus can we be satisfied.

God responded to Erica’s meekness and desire for righteousness, and it influenced her family.  In this sense, we are Jesus’ ambassadors.  Not with the ability to bribe people, or bring in military backup.  That is not how Christians influence the world.  We influence others, or at least we start to, by sharing about our spiritual poverty apart from Jesus, by grieving our sin, by turning from self-sufficiency to real dependence on Christ, so that Christ in his divinity would show that God keeps His covenant promises, and so that Christ in his humanity would show what humanness looks like when a human being is faithful to God.

 

 

(Erica Shinya Kim’s story was distilled from an article in Christianity Today by Claudia Cangilla McAdam, http://www.christianitytoday.com/tc/2007/002/10.24.html)