Blessed Are the Losers

All Saints Sunday

Matthew 5:1-12

November 3, A+D 2019

“The Be Happy Attitudes,” they’ve been called. The opening sayings of the Sermon on the Mount, today’s Gospel, are usually referred to as the Beatitudes. It’s from the repeating word Blessed, which in Latin is Beati. Beati pauperes spiritu. “Blessed are the spiritual paupers.” I doubt that’s what people mean when they say they’re spiritual but not religious.

Robert Schuller popularized the idea that blessed is really an attitude. In his book The Be Happy Attitudes, Schuller writes, “Blessed literally means ‘happy.’ So … you can be happy if you will discover the eight positive attitudes given to us by Jesus in the Beatitudes.”

I want you to be happy. But blessedness is something far deeper than happiness. Blessedness transcends happiness. Blessedness helps us survive all the unhappy things. Blessedness is not an attitude. It’s a condition, a state, a status. However, being blessed will produce certain attitudes. Let’s look at these teachings of Jesus as God gives us time this morning.

There are nine Beatitudes. The first eight go together, and speak abstractly: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the meek,” etc. In the ninth Beatitude Jesus directly addresses His disciples: “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you…”.

There is also a bracketing structure to the first eight Beatitudes. You can see it in the result. Each statement has a result: “Blessed are those who mourn”—that’s the status, the mourners—“for they shall be comforted”—that’s the result, they’ll receive comfort. In the first Beatitude, the result is in the present tense: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” It’s a present reality – the kingdom of heaven is already theirs! Then, Beatitudes two through seven are all in the future tense: they shall be comforted; they shall inherit the earth; they shall be filled, etc. And then the eighth completes the group and comes back to the present tense: ”Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Back to the present reality.

Grammatical observations can be pedantic; preachers run the risk of being boring, or worse, prideful when they burden the people with arcane grammatical details. I hope you’ll not find this one so. Here’s the point: Many of the promises of God are still in the future: the disciples of Jesus will be consoled, will receive justice. But the reign of God has already broken in on the world: “Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” It already belongs to them.

In recent weeks I’ve talked about the importance of identity. We can divide ourselves up according to tribes—blue and red, pro-Trump and Never Trump, capitalist and socialist—or we can find our identity as children of God and disciples of Jesus. Today’s Epistle encourages us to see our whole lives now through that lens: “Beloved, we are God’s children now” (1 Jn 3). The reign of heaven is already now in the world in you, for you, through you.

So who are you? You are the poor in spirit. You are the spiritual paupers. 

I used to think this was something I had to achieve. When I became sufficiently humble, then God would give me the kingdom. Which means everything depends on me, upon my spiritual performance. But the key to understanding this is in how Jesus talks about the poor in Matthew’s Gospel. It’s in the summary of the works of Jesus: “The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them” (Mt. 11:5). Before we get to the poor, everything listed is an objective condition, not an attitude: the blind, the lame, the lepers, the deaf, the dead. Blindness is not an attitude, it’s a condition of not being able to see. To be poor is to be without resources, so we would expect here that Jesus would give money to the poor the same way He gives sight to the blind. 

But that’s not what Jesus does! The poor get the Gospel, the good news! So this poverty is something different than a lack of money. It’s a lack of resources in the spiritual realm. Therefore to be poor in spirit is not an attitude, it’s spiritual destitution. You don’t make yourself that way. You already are that way! That’s who we all are. Fallen human beings need help from the outside. They have no spiritual resources of their own.

So when Jesus opens His series of blessings, He is embracing the whole of humanity. Jesus invites every person into God’s kingdom. 

Now what’s come just before these Beatitudes? Immediately before the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus starts to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” (Mt. 4:17). And then Jesus starts calling disciples.

What does that mean? His disciples were those who had responded to the call to repentance. Everyone is spiritual poor, but the repentant person knows it, confesses it.

That’s what’s going on liturgically when the first thing we do on Sunday morning is get down on our knees and confess our spiritual poverty. You’ve got to walk past the font to get to the altar. Baptism and repentance theologically precede forgiveness and healing.

If we hear the first words of Jesus, “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” as an obligation we have to fulfill, spiritual heroics we have to perform, we will never make it. When will I be sufficiently humble? If I ever became truly humble I would doubtless be proud of my spiritual achievement, ruining all the progress I had made.

No, the spiritual paupers are those who come to Jesus saying, “I am a mess. I am filled with anxiety. My thoughts and desires are soiled with sin. I can’t get it done, I’m no good at keeping these commandments.” 

And Jesus opens His mouth and says, “Blessed are you, poor sinner in need of mercy, for I am merciful. I am your peacemaker, for in My death peace with God once more is made.”

The sinner says, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom,” And Jesus says, “Yours is the kingdom of heaven; today you will be with Me in paradise.”

Who then are the Lord’s saints? Certainly men like Peter, and women like Mary Magdalene. We remember them as great. They would say to us, “No, our Jesus was great, for He forgave us much.” 

On All Saints Day we remember with joy the martyrs. On All Saints Day we remember with solemnity those of our parish who fell asleep in Christ this past year. And on All Saints Day we remember our own sins, and repent. Then we confess anew the Jesus who has called us to be His saints, His holy ones, His disciples. These holy things are for you holy people. You are the Lord’s saints. 

Blessed are you paupers, for you are made rich in Jesus. 

Blessed are you losers, for Jesus is your champion. 

Blessed are you who need mercy. Yours is the kingdom of heaven. 

Blessed are you sinners, for Jesus calls you saints. +INJ+