blessings for disciples

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Psalm 82; Matthew 5:1-12


And his disciples came to him, and he taught them, saying,
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."


I was reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer's "The Cost of Discipleship" yesterday. The middle third of the book is a section entitled "The Sermon on the Mount." One thing caught me attention and got me thinking. His emphasis is that Matthew clearly states that this sermon was directed to disciples, not the crowds - that is, to those to whom Jesus had said "follow me" and who immediately left everything and followed him.

Only the call and the promise, for the sake of which they are ready to suffer poverty and renunciation can justify the beatitudes. (p. 118)
The disciples are called blessed because they have obeyed the call of Jesus. (p. 119)

This is helpful to me, because it's so easy to make this something to do in order to get or experience something. That is, to hear Jesus saying here something like, "embrace this attitude or perform these kinds of actions, and you will be blessed with this kind of experience." (more simply: if you do this you can get that). While I do think that Jesus calls his disciples to embrace the postures defined in the beatitudes, this approach misses the first and most important point of Jesus: I am your blessing, and I am your promise.

To his disciples, he is saying, "whatever your condition (arrived at in following me, walking in my footsteps, imitating me, letting my life in you become your life through and through), know this, you are blessed because
I will give you the kingdom
I will comfort you
I will give you the earth as your inheritance
I will satisfy you
I will show you mercy
In me you will see God
In me you are sons and daughters of God
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be... me in all my fullness and glory in heaven.

For me, reading and meditating on the beatitudes today, it really is helpful and life-giving to remember, in this case (again) it really is all about Jesus.

Thanks be to God.