Foolishness????

1 Corinthians 1:18-31


Matthew 5:1-12

The Beatitudes are one of the most well known biblical passages to come from our scriptures. Written by both the evangelists Matthew and Luke it has come to us not only in our bibles but in such things as lovely art prints, embroidery pieces and plaques. You can even get the beatitudes on wallpaper. Yes you heard me right, wallpaper, I found it on the internet yesterday! Talk to me after church if you would like to get the website address. (1) But all decorating aside; it is important to note that these words written by the evangelists Matthew and Luke have been misinterpreted and watered down through the years. It’s like the game telephone, where you whisper something to someone next to you, who whispers it to the person next to them, who whispers it to the person next to them and so on and so on. When you get to the last person in line, you ask them what was whispered and they are lucky if they can recite 10 percent of the original message.


Monty Python portrays a very funny rendition of the Sermon on the Mount in the movie, “The Life of Brian.” This illustrates the game of telephone. Love the movie for its humor or hate it for its blasphemous material, there are some kernels of truth within this humorous portrayal of life in Galilee during the time of Jesus. The scene opens with the great crowds gathering around Jesus on the hillside. Jesus is on the top of the hill and you can barely understand what he is saying. The people in the back of the crowd can only catch a word or two and what they think they heard is quite nonsensical:

"What did he say?


I think it was “Blessed are the cheesemakers.”


Aha, what’s so special about the cheesemakers?


Well, obviously it’s not meant to be taken literally; it refers to any manufacturers of dairy products.


You hear that, “Blessed are the Greek”


“The Greek?”


“Apparently he’s going to inherit the earth”


“Oh it’s meek…Blessed are the meek! That’s nice, I’m glad they are getting something because they have a heck of a time.” (2)

While we have the advantage of the written word the beatitudes have still lost much of its power in the translation. It has been used as a staple of piety throughout all of Christianity. Many have thought that this text spelled out who would get into heaven and what they needed to do to get there. You must be poor, you must be meek, you must be merciful, you must be pure in heart in order to get into heaven. In a world that is mired in sin these virtues are impossible ideals to follow and so the beatitudes have been used to teach the necessity of grace. (3)  With this kind of attitude one can fall into an attitude of quietism, why try to change the ways of a sinful world when our reward waits for us in heaven.

The key to understanding the true meaning of any scripture is to figure out what life was like for the community to which the scripture was written for. Under the tyranny of Roman Occupied Palestine, most of Jesus’ audience consisted of the oppressed people living under the thumb of Roman imperialism. Scholars note that in the first century under Roman rule, a small elite class controlled all the production of wealth, resources and land. Those who were not of the elite class, which was most of the population of Palestine, lived in wretched poverty. The majority of the people living in under the Roman Empire lived in misery, danger, fear and despair. (4) The people to whom Matthew wrote the scripture to were Jews and Gentiles who followed Jesus. They were excluded from the synagogues because they claimed Jesus as the Messiah. They were persecuted by the Roman Empire because they claimed that Jesus was their Lord and Savior and not the Roman Emperor.

The Beatitudes is the beginning of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Some have said that if the Sermon on the Mount is the church’s constitution, the beatitudes would be the pre-amble where it describes “the purpose of every holy law, the foundation of every custom, the aims of every practice of this new society, this colony of the kingdom, the church called and instructed by Jesus.” (5)  However what Jesus does with this pre-amble is turn the world’s values on its head. Jesus is preaching what the kingdom of God will look like when God’s realm is complete. It is grounded in this world, not a heavenly world. It is the world as God would have it where all of God’s creation lives in shalom, which means that all would have everything they need to live full, sustainable lives. What Jesus assured these oppressed people that when God’s will is done, when God makes things right according to God’s will, their suffering will end and they will be joyful.

Where society says, “The rich are blessed because their money will give them security.” Jesus says, “Those who are living in impoverished conditions that are so harsh, that their spirit is broken…when God’s kingdom comes they will be happy because they will be lifted from their poverty.” Where society says, “The world is perfect just the way it is, blessed are we who enjoy the riches of the world.” Jesus says, “Those who mourn, who lament, those who grieve because they see the injustices of this world. Those cry out because all of God’s creation is not living in right relationship with each other. Those who know that God’s abundance has been horded for the benefit of the few at the cost of the many…when God’s kingdom comes they will be the first to sigh a breath of relief and comfort because God will make things right again.”

Jesus goes on…

“Blessed are those who are perceived as weak because they refuse to use violence for when God’s kingdom comes their ways of nonviolence will become the world’s way.”

“Blessed are those who want peace and social justice, for when God’s kingdom comes they will be satisfied.”

“Blessed are those who are slow to anger and quick to forgive…because they have given mercy so easily, it will be given back to them.”

“Blessed are those who are pure of heart, those who easily trust, those who believe in the goodness of everyone they encounter…When God’s kingdom comes they will be happy because they will see the same image God that they have seen all along in humankind.”

“Blessed are those who seek peace in all matters…when God’s kingdom comes God will call them good and faithful for living according to God’s way.”

“Blessed are those who are excluded, picked on, persecuted for refusing to live according to the sinful ways of this world…when God’s kingdom comes, it will be theirs.”

These are not commandments of how people should live, but rather these are statements of comfort to those who seek to live according to God’s ways. No matter what you may suffer because the world thinks you are foolish for following Jesus’ way, in the end…when God’s kingdom comes through the work of the hands, feet and voice of God’s people, you will find joy. In his letter to the church in Corinth Paul writes “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved, it is the power of God.” (1 Cor. 1:18) Paul knew that the early Christians were being persecuted, excluded and even ridiculed by the society surrounding them because they had the audacity to claim as their Lord and Savior Jesus who had had suffered the shameful execution of dying on the cross. It goes against all conventional wisdom to follow the one who was killed by those who feared him. “But” as Paul puts it, “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are so that no one might boast in the presence of God.” (1:28-29) The salvation of the cross was the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead on Easter morning. By raising Jesus from the dead, God shows the world that ultimately good does overcome evil and that not even death can contain God’s aim for the well being of all creation.

The beatitudes speak to us whom the world would perceive as foolish because we follow Christ. We’re called trouble makers or unrealistic dreamers. We get hassled, hounded and intimidated by those who want to keep the world just as it is. (6) It is to us Jesus gives the final beatitude, “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. (Matt 5:11-12) May it be so. Amen.

(1)  http://www.customwall.com/ilbe.html


(2)  Python, Monty. Life of Brian. 1979.

(3)  Marcia Riggs, “Matthew 5:1-12: Theological Perspective” FOW 312.

(4)  Bridges, Linda McKinnish, "Preaching the Parables in Matthew's Gospel in Ordinary Time: The Extraordinary Tales of God's World," Review & Expositor (2007): 325-362.

(5)  Thomas G. Long Matthew. Westminster Bible companion. (Louisville, Ky: Westminster John Knox Press, 1997. Matthew), 47.

(6)  Ibid., 50.