Blessed Are the Needy
My name is Ryan Eikenbary-Barber. My great, great grandparents were swept up in the Swedish revival movement that gave birth to the Covenant Church. I am fifth generation Covenant. I gave my heart to Jesus in a Sunday School classroom at First Covenant Church in Seattle when I was four years old. Shortly after that, my family stopped going to church. My parents divorced in 1976. It was awkward for divorced families to attend Covenant Churches in the Seventies.
My parents faithfully sent me to Covenant Beach Bible Camp every summer. I still believed in Jesus. I just didn’t know how to grow as a Christian. When I was about eight years old, I asked my mom for a Bible. She must have given me her own confirmation Bible. It was leather and it had a really cool zipper where the pull was a gold colored cross. I asked my mom where I should start reading. She suggested I open up the New Testament to the Gospel of Matthew.
I was totally baffled by the genealogy in First Chapter of Matthew. The eight year old version of me did not care that “Asa begat Josaphat; and Josaphat begat Joram; and Joram begat Ozias; And Ozias begat Joatham.” The Christmas story was compelling! Chapter 2 was fascinating because the Magi came to visit, and Holy Family lived as refugees in Egypt! Chapter 3 was intriguing because John the Baptist was such a wild man! Chapter 4 got really weird when Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness! I could not put this book down!
Then I got to chapter 5, where Jesus preaches the Sermon on the Mount. Even as an 8-year-old child, I could tell that this sermon did not fit the world I grew up in. My family lived on the Eastside of Seattle. In the Seventies and Eighties, everyone abandoned their tiny homes in Seattle for cookie cutter McMansions in Bellevue. Higher property taxes meant bigger and better schools, but only for upper middle class kids. My nice, new, suburban classrooms were filled primarily with white kids. It was institutional racism disguised as economic prosperity. All the kids were taught that we were above average; which created a fierce competition to excel further. I grew up with a warped version of the American Dream, that you better be be a winner, or you are most definitely a loser.
The Sermon on the Mount grabbed my attention as an eight-year-old boy because it refuses to yield to the cultural tide we are unconsciously swimming in. The words of Jesus were as a warm and inviting to me as those of my favorite TV preacher: Mister Rogers. The words of Jesus were powerful and convicting like my other favorite preacher: The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The Sermon on the Mount was a vision for humanity where all people have dignity simply because we are created in the image of God. You can’t buy it! You can’t earn it! But you can accept the free and unconditional grace of God!
It’s been 42 years since I first read this sermon and promptly zipped up my mother’s Bible back up. I still have not fully recovered from this alternate vision of reality. The Sermon on the Mount always convicts me; always comforts me; always sends me back into world desperate for restoration. I have read dozens of Biblical commentaries and theological treatises on the Sermon on the Mount. Most of them have been helpful, but after all these years, I am still left with more questions than answers. Hear the Good News that God loves you just the way you are; that Jesus has come to save you just the way you are; that the Spirit will fill you just the way you are.
Matthew 5:1-12
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:
3 ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 ‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6 ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7 ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
8 ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9 ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
10 ‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 ‘Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Bible scholar Craig Keener says that there are at least 36 distinct interpretations of the Sermon on the Mount. I will not attempt to cover them all! Let me briefly tell you about six of the most popular attempts to understand the Sermon on the Mount.
First, there is the Medieval Interpretation that suggests that Jesus’ words are a higher ethic reserved just for clergy. Second is the Lutheran Interpretation that insists that Jesus’ words are an impossible ideal to make us despair and yearn for grace. Third is the Baptist Interpretation that insists that we take these words literally and often legalistically. Fourth is the Liberal Interpretation which pushes the Social Gospel. Fifth is the Dispensationalist Interpretation, that Jesus’ words will only be realized in a future millennial kingdom. Sixth is the popular interpretation of Craig Blomberg, that Jesus words are genuine goals attempted today and only perfected in the resurrection.
Did I cover your point of view? Most of us mix and match these interpretive strategies. For instance, my Mennonite friends insist on taking Jesus literally when he says, “Turn the other cheek,” but not when he says “Gouge out your eye if it causes your to lust.” My Baptist friends insist they take the Bible literally, but just like the rest of us they struggle to “love their enemies” and “give to anyone who asks for money.” My Lutheran friends quickly jump to grace when Jesus says “Do not be angry,” and “Do not be anxious,” but then they get very literal about following Jesus’ instructions to recite the Lord’s Prayer. Even eight-year-olds reading the Sermon on the Mount for the first time must rely on the Holy Spirit and the character of Jesus to help them interpret the Bible.
The Covenant Church comes from the Pietist tradition, which means we have a Lutheran background with just a hint of Calvinism. Our first interpretive instinct is to despair and yearn for God’s grace. Out second interpretive instinct is to take Jesus’ high ideals literally. That’s why we still strive to avoid divorce, while at the same time warmly welcoming those who have been divorced. Most Covenanters today would agree with Craig Blomberg that we should take the Sermon on the Mount seriously while freely offering our neighbors the promise of God’s grace.
The Christian ethicist Stanley Hauerwas, who has preached in this pulpit at Valley Covenant Church, suggests that the Beatitudes are the interpretive key to the entire Sermon on the Mount. He writes, “The sermon is not a heroic ethic. It is the constitution of a people. You cannot live by the demands of the sermon on your own, but that’s the point. The demands are designed to make us depend on God and one another.”
That’s why the poor in Spirit are called blessed. When life humbles us, we are suddenly open to joining the Kingdom of God.
That’s why the mourning are called blessed. When life fills us with grief, we are suddenly open to the comfort of eternal life.
That’s why the meek are called blessed. When we feel powerless to change this broken world, we suddenly put our hope in God’s power to redeem all of Creation.
That’s why the hungry and thirsty for righteousness are called blessed. When we let go of trying to control outcomes, we start to see that God uses simple human gestures of love to bring about justice.
That’s why the merciful are called blessed. As we offer grace to others, we grow in our own capacity to experience God’s grace.
That’s why the pure in heart are called blessed. When we finally give up looking good on the outside, our hearts and minds can finally be transformed on the inside.
That’s why peacemakers are called blessed. Both those who seek to preserve unity in the church and those who seek the welfare of the city, will discover in conflict what it really means to be called a child of God.
That’s why those who are persecuted because of righteousness are called blessed. Whenever we engage with the broken world, we are bound to lick our wounds, and to see the Kingdom of Heaven coming alive in front of us.
That’s why Jesus blesses the reviled, persecuted, and those who endure all kinds of evil on his behalf. Jesus invites us to rejoice and be glad because we are experience the same treatment that prophets have always received.
When I was eight, I was attracted to the heroic side of this Christian ethic. Now that I am fifty, it occurs to me how little choice we have over these beatitudes. No one chooses to be poor in spirit, or mournful, or meek, or hungry for righteousness, or reviled, or persecuted, or to experience evil! That kind of spiritual maturity only happens as a consequence of life circumstances. Yes, we get to choose to be merciful, but only after someone has wronged us. Yes, we get to choose purity in heart, but only after we abandon our efforts to look good on the outside. Yes, we get to choose to be peacemakers, but only when conflict demands our involvement. Yes, we get to choose to pursue righteousness, but only when our hearts have been broken by injustice.
The child in me still wants to be a good boy; still wants to be heroic; still wants to be a winner! But that’s not what Jesus is inviting us towards in the Sermon on the Mount. Now that I’m in the second half of my life, I can see a little better how my relationship with Jesus Christ and my life in Christian community continues to bless me no matter what. Mature Christianity helps us see that whether we win or lose; live or die; succeed or fail that we can still bring glory to God. That is Good News indeed!
I spent the last seven years as the pastor of a large and worldly successful church. The congregation was torn apart by internal conflict regarding human sexuality, biblical authority, politics, Covid-19 restrictions, and ultimately confronting racism. Most churches went through similar conflict in the past few years, but larger, broader, attractional churches have particularly struggled to adapt to this divisive culture.
I really thought I could save the day by turning the other cheek, loving my enemies, forgiving those who slandered my name, and being the peacemaker-in-chief. It didn’t work. Or maybe it did work, but it came at a price that was too high for me to bear. I resigned in hopes that God might heal the church and me. God has been faithful to pull me out of the pit and turn my mourning into dancing.
And here I am in Eugene, Oregon preaching the same Good News that grabbed me when I was four years old, and eight years old, and when I was ordained to ministry at twenty-three years old. I still haven’t completely figured out the Sermon on the Mount at age fifty. I can tell you from personal experience that there is a blessing waiting for you, even when you have to pick up your cross to follow Jesus. Christian faith does not always feel victorious, but there is always a blessing waiting for you.