Refracted Windowlight

Some of them were dirty. Some of them moaned and groaned as they lumbered under the weight of illness. Some of them carried others, the burdens of caring for a sick family member weighing down their hope. Some of them had nobody else, nothing better to do. Some of them were taken in by the intrigue. Some of them were skeptics, scared to trust another empty promise of hope. Some of them watched as their teacher touched the untouchable, loved the unlovable and then did the unthinkable.

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            Leaving the crowds behind, they began to walk up the mountain. Finding a suitable place to sit, Jesus began to preach what was his first sermon in Matthew’s Gospel. The rag tag group of the sick, the curious, the down-on-their-luck still visible in the distance, Jesus begins: Blessed are… and – to be honest – it seems like a lot of us check out. Yeah, yeah. Now Jesus is blessing those who have no other options, the ones whom we’d least expect, the ones who are forgotten by the world. That’s nice. Good for Jesus. Or, alternatively, maybe we listen and think that this is something that we are to effect. To be sure, we ought to care for the poor and comfort those who mourn. We ought to strive for peace. We ought to be meek. We ought to acknowledge that the hardships that come should not separate us from God. But Jesus doesn’t say “You go bless these people;” he proclaims them blessed. This beautiful sermon and becomes either a blessing for someone else or an impossible list of moral exhortations for us to accomplish.

            This is part of the problem with reading only twelve odd verses of any given text. It gives us a window into what Jesus is saying, but we don’t look through it. We simply notice that there is a window and move on. Let’s look through it. Who are these people that Jesus blesses?

            Poor in Spirit

            Those who Mourn

            The Meek

            Those Who Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness

            The Merciful

            The Pure in Heart

            The Peacemakers

            The Persecuted

            The Reviled

These are not vague blessings floating off into the ether. These are blessings determined to find their destination. They are blessings that fly in the face of how we think the world works, where the strong become stronger, the weak weaker, the rich richer and the poor poorer. These people didn’t think to expect a blessing. It came as a surprise, as better news than what they could have hoped to have. It changes the way they look at the world. The poor in spirit, whose hope has been squashed by the weight of life, brighten. The mourners sigh for the millionth time and peer around the veil of grief. The meek look up from their shoes to see a brand new world. Those hungry and thirsty for righteousness are made righteous. The pure in heart look up to see what they always knew was there: the face of God. The peacemakers see the spears being beaten into ploughs. The persecuted walk into the kingdom of God, and the insulted have the titles others have given them taken away and traded for the title “beloved.” Jesus throws the trajectory of their expectations off its course.

            At the same time, Jesus throws the trajectory of our expectations of its course. As we sit walled in our own worlds, Jesus stands before us and says, “Look through the window.” As we approach, the light entering through the window refracts. Before we are able to look through it, our reflection looks back at us. The words of the beatitudes are at once about what’s visible on the other side of the window, to be sure, but they are also about what’s visible as we approach the window.

            Blessed are you, when your spirit is heavy and your hope is almost gone.

            Blessed are you when you’ve lost everything you’ve loved and can’t figure out how you’re going to make it.

            Blessed are you when you know the right thing to do and do something else.

            Blessed are you when you love those who don’t deserve it.

            Blessed are you in the moments you believe it’s true.

            Blessed are you in the moments you can’t believe it’s true.

            Blessed are you when you choose to say I’m sorry first. Blessed are you when you say I forgive you first.

            Blessed are you when people say insulting things about you.

            Blessed are you when your faith stands between you and your enemies.

You stand blessed with the rag-tag group of people who followed Jesus. Everything changes when you stand blessed with the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and the persecuted and insulted. You can’t look at them like they’re somebody else’s responsibility any more than they can look at you like you’re someone else’s. Jesus has placed you in front of the window at the point where the light’s refraction reveals your reflection and also what is beyond it. At one and the same time, the blessing – the Gospel – is a mirror, revealing who we are, and a window, revealing what lies beyond.

            This is the great foolishness of God. God – in Christ – has given us a story that is too good to be true, blessing us when we don’t deserve it, offering it for free. The paradox of the free gift, though, is that it binds us to itself and to all those that are bound to it. We are all wrapped up in this gospel, in this good news. The good news is that God blesses those who can’t bless themselves, those who have no other options, nowhere to go; God blesses those who would grasp at blessings for themselves, those who calculate the risk before determining whether this whole faith thing is worth it, who could think of a million better places to be than stuck on the side of a mountain with a bunch of sinners. And Jesus, revealing the foolishness of God, opens his arms to the ragtag group of sinners who follow him, blessing them in the moment they least expect it.