The Beatitudes: a Community of Character
‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted’ Matt 5.4
As always, Jesus deeply challenges us with a vision of what it means to be favoured, blessed, that completely upends our normal ways of thinking. Who would have, or could have, imagined that there is a deeper blessedness in heart sorrow than in happiness? A deeper blessedness when we protest all that is wrong, than enjoy ease or comfort? A deeper blessing when we lament the impacts of our mistakes, than avoid facing them?
Sadly churches in the west, too often captive to western values of ease, comfort, control and perfect appearance, find it hard to grapple with the reality of loss. However, Jesus is far more real than we are, more in sync with the true experience of living in this good but broken world. He knows living in this world means encountering the presence of evil, the experience of harm, and the feeling of loss. And so he invites us to be the kind of people that see all that is wrong for what it is. And instead of mindlessly conforming to evil, instead of ignoring it, he invites us to name and lament it. This includes our personal part in all that is wrong. When we take this stance, expressing our loss to God through Christ, we act as true people of faith. Ours become the promise of God’s comfort now and the the experience of seeing the righting of all wrong in the world to come.
Reflection Questions
1. Do you ever think it is appropriate for a person of faith to be so disappointed about a situation that they get angry with God? Discuss why or why not.
2. The bible contains a long tradition of characters that complain, or lament their circumstances. Job is one of the most significant examples. Interestingly, he was faithful and righteous (Job 1.8, v20-22). Yet he suffered greatly, and throughout the book protested his suffering with great passion. And what is most interesting of all is how God responds to his passionate protests. Read Job 42.7-9.
(I) What did God think of the way Job’s friends spoke, so quick as they were to accuse Job? (their logic was – if Job is suffering he must have sinned).
(II) What did God think of Job’s passionate complaints about his innocent suffering?
3. How does believing in God’s almighty power, infinite knowledge, and perfect love, actually make believers complain more?!
4. If God accepts Job’s passionate complaint, how might he respond to ours?
5. The Psalms of lament suggest five steps to complaining or lamenting: (I) turning to God, invoking him, addressing him; (II) telling God how we feel about the evil that has befallen us; (III) demanding or petitioning him for help; (IV) a sudden change in mood, from despair to hope or confidence; (V). an expression of thanks or trust.
Read either Psalm 13, 55 or 69 and identify these steps.
6. Jesus fulfils this tradition of lament when he laments the hard heartedness, faithlessness and injustice of the religious leaders. Read Matthew 23:23-28 for an example. What stands out to you in Jesus’ lament?
7. We may take a big picture view, and consider all the evil that entered the world and became established from Genesis 3 onwards: spiritual evil (represented by the snake, Satan); human disobedience to God (represented by Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit); natural evil (the creation itself now causes humans pain Genesis 3.17). How does spiritual, human or natural evil give us cause for complaint today?
8. Jesus invites us to be a community that practices the art of lament. Not conforming to evil, not ignoring evil, but mourning it -Matt 5.4. The tradition of lament in the bible, like the Psalms of lament, help us practice this art. One question remains.
How does the person and saving work of Jesus, and his promised return, give us blessed comfort that Job didn’t know?