We're blessed when we come full circle...
Of all eight Beatitudes, only the first and last share the same promise. Jesus says that both the "poor in spirit," and those who are "persecuted because of righteousness," are blessed, "for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven." Why?
There's a few layers to this...
The first, most readily apparent observation is that this is an example of a literary device called an
inclusio. Essentially an inclusio is a kind of literary bracketing where you place similar content at the beginning and end of some coherent chunk of thought to signify their cohesion and completeness.
1 So Jesus begins and ends his Beatitudes this way as an elegant way of organizing his thoughts and signaling to his audience that this section of thought is completed.
However, there is more going on here, and to fully understand it, we need to dig into this 8th Beatitude a bit.
"Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
To persecute someone means "to harass or punish in a manner designed to injure, grieve, or afflict; to cause one to suffer because of belief."
2 "Because of righteousness," means for doing the right thing. So, based on what we know the term "blessed" to mean (fortunate, because God is on your side), what is Jesus saying here? God is on the side of those who face hardship, who suffer because they do the right thing.
Jesus is acknowledging that following him comes at a cost. It's not all butterflies and rainbows, in fact, it most likely means your life is going to get harder. You're most likely going to, at some point, and to varying degrees, suffer for doing the right thing. Now, when we hear "blessed are those who are persecuted," we tend to think of people who stand boldly for their faith, even in the face of suffering. Heroes, martyrs, legends of the faith who refuse to deny their faith, even if it means their death.
But this isn't who Jesus is talking about.According to Swiss New Testament Scholar Eduard Schweizer, this 8th Beatitude "extols not the strong, who, to the admiration of all, heroically defend their faith, but those who are defamed and go down to ignominious defeat."
3 Ignominious is a great word that you can probably guess the meaning of, but in case you can't (I had to look it up to be safe) it basically means despicable, disgraceful or shameful.
4
What does all this mean?
It means Jesus is talking not to those who are heroes and legends, those who proudly and boldly stand up and suffer for their faith, but instead to those who fail. Those who suffer for doing what's right and the result is public disgrace, shame, being despised and defamed (which was just as bad as, or worse than, death in honor/shame cultures like Israel’s at this time).
5 Jesus is again talking to the zeros, those at the very bottom, those who have been brought down to the darkest, lowliest, most despicable point. Sounds a lot like the "poor in spirit," from the first Beatitude, doesn't it? We've come full circle.
And that, I believe, is a deeper reason why Jesus announces the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to both.
Sometimes, maybe often times, following Jesus means we suffer and fail to the point where we find ourselves in a place not too dissimilar from where we first met Jesus: when we were "poor in spirit" but discovered that God was on our side before we did anything to deserve or earn it. God was on our side then. He's still on our side now when we try to follow him and fail or when we try to follow him and it means we receive nothing but shame and suffering from the world around us.
Following Jesus is often not a linear progression: It’s full of fits and starts, slumps and slides, and sometimes even brings us full circle. And it's at that point when we need to be reminded that God is still on our side.
God is on our side when we're at our worst.
God is on our side when we're brought to our lowest.
God is on your side.
That is good news!
One final thought: the other six Beatitudes' promises are all future tense, while the 1st and 8th are about the present...Jesus is announcing the current reality, not something that someday will be, but what is, now. God is present, maybe especially present with us when we're at our lowest. This should not surprise us, as we read in Psalm 34:
"The Lord is close to the brokenhearted
and saves those who are crushed in spirit."
May you encounter a God who is uniquely present to the broken and crushed this Lent.
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[1] Wikipedia contributors, "Inclusio," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia,
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Inclusio&oldid=932631184 (accessed March 5, 2020).
[2] Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, s.v. "persecute," accessed March 5, 2020,
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/persecute.
[3] Eduard Schweizer, The Good News According to Matthew. 1975, Westminster John Knox Press, 96.
[4] Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, s.v. "ignominious," accessed March 5, 2020,
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ignominious.
[5] Schweizer, Matthew.
