5
That night, Melanie lay awake for some time. She realized that she had used the reference to Perrin’s book and her little exposition about the Kingdom of God partly to show Al that she was in charge. Perrin’s book, which she had only skimmed, reminded her that she could easily get into deep water. She felt like someone overhearing a conversation which had been going on for hours and trying to participate. Except that in this case the conversation had been going on for generations. Aunt Matty’s choice to include such a book in the package was not helpful. She wondered if Matty had read it. There were no signs of her characteristic underlinings. Worse yet, there was no escaping from further discussions of the Kingdom of Heaven. She had a count of more than fifty references in the remainder of the Gospel. And she had realized, too late, that she had cut off the discussion of the calling of the first disciples and the summary of the powerful actions of Jesus at the end of the chapter.
Eventually she drifted off to sleep, glad that the morrow would present her with legal matters on which she felt she was on firm ground.
Throughout the week, she read the text for the next meeting with some care. Keeping a respectful distance from any expert opinion, she could see that what was commonly called “The Sermon on the Mount” was not like any sermon she had ever heard. Admittedly her experience in such matters was limited but she could see that there were at least seven separate units and she also discovered, on her own, that bits of the “Sermon” were scattered through the other Gospels in a disconnected fashion. It gave her some solace to discover later that she was making the right judgement: that “The Sermon on the Mount” was in fact a collection of the sayings of Jesus that must have been given at different times and to different audiences. This would explain why Jesus could be talking about the permanence of the Law (of Moses) at one time and, at another, giving instructions which seemed to allow for contradiction to the Law, such as the prohibition of oath taking.
She also had a feeling that the Sermon on the Mount was awkwardly placed: at the end of Chapter 4 of Matthew is the summary of the healing ministry, then three chapters devoted to the Sermon, and finally in Chapter 8, three specific examples of healings. It was as though Matthew had this collection of sayings and was uncertain where to put it.
But when Tuesday came along again, as it did on a regular basis, she felt more comfortable with herself and had decided how she would handle the next session. Webster had been in touch and asked for a little time for his precious Parallels, this time to give Luke’s version of the Beatitudes. He had gone to the trouble of preparing the text to be included in her PowerPoint presentation. Melanie was somewhat concerned, feeling that Matthew’s Gospel was more than enough without distracting their thoughts by comparisons. But, out of her regard for Webster, she had agreed and determined that she would make it clear that this wasn’t to be a regular occurrence. Really, Webster could be a bit of a nuisance!
After the preliminaries, she urged them to put to one side conventional thinking about the “Sermon”; for example, the idea that Jesus was somehow following Moses “up the mountain” and coming down with a new Law. “It’s really not a sermon at all. It’s a kind of anthology of the sayings of Jesus, delivered at different times and to different situations. Maybe the writer of Matthew’s Gospel contrived a context for the whole collection rather than have them unattached to any historical setting.” There was some muted grumbling that she was rather imposing her ideas ahead of time. “All right,” she conceded, “let’s take a look.”
And there on the screen they could consider the first section:
Seeing the multitude of people, Jesus went up the hill. There he seated himself, and when his disciples came to him, he proceeded to teach them, and said:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for to them belongs the Kingdom of Heaven.
Blessed are the mourners, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall obtain possession of the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be completely satisfied.
Blessed are the compassionate, for they shall receive compassion.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for it is they who will be recognized as sons of God.
Blessed are those who have borne persecution in the cause of righteousness, for to them belongs the Kingdom of Heaven.
Blessed are you when they have insulted and persecuted you, and have said every cruel thing about you falsely for my sake.
Be joyful and triumphant, because your reward is great in heaven; for so were the Prophets before you persecuted.”
Nine parallel statements of blessing (“The Beatitudes”); there was general agreement that the last two suggested a context of violent opposition, more appropriate to later times, even into the experience of the early church.
Webster was anxious to have his say. He pointed out that the hypothesis that the “Sermon” was an anthology could be argued from the occurrence of several of its verses appearing in other Gospels, in a completely different context. “There are many examples,” he said. “Here’s one: the teaching in Chapter 7 about prayer appears, word for word, in Luke’s Gospel after the parable of the Friend at Midnight (Luke 11).” Much to Melanie’s relief, he continued with the concession: “It would be too much to go through all such examples but rather than take my word for it, check them out.” Several in the group, including Al, had followed his urging and now possessed copies of the Parallels, checked out Matthew 7 as he spoke and agreed with his findings.
But he was eager to show something else: the parallel section of Luke’s Gospel which now, thanks to PowerPoint, appeared on the screen:
Then fixing his eyes upon his disciples, Jesus said to them,
“Blessed are you poor, because the Kingdom of God is yours.
Blessed are you who hunger now, because your hunger shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who now weep aloud, because you shall laugh.
Blessed are you when men shall hate you and exclude you from their society and insult you, and spurn your very names as evil things, for the Son of Man’s sake.
Be glad at such a time, and dance for joy; for your reward is great in Heaven; for that is just the way their forefathers behaved to the Prophets!”
“I am convinced that Luke’s version is closer to the original. Matthew tried to widen the application of the teaching.” He pointed out that “blessed are you poor” made sense as addressed to those who came out to hear him, while “blessed are the poor” seemed much more difficult, suggesting that poverty was somehow beneficial. It would be natural to try to escape this difficulty by making the change from “the poor” to “the poor in spirit.”
But by now, Al was barely concealing his impatience. “What you have said is interesting but is way ahead of where I am. I need to know what the very first verse means; what does ‘blessed’ mean and who are the ‘poor’ and then this ‘Kingdom of God,’ we haven’t got far in understanding that!”
Help was on its way! Several expressed opinions about the meaning of “blessed” and a consensus emerged that it was along the lines of being favored, or even honored, by God. Andrew, who was keen on the translation called the New English Bible, chimed in that the paraphrase, “Blessed are those who know they have a need for God” was
