The Beatitudes: Paradoxical Promises of the New Covenant

[Music] he also gives them a list of blessing and curses in Deuteronomy chapter 28 now I'm not gonna read it in full and it isn't the Old Testament reading for today so there's no parallel here but I do think it's important for us to understand the background because a lot of people are put off by Luke's account of the the Beatitudes because they're pretty harsh especially when you add in the woes against you know what's wrong with being rich what's wrong with eating you know a good meal what's wrong with laughing what's wrong with people praising you and saying good things about you I mean truly there's nothing wrong with any of these things and yet Jesus is pronouncing a curse on all those who are rich all those who have full bellies right so does that apply to you did you have a good meal last night all those who laugh right and all those do have good things said about them so what do we make of that well I think if you go back to the Old Testament you'll see and do the line shefter 28 let me just run this a few verses by you real quick in the Old Testament Moses gave a list of blessings and woes as well he gave a list of blessings for obedience and a list of woes or curses for disobedience and listen to what it says chapter 28 verse 1 if you obey the voice of the Lord your God this is Moses speaking to the Israelites being careful to do all his commandments which I command you this day the Lord God will set you high above all the nations of the earth all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you if you obey the voice of the Lord your God blessed shall you be in the city and blessed shall you be in the field blessed shall be the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground the fruit of your beasts the increase of your cattle the young of your flock bless it shall be your basket and your kneading trough bless it shall you be when you come in and bless it shall you be when you go out the Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways the Lord will command blessing upon your barns and all that you undertake and he will bless you in the land which the Lord gives you the Lord will establish you as a people holy to himself as he has sworn to you if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways if you skip down to verse 11 the Lord will make you abound in prosperity in the fruit of your body the fruit of your cattle in the fruit of your ground with the land which the Lord swore to your father's to give to you and so those are the blessings so notice what are we describing here if you obey you're gonna have lots of children you're gonna have plentiful crops you're gonna have a bundle you're gonna have lots of money you're gonna have good weather it goes on to say you're gonna have peace in the land right your enemies will be driven out and you will have peace and prosperity so in the Old Testament if you obey what you get is earthly blessings and they're all good things fertility is good children are good cattle are good all right they're all made by God peace is good peace is better than war prosperity is better than poverty right in the sense that in poverty people get sick they die they suffer there's all kinds of natural equals associated with that so in the Old Testament obedience brings earthly blessings brings natural blessings by contrast disobedience brings curses and it says here verse 15 Deuteronomy 28 but if you'll not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command you this day then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you curse it shall you be in the city curse it shall you be in the field curse it shall be your basket and your meeting trawl curse it shall be the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground the increase of your cattle and the young of your flock curse it shall you be when you come in and curse shall you be when you go out the Lord will send upon you curses confusing frustration and all that you undertake to do until you are destroyed and perish quickly on account of the evil of your doings because you have forsaken me and he goes on a long chapter it's a very long very grim chapter Deuteronomy 28 to basically lay out if Israel disobeys God they're going to bring down upon themselves through their sin infertility famine pestilence poverty war and then eventually the worst of all the curses is exile that will end up being cast out of the Land of Israel the promised land which is of course if you know the Old Testament exactly what ends up happening right so I just I bring this up because I want you to get the setting right so Jesus is speaking to his Jewish disciples he's speaking to Jews in Galilee they know the Torah they know the law of Moses and what does the law of Moses say if you obey you get lots of food lots of children lots of joy and peace right if you disobey you have poverty pestilence hunger famine war and then finally exile now with that background in mind look again at the Beatitudes in Luke what is Jesus saying to his disciples in Luke chapter 6 blessed are you who are poor blessed are you who are hungry blessed are you who weep and blessed are you when men persecute you and exclude you and revile you rejoice on that day for your reward is great where in heaven for so their fathers did to the prophets and then he flips it and says woe to you who are rich who are full who laughs and who are spoken well write who in other words we're at peace who are not persecuted so what does Jesus done in my mind what I think's happening here is is something very significant in the New Covenant in the teaching of Jesus on the Sermon the blessings are the curses that's the thing the blessings are the curses we don't we don't think of it this way in other words the way you will build up treasure not on earth but in heaven is precisely through suffering it's through poverty it's through hunger it's through mourning and it's ultimately above all it's through persecution for the sake of the gospel it's through persecution for the sake of the Son of Man right by by contrast earthly blessings in the New Covenant are dangerous right they're spiritually dangerous so what is he saying here woe to you that are rich think about what he says elsewhere in the gospel it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle and for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven why because where your treasure is there will your heart be also so riches have the power to drag our hearts down from heaven and focus us on earthly goods the same thing what are you then a full now what's the problem with getting a good meal well because you can get self-satisfied with earthly goods and feel all-sufficient like you don't need God people who are starving to death no they need God people who are hungry know that how weak they are and how dependent they are on God but the rich and the full can get very complacent very quickly right same thing about those who are laughing now Jesus isn't condemning all laughter he's talking about people in context right who are taking who whose laughter is the kind of laughter that is based and rooted in an earthly joy right just it that distracts them from the injustice in the world but also distracts them ultimately from the goodness of the kingdom of God what's he saying you might be laughing now but you're gonna mourn or wheat if you miss out on the kingdom of heaven and then finally when all men speak well of you for those their fault so their fathers did - the false prophets so the false prophets were there and they were at peace nobody was persecuting them but it didn't mean that they were right with God and actually meant that they were lying and that they were as they were acquiring peace through their falsehood and not through the Grace and the gift of God so he's talking about the dangers that are inherent in earthly Goods and the fact that in the New Covenant now the blessings are rooted in what appear to be curses now whenever I teach this to my students sometimes there's like a negative reaction people say well come on that's a little strong dr. Petrie wouldn't you say to say that in the new covenant the blessings are the curses and the curses are the blessings if it's too strong then tell me why we have a crucifix at the center of every church how did the ultimate blessing of blessings come to the world how did the kingdom of heaven come to earth it's through the cross it's through a man who looks like he's cursed it's through a man who is poor who has nothing who is mourning right who's been stripped of everything who's been persecuted he is the most blessed man of all and in fact if you look at the Greek word here I keep saying blessed but the Greek word Luke uses is macario's which actually doesn't mean blessed it means happy right the the precise meaning macario's is someone who is happy so where we find real happiness in the New Covenant it's through detachment from earthly goods detachment from earthly blessings and through taking up the cross and following Christ so from the very beginning here in Luke chapter 6 the Sermon on the Mount Jesus is already preaching the way of the Cross but he's doing it under the form of the Beatitudes Beatitudes are not just some nice sayings about you know the attitudes we should have although they do give us an window and so the kind of of what our attitude toward created Goods and earthly Goods should be at the same time they're not simple nice little phrases they're they're explosive right they are powerful challenge to every one of us about the way the cross and and Jesus going to talk more about that as we move through the Gospel of Luke unless you take up your cross daily and follow me you can't be my disciple that's that's the way the cross so Jesus is laying out here [Music] [Music]

Channel: Catholic Productions

Views: 91,115

Keywords: beatitudes, Brant Pitre, Catholic Productions, Sermon on the Mount, Sermon on the Plain, New Covenant promises

Id: HpmzjxBS8-c

Length: 11min 30sec (690 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 11 2019