Dear Sisters, dear brethren, we have just heard the opening passage of the so-called ‘Sermon on the Mount’, a name given to three chapters in S Matthew’s Gospel in which he relates the beginning of our Lord’s public ministry, and an important summary of His teaching. We should note the setting St Mathew describes: ‘Seeing the crowds, Jesus went up on the mountain…’ Is this significant, or merely a descriptive setting of the scene? The people have already begun to notice Him, and to follow Him in great crowds. The mountain is significant. In the Book of Exodus, Moses went up mount Sinai, in order to bring down from there the Ten Commandments. The mountain, then, is the place from which God declares His teaching through His servant Moses.
Matthew continues: ‘and when [Jesus] sat down, his disciples came to Him…’ Jesus, we note, sits down before addressing them. He sits as a sign of His authority. He is no ordinary teacher; He has authority of His own, as many comment about Him at the time. The one who sits when he teaches has great authority. This is why a bishop has a seat, a cathedra, in his principal church, as the place from which he teaches his flock with the authority that has been given to him as a successor of the Apostles of Jesus. Hence his church is called a ‘cathedral’ church – literally ‘the church of the seat’. Just so, Jesus sits to teach with authority. Then Matthew tells us ‘And [Jesus] opened His mouth and taught them, saying…’ This ‘opening of His mouth’ is another sign of Jesus’s great authority. We shall see that in Jesus a greater teacher than Moses is here. Moses taught on God’s behalf. Jesus is God in person.
Now we come to the opening passage of the entire Sermon, a passage known as the ‘Beatitudes’ from the opening word of each phrase: ‘beati’, or ‘blessed’. For a long time we have been used to hearing this series of phrases begin ‘happy are those who…’, so why have we now returned to ‘Blessed are those who…’?
This is a most interesting question. The reason for this return to ‘blessed’ can be found in the very phrases our Lord uses. He begins each one with a statement: ‘blessed are those who…’ and then gives the reason why they are blessed: ‘for theirs is the kingdom of heaven…for they shall be comforted…for they shall inherit the earth…for they shall be satisfied…for they shall receive mercy…for they shall see God…for they shall be called sons of God…for your reward is great in heaven.’
Do you see what is happening here? These conditions of being blessed are not to be found in the present moment. They are blessed because of what shall be done for them in the future. They are not ‘happy’, which is a feeling of contentment here and now, but ‘blessed’ because by their endurance of whatever particular difficulty, hardship, trial, revilement, persecution, here and now, their future bliss is assured.
Why is this important to note here? Well, if you are mourning now, if you are persecuted and reviled now, you cannot be happy or contented now, except perhaps in the faith that assures you your reward will come. That is true, but it is not all. It would look like a cop-out if we simply said, ‘we must put up with misery now, because we will get everything we want in the future.’
There are probably today just three great religions vying to dominate the world: Christianity, Marxism and Islam. Despite being very different from each other, they have some very significant common points – one in particular that concerns us in this message of our Lord’s. Karl Marx hated Christianity because he read the Beatitudes something like this: you are going along in the burning heat of the desert dying of thirst and you think you can see water in the distance ahead: that is, in the future. There’s no water here and now: but cheer up! There’s water in plenty to look forward to. So make hopefully for that lovely water in the distance. But a mirage is imaginary. It isn’t real. Marx said that Christianity is like that. It holds out the prospect of heaven after the miseries of this life in order to keep the poor quiet and submissive to the rich and powerful. This is what he meant by calling religion ‘the opium of the people’, like a drug that cruelly and dishonestly builds a false hope in people of a fulfilment that isn’t there, and never will be, and even worse, this false hope cruelly deprives the poor of the only real thing worth hoping for.
This is why Marx sought instead to create heaven on earth, here and now. Because life is unfair for many, it must be made fair for all, by force if necessary. Every good thing in life must be equally available to everybody, because there isn’t another life after this. Hence Marxists strive to create a Utopia on earth by whatever means, because there is no such thing as life after death, nor any heaven ‘up there’ to enjoy. Is he right? After all, Our Lord says: ‘blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth’? Is Marx right, then, to the extent that one day the earth will be possessed by those who are called ‘blessed’ and ‘meek’? Well, Marx has absolutely no time for meekness; he calls for violent revolution, the overthrow of the oppressive system.
Our Lord does nothing of the kind. Those who take up the sword will perish by the sword, or by any other violent means you care to name. No. Our Lord means something different by what He calls the earth here: He is speaking of the ‘new earth’ along with the ‘new heaven’, which God will bring into being at the end of time as the state in which He and His chosen blessed ones will dwell together for all eternity.
Then there is Islam. Unlike Marx, Mohammed said that there is indeed a heaven to come after this life, and it will be a reward for those alone who have done the will of Allah. But the reward will simply be the enjoyment without limits of every earthly and sensual kind of pleasure known to men.
All this is utterly different from Christian understanding of heaven which we find in our Lord’s teaching in the Beatitudes. Heaven is not a place or state to be found here on earth, nor does it consist in doing things in heaven that are forbidden here on earth. Our Lord’s teaching on heaven is that it is to be found in comfort that takes away all sorrow, in receiving the mercy we always longed for, in finding the righteousness that corrects all injustice. Now there are many who put their trust in the teachings of Marx or Mohammed rather than in the teachings of Christ. Can we be sure, then, that what we hope for is real and better than what they hope for? The answer lies in the desires we have in our hearts for those things which our Lord speaks of. We desire consolation, we desire justice, we desire mercy, we desire peace. Such things as these we often cannot have in this life, but we still long for them. If that were all we had, just longings that could never be fulfilled, then we would be miserable indeed. How could that be right? How could that show God to be just?
C. S. Lewis wrote: ‘If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world’. Only Christianity supplies this need with authenticity. Only our Lord has the authority to teach the truth from God because He is God. We may not necessarily be happy now, because this life is full of sorrow and tribulation, but if we put our trust in God and in Christ, then truly we can ‘rejoice and be glad, for our reward is great in heaven.’ We were made to be satisfied not in this world but only in the next, for only then will we be blessed, because only then will be see God face to face.
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