Seeing the crowds, Jesus went up on the mountain, and when He sat down, His disciples came to Him. And Jesus opened His mouth and taught them saying: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those…for they shall be…shall inherit…shall be satisfied…shall receive mercy, etc.
I had a fantastic New Testament Greek professor. One of the gift he gave was to look for certain things in certain words so that we might be able to quickly recognize what was happening in the word.
The one I want to teach you today is a consistent use of the letter “theta” in the middle of a word. The trick is this: if a word has a “theta” in the middle of it, it’s most likely a passive verb.
That means, it’s a word that is describing not that somebody is doing something, but rather that is somebody is having something done for them or to them.
He would draw a “theta” on the board, and have us pretend that it was an easy chair, with someone relaxing. He wasn’t doing anything. He was having things done for him.
Drinks were brought,
food was brought,
people were asking, “What can I do for you, sir?”
In Matthew 5, this middle-of-the-word “theta” is found 4 times…they shall be comforted…they shall be satisfied…they shall receive mercy…they shall be called sons of God.
But the passive verb is behind every single blessing…theirs is the kingdom of heaven…they shall be comforted…they shall inherit the earth…they shall see God…they shall be called sons of God…and finally for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
If these blessings are passive, then the assumption is that God is one the One who is acting. God is the One who is comforting,
satisfying,
showing mercy,
calling sons of God,
comforting,
giving the kingdom of heaven, etc.
It’s so very important to understand that the Church has connected the reading of the these passive blessings, these beatitudes, to All Saints Day.
All Saints Day is primarily about what God does, but then it’s also a recognition that God does things in people and even us.
Today is called All Saints Day. It’s not about the big names of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob or Mary, Peter, and Paul or Augustine, Luther, or Luther King, Jr.
These gifts of God have specific days in which we thank God for them.
Today, is not the day we name them, but the day we name all our saints. The specific gifts God has given us. The specific people that have blessed me, even if they haven’t specifically blessed you.
I love that we name our dead.
And I love that I don’t know most of them.
And I love that you don’t know most of mine or most of your neighbors.
And I love that we name the babies who died before they were born
and the babies who died shortly after they were born
and the ones who died very, very old
and the ones who died tragically,
and the ones whose death seemed expected,
and the ones who died with their minds or bodies just a little broken.
We name the one who were very good to us and maybe even name the ones who weren’t so good to us.
We name them because we recognize that we are middle of the word “theta”, passive recipients of God’s work through people – their mercy, their meekness, their peace-making, their witness.
We wouldn’t be the Christians we are without the Christians we name and named.
And today is also a day that we recognize, through this Matthew 5 reading of blessings, that Jesus isn’t napping now either. He continues to work and He even continues to work in us – sometimes despite us.
These blessings show us what it looks like when Jesus is working through us.
It looks like Him showing us we are poor in spirit and we constantly need His Holy Spirit.
It looks like Him showing us we ought mourn our sins and be comforted by His forgiveness.
It looks like Him working in us meekness,
a hunger and thirst for His Word and righteousness,
Him working in us mercy toward others,
purity in heart,
peace-making,
and also Him working through persecution for us to witness.
And as we know what Jesus working in us looks like, we also can see what it looks like when the devil, the world, and the flesh are working in us.
It looks like us relying on ourself,
rejoicing in sin,
acting like our God is weak and thus acting either, on the one hand, weak ourselves or, on the other hand, so forceful and violent because it’s up to us to fix it.
The devil, the world, and the flesh working in us looks like us saying,
“I’ve had enough Jesus, who need the Word and Sacrament?”
It looks like us being stingy and selfish,
unclean in our hearts and thoughts,
being troublemakers and holding grudges and anger.
And it looks like other uttering evil things about us, not falsely, but rightly – because we acted evil.
The blessings of this day include God showing us that He is continuing to work even as the devil, the world, and the flesh continue to work in us.
And the greatest blessing comes from know that the saints we named – the little saints; the saints we name other days – the big saints; and the saints that we are comes not in the working that God is doing in people, but the work that God did in Jesus Christ, outside of us.
God’s work through and in us is not complete until we die – “for all the saints who from their labors rest…we feebly struggle, they in glory in shine.”
God’s work of earning our salvation, forgiving our sin, defeating our death, crushing our devil, winning us rest and glory and blessing – all that was complete on the cross by Jesus.
Today, we remember the day Jesus went up and mountain and began to open His mouth and teach.
And today, we also remember the day Jesus hung on a mountain and began to cry out “it is finished” and opened side for blood and water to pour forth.
Jesus began to teach His sermon on the mount one day and He hasn’t stopped teaching today.
Jesus died one day, and He hasn’t stopped giving us the benefits of His death today.
He has worked through all His saints.
He is working through.
And He is also working in you, to give you His kingdom,
to comfort you,
to promise you will inherit the new heavens and new earth,
to satisfy your hunger and thirst for His righteousness,
to show mercy,
to show you Christ by faith as you wait to see Christ face to face,
to call you sons of God,
to give you His kingdom (one of the few blessings that are present and not future is repeated twice!),
and finally to give you joy and gladness in Him.
Sit back and relax and see how God works on you.
And go forth into the world and see how God also works in you