November 5, 2023 All Saints' Day The text is Matthew 5:1-12.
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1When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:
3“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
8“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
10“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
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May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to You, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.
Grace, mercy, and peace are yours from God the Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
It seems to me that it doesn’t make much sense to try to preach on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, which states people are “blessed” nine times, without first taking a look at the original Greek word that Matthew uses for these blessings that Jesus proclaims. The root word is “makarios”, and as is often the case, there are more than a few ways to translate it into English. This term for blessed may include fortunate, privileged, and happy.
These are all rather closely related, but it may be a stretch to declare that those who are in mourning for the dead would describe themselves as being happy. But this list of life’s conditions as Jesus notes them are known as the “Beatitudes”; more simply expressed as blessings. And although nearly all bible versions translate the Beatitudes as “Blessed”, nonetheless, in the original Greek, “makarios” is generally understood to be read as happy. So there is this perceived dichotomy that exists between the blessedness or happiness that Jesus proclaims for people who are experiencing certain situations in the present, and the reversal of these in the future. “Blessed are” is followed by “for they will”. Note that the very first blessing Jesus proclaims is to those who are poor in spirit, and that their reward will be entrance into the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are”, “for they will”.
The rest of the Beatitudes as Jesus proclaims them, continue in this same vein; the blessings that will be enjoyed are all associated with the coming heavenly kingdom. God’s people, when the kingdom is established will be blessed with comfort, inheritance, righteousness, and mercy. They will see God, become God’s children, and their persecution will end. But how does this promise of future reward square with the meekness, poverty of spirit, and the hunger and thirst for righteousness that impact people who remain in the present? “Blessed are”, “for they will”; well, it can be difficult to cling to this promise when one is hungry, in mourning, or yearning for mercy. This is the very definition of faith, and of hope, and of trust. All that is required is that we in the present cling to the faith, hope, and trust that identifies us as followers of Christ. We, like Jesus’ listeners there on the Mount find ourselves suffering from the very same afflictions that they faced.
We have faith that we will receive God’s mercy; we hope to see God; we trust that we will be granted entrance into the kingdom of heaven. Poor spirit, meekness, lack of mercy, impurity of heart; all these are struggles that we encounter from time to time. But this morning we find ourselves focused on a singular form of distress; we mourn for those we have lost. On All Saints Day the church pauses to remember those who have departed from this world and who have found the rest promised them in the kingdom of heaven. Their beatitude, their blessing has been bestowed on them in the form of eternal life with God.
The departed saints have achieved their “makarios”; their happiness, joy, and all that this blessing entails. “Blessed are”, “for they will”; they are blessed, those who have received their reward. And this is really at the core of what Jesus is preaching this morning on the mountain; the blessings that are promised to God’s people will be realized at the coming of the kingdom. Jesus is teaching that all will be revealed and that the blessings of heaven are promised to us all.
However, for we who mourn this day for those who have received their “makarios”, it can be difficult to reconcile our grief at their passing with the joy they have gained. As Christ-followers we acknowledge and proclaim the faith, hope, and trust we have in our God; yet even with this knowledge and belief we still mourn the loss of our loved ones. This is part of what makes us human, part of what makes of children of God; that in spite of the promise of blessings we still grieve for those who have gone before. Yet even in our grief we are blessed, now and at the coming of the kingdom. For we do not grieve alone, we are surrounded by the saints who remain and by the Holy Spirit, who comforts us now as we will be comforted when we join those who this day we remember. “Blessed are”, “for they will”. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”
We look to one another in the company of the Spirit so that we may feel the comfort that God provides for us, we who mourn. We are consoled by our siblings in faith, knowing that they too have hope and trust in God’s promises; promises that Jesus proclaims to those on the Mount, and to us on this day. And the best way for us to honor those whom we mourn is to express our own “makarios”, our own joy and happiness that the saints who have gone before have been received into heaven and now experience “makarios”-eternal; “eternal joy”.
Perhaps now might be a good time to take a deep breath, prepare ourselves, and wade into the deep, murky waters that are the book of Revelation. There is a reason that the folks who assign our Scripture readings each week group the readings, Psalm, and Gospel lesson together; they are striving to find common ground among them, a theme that connects them. And our reading from Revelation does tie in nicely to the preaching of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and the observance of All Saints Day.
We’ll get to that in a bit, but first, let’s get some of the strangeness of Revelation out of the way, so we can delve a bit into its intended meaning and how it supports the Gospel. The Book of Revelation is certainly the least clearly understood of the bible’s writings. Since it was penned nearly 2,000 years ago all manner of doomsday cults have pointed to it as the prophecy telling of the end of the world. Every couple of years, these apocalyptic visions have been cited to support the claim that the apocalypse will be here before we know it; some have even foretold a specific time on a specific day. But it safe to say that all these predictions have proven to be incorrect. The truth is that this New Testament Scripture was never intended to foretell the end of the world. It was, in fact written in response to the persecution and subsequent suffering of Christians in the Roman world that was taking place when John of Patmos wrote the Book of Revelation from his exile on that small island in the Aegean Sea.
The vision of a “new heaven and new earth” that Revelation describes was most certainly a product of the persecution and destruction that the author witnessed, along with the mistreatment suffered by the rest of Jesus’ early followers. Revelation envisioned better times for these first-century Christians once they were liberated from under the heel of Roman occupation. This was the purpose of the book of Revelation, to reveal the ultimate victory of good over evil; the establishment of the kingdom of God, here on earth. John is revealing to his readers his vision of what the new world will look like when the kingdom of heaven is instituted. The bizarre, supernatural, and rather obscure references we read in Revelation may seem somewhat surreal to us, but their symbolism would be starkly apparent to those who read them just a few years after the resurrection, when this book was written. In fact, this type of apocalyptic literature was a well-known and often-used literary genre in Jesus’ time. Our ancient predecessors would have been quite comfortable with Revelation’s bold, dramatic imagery.
That said, let’s move beyond the obscure symbolism and accept Revelation for what it was intended to be; a revealing of the glory, victory, blessing, joy, and celebration that await God’s people in the coming kingdom.
On this day when we remember the lives of those who have departed to be with God in heaven, the “makarios”; the happiness, the joy, the blessing they have received in the kingdom to come as envisioned in Revelation provides the promised comfort for us who remain, knowing our loved ones have been received into the Father’s domain. It’s worth repeating these verses that describe the blessing that has been bestowed upon the faithful departed; "These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."
Let us find comfort in the knowledge that those whose lives we celebrate this day have received their reward and rest in eternal joy. “Blessed are”, “for they will”. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” Let the ones to find comfort be us.
Will you pray with me? Good, and gracious, and holy God, we offer this day the prayer that is said at every Lutheran funeral service;
Almighty God, source of all mercy and giver of comfort, graciously tend those who mourn, that, casting all their sorrow on you, they may know the consolation of your love; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
God is Good, all the time. All the time, God is Good. Amen.