The Beatitudes and Empire

A recent sermon

So many years ago, I lived in this quaint little town south of the border called Washington, DC. And I served as a volunteer team leader at this large church. And one Sunday, while I was serving there, a bunch of guys in black suits and fancy earpieces showed up a few minutes before the church started. I’d only seen people like them in movies so it was kind of surreal. But they came up and said, “the Vice President of the United States is going to be attending your service.” We would like to do a security metal detector pat down of every single person attending your service.

So the pastors of this church were like, “Sure – you can do that. I mean, it’ll help keep our service safe. So why not?”

A few weeks later, I heard of another church in the suburbs of DC that had their church services interrupted by the President of the United States who was golfing nearby and decided to stop by their church service – not to attend church but to head straight to the mainstage – where the Pastor of this church felt like he had no choice but to awkwardly publicly pray for this President.

And I remember being in DC feeling really weirded out about how DC churches were rolling out the red carpet for Empire – for these powerful political leaders. Like, we wouldn’t do this for an unhoused person. We wouldn’t do this for a refugee. We wouldn’t do this for a survivor of human trafficking or violence. But somehow, we’d go out of our way to do this for a powerful agent of the American Empire. Why?

And I get why would do this outside the church. But why do this inside the church?

Have you ever been weirded out by things in the church? Have you ever seen someone be excluded because they were on the margins? Or have you ever seen someone in the church be treated with special status because they were rich or powerful? And how do we reconcile that with the way of Jesus?

The text that Pastor James has asked me to teach on today is this text that’s famously known as the Beatitudes. I don’t know about you but growing up in the Church, I was raised to see the Beatitudes as attitudes that we Christians need to be about – the Beatitudes. But the more I’ve wrestled the Christian faith, and the more I’ve spent time with Jesus on the margins doing the work of international human rights over this past decade, the more I’ve come to believe that the Beatitudes are not just attitudes that we need to be about; the Beatitudes are the attitudes of God towards us – and specifically, towards people in poverty and oppression.

The Beatitudes aren’t so much a prescription as they are a declaration of God’s covenant promises to us – beginning with people on the margins of society and Empire.

You see, for more context – we need to go back to the Old Testament. And specifically to the book of Deuteronomy. In Deuteronomy, God renews his covenant with Israel after Israel comes out of Egypt, goes through the Jordan river, goes through the wilderness and enters the promised land. See what Jesus does in the book of Matthew. Jesus renews God’s covenant through this sermon after coming out of Egypt in Matthew 2; after going through the water and after getting baptized in the same river that Israel went through – the Jordan. And then, he goes through the wilderness in Matthew 4. And then in Matthew 4, Jesus enters the promised land and renews God’s covenant with us through the Beatitudes in Matthew 5. Let’s jump into the Beatitudes with that in mind:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Blessed are the poor in spirit. Let me say this right off the bat - we need very careful with how we interpret Jesus’ sermon on the mount. And especially this part of Jesus’ sermon on the mount – the Beatitudes. One danger of reading texts like this today is reading it with our 21^st century western Canadian biases.

My friend, Nikayla Reize (whose Substack you can subscribe to here), a brilliant Canadian theologian, calls this interpretative lens a “colonial way of interpreting Scripture where we quickly go in and extract whatever resources (or hermeneutics) we want to extract without respecting the local history or culture.”

But Jesus’ audience for this sermon was not a 21^stcentury Toronto audience; his audience was a 1^st century Jewish audience. And it wasn’t just a 1^st century Jewish audience – it was a 1^st century poor and oppressed Jewish audience in the Middle East. A Jewish people who were physically poor but also physically oppressed by their occupying colonizers – the Roman Empire.

So when Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” And then follows that up with, “For theirs is the kingdom of heaven” – what he’s saying here is really profound. And it’s really counterintuitive to the reality of this poor and oppressed Jewish audience – an audience that has been excluded from the kingdom of Caesar. But the kingdom of heaven is first and foremost for those who have been excluded from the kingdoms of Caesar. And the kingdom of heaven is first and foremost for those who have been excluded from the empires of the earth.

I don’t know if you realize this but even though the kingdom of Caesar and the Roman Empire is now gone, Empires still persists in the world today. Because whether or not we realize it, Empires have been prevalent throughout the history of the Global Church. And Empires have consistently tried to influence the Church with its politics of exclusion of our marginalized neighbours. Take for example the Nazi Third Reich Empire in Germany and the ways in which it co-opted the German Church to exclude their Jewish, Romani and disabled neighbours. Or take for example the British Empire, the Portuguese Empire or the Spanish Empire and the ways in which they co-opted the Anglican Church and the Catholic Church to marginalize their enslaved and colonized neighbours. Or take for example the American Empire today and the ways in which it co-opts the American evangelical church to exclude their refugee neighbours or their immigrant neighbours today.

What are the empires present in our world today? And what neighbours do they influence the church to exclude? And how might we resist these empires with the kingdom of heaven that is inclusive of all our poor, oppressed and marginalized neighbours?

Now here’s something else I want us to wrestle with: I’ve heard western preachers explain “Blessed are the poor in spirit” as something that Jesus only meant for people who are spiritually poor or spiritually oppressed. But again, Jesus preaches this to an audience that is spiritually poor because they’re physically poor and because they’re physically oppressed. We in the western church often forget that the Gospel or the Good News of Jesus is both physical and spiritual. And when you’re physically poor and physically oppressed, you’re also spiritually poor.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”

The empires of this earth go out of their way to oppress those who don’t fit in. They oppress those on the margins.

But the kingdom of God that is already but not yet fully here, the kingdom of God that Jesus will fully establish on earth upon his return, the kingdom of God stands opposed to the empires of this earth – by bringing comfort to those who are oppressed.

How many of you have experienced comfort through the church? How many of you have experienced comfort in mourning at THIS church? Maybe you’ve experienced comfort through the kind words of a sibling in Christ at church. Maybe you’ve experienced comfort through Pastor James checking in on you or a church leader praying for you in a difficult time. Maybe you’ve experienced comfort through a church potluck or meal with others at church after the service.

The comfort that you experience though the body of Christ here on earth (the Church) is just a vision of the comfort that you’ll experience when Christ returns to wipe away every tear as we see in Revelation 21:4 where it says, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

“For the old order of things has passed away.” For the empires of this earth and their oppressive ways will have passed away. Blessed are those who mourn, for they WILL be comforted!

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”

People who are oppressed and marginalized by the empires of this earth often stand no chance on this side of eternity. In my work at International Justice Mission, we do the work of strengthening justice systems to protect vulnerable communities from violence. Vulnerable communities such as vulnerable women and children who often never get justice in court. For example, more than 90%, 90% of sexual assault cases in Central America are never reported to law enforcement. Why? Because these justice systems were set up by colonial empires to protect colonial interests. Because these justice systems were never really set up to protect women and children – especially women and children from poor indigenous communities.

Or take for example a statistic like this – 1 in 100 Filipino children are abused online for right now. That’s half a million Filipino children. And Canada is the number 4 country in the world that’s purchasing the demand for this crime. Why? Because our Canadian justice system was also never set up to be mindful of children in poor communities overseas.

But Jesus looks at those who have been trampled upon by the empires of this earth and he tells them – blessed are you, for YOU will inherit the earth!

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”

So here’s a biblical languages pro-tip. Whenever you see the word “righteousness” in the Bible, I want you to think “justice”.

Because the New Testament Greek word for righteousness is Dikaiosune and Dikaiosune means both righteousness and justice. Because personal righteousness goes hand in hand with public justice. And public justice thrives when there’s personal righteousness.

I hope all of us are people who hunger and thirst for justice. Because when we hunger and thirst for justice – we get to share in the reward of pursuing justice with the Spirit. And blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.”

As Christians, as people of Jesus who have received mercy, we’re called to be conduits of mercy to this merciless world that God has placed us in. I don’t know if you feel this but this world can often feel like a merciless place. Right?

Just this past Sunday, I had someone I go to church with come up to me and introduce himself. He’d heard me preach a few Sundays ago where I shared about how colonization has shaped the world we live in today and has shaped so much of the western church’s theology to resist justice today – themes that I’m writing about in the book I’m currently working on. But this sweet brother in Christ had a few clarifying questions about some of the things that I said. So he came up to me and with incredible grace and gentleness said, “Joash, I’d love to pick your brain on some of this stuff and process some of my disagreements with you. But I’ll be honest, I have so much fear of saying the wrong thing and being labeled as a racist or a bigot. Because that’s what CNN or ABC or CBC would probably call me.”

I looked at this brother with compassion in my eyes and said, “Brother – even if you disagree with me on colonization and how bad it was for my Indian family, I will still love you. Because at the end of the day, you’re still my brother in Christ.”

But the whole interaction made me realize how merciless we are in this world. Where even in the pursuit of justice, we can be so merciless towards those who disagree with us. But that is not the way of Jesus. Because justice Jesus’ way operates out of mercy – because we have received great mercy.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”

Now something else I want you to keep in mind as we read through this passage is that anytime you see the word “Blessed”, I want you to think of the word “Happy”. Because the Greek word for Blessed is also the Greek word for Happy. Because God cares about your happiness. Think about that - the same God who created the heavens and the earth cares about your happiness. He cares about your happiness SO much that he came down to earth to give us life so that we could be happy and live lives of Shalom or wholeness.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”

Jesus, the Son of God was a peacemaker – he made peace by reconciling all of creation to himself. And he made peace by breaking down the walls among us and reconciling to each other. And as Jesus’ brothers and sisters, as Christians – you and I are called to enter difficult situations and make peace too! Whatever that looks like.

Is anyone here excited about the new Gladiator movie? There’s a story of a Christian monk in the early church called Telemachus. And Telemachus hated the violence at the gladiatorial games. He hated how people who were sold into slavery were forced to fight each other to the death. So he decided to be a peacemaker. He showed up to a gladiatorial contest; and he jumped in the ring to stop the fighting screaming “No more! In the name of Jesus, no more!” And the crowd that paid for tickets to watch this fight didn’t like that. So they turned on Telemachus and stoned him to death. And it seemed like Telemachus died a meaningless death trying to be a peacemaker.

But that was the last gladiator fight ever! And a few years later, the Roman Emperor banned gladiator fights – all because a Christian monk named Telemachus decided to be a peacemaker!

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness or justice, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Justice Jesus’ way is expensive. It’ll cost you something. In fact, it may even cost you everything.

If you don’t believe me, just ask the Old Testament Prophets. Just ask John the Baptist. Just ask Jesus. Just ask the early church. Just ask Dr. King and his successors today fighting the dignity of Black and first nation lives. Or just ask your church, Wellspring Toronto – that’s being disowned and marginalized by other Christians because of your embrace of the marginalized.

“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a modern day prophet for righteousness & justice, said this in a sermon the night before he was killed. He said: “I have been to the mountaintop. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land! And so I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man! Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!”

And the very next day, he was killed. But he still pointed us to God’s future reality.

Because this is what prophets do. Prophets stand in the gap between the world that is and the world that will be. They lament the brokenness of the world we’re in. But they also stand on the mountaintop and delight in the hope of the world that the Spirit is ushering in. The world that Jesus will fully establish when he returns – where every tear is wiped away, where all oppression shall cease and where God’s justice is fully restored here on earth – as it is in heaven.

Let me close with this: The beautiful thing about the Beatitudes is that Jesus isn’t preaching down to people being marginalized and oppressed by Empire. He becomes one with the margins by taking the form of a marginalized human being – a colonized, occupied, refugee Jewish Palestinian victim of violence, unjustly executed by Empire.

For those of you today reading this text and feeling marginalized in your own life, if you get nothing else from this sermon today, I want you to get this:

Jesus knows what it’s like to be poor in spirit. Jesus knows what it’s to mourn. Jesus knows what it’s like to be humbled. Jesus knows what it’s like to hunger and thirst for righteousness / justice. Jesus knows what it’s like to need mercy. Jesus knows what it’s like to not see God. Jesus knows what it’s like to be a peacemaker. Jesus knows what it’s like to be persecuted for righteousness / justice. Jesus knows what it’s like to be falsely accused. He knows what you’re going through. And he cares. And he has come down to rescue you. And he will come again to make everything right!

Preached at Wellspring Worship Centre in Toronto, ON (Canada) on October 6, 2024.

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