Beauty: Those Who Ache for the World to be Made Right

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, 

for they will be filled."  (Matt. 5:6)

"Blessed are those who ache for the world to be made right; 

for them the government of God is a dream come true."

(Brian Zahnd paraphrase)

The author of "Beauty Will Save the World" says that those who feel most threatened by the Beatitudes are those for whom the present situation in the world is most beneficial. "In other words, if you are a citizen of a modern-day superpower and generally like the way the world is arranged, you're probably going to initially feel more challenged than blessed by the Beatitudes."

Zahnd points out that the Greek word here that is commonly translated "righteousness" con

tains both the concept of righteousness and justice. Because English translations use "righteousness" far more times than "justice" is unfortunate because it has allowed us to "shrink God's comprehensive justice to the realm of individual spirituality and private piety."

But in this beatitude Jesus is talking more about social justice and His government than He is about personal spirituality. Both matter and both go together, but it's important to understand that this is a political beatitude. "Jesus challenged both the politics of Caesar and Herod...He did so with his own politics - the politics of love, which define the kingdom of God. To think that Jesus was not political is to ignore the fact that Jesus was executed by the state for political reasons. (What Jesus was not was an adherent of any of the existing political movements.)"

God's kingdom is God's government (i.e., God's politics). Jesus' politics transcends the present-day partisan categories of "right" or "left." Neither conservatism nor liberalism represents the politics of Jesus. The politics of Jesus is the Sermon on the Mount, and we need to understand as modern Americans that we are the Romans with all their privileges and status. 

So does this mean we should feel guilty about being privileged? Not necessarily, but we should ache over the conditions of injustice in our world, or as the author says, "we should break free from the prosaic delusion that everything is okay." One example of injustice in our world is this: for every child who dies every day of hunger, the nations of the world spend $176,000 on security...at the very least we should ache and pain over this and the many other unjust realities in our world.

"In the fourth beatitude Jesus blesses those who ache over the pervasive injustice and deep brokenness of our world...blesses those who refuse to keep looking at the world through the rose-colored glasses of self-delusion...they long for the beauty of Christ's justice to save the world."

Next is the fifth beatitude: "Blessed are those who give mercy, for they will get it back when they need it most."

Beauty: The Gentle and Trusting who Don't Grasp and Clutch

"Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth."  (Matt.5:5)

"Blessed are the quiet and content, the humble and unassuming, 
the gentle and trusting who are not grasping and clutching,
for God will personally guarantee their share when heaven and earth become one."
(Brian Zahnd paraphrase)

These words of Jesus would have shocked and/or amused His listeners. After all, everyone knew how the real world was run. Rome ruled the world and for sure did not gain power by being meek! "Rome ruled the world because they were smart, bold, aggressive, and willing to make war to secure their super-power status. Yet here is this poor Galilean rabbi announcing that the meek will inherit the earth...

"The way of violence and aggression is the way of Caesar. The way of meekness and trust is the way of Christ...In the third beatitude, Jesus is endorsing the radical trust of Psalm 37...The psalm advocates trusting the living God for security instead of relying upon the conventional means of force employed by the wicked...

"The earth is seized by the aggressive and violent, but it is inherited by the meek and gentle. Inheritance is a family word, a relationship word, a grace word. Seizing is the way of Satan. Inheriting is the way of God."

Zahnd points out that the word "meek" only appears three times in the Gospels: here in the beatitudes when Jesus blesses the meek, later when Jesus describes himself as meek in Matthew 11, and finally it's the word used to describe him in his triumphal entry into Jerusalem before his death when Matthew quotes Zechariah's prophecy concerning the Messiah.

Jesus' entry to Jerusalem on a donkey was a prophetic rejection of the militaristic ways of empire; Pilate rode into the city on a war horse surrounded by soldiers. We know that by the end of the week, Jesus was crucified by Pilate. "But whom did God vindicate?...Whose empire now stretches from sea to sea and to the ends of the earth? The empire of Rome, which maintained its security by its military, has been swept into the dustbin of history, while the kingdom of Christ endures! How can this be? The meek inherit the earth. This too is beautiful."

Next is the fourth beatitude: "Blessed are those who ache for the world to be made right; for them the government of God is a dream come true."

Beauty: The Depressed who Mourn and Grieve

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.  (Matt. 5:4)

Blessed are the depressed who mourn and grieve,

for they create space to encounter comfort from another.  (Brian Zahnd paraphrase)

As with the first beatitude, this is an announcement, not a command. Brian Zahnd says that it is "through the work of grief that we carve depth into our souls and create space to be filled with comfort from another...grief is...a work to be attended to. In a simple-minded, paper-thin, pseudo-Christian culture where banal happiness seems to be the highest goal, we don't want to attend to the work of grief...But this has consequences. In such a state the soul can never know true comfort and joy; it can only be anesthetized with entertainment...

"Jesus seems to be saying that it is those who have given up being comfortably numb through shallow contentment and have instead engaged in the real work of grief - for there is much in this world to grieve over - who are the ones who will encounter the deep comfort of the kingdom of God."

The author goes on to point out that the American church has taken its cues from the superpower culture that was founded in part on the idea that happiness is our inalienable right, and consequently we as God's people in this country don't know how to grieve and lament nor how to make space for people who are grieving.

"Because we are uncomfortable with sorrow, we passively enforce a kind of mandated happiness in our churches. Instead of weeping with those who weep, we want everybody to cheer up. And we want them to cheer up for our sake...What we should do instead is join them in their sorrow and assist them in their grief. When human beings suffer tragedy and profound loss, there is a certain amount of grieving that is required. But in the deep mystery of human inner-connectivity, the work of grieving does not have to be done alone. When we choose to bear the burden of sorrow with others, it really does lighten the load for the suffering..."

This section ends with Zahnd challenging us to allow space in our gatherings for those who are mourning and grieving without pressuring them to "get over it" or to "cheer up". In making this provision for them they can, in time, encounter the comfort of hope that is part of God's kingdom; this is part of being a "shelter from the storm", the Jesus-shaped beauty that saves the world.

Next is the third Beatitude: "Blessed are the quiet and content, the humble and unassuming, the gentle and trusting who are not grasping and clutching, for God will personally guarantee their share when heaven and earth become one."

Beauty: Those Who Are Poor at Being Spiritual

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Matt. 5:3

"Blessed are those who are poor at being spiritual, for the kingdom of heaven is 

well-suited for ordinary people." (Brian Zahnd paraphrase)

In speaking about the first Beatitude, Zahnd acknowledges that his paraphrase isn't the only way to understand these words but suggests that this idea is part of what Jesus is saying. Jesus is saying that everyone is invited.

Every culture has people in it for whom it seems that being spiritual comes naturally, and our normal thinking is that it's these people for whom the kingdom of heaven is shaped. Because of this thinking, these words are radical and counter-intuitive and are very good news for

the common ordinary person. The company of people closest to Jesus was comprised mostly of those for whom being spiritual wasn't their primary identity.

"This goes a long way in explaining why Jesus wasn't very popular with the spiritual experts and religious professionals. To them it seemed like Jesus was lowering the standard so that anyone could get in on what God was doing. Jesus seemed to be announcing that the favor of God was now indiscriminate. And for those who had made a long practice of being spiritual, it didn't seem fair to let just anyone in on it. But...Jesus gave several parables to confirm their suspicions that these Johnny-come-lately penitents would be just as welcome and equally rewarded as those who were longtime experts at being spiritual."

Zahnd adds that there's nothing wrong with being rich in spiritual things but we shouldn't think that makes us more welcome than anyone else into the kingdom of heaven. And referring back to his metaphor of the church becoming a "shelter from the storm" (see here), he says that if we want to increasingly be a welcoming shelter from the storm, we must get rid of the "elite forces" mentality. Churches and groups that compete in being more spiritual and more on fire don't tend to attract ordinary people simply because the average person is not good at being spiritual and feels he can't live up to this.

I am sorry to say that for many years of my life, I failed often to make the things of God easily accessible to the "poor in spirit"; without realizing what I was doing, I aligned myself with the elitist mentality that often accompanies Christian religious organizations. Now I'm excited about the fact that the kingdom of heaven is for everyone and we all share and will share in it equally. What good news!

The next post will be about the second Beatitude: "Blessed are the depressed who mourn and grieve, for they create space to encounter comfort from another."

Beauty and Meditating on the Beatitudes

As part of a series of posts on the book, Beauty Will Save the World, by Brian Zahnd, I plan to go through the eight declarations of the kingdom lifestyle that we call the "beatitudes", the opening part of Jesus' sermon on the mount in Matthew 5.

In the previous post (here) I looked at the final chapter of this book in which Zahnd says that "the Beatitudes are deliberately designed to shock us...They do not yield their treasures to the casual inquirer. They require thought, reflection, and meditation. The wisdom of the Beatitudes will only dawn on us slowly. We have much to learn and just as much to unlearn..."

Some weeks ago I started meditating on the Beatitudes, taking one per week. I've done this by reading that particular beatitude afresh in the morning, praying/asking about it and making the effort to let it sink in with the Spirit's help. And I ask the Lord to remind me of it during the day and to help me know what it looks like to live it out that day. (By the way, this initial reading and praying about it doesn't have to take a long time.) As I've been doing this, as well as reading what Brian Zahnd shares in his book about the Beatitudes, I'm increasingly aware of how counter-intuitive and counter-cultural they really are and of how much I really have been "raised on the received text of a superpower."

So my prayer for myself and us as Jesus' body is that I/we be formed increasingly by His mindset to value things and people in His way.

As an introduction to the posts to follow, in this post I'm writing out Brian Zahnd's paraphrasing of the eight Beatitudes. Keep in mind that Zahnd's main point in writing about the Beatitudes is that they present the way that Jesus intends His people to reflect His beauty in this world: 

Blessed are those who are poor at being spiritual,

For the kingdom of heaven is well-suited for ordinary people.

Blessed are the depressed who mourn and grieve,

For they create space to encounter comfort from another.

Blessed are the quiet and content, the humble and unassuming, 
the gentle and trusting who are not grasping and clutching,

For God will personally guarantee their share 
when heaven and earth become one.

Blessed are those who ache for the world to be made right,

For them the government of God is a dream come true.

                                                  

Blessed are those who give mercy,

For they will get it back when they need it most.

Blessed are those who have a clean window into their soul,

For they will perceive God when and where others don’t.

Blessed are the peaceful bridge builders in a war-torn world,

For they are God’s children working in the family business.

 

Blessed are those who are mocked and misunderstood for the right reasons,

                For the kingdom of heaven comes to earth amidst much persecution.

Beauty will Save the World - The Beatitudes

In the past two posts I shared from the book Beauty Will Save the World by Brian Zahnd (see here and here). In the final chapter of the book the author says that our technocratic world which is "awash in the unimaginative prose of technical language" needs correct metaphors to understand the shape of beauty and what we are meant to become.

A beautiful metaphor that Zahnd proposes for the church is "a shelter from the storm." In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus concludes His teaching with just such a picture, telling us that "if we will live his teaching, we will build a house on the rock-solid foundation that will stand when the rains fall, the winds blow, and the floods arise...a church that lives the Sermon on the Mount will be a shelter from the storm."

Jesus begins this, His greatest "sermon", with an eightfold declaration of the nature of the kingdom of God (Matthew 5:3-12) and ends by saying that any kingdom not built on these Beatitudes is doomed to collapse. 

"Jesus's vision was the establishment of a new kind of kingdom and the construction of a new kind of temple...Wherever the church seeks to live according to the way of Christ, there is found a shelter from the storm...An aesthetic Christianity expressing the beauty that saves the world will excel in these eight things:

• Welcoming the poor in spirit
• Comforting those who mourn
• Esteeming the meek
• Hungering for justice
• Extending mercy
• Having a pure heart
• Being peacemakers
• Enduring persecution

The author points out that the Beatitudes are counter-intuitive and subversive to the established order because they turn the assumed values of a super-power culture (like ours) on its head.  "The Beatitudes are the antithetical ethos to the superpower mantra of 'we're number one!' The Beatitudes are deliberately designed to shock us...They do not yield their treasures to the casual inquirer. They require thought, reflection, and meditation. The wisdom of the Beatitudes will only dawn on us slowly. We have much to learn and just as much to unlearn...despite their obvious significance, the Beatitudes remain foreign to us. We have not been formed by the values of the Beatitudes; we have been raised on the received text of a superpower...Contemporary Americans are scripted in a way that is completely counter to the values of the Beatitudes. We don't bless poverty or sorrow or meekness or hunger or persecution - yet it is (these) that we find Jesus blessing in the Beatitudes...this should perplex us.

"What Jesus is announcing in the Beatitudes is a radical reordering of assumed values; some will hear it as good news, while others will be threatened by it...This is going to place Jesus at odds with the power brokers of the age - then and now. After all, it wasn't the poor and marginalized who conspired to crucify Jesus; it was Caiaphas and Herod and Pilate - those who had a powerful stake in the present arrangement. But for the losers in the game - those scraping the bottom of life's barrel, the marginalized and forgotten, the left out - what Jesus announces is indeed good news."

In the next few posts I plan to go through these eight declarations of the kingdom values. If you're looking for material to meditate on (as Zahnd alludes to above), this would be a wonderful portion for meditation.

Beauty will Save the World - Beauty has Form

I'm continuing with more thoughts from Brian Zahnd's book, Beauty Will Save the World, and his chapter entitled, "Axis of Love".

One of the main ideas that Zahnd presents is that beauty always has a form to it; it's something that is expressed and can be seen. In the previous post (here) I quoted him saying that through his non-violent, non-retaliatory death Jesus re-centered the world around an axis of love rather than the axis of violence and power; this forgiving love of enemies in the shape of the cross is the most beautiful form.

At the end of the chapter the author challenges followers of Jesus with these words and a story:

"Jesus was not trying to give the world the best version of Caesar's kingdom; he was giving the world the kingdom of God!...Jesus refused to be drawn into any of the many heated political controversies of his day. Political controversies were simply irrelevant to what Jesus was doing in giving the world a radical new alternative...

"The only institution that can claim the title of 'Christian' is one that is actually Christlike. For an institution to claim to be Christian, it must take up the cross and follow Jesus in the most demanding of Christ's ethical imperatives - loving and forgiving enemies. The principalities and powers of this world simply cannot do that. They belong to a structure organized around an axis of power; their entire orientation is one of retaliation, and their only paradigm is vengeance. Only the  church empowered by the Spirit and organized around an axis of love can forgive enemies...Christ sends forth his church as sheep among wolves. This is why martyrdom is always a possibility for the Christian. Quite simply, we are disciples of the one who would rather die than kill his enemies."

The chapter ends with a story about a young pastor in Albania who was murdered on his way to get his two children from school in 2010. This happened because he was involved in a blood feud that began five years earlier. According to the 'law' of the blood feud, if someone is killed, the family of the victim can avenge the death by killing another male from the other family. These feuds can wear on until all the males of one family are dead. Whole villages are paralyzed in this region because the men of entire extended families don't dare leave their homes.

However, pastor Dritan Prroj, who was living in hiding, decided he could not live this way and would live openly; and he and his brother decided that if one of them was killed, the other would not 'take blood' in revenge. "They would simply allow the cycle of violence to die with them in a deliberate imitation of Christ." Because he had helped lead large aid programs for flood victims in his region, Prroj was well known and respected as a man of peace. There was wide media coverage when he was killed; his death helped "expose the false 'honor' behind the demonic philosophy of blood feuds."

Two weeks after the murder of Dritan Prroj thousands turned out for a rally in the capital city of Tirana for the purpose of naming and shaming the evil practice of blood feuds. Many carried signs that read: "To forgive is manly."

This story illustrates the power of forgiving love to break the cycle of violence and is how beauty took form in this particular time and place through Christlike followers of His.

"This is the church showing the wisdom of God to the principalities and powers. This is a demonstration of how a satanic power structure of violence and revenge that has dominated a culture for centuries is being named and shamed through a church inspired by a pastor who chose to be a martyr instead of an avenger simply because it is the Jesus way....This is the cruciform in its most radical form. It is in the axis of love expressed in forgiveness that the axis of power enforced by violence is exposed as ugly..."