1.Sermon on the Mount

Jesus started the ministry in Galilee with the slogan ; - ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.’(Matthew4:17)
‘The kingdom of heaven’ is the same as ‘The kingdom of God in Mark (Mark 1:15)’ Matthew continues the record this way ; - Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.(Matthew 2:23)

Jesus’ preaching was based on two points : spreading the Good News and healing physical and mental illnesses. However what is the Good News? Matthew present it in ‘the Sermon on the Mount,’ today’s lecturing portion.

Having seen Jesus healing the sick and throwing demons out, numerous people came and gathered around him. And Matthew described how Jesus conducted facing those crowd ; - Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them saying:(Matthew 5:1-2)

Jesus gave them words of the beatitudes. The first one is ; - “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.Matthew 5:3) As the term ‘Blessed’ reveals, the Good News is the news for happiness.

All humans, regardless of eras and generations, look for happiness. So did the crowd who surrounded Jesus. Many came for cure of longterm illness. Others wanted to be freed from poverty and famine. Gloomy persons thought that Jesus would comfort them.

In short, all of them were sure that emancipation from present sufferings should make them happy. But Jesus said that they were already blessed because they were suffering. Naturally the audience and his disciples too were strongly astonished. It was not persuasive that they were blessed thanks to present pains or poverty.

We also wonder how the poor can be blessed. Majority of us, including Jewish people of the time, the blessing is symbolized by wealth or by health. We also think we become happy when our sadness or material shortage are resolved. It seems that, in this real world, the strong inherit the earth and the meek will be losers. We think very often that merciful heart or honesty won’t help us to survive in severe human society. In ordinary common sense, Jesus’ beatitudes are not convincing. Then why did he give such sermons? That is the issue of today’s lecture.

2. Blessed are the poor in spirit

The term ‘Poor’ here is ‘¦Ð¦Ó¦Ø¦Öός (pto-khos)’ in Greek original text and ‘עָלוּב(ah-yu-) in Hebrew. Both of them also mean ‘Being reduced to beggary.’ Jesus said that such needy persons are blessed.

Then he said, ; - Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. (Matthew 5:4-6)

How can those unhappy persons be blessed? Is it possible that those who feel sad are being blessed?

However Jesus said so because their present conditions would be reversed in earthy world in future. Jesus said, ‘Because they would inherit the kingdom of heaven.’ We must pay attention to the difference.

We wonder also why the poor can inherit the kingdom of heaven? To contemplate the theme we will see Luke’s version.
Luke placed the same scene in the field in particular, instead of on the mount. And he added 4 cases of distress after the beatitudes. ; - “But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.(Luke 6:24-26)

Luke considered wealth and secular happiness to be obstacles on the path to God. Because they should be too satisfied to seek God. And as long as they don’t aspire to God they would never meet God. Matthew too referred to problem of the rich ; - Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” in another passage. (Matthew 19:23-24)

We understood now that Jesus compelled people to give up secular measurement.

Indeed, we sometimes reflect on what human happiness can be. Carl Hermann Buses, a famous German poet wrote a poem, ‘ Over the mountains’*:

Far to travel, people say,Happiness dwells.Alas, and I went,In the crowd of the others,
And returned with a tear-stained face.
Over the mountains,Far to travel, people say,Happiness dwells. (*translated into English by ‘ http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/get_text.html?TextId=3453 ‘)

I think the verses sing that happiness is ephemeral. Because we always miss something. Whatever we possess, our mind focuses on what we don’t possess. Our life time passes and we become older and weaker. Then we arrive to understand happy moments have passed away. Happiness dwells always in the past.

But Jesus said that real happiness for humans is not illusory or imaginary. He taught that, once we accept given conditions of life as God’s will which should lead us to blessing, we can grasp real happiness.

‘The poor in spirit’ are blessed because they know that the real world won’t give us the salvation. They won’t look for secular glory and success. ‘Those who mourn’ are blessed. They will have compassion on others because they experienced sadness by themselves. ‘The meek’ don’t seek ruling power by force and can remain always peaceful towards others. Thus they are blessed. ‘Those who are hunger and thirsty for righteousness’ are aspiring to the kingdom of God in which righteousness is established. We can resume Jesus sermons in two lessons: to give up altruistic behavior and to have the vision into the future.

In contrast, in accordance with earthy sense, happiness is satisfaction of desires in present time. But wealth, health, and glorious success in society are only personal achievement. Those factors generate easily competitions and make winners and losers.

Naturally we consider health to be an indispensable to be happy. That way of thinking comes from closed mind and probably makes physically and mentally weak persons feel unhappy. Earthy happiness might results in unhappiness of others.

Besides any heathy persons must become less healthy by aging. They loose thus feeling of happiness. As our concept of happiness depends on present conditions, it must be lost in certain future. And the fact makes us nervous and scared. Therefore Jesus teaches us that we must seek authentic happiness in future, beyond temporal boundary.

Till now, we had impression that Jesus’ teaching of the beatitudes are not realistic. But we begin to understand what he tried to present happiness as solid and tangible belief.

3. Message for us

Today’s invocation verse is Isaiah 61:1; - The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.

Jesus read the verse in the synagogue of Nazareth, his hometown. (see Luke 4:18) When he ended the reading, the attention of the whole audience was on him. They were strongly curious about what he would say. The Jewish people of the time aspired to fulfillment of the promise of God who would sent them the savior. Judea was then under Roman domination and the status forced Jewish people to pay double taxes. One to Roman Empire and another to Jewish rulers appointed by Romans. If they didn’t afford to pay full sums, them were put to the risk of imprisonment. Besides, the majority of them were tenant farmers and, generally, rent was almost a half of the whole yield. In consequence they were very poor and powerless toward landowners. Their life condition was severe. Even in hight-yielding year, they could have scarcely enough quantity of food. If weather was bad, they literally lacked of food. Besides, they might die of simple sickness because doctors and medication were for the rich.

Under such condition of life, they were longing for the Savior who should put them free from harsh days. Jesus declared to those people that the promise was fulfilled when they heard Jesus’ words on that day.

Today’s Japan is also a very hard society to live in. Kayano Toshihito, a Japanese philosopher, wrote a book titled, ‘ About difficulties of life.’ He said in the work:
Many of mental problems are caused by social difficulties. For example, shortage of money makes people feel placeless or worthless in the society. Thus an economic problem generates psychological sufferings.

Economic globalization is one of factors, which makes our life hard. Worldwide trading increases competitions between companies. They make efforts to cut costs of personnel in order to survive in markets. They hire contracting or temporary workers instead of regular ones. And, naturally, salaries of secondary labor were not enough to live under adequate living conditions. But the majority of corporations think that they have right to do anything to run their business successfully. They don’t care about welfare of employees. The same attitude also causes difficulties to regular workers. They must work longer and harder to compensate shortage of personnel due to discharges of others during the recession. And it is very hard especially for aged persons to find a new job. They also facing poverty, which might make problems in familial relationship. Not only discharged employees but also their family members would be affected by depression. They find their life harder and harder. Those who feel hopeless and powerless economically and socially might attempt suicide or commit crimes.

A society, which does not allow the weak to live comfortably, is ignoring the Good News of Jesus. 2000 years after Jesus’ life, today’s Japan still rejects the signification of redemption thanks to the Cross. Inside such a society, we must seek and find a worthy way of living. We can live only for ourselves or for others. It is for each person to choose how to live. But we met Jesus. We were compelled then to make our life meaningful by making efforts for happiness of others. We won’t compete for earthy success but try to live in harmony with all humans. It doesn’t mean resignation of self-realization but resignation of egoism. We serve social members to make our own life better.

Indeed, all humans want to be loved, appreciated and respected. Those desires exist inner part of us. And those desires sometimes make us unhappy. Because desires might be unsatisfied and results disappoint us or even depress us. However we can love if we are not loved. We can appreciate others’ good points even if we are not estimated correctly, as Jesus said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ (Acts 20:35) And a poet in the Old Testament sang, ‘Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again. (Ecclesiastics 11:1)*

Jesus laid down his life for longtime human future. So, without looking for immediate fruits, we continue to serve others in this world where the ferocious exploit the weak. Because Jesus served us.

*Old Hebrew saying http://www.ichthys.com/mail-bread%20on%20the%20waters.htm