The Chosen + BibleProject | Season 2 Reading PlanНамуна

Life Between Loyalty And Subversion

Jesus’ opening line for the Sermon on the Mount is like a map, giving his audience a way to find him and understand the core of his way of life. Jesus is loyal to his Father’s will, so he is constantly subverting mainstream ways of doing things. He’s living like a person who belongs in another world, and he’s inviting us to join him. In the Bible, the Apostle Peter captures the same idea by reminding us that living in God’s way is not easy. We are like foreigners in a strange land, exiles hoping to return to our true home.

Our current context is a world of competition and resource hoarding, but Jesus invites us into something different. He says the good life is not about taking as much as you can but about living by God’s generosity. In our current world, power and influence promise safety and security, but Jesus says real safety and security come to those who are humble, merciful, and willing to seek peace with everyone. His opening words for the Sermon on the Mount (also called the “Beatitudes”) are encouraging to the mistreated and alarming to those doing harm.

It’s important to recognize that Jesus is not telling us how to live now in order to get blessings from God later. He is helping us understand what the good life is all about, what it means to exist in this world in a state of blessedness right now, even as we are exiles waiting for our true home.

He says that being “poor in spirit,” or powerless, is a blessed life—it’s better than wielding power over others to get our own way. He says that those who grieve or mourn are also living the good life. The mainstream world tends to gloss over evil and harm, but Jesus is a truth-teller who recognizes real harm in the world and responds with grief. Though difficult, living as a mourning truth-teller is more human and good than pretending all is well.

When we pay close attention to this “map” Jesus offers, we see how living in his way can seem absurd according to the values of the world. But God sees this way of life as good. When we follow Jesus’ teaching, we enter a way of exile that subverts mainstream, false ways of life and leads ultimately to true life.

Reflection Questions

1. Of all the beatitudes in Matthew 5:3-11, which stand out the most to you? Why?
2. In Matthew 5:10, Jesus says that the blessed life, the good life, belongs to those who are “persecuted for righteousness.” The word translated as “righteousness” is a Greek word that involves right relationship or right relating with others, not just a personal, individual moral code. How does that change the way we understand Jesus’ teaching here?
3. Our world teaches us (whether directly or indirectly) that we experience the highest good when we fight against and defeat our opponents. We’re taught to take the winning side, to battle with others for our own rights to be honored, to destroy our enemies, etc. But Jesus says the opposite. He says that the good life belongs to those who make peace with others and help opposing parties reconcile. How would it change if, rather than fighting your opposers, you worked to reconcile and make peace? Does peacemaking sound strong and hopeful or weak and threatening?