1 John 3:1-3
Matthew 5:1-12
The Cambridge dictionary defines Topsy-turvy as upside down, inverted, or in a state of complete confusion, chaos, and disorder.
In what we call the Sermon on the Mount; Jesus completely overturns what we understand to be conventional norms.
The nine blessings (beatitudes) divide into two groups (vv. 3-6 and vv. 7-12). Blessings declare God’s favor, not on attitudes, but on certain conditions and behaviors. The declarations encourage right actions.
The first group of blessings would cause quite a stir in an imperial world that prizes, power, wealth, and status. These are the same priorities that many folks consider life and death priorities in our present society. Jesus, however, declares that God’s favor is found among the powerless and poor, those without resources and options who yearn for God’s empire and faithful intervention. The second half of each blessing promises God’s future reversal of these imperial situations. God’s kingdom has broken into the imperial world of Rome and consequently the reversal that represents God’s blessing is ushered in by the life and ministry of Jesus.
Verses 7-12 bless the social actions of the alternative community of disciples that manifests God’s empire. Persecution (name-calling, rumors, and social antagonism, is inevitable when the powerful elite are challenged. God rewards faithfulness.
In his book, The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard described just how radical Jesus’ teachings are.
So, we must see from our heart that:
Blessed are the physically repulsive,
Blessed are those who smell bad,
The twisted, misshapen, deformed,
The too big, too little, too loud,
The bald, the fat, and the old-
For they are riotously celebrated in the party of Jesus.
Willard next describes those he calls the “seriously crushed.”
Flunk outs, drop-outs, burn outs.
The broke and the broken. Drug heads and divorced.
HIV-positive and herpes ridden. Brain damaged. Incurably ill.
Lonely, incompetent, stupid.
Emotionally starved. Emotionally dead.
Willard then asks, is it true that “Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal?” He answers his own question with the bold affirmation: It is true!
That is precisely the gospel of heaven’s ability that comes to us through the Beatitudes. Jesus offers broken people the blessedness of the present kingdom, regardless of circumstances. The condition of life sought for by human beings through the ages is attained in the quietly transforming friendship of Jesus.
(Willard, Dallas. The Divine Conspiracy. San Francisco: Harper. 1998. pp. 123, 124)
We live in a society where power is king. We tend to idolize those who reject any form of moral or social restraint and do whatever they please regardless of the consequences to others.
The most powerful person to ever walk the earth cast aside unlimited power to demonstrate in life, death, and resurrection, that strength is found in humble service, not the acquisition of greater wealth, property, and political influence.
It is topsy-turvy. It flies in the face of everything we see happening around us. Discipleship is a narrow, rocky road, that insists we take a difficult path of loving service, rather than the road of comfortable ease.
