I’ve read the be-attitudes passage many times, but it wasn’t until Andrew invited me to post material on wecan.be that I actually spent some decent time reading this 3-chapter section I thought I knew so well. What immediately caught my eye was the story-arc of the be-attitudes.

Jesus goes throughout Galilee – teaching, preaching and healing – and “large crowds” from the whole region start to follow him. But instead of marching his makeshift army off to Jerusalem to kick out the Romans, he sits down on a mountainside to tell them what this “kingdom of heaven” he’s espousing actually looks like in practice…

I can just see the crowd following him out to the mountainside – he sits down and they follow suit – and as he begins to speak to those gathered around him they dutifully spread the message out to those who are beyond hearing: “Blessed are the poor in spirit… those who mourn… the meek… those who hunger and thirst for righteousness… the merciful… the pure in heart… the peacemakers… those who are persecuted for righteousness…” and “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you because of me.”

I can see some in the crowd saying to each other, “What did he say again?!”

Jesus goes on to elaborate the principles of this “kingdom” that he is announcing: salt & light; fulfilment of the law; murder; adultery; divorce; oaths; an eye for an eye; love for enemies…

People are starting to grumble, maybe even heckle. “Where’s the leader who did and said all that fantastic stuff in Galilee? Is this really the same guy?!”

Jesus starts to draw examples of behaviour in contrast to their religious and civic leaders, labelling these people hypocrites and telling his listeners not to accumulate wealth or place their security in ‘things’.

People are really getting quite disturbed by this time – those who haven’t already left. Responses vary between “I didn’t sign up for this!” (at worst) to “This is a hard teaching!” (at best).

Finally Jesus tells them that if anyone hears what he is saying and puts it into practice they are wise, but if anyone hears and does not put it into practice they are foolish and their lives will come down with a great crash!

This is where the story-arc bites – the section left out of the be-attitudes bible studies and platitudes I’ve heard in the past. By reading the whole story in one sitting – from context, then the be-attitudes “summary”, through the detailed “how-to”, to the “wise vs foolish” conclusion – this teaching of Jesus’ becomes quite challenging.

Jesus is saying quite clearly that putting this stuff into practice is what the “kingdom of heaven” is really all about. It’s not about evangelism, or church attendance, or even believing the right things.  Instead it’s about hearing (not just listening) and then responding to Jesus’ call with a new way of behaving – in both thought and deed. It’s a new attitude of being.

That’s hard. I can understand why the gospel writers tell in various places of people deciding this Jesus-way is just too difficult. I can’t help thinking that by privatising our spirituality, modern christianity has neatly sidestepped this challenge of Jesus – by making it an area of “belief” I have comfortable ways of avoiding the “doing” part.

Or I did, before I really knuckled down and read these be-attitudes…

~ kawika