Reading the Bible

Starting in Matthew, I have been reading a verse-by-verse commentary alongside portions of scripture and its bringing the Bible alive in ways I haven't experienced in a while. Students of the Bible know the importance of reading the Bible through the lens of its original audience. For example, each of the gospels has a different intended audience and Matthew was written for the Jewish people. Matthew wants to convince the Jews that Jesus was their awaited Messiah. I have been struck multiple times with how amazing the Bible is that even though it is 2,000ish years old, its still applicable to us today, especially since it wasn't written for everyone who picks it up and reads it. But yet, it was at the same time.

Yesterday, I was reading the Beatitudes and I had a realization that I hadn't before. In the beatitudes, Jesus tells his audience something that is very contrary to what most of us think. He said "blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs in the kingdom of heaven" and "blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." Notice he's talking about what we would consider low and weak characteristics, and he's exalting them like we would think he would say mighty warrior or righteous soldier. Instead he says, the poor, the meek, the lowly. How would the Jews' have reacted to this? Remember, the gospel of Matthew was written for them. The kind of Messiah the Jews were waiting for was not a lowly, humble servant, but a mighty king. They wanted someone to come rescue them from foreign rule and oppression, to set them back in their land, and to make their lives better. They wanted someone who would fight for them. Instead they get a carpenter who teaches them that the poor in spirit inherit the earth. What an amazing disappointment. Here the one who they are investigating as the Messiah tells them that they will inherit the earth exactly as they are, which is not a place they want to be.

I can image how let down some of them probably felt, and I can also image how incensed others may have felt. I begin to ask myself why. Jesus would have known their reactions, and would have known that what he was saying would anger, confuse, disappoint, and turn away those he loved. We see pictures and movies of this scene with everyone calmly sitting on the grass, looking up to Jesus with their mouths agape, completely in wonder of his words. I don't image that's how this scene actually played out, at least not for everyone.

This is the way our Lord works. He works in ways that are opposite to what we think should be the way. Jesus came not as a ruling prince to the family of a mighty king, but to a poor girl who wasn't even married to be born in a stable. He was the one who sacrificed his own life for the sake of those he loved. He taught that "the first shall be last and the last shall be first." It's the great reversal, and its being presented to us today as it was presented to the original audience.