Beati estis, or The Foolishness of the Cross
February 1, 2026 • The Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany • Year A
Micah 6:1-8 • 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 • Matthew 5:1-12 • Psalm 15
If you’ve been around the block of couple of times, you might have taken a deep breath when you heard the beginning of the Gospel reading. The Sermon on the Mount, three chapters’ worth of preaching from Matthew’s Gospel, begins with these statements that are commonly known as the Beatitudes.
Although this is probably their most famous iteration, beatitudes are not a concept invented by Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount. They are related to similar constructions in the Old Testament, including those in the psalms, and even in ancient Greek rhetoric.
In the Old Testament, they usually fall in the genre of the wisdom literature. They are useful proverbs, like “Blessed is the one who does not walk in the way of the wicked” (Ps. 1) or “Blessed is the one who fears the Lord” (Ps. 112) or “Blessed is the man who has a quiver full of children” (Ps. 126). Each of these, in the Greek version of the Scriptures that was in use at the time of Jesus, uses the same word makarios that Jesus uses in the Sermon on the Mount.
But the macarisms (as they are properly called) of Jesus, while similar in form to those in the psalms, take things a step further. They flip expectations on their head in two ways. In the first clause, the one who is blessed is the one who is in some way disadvantaged in this world: the poor, the mourning, the meek, but also those who show mercy, those who work for peace. And in the second clause, their reward is not what we might consider the “classical” rewards for living the good life: wealth, or power, or children, or property.
Rather, the rewards are eschatological: possessing the kingdom of heaven, receiving the comfort and mercy which they sought for in this life, taking up the identity of children of God.
† † †
You may or may not have heard this as they were proclaimed, but the Beatitudes fall more or less neatly into two groups, so let’s treat them separately.
The first four Beatitudes deal directly with those who are marginalized. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, … those who mourn, … the meek, … those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.” These are, it seems, people whose life in this world is one that is primarily one of suffering, whether physical, mental, or spiritual anguish, or a combination of all of these. Jesus proclaims that the lives of those who are disenfranchised, those who live on the margins, those whom we would not be likely to call “blessed,”… these are the people who will inherit the kingdom of God. They will be comforted. They will be filled with the righteousness they longed for. Jesus disrupts the idea that fulfillment in this life equals blessing from God. Rather, it is precisely the people who do not experience fulfillment in this life who he says are closest to God.
Some of us, from time to time, may find ourselves in this category. We may mourn the loss of a loved one. We may find ourselves in a spiritual desert, or a difficult relationship, or an unjust situation. For those of us with these experiences, these are words of comfort.
But we all know people who are suffering, who are left behind by the powers and principalities of this world, who do not experience just or merciful treatment. So for all of us, these first four Beatitudes are a reminder of the presence of Christ in our neighbor, and perhaps especially in our marginalized neighbor.
The next four Beatitudes are a bit more active. “Blessed are those who are merciful, … the pure in heart, … the peacemakers, … those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.” These are not things that happen to us, but rather actions we can choose to take on. It is here that Jesus shows us how to respond to him: by showing mercy, by being pure of heart, by working for peace and righteousness, even to the point where we are persecuted for it.
This is profoundly countercultural, but it’s also not new. We heard that oft-repeated verse from Micah 6 this morning: “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” God’s consistent command throughout the Scriptures is to love our neighbor, to seek justice and peace.
It’s the reason we pray so much for peace, including in today’s collect. But Jesus reminds us that in praying for peace, we are also empowered to become peacemakers: actively working to promote peace in our world. It’s that work that Jesus says will cause us to be called “children of God.”
† † †
You may have heard of Thomas Jefferson’s Bible, entitled “The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth.” In it he cuts and pastes the four gospel accounts, omitting anything he deemed miraculous but retaining other biographical details and most of the preaching.
The Beatitudes are included in what Jefferson calls the “most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man.”
But without the miraculous—that is, without the Cross and resurrection—the Beatitudes, and most of the rest of Jesus’ preaching, are utter nonsense. St. Paul was absolutely right when he wrote that “the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
Andrew McGowan, dean of Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, says it well: “Neither the Beatitudes nor the Sermon as a whole…make sense except as the teaching of Jesus himself about the reign of heaven. They are not general principles for living, or an independently viable ethical framework, except in relation to him and to the reign he proclaims. And that reign is more than a set of religious or social ideas; it is the reversal God promises of all that is wrong in the world.”1
To those who are perishing – to those who do not know, or rather those who do not accept the power of the cross – the entire message of Jesus is simply another set of first-century moral teaching, and a confusing one at that. It is only because of the cross and its reversal of the power of sin and death, that the eschatological promises of the Beatitudes can become realities.
We proclaim Christ crucified: a stumbling block to some and utter foolishness to the rest. And because of this proclamation, we who know Christ can proclaim that those whom this world rejects and reviles are the ones who can best understand the promise of his salvation. Because of this proclamation, we like the disciples can risk everything to show mercy, to make peace, to allow ourselves to be persecuted, because we know that this isn’t all there is.
† † †
There is one last Beatitude, and it is different from all the others. It’s in the second person, so it feels directed particularly to the disciples, but also to us. It addresses the reality that our actions have consequences. If we follow the teaching of Jesus, if we show mercy, if we are pure in heart, if we work to make peace, if we work for the cause of righteousness…that turns the forces of evil against us. People will “revile you andpersecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely” on account of your speaking the truth in love.
Jesus doesn’t sugarcoat it: the consequences of following him will be societal ruin at best and mortal danger at worst. And he was right: we see it in the history of the martyrs, including our own patron St. Paul, and we’ve seen it in recent days.
Does that, and should it scare us? Perhaps. But there is good news. Jesus assures us: “rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.” And St. Paul expands on this, reminding us that God has called us to this work: “Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God.” Throughout Scripture and through the present day, God chooses unlikely people through whom to reveal himself. And that includes each of us.
If you’re here this morning, you’ve responded to the nudge of the Holy Spirit, the invitation to be part of the Body of Christ in the world. It is our call together that we reaffirm each time we baptize a new member of that Body. After we confess our faith, we vow to continue in the life of the church, to persevere in resisting evil, to proclaim the Gospel, to seek and serve Christ in all persons, and to strive for justice and peace.
The Way of Love to which we are called is not always the easy way. But for us who persevere—together, as one Body—the kingdom of heaven awaits. So let us rejoice and be glad, and carry on proclaiming the foolishness of the Cross and the values of God’s kingdom come nearer day by day.
1 https://abmcg.substack.com/p/the-beatitudes-the-constitution-of
~The Rev. Charles Martin
