The Messiah’s Inaugural Address

Memo for Preachers

by

Ordained Ministry

Special to United Methodist Insight

Feb. 1, 2026. Fourth Sunday after Epiphany

Micah 6:1-8, Psalm 15, I Corinthians. 1:18-31, Matthew 5:1-12

This Sunday’s readings include the well-known group of sayings called “the Beatitudes.” While Luke locates his parallel version well into Jesus’ ministry (Lk 6:20-49), Matthew places them at the very beginning, prefacing Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Douglas Hare* calls Chapters 5-7, “the Messiah’s inaugural Address.”

The setting for the Beatitudes is auspicious: Jesus the Rabbi teacher siting before his disciples (does the crowd join them?) on a mountain top like Moses on Mt. Sinai. But Jesus is not simply a lawgiver and prophet. It is tempting to see the beatitudes as Jesus’s attempt to instill in us a change of attitude: beatitude = attitudes to be.

But these terse sayings are more descriptive of what the coming Kingdom is like than a laundry list of commandments. Here Jesus differs from Moses. The Beatitudes picture an alternative reality. They describe what it will be like when God’s Kingdom comes, and God’s will is done on earth as it is in Heaven. This reality is already present in the seed that is the community of Jesus’ disciples—what we now call the Church. One could easily preach an 8-part sermon series on this passage, because each verse is so rich!

5:3. Poor in Spirit

Blessed (makarioi) Some translate Makarioi as “happy,” “lucky,” “fortunate,” but “blessed” seems the best translation because God, not luck or fate, is involved in the Blessing. Matthew’s “poor in spirit” leads many to suspect that Matthew spiritualized Jesus’ more radical stance—as presented by Luke. Yet poverty in no guarantee of receptivity to God’s grace. While wealth often leads to the illusion of self-sufficiency and spiritual pride, there are wonderful and inspiring exceptions. Matthew’s “poor in spirit” points to a recognition that we are all in desperate need of God’s grace. “Pride” in the worst sense of the word would be the opposite of “poor in spirit.”

5:4 Mourn.

While this verse is often referenced at funerals, Matthew’s focus is more likely on those who mourn for Zion under Roman domination (cf Isaiah 61:1-4) This verse is for those who grieve over a world dominated by violence

*Interpretation; Matthew, Douglas R. Hare: John Knox Press 1993, p 33 and greed.

5.5 Meek

“Meek” is not a great translation for the Greek word praus. Moses and Jesus are both described by this word, usually translated as “humble.” (cf Ps 12:3, Matt 11:29, 21:5). But there is an assertive edge to praus. Aristotle called it the golden mean between being a door mat and flying off the handle all the time. Praus is someone who asserts themselves gently and humbly. This might explain why Jesus proclaimed himself the Messiah by riding humbly on a donkey on Palm Sunday. (Matt 21:5)

5:6 Hunger and thirst for righteousness

Again Matthew “spiritualizes” what Luke takes literally and physically. Matthew pictures those who yearn and ache—not for personal righteousness but for a kingdom, a realm, a community where God’s righteousness rules. One doesn’t have to go very far to find people still yearning for a government free from corruption and lies, a nation of honesty, integrity and freedom.

5:7 Merciful

The reflexive nature of mercy and forgiveness is a common part of Jesus’ teaching: cf Mt. 6:12, 14 Mk 11:25-26, Lk 6:37, 11:4.  Mercy towards another opens our hearts to receive mercy from God. God does not withhold forgiveness; our own unmerciful hearts do that.

5:8 Pure in heart

Seeing God in the Old Testament meant death. But Jesus came to establish a much more intimate relationship with God. Abba is the name Jesus gives God: “Papa.” When Jesus dies on the cross the curtain covering the holy of holies in the Temple is torn in two, revealing a God who wishes to be seen! “Pure in heart” does not mean without sin, but rather someone who is not “double minded,” serving two masters. The pure in heart are those who are unalloyed: they love God with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength. They shall behold the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God who wishes to be seen.

5:9 Peacemakers

The Pax Romana was a period of 200 years of relative peace and prosperity in the Roman Empire. It was sustained by a strong legal system, several able rulers and a huge reliance on slave labor. The Roman peace was created and sustained by military subjugation and enforced by fear and terror. The Pax of God is based upon love, freedom and faith. Those who build this kind of peace are God’s children, because they are like the God who rains upon the Just and the unjust, who returns evil with Good.

A personal note: Today is Jan. 21. I sit here in the Twin Cities of Minnesota writing this memo as over 3,000 federal agents brutalize my neighbors of color. Homes are broken into, car windows smashed, people arrested or detained without warrants, protesters threatened, pepper sprayed, and even shot to death by poorly trained officers, unrestrained and unsupervised by common decency or by law.

Here in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul, we do indeed hunger and thirst for the righteousness of our leaders to act with integrity, honesty, and humility. In two days, thousands of us will observe a Day of Prayer and Fasting for Truth and Freedom. There will be demonstrations, marches and acts of nonviolent noncooperation. So many of us are outraged by this needless, punitive trauma, but we will be praus: Angry, but not violent, assertive, but not prideful, humble but not door mats. Our hope and prayer is that we may be peacemakers for this nation—a peace that comes not from violence and bullying and fear, but a peace that is based upon returning good for evil, mercy for brutality, building bridges instead of walls.

And this brings us to the final two beatitudes which are very much alike: “…people will revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.” No good deed goes unpunished says the cynic. I do expect that our day of Prayer and Fasting will be reviled and misrepresented by various leaders and outlets. We’ll be branded “paid activists” and insurrectionists. Some of us will be arrested, a paltry few may let their rage do damage to property or to an opponent—that will be the only thing some news outlets will talk about. But this is a crucial moment when we must decide, as a community, a state, a nation, whether we will be complicit with this administration of white supremacy or be called the children of God.

The Rev. Paul Wilcox is a retired elder in the Iowa Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. He lives in the Twin Cities with his wife and copastor, Gayle. They are proud parents of Nathan and Emily and grandparents of Elliot and Hana.