Have you ever connected the blessings and curses pronounced by Jesus on two mountains? The blessings are found in Matthew 5; the curses are found in Matthew 23. If you put them side by side, it’s like hearing a truth in stereo. Let’s run through them in order as they were written by Matthew.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. | Woe to you, Pharisees . . . For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor do you allow those who would enter to go in. |
To the poor in spirit belongs the kingdom of heaven. But the Pharisee shuts up the kingdom of heaven! The Pharisee isn’t poor in spirit. He exalts himself behind closed doors; his humility is a choreographed performance.
Next:
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. | Woe to you, Pharisees! For you devour the house of the widow, and for a pretense you make long prayers; therefore, you shall receive greater condemnation. |
A widow is one who mourns. But cursed are those who devour the house of the widow. From God the Pharisee finds not comfort but great condemnation because, as he prays, he preys on the weak and vulnerable.
Next:
Blessed are the meek, | Woe to you, Pharisees! For you travel across sea and land to make a single convert, and when he becomes one you make him twice as much a child of Gehenna as yourselves. |
The meek inherit the earth, but the Pharisee inherits Gehenna because he is a child of Gehenna. The Pharisee travels to the ends of the earth to exert his influence and expand his name. But the meek have no such self-interest at heart. The meek are freely given the very domain that the Pharisee works so hard to possess.
Next:
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, | Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing, but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obligated.’ You blind fools! For which is greater: the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? And you say, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing, but whoever swears by the offering on it, he is obligated.’ You blind men! For which is greater: the offering or the altar which sanctifies the offering? |
The appetite is in focus, as in where do your values lie? The Pharisee hungers for superficial trappings. Instead of valuing God’s temple, he values its gold which impresses foreign dignitaries. Instead of valuing God’s altar, he values its meat which he can eat. For the Pharisee, the physical elements from which he benefits are of more desire than the intangible world. But those who hunger and thirst after righteousness crave the spiritual world, so God sees to it that they experience fullness in both.
Next:
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. | Woe to you, Pharisees! For you tithe [the smallest of the spices] but have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel! |
The Pharisee neglects the weightier matters of the law, like mercy. But blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
Of note, a gnat and a camel are both unkosher; a Jewish audience would consume neither creature. However, eating a gnat might happen on accident or without notice. A camel––quite the opposite. So here he is, straining out gnats (criticizing others for wrongs done perhaps on accident or without realizing it) while the Pharisee partakes in enormous wrongdoing as he criticizes others to bolster his own ego. Where is his mercy to extend graciousness and forgive? Has he no sense of justice, applying grace to myself but none to others?
Next:
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. | Woe to you Pharisees! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence . . . Blind Pharisees! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate so that the outside may also be clean. |
To be pure in heart is to have integrity and character. Integrity and character are expressions of the internal man. But the Pharisee obsesses over the externals. He focuses on maintaining appearances while the purity within falls by the waste side. Consequently, he cannot see God. He is a blind guide who cannot see the One he claims to be guiding others toward. But the pure in heart can see God.
Blessing & curse #7:
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. | Woe to you, Pharisees! You’re like whitewashed tombs which outwardly appear beautiful, but inside you’re full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. You outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you’re full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. |
Peacemakers are the first to admit their faults and shortcomings. For the sake of restoring peace, they’ll lay down a win. They’ll look for opportunities to ask for forgiveness. But the Pharisee sweeps such inclinations under the rug because “maintaining appearances” has all the priority. In so doing, he is not a peacemaker called the son of God. He is a pious-looking individual who murders the Son of God!
Blessing & curse #8:
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. | Woe to you, Pharisees! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate their monuments, saying ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we wouldn’t have taken part in their murder.’ Thus you witness against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? |
The persecuted are rewarded with heaven; the persecutor is sentenced to hell. The persecuted fill up the measure of their fathers (the prophets); the persecutor fills up the measure of his father (the serpent). The persecuted receive a portion in God’s kingdom; the persecutor receives a measure from the original serpent.
There you have it: the eight blessings and curses pronounced by Jesus on two mountains. You can sense their symmetry, and I believe their connection wasn’t missed by Matthew, a tax collector who must have had a knack for detail. When you hear them together, what seems to be at their core is the principle found in 1 Samuel 16:7. Nevertheless, questions remain: Why does the greatest rabbi of all time draw such symmetry between His blessings and curses? Is it just a teaching device or is there something more here? And what is the importance of these blessings and curses being pronounced on two mountains (i.e., the Sermon on the mount and later the Temple Mount)?
Let’s leave that for another time, but the answer is found in Joshua.
