Blessed are the Peacemakers

Homily for Tuesday, November 5, 2024
Election Day Eve
Matthew 5:43-48

Many New Testament scholars believe the environment in which St. Matthew wrote his Gospel was highly (what we would now call) “partisan.”  The Jesus-believing synagogue or synagogues that produced St. Matthew’s Gospel, these scholars say, were surrounded by, and at-odds with, synagogues who did not believe in Jesus. The result was that friends, neighbors and even families became estranged from and sometimes hostile toward one another.  These scholars think the partisanship became so pronounced that (to paraphrase Matthew) a man was set against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and “one’s foes were members of one’s own household” (10:35).  

We can imagine how difficult and painful it must have been for Matthew’s community of Jesus-believers to be at-odds with and to experience hostility from those friends, neighbors and family who did not believe in Jesus.

In this conflicted, highly-partisan environment, Matthew’s community heard Jesus tell them how they might still live a faithful Christian life.  For example, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God,”they heard Jesus say (5:9).  And again,they heard him say, “You have heard it said… ‘You shall not murder…’  But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment” (5:21-22).  Or when Peter asked how often he should forgive, they heard Jesus say to forgive, “Not seven times, but, I tell you,seventy-seven times” (18:22).  Or again they heard him say, “If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that a brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister,and then come and offer your gift” (5:24).  And in this evening’s text, Matthew’s community heard Jesus say that they are to love, not just those who love them, but even their enemies, those who may see things very differently than they do:  

“For if you love those who love you,” Jesus said, “what reward do you have?”  “Do not even the tax collectors do the same?  And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the gentiles do the same?”

Because anger often accompanies this kind of pain, the partisan divide deeply pained and also angered Matthew’s community.  It is in Matthew’s gospel, for example, that Jesus says, “Woe to you, scribes, Pharisees,hypocrites” (ch 23).  It is in Matthew that Jesus tells multiple parables of judgment: the parable of the Ten Bridesmaids, for example, or the parable of the Sheep and the Goats (25:1-13 and 31-46). And it is in Matthew that we find the infamous “blood curse” at Jesus’ crucifixion, when the crowds shouted to Pilate, “Let his blood be on us and on our children” (27:25).  Matthew’s community was pained and also angry at their fellow Jews who saw things differently than they did.

And yet, this is the community that heard Jesus say to them: “Blessed are the peacemakers.”  “First be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.”   “Forgive, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”  And, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”  In the conflicted,highly-partisan environment in which St. Matthew wrote his Gospel, Matthew and his community heard Jesus tell them how they could live a faithful Christian life.

I wonder, what do you hear Jesus saying to you tonight?  I wonder, what might you hear Jesus say to you in the coming days?  I encourage us all, in our own conflicted and partisan time, to do whatever it is we need to do to be our most faithful Christian self.  Perhaps take time to pray, to read (for example) tonight’s scripture passages, or to read Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5 (from which tonight’s Gospel lesson comes).  Listen for what Jesus might say about how to be his follower in a challenging time.  Matthew assures us that Jesus is “God with us” (1:23) and that he will always be with us (28:20).  In times of partisanship and conflict, if we ask, he will help us to live faithful Christian lives so that we can help his Church carry out its mission to restore all things to unity with God and each other in Christ.

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