There's part of me that's tempted to use a whole bunch of words to make what we're gonna cover today seem like more important or more profound. But the reality is that what we're gonna look at today, which is the structure of the Beatitudes, the framework on which they're built, it's really not that complicated. And once you learn to identify this little rhyming pattern that is called chiasm or chiastic structure, you really see it all over the place in the Bible. It's not like I think even people had to think really hard to pull this off, like you or I might have to in a writing class. I think it's just the way the Hebrew brain kind of worked at this point. And I wouldn't know well enough to say whether that's even still the case, but it is it's so automatic in the Old Testament and in the more Hebrew audience-oriented writing of the New Testament that you get this rising up the mountain, hitting the middle point of the thought, and then coming back down the other side of the thoughts kind of structure where each elevation on opposite sides of the peak corresponds. It sounds so complicated. I need to think of a better way to say it, but it's really so very, very simple. And somebody really smartly pointed out in the subreddit, I'm sorry, I should have got your username so you would get credit for this, but it was smart. They were saying, uh, well, isn't this just the old A, B, B, A schoolyard rhyme structure for poetry or pop music? And the answer is yes, it is that. Except we're not rhyming sounds with the chiastic structure, we're rhyming ideas. And one of the really important things about this structure is that sometimes the ideas rhyme perfectly. They're straight up symmetrical. But the reason that this chiastic thought is so thought-provoking and probably stood the test of time is that they don't always perfectly rhyme. Sometimes they just correspond. And the ideas actually complement each other. So it's more of a complex rhyme. Like, you know, you get the uh simple poetry where it's like, you know, Matt likes to bat. His cat's name is Pat, and it's all right through the front door. But I can't think of any more complex poetry. But sometimes poetry is way more elaborate than that. My friend Destin and I, we just did on our other podcast uh the midnight ride of Paul Revere, and that has a little more complex meter that at times rhymes overtly, and at other times you kind of got to think about it a little bit to catch the rhyme and the structure. Same thing with what we're seeing here that is used throughout the Bible, that Jesus employs this chiastic structure, rhymes ideas, sometimes literally and overtly, sometimes a little more subtly. And sometimes if you're not catching a rhyme, but you look at the larger structure, you will see it there. So again, seems like it's like some kind of super secret code, but it really honestly isn't. It becomes very evident the more you look. So the beatitudes. Let's break down the structure here. We are starting our way up the mountain. So the A position at zero elevation going up the mountain corresponds to the A position at zero elevation, having come back down the mountain. Here's how these ideas rhyme. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. That's beatitude number one. Beatitude number eight says, Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Exact same blessing. Apparently, the poor in spirit are also going to be persecuted. All right, now we go up in elevation a little bit to position B. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the sons of God. So those who mourn are also going to be the ones who are in a position, or rather who see the problem and the situation and desire to make peace. But the situation in terms of the blessing is what really corresponds, and that both end up with God taking care of them and holding them in a position of intimacy. Are you noticing that the pattern here isn't just that the blessings or the ideas rhyme, but there's a little structural clue going on as well, right? So A and A, that is Beatitude 1 and Beatitude 8, both say, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Nothing else says that. Position B rhymes with position B in that they both say in the blessing, for they will be, for they will be comforted, for they will be called sons of God. Nothing else says it that way. I don't think this is an accident. We go up a little bit higher in elevation to position C, and now it says, Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. That's three and seven. No, three and six corresponding. Okay, well, what do you know? They also both end up the same way. For they will, for they will. So the meek and the pure in heart have this thing in common that humility and this position of weakness is how you get to a place of being singular in terms of what your purpose and existence is. But again, the stronger rhyme happens in the blessing section of these Beatitudes, for they will inherit the earth, for they will see God, both coming into a position of proximity to God, both coming into this position of enormous blessing. But here's where it really kicks. Now we go up elevation one more time to the D rhyming with D position, and these bump right up against each other, both at the peak of the mountain. This is how the center thought of the Beatitudes go. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. I think this supports a whole lot of what we have thought about as we've been looking through the Beatitudes and trying to break it down one little chunk at a time. It would seem that the central idea, both structurally and logically, is that the person who is responding rightly to the kingdom of Jesus understands the values of the kingdom, understands the value of the king, and understands their own position in relation to that. And as a result, all they can do is want. All they can do is desire to have this thing, to be a part of this thing that is the truest and realest, but they can't have it on their own. But the blessing is, for they will be filled. Now we're maybe just rolling over the top of the mountain on this corresponding D point. And so what happens next? Well, blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. And so what seems to be happening here then is that we're seeing in this chiastic structure an affirmation that the first half of the Beatitudes, the trip up the mountain, really is about the vertical relationship with God. And then the trip down the mountain on the second half of all of this really does change the focus from I went to the summit, I was given this thing I desperately needed. I was given admission and the ability to participate in this truest, realist thing. The mystery has been answered, and now I'm going back down the mountain and I'm giving away all of the things that I've been given. That motif is going to be plastered all over the Gospel of Matthew and indeed the New Testament. Whatever you've been given, you have to give that away. If you've been given forgiveness, you gotta give away forgiveness. If you've been given mercy, you gotta give away mercy. If you've been shown patience, you gotta show patience. If you've been given truth, you gotta give away truth, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And so, yeah, maybe reading this at a normal pace, the first century audience who first got their grubby little myths on Matthew would buzz right past this and be like, I don't know, there's some stuff there, the kingdom of Jesus or something. Like, give me to the car chases and miracles and stuff. That's what I want to see. But when you carefully look at the words of Jesus unfolding through the rest of this document, and then you come back and take a second to break down the Beatitudes, you realize that most of what's going to happen in the rest of this is previewed right here. The values of the kingdom, the values of the king, how valuable the kingdom and the king is, what a desperate position of hunger and need and poverty everybody is as they're on the outside of this kingdom looking in. And how much the access to this kingdom is only granted by the grace of the king, and how much the expectation is when that access is granted, when these things are given. The individual will then no longer view the world the way they viewed it. They've been to the mountaintop, but instead they will live in a different way that corresponds with the values of the kingdom. Now, as always, I like to entertain the idea that this is completely insane and we're making things up. I mean, does Jesus even use chiasm? That would be a reasonable question to ask. Are we inflicting this structure on the passage? Well, we know that he does use chiasm. And I almost remember even what verse I was thinking of, because I just saw it and I'm going to stall for a minute. It's in the sermon. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Matthew chapter 6, a little bit later in the Sermon on the Mount. Yeah, yeah, Jesus uses chiasm. He uses it right here. Uh no one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Simple A, B, B, A, right? No one can serve two masters. There's your A. That corresponds to uh you cannot serve both God and money at the end. Now here's the B. Either he will hate the one and love the other, and now we flip over the top of the mountain, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. A, B, B, A. He definitely does that. And I remember to write down the other one. It's Matthew 23, 12. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Kind of sounds like one of those things the Sphinx from Mystery Men would say, but the idea again, very simple, A, B, B, A. If you understand how obvious it is that a coherent school speech has an outline, and when you listen to it and you hear the person be like, today I want to talk about penguins. And there are three reasons that I want to cover for why penguins are the most important bird in the whole world. I will cover those reasons and then we will consider whether I have convinced you. Like in your brain, you can picture that. Roman numeral number one, intro, Roman numeral number two, three supporting points, A.1, B.2, C.3, and then back out to Roman numeral number three, which is summary and conclusion. Your brain thinks automatically in that Greekish outline style. Their brains thought automatically in this Hebrew chiastic style, the same way you wouldn't even have to think about the outline. You could just almost see it in your head. So this audience would have seen this in their head. And it's very likely to me, it seems very probable, that they might have caught this, this intended meaning. That is, that we arrive at a place where God's righteousness is the thing that we need to have access to the most beautiful, perfect, truest thing ever, but we can't have it apart from the gift of God. And then the result is we immediately start giving that away as soon as we've received it. To you and me, kind of complex to get there. To the original audience, I think they might have caught it right off the bat. So, in conclusion here, what we've been working on is not the final statement as to the meaning of the Beatitudes. I think this really helps us to get closer to that and gives us some clarity as to what the central idea is. But we've been working on the literary structure, because I think if we don't get that, we can't really wrap our brains around what the meaning is. Next up is trying to go big picture and think about what this thing actually means. And to consider that tomorrow, I want to kick around the possibility that Jesus was maybe lifting some of this structure, some of this phraseology from some existing literature. I wouldn't call it plagiarism, but I want to propose that he was maybe playing off an existing meme to harness and conjure a whole bunch of additional meaning so that he could say even more in just these few words. That might sound insane. Tomorrow you can find out whether or not it is. I'm Matt, this is the 10 Minute Bible Hour Podcast. Let's do it again soon.