4th Sunday after Epiphany

Matthew 4:23-25, 5:1-12

Grace and peace to you from God the Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

I am so glad that we get to hear Jesus preaching to us this week. I needed a good sermon, packed with good news from a good preacher; and I suspect that many of you do too.

That’s what the beatitudes are – Jesus’s own sermon, packed with good news, full of promises from God to fill us with comfort, mercy and God’s holy presence.

Taking a closer look, we see who Jesus is surrounded by at the time of his preaching. In chapter 4 verse 24 it says, that “all the sick, those who were afflicted with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, and paralytics” were brought to him. So many were brought that there were great crowds of these people who followed him.

At the very beginning of Jesus ministry, he is immersing himself into these crowds of sick, hurt and ill people. Matthew 4 tells us, “he cured them.” So, Jesus spent his days curing people. This is Matthew, the author of our Gospel, telling us exactly who Jesus is and what it will mean to follow him. Healing, comfort, mercy and Holy presence are brought to people through Christ Jesus.

A balm for wounds. A balm for our hearts.

And so, it’s from this position of Holy Comforter, and it’s to these crowds of hurt and sick people, to whom Jesus preaches.  Frederick D. Bruner, a bible scholar asks the question, “Why does Jesus stop his successful healing ministry to start a preaching one?”

Bruner continues, “Perhaps because Jesus believes he needs to do public health and not just surgery – he knows that when people follow his teaching, they become a sick world’s antidote.”[1]

Now, Jesus’ sermon runs from Matthew chapter 5 through chapter 7. We are looking at much of chapter 5 today, called “The Beatitudes.” A “beatitude” is a kind of blessing. In this case, it’s a two-part device used to name a blessed group – for example, “blessed are those who mourn,” and then to name God’s gift to that group for example, “for they will be comforted.”[2] Now, in Jesus’ usage of this two-part device, things get turned around from what is typical. Jesus names the poor in spirit, the meek, the mourners and the hungry and thirsty all as blessed people who are also among the merciful, pure in heart, and the peacemakers.

It’s not exactly a “blessing” to be poor in spirit, sad or hungry. Right?[3]

So, Jesus’ usage of this beatitude device isn’t meant to give us virtuous spiritual states to which we can attain. Rather, Jesus is naming profoundly spiritual crises to which he then responds. He is doing “public health” by naming the promise that the Triune God shows up to the blessed mourners bringing comfort.

And, boy do I need some comfort.

Most of you know that I grew up in Minneapolis. It’s my home. I was born and raised there and all of my family except for me and two cousins, still live in Minnesota. The majority of my family members in the Twin Cities area and surrounding metro region. So, the federal government’s surge of federal authorities into the region as a part of “Operation Metro Surge,” has, to say the least, made it a hard a few weeks for me. It’s been a hard few weeks for my family and my friends.

It’s painful to see the images of places I know so well caught in turmoil. Restaurants I’ve eaten at, stores I’ve shopped, streets I’ve walked that have been shrouded in tear gas smoke as quiet homes that I’ve walked or driven by are surrounded by federal authorities in tactical gear as if they’re in a military zone. Eat Street, a four-block section of Nicolet Avenue that has some of the best restaurants the city has to offer – a place I know as joyful – is now known internationally as the site of the murder of Alex Pretti at the hands of federal authorities.

My mom got a text a week or so ago from a neighbor telling her not to go to the neighborhood Target because ICE was conducting an arrest at the store.  

Now, when I talked to my mom the other day, she wanted me to assure you that it’s not all tear gas and soldiers on every street. Minneapolis is still a vibrant, beautiful city – it’s maybe even at it’s best in the winter even! But she did acknowledge that people are hyper aware of their surroundings, and are double checking the news before they go out to do their banal weekly chores like a Target run for fear of getting caught up in a tense, and militarized sting operation.

And one of the dominant narratives I’ve heard on national news is that the people of Minneapolis are creating these tensions because they are domestic terrorists or insurrectionists. My mom can’t go to Target without thinking twice anymore and it’s not because of her neighbors, it’s because of the brutality of the government.

This is a spiritual and moral crisis.

As Pastor Ingrid Rasmussen of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Minneapolis said last week, “The freedom that people of faith dream of looks nothing like what we are seeing playing out on our streets.”

My body is aching for my hometown, for my family and for my friends. And I’ve heard from many of you that you are also aching under confusion, frustration, and being torn between multiple narratives about what’s happening. Let’s acknowledge how confusing this time is in which we live. How hard it is to know what is true and what is not – we are in a spiritual and a moral crisis.

It’s in this crisis that we are encountered today by the Christ’s beatitudes, by his blessings, in the Sermon on the Mount.

 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 

  4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 

  5 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. 

  6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. 

  7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. 

  8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 

  9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. 

  10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 

Jesus gives us this list of profound spiritual crises and profound spiritual moments to which Jesus responds by naming how the Triune God shows up in these crises.

The truth is that God responds in spiritual crises. And Jesus tells us today that God responds with comfort, fullness, feeding, mercy, God’s presence, and by naming people as children of God.

Those are the things that characterize the freedom which people of faith DO dream of – use Pastor Rasmussen’s image! We do dream of a world filled with comfort, mercy, enough for everyone, God’s Holy presence and where everyone is named a child of God. We dream of this because Jesus tells us it will be so!

The crisis we find ourselves in is that we are seeing how our government is not pursuing a freedom that looks like this. Our government is in pursuit of naming people – our neighbors - as evil and as the enemy, our government is pursuing brutal arrests and punitive punishments.  None of that reflects the response of the Triune God in the midst of crisis.

With these Beatitudes, Jesus is calling us all to be public health physicians in the midst of this crisis by holding tightly to our dream of a world that is built on comfort, mercy, enough for everyone, God’s Holy presence, and where everyone is named a beloved child of God. These beatitudes, call us to be a balm in this spiritual and moral crisis by loving our neighbors in the face of being told to hate them, to see and name publicly all people as precious Children of God resisting the idea that we have “enemies within” and having mercy on people when we are told that the only way to gain safety is through punishment and brutality.

Our call as Christians, as people of faith, is to dream of the Kingdom of God as shown to us through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and to join God who is loving it into existence. Our call is to tell the truth that God loves us, that God loves you, that God is with us in our crises, that God has mercy on all of us, that God brings fullness and forgiveness and these beatitudes tell us this everlasting truth.

Let’s start believing in God’s world as pictured in these beatitudes and let’s dash the false hope that is rooted in brutality on the rocks of history. We can be a balm for the wounds of our society. We acknowledge today how God’s mercy pours out and blesses and pray for the Holy Spirit to empower us to follow God’s lead in mercy. For,

  7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. 

  8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 

  9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. 

Amen.

Rev. Ryan | February 1, 2026 | 4th Sunday after Epiphany

[1] Bruner, Frederick, D. The Christbook: Matthew, a Commentary, Vol. 1. Pages 154-181.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Idea from Sermon Brainwave podcast episode on 4^th Sunday After Epiphany.