I have always been struck by how abruptly Jesus begins the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:2. These opening statements, what we call the Beatitudes, describe the reality of a Kingdom of Heaven that sounds too good to be true. Jesus invites us to believe there are spiritual advantages for the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, the merciful, and so on, in this Kingdom. Why is this a problem? Well, if I think about ways to get ahead in life (oh, say, inheriting the earth), the first thing that comes to mind is not being meek. This is what linguists like Herbert Clark call ?common ground.?

Common Ground: A Refresher

If you?re following my blog, you can read my first post on common ground for an introduction. What follows is a bit more on the subject and how it applies to the Beatitudes.

Typically we think of common ground as the shared knowledge that helps us know the person intended by ?she? when we use pronouns in a conversation. One of us has introduced a female and we have informally agreed that she is the ?she? until some other candidate pushes her out. 

More often, common ground is not so local, such as knowing what ?going to the store? or ?doing coffee? means. The latter is not talking about injecting caffeinated liquid into your arm like ?doing heroin? would, but instead meeting a friend or relative at a coffee shop to ?catch up? or ?compare notes,? which are also examples of common ground. Shared knowledge about the world around us is relative regarding how widely it is known, e.g., local (?she? = Karen), regional (?the needle? = Seattle Space Needle), national (?the border? = 49th parallel for Canadians or Americans living in the northern states), or global (?the rain = the liquid water that falls from the sky). So when we talk about ?common ground? knowledge, it entails much more than the dictionary meaning of words. It is experiential knowledge about the way things work around us, and the idiomatic expressions that capture these patterns and expectations.

Common ground is far more productive in communication than just helping us know the meaning of certain expressions. This shared experiential knowledge can also serve as a contrasting backdrop for processing new information. If things are expected to work a certain way based on our expectations, these same expectations form our basis of comparison ? our ?normal.? This explains why going to a new place can seem strange at first but can become our new normal after enough experiences there, so much so that returning to our old normal place can feel weird after enough time has passed. ?Normal? can be an experience-based, relative thing. 

The Beatitudes: The Ultimate Movie Trailer?

So how can this idea of common ground help us better understand the Beatitudes and the role they play as the introduction to the Sermon on the Mount? This is where the famous baritone voice actor Don LaFontaine?s classic movie trailer lines come in. A ?movie trailer,? or 20-second video to make you want to see a movie, assumes more common ground. It is ubiquitous enough in American culture that LaFontaine even did a movie trailer that poked fun at his movie trailers. 

Based on a movie trailer?s brevity, the announcer has mere seconds to create a mental image evocative enough to make people want to go see the movie (back when going to the movies was a thing; more common ground). Don LaFontaine accomplished this by voicing dramatic variations of ?In a world...? or ?In a time?? These little expressions immediately let you know that whatever he was talking about was beyond the realm of your normal experience. It could be a galaxy far, far, away or simply a situation where a New York police officer happens to be in Nakatomi Tower when terrorists strike at Christmas. (Common ground test: name that movie.)

There is something compelling about how a good movie trailer can evoke mental pictures of a place where things are markedly different from what we know. Whether it sparks fear, hope, nostalgia, connection, our experiential common ground is the thing that is tapped into to bring about the effects. 

In similar ways, Jesus opens this extended time of teaching with something akin to a trailer, describing a kingdom where the people who would normally be pitied or avoided or taken advantage of are instead comforted, cared for, and abundantly rewarded. Each of the beatitudes clashes with what most of us experience in daily life. Jesus outlines an otherness to his Kingdom of Heaven that captures our imagination (if we are willing to believe) and challenges us to choose whether we trust enough to follow Him. It offers home along with the call to opt-in and follow Jesus.

Part of the power derived from these images stems from how much it clashes with what we?d typically expect, except that we are left to fill that part in ourselves from our common ground. It is as though Jesus is giving us a chart with an empty column that we fill in ourselves. The nature of those answers in large part determines the contrast of what He presents. 

In the same way that the ?In a world where?? or ?I have a dream?? statements invite us to imagine a place where what sounds too good to be true is actually the norm, Jesus accomplishes the same kind of effects with the Beatitudes. There are only two responses: you can either reject the statements based on the contrast with your common ground experience of how things are, hence opting out, or you can be willing to believe that such a reality is actually possible and take the steps to become a part of it, or opting in. We have to make a choice, and a non-choice is the same as opting out.

But then Jesus reverses things in Matthew 5:11, leading with what the group actually experiences in the present reality. Note also the shift from generic, third-person references to ?those who,? to directly addressing the reader and hearer as ?you.? A closer reading shows that he does not include ?all y?all,? but instead restricts this final beatitude to those who have opted in. 

Verse 11 describes the insults and persecution and slander and defamation that will be experienced by Jesus?s followers who suffer these things ?on account of me.? The next verse commands these folks to rejoice and be glad, not the natural response we expect from our common-ground experience. Why? What could be a powerful enough motivation to choose such a response? It is the great reward that will be given in heaven. What is more, Jesus likens those who have opted-in to the prophets. Why? The answer is common ground experience, for they were persecuted in just the same way before you were. 

 

Conclusion

For centuries, people have been inspired to opt-in to following Jesus after reading the Beatitudes without ever understanding the concept of common ground. Like with so many other features of language and communication, God has wired us in such a way to do it even if we don?t understand how it all works. But understanding the hows and whys through the lens of linguistics can help us in several ways. 

• First, understanding the linguistic building blocks that Jesus employs helps us better understand and track the flow of thought, such as the reversal in Matthew 5:11 where Jesus ends up filling in all three columns. 
• Second, for those who are teaching and preaching, we can learn from and imitate Jesus through better understanding his communication strategies. When was the last time you cast a vision by asking others to join you ?In a world where??? 
• Finally, gaining an understanding and sensitivity to the critical role common ground plays in communication can help us triage miscommunication and conflict by identifying the underlying causes of disagreements. If you live ?In a world where?? and I do not, even though we disagree, we can nevertheless understand and hopefully respect how it is that the other person could think the way they do.