with the well-loved Beatitudes, which classically exemplify God’s inversion of the world’s values. In His kingdom or reign, those who are considered fortunate include the poor, sorrowing, humble, righteous, merciful, pure, peacemakers, and persecuted. These are precisely those categories of people too many of us tend to despise and ostracize. These countercultural values could suggest that Jesus intended His followers to withdraw from the world and form separate communities. Matthew 5:13–16 immediately