Welcome, finally the cold seems to be gone for awhile and maybe we can get outside some to cure our cabin fever. I must confess that sometimes when I see the verses for the Sunday text I inwardly groan. How in the space of a blog will I ever explain those concepts? I actually did that for this Sunday’s text. It is the beatitudes in Matthew. We could have a blog for each one let alone condense all into one blog. I will try to hit the highlights with the understanding that each of the beatitudes goes much deeper. Jesus is in the area of the Galilee teaching, healing all afflicted and being followed by massive crowds.
V1 When Jesus saw the crowds he went up a mountain, sat down and his disciples came to him. The statement that he went up a mountain is not meant to say he tried to get away from the mass of humanity following him. In the Old Testament Moses had gone up Mount Sinai to teach the people God’s covenant and now Jesus the new Moses is doing the same with his new covenant. When a rabbi taught he sat and the students stood. Jesus is going to teach. Jesus is forming the New Israel around himself and he is instructing them on how he would have them live. If the mass of people following him wanted to belong to his community here were its guidelines. They couldn’t continue to follow him because they liked the healings, they had to decide how they were going to live.
V3 Blessed; the word blessed is not defined how we today define it. We think if we are blessed we have a lot of material things. God likes what we are doing so he gives us stuff. This isn’t Jesus’ definition. Blessed can also mean happy or be a spiritual condition of divinely gifted joy. “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven”. This doesn’t mean that we are to become poor in spirit but that we are all beggars before God and in conscious need of God’s help. We are to be humble and seek God. This reflects back to Isaiah 66:2 where God states he will look to the humble and contrite in spirit as his people.
V4 “Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted”. Those who mourn and long for God’s forgiveness will be comforted. Jesus has come to bring that forgiveness which does away with mourning.
V5 “Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth”. The meek, the gentle, those who do not further their own agenda will inherit the earth because they trust God to direct the outcome of events. The meek humbly seek God; they don’t war against each other. This was in opposition to the idea that came out of Daniel 7 where some thought they would rule the world with God.
V6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled”. God is the source of righteousness and people who seek God will be filled as if they have eaten at a banquet. This reflects back to Isaiah 55:1-2 where God is dining with his people and providing an abundance. At God’s table there is enough for all. At the world’s table only a few can dine while many go hungry. Materialism is like that. There are a finite amount of things and only a few have them.
V7 “Blessed are the merciful for they will receive mercy”. Those who are merciful respond to human need with compassion and action, with kindness and forgiveness, they help alleviate stress. They will receive mercy from God.
V8 “Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God”. The Jewish leaders taught the people that ritual purity was of utmost importance. They had many purity laws to follow. Jesus confronts this thought when he accuses the Pharisees of being concerned about their outward purity while their hearts were filled with impurity. It is not what goes into the mouth that makes one impure it is what comes out of the mouth from the heart that makes one impure. In other words, what goes in can’t defile you but the evil thoughts that originate in your heart and flow out of your mouth in unkind words and deeds are what defile you. To be pure in heart is to seek to do the will of God.
V9 “Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God”. These people promote the way of peace not war. This peace was shalom, a total way of being and having peace.
V10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”. The prophets of the Old Testament spent part of their lives promoting righteousness as God’s message and were persecuted for it. People don’t want to hear what God has to say they just want to carry on with their own agendas and the prophets spoke out against that.
V11-12 “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you on my account”. As the new community of Jesus we will be persecuted for our beliefs. The world didn’t want to hear what Jesus had to teach and it doesn’t want to hear what his followers have to say still. For even though we are persecuted here, we will be rewarded in heaven as were the prophets.
This teaching is difficult to adhere to. Who wants to be persecuted for their beliefs or reviled for their actions? Actually no one but we are called to bring Jesus’ message to the world and the world doesn’t want it. This teaching all runs counter culture to what the world teaches. In the world we are to be self sufficient, buck up and don’t cry, assert ourselves to be noticed, do or say whatever it takes to “close the deal”, show no mercy for that will build character, go to war to acquire for and satisfy our “needs”, don’t speak out against the establishment but go along because it’s the only way to survive and get ahead and change on a dime, be flexible, if people start to persecute us because that hurts. We each have to decide where our allegiance lies. Do we go along with the world’s way of living or do we choose Jesus’ way of living? We can’t integrate them and walk the line, we have to take a stand. We can’t follow along for the ride just to see miracles (a grand entertaining show); we have to commit to a way of life.
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