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Today, we move from ‘who’ Jesus was to the more specific ‘why’ of Jesus’ coming to be part of our history… And, we’re going to do that through the study of Jesus’ own words—his own teaching from the Sermon on the Mount. We’re going to look at those “Blessed are” sayings called “The Beatitudes”…
Listen now to our scripture lesson for today, from the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 5 [remember, Chapters 5-7 are the Sermon on the Mount], beginning with the first verse … from The Message…
“When Jesus saw his ministry drawing huge crowds, he climbed a hillside. Those who were apprenticed to him, the committed, climbed with him. Arriving at a quiet place, he sat down 2 and taught his climbing companions. This is what he said: 3 You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule. 4 You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you. 5 You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought. 6 You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat. 7 You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘carefull,’ you find yourselves cared for. 8 You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world. 9 You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family. 10 You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom. 11 Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. 12 You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don’t like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.” – Matthew 5:1-12 (MSG)
For once, here in this particular scripture, Jesus skips the parables [one very common way that he taught] and just gives us a full-blown ‘philosophy of life,’ somewhat like a candidate unveiling a new political platform. And, what a platform it was…
Folks, I am not, and may never be able to declare, “This is exactly what the Beatitudes mean!” But, gradually in my walk with God, I’ve come to see them as eternally important truths. To me, they should apply to our lives on at least 3 levels—three levels of truth that I want to share with you today… First: It’s what the author Phil Yancey, in his book entitled The Jesus I Never Knew, would call…
THE TRUTH OF DANGLED PROMISES. In my early stages of biblical understanding, I used to look at the Beatitudes as no more than Jesus throwing a pacifier to ‘the unfortunates.’ Kind of like this: “Well, since you aren’t rich, and your health is failing, and your face is tear-stained … I’ll toss out a few nice phrases to make you feel a little bit better!” Later on in my spiritual journey, as cynicism faded and my faith matured, I came to see the Beatitudes as ‘genuine promises central to Jesus’ message.’
Now, I know that among many Christians an emphasis on future rewards has fallen out of fashion … but is that right? Isn’t the idea of future rewards relevant today? It seems that, in the Beatitudes, Jesus actually honored those who may be less fortunate in this life: the poor, the mourners, the meek, the hungry, the persecuted, the poor in heart—offering them assurance that their service would not go unrecognized or unrewarded…
C.S. Lewis reminds us with this: “Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling around with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.”
Here, C.S. Lewis appropriately reminds us, ‘we dare not discount the value of future rewards.’ I think about the downtrodden … and what these promises did for their lives:
- The slaves of pre-civil war days (just listen to their songs)…
- People like Terry Waite who needed desperately to believe that he would not spend the rest of his life chained to a door in a filthy apartment in Beirut…
- The Christians kept in cages, awaiting their turn with the wild beasts in the arenas of Rome…
For all of these—all through the ages—the promise of future reward was not a source of shame … but of HOPE! I’m convinced that for these neglected saints, who have learned to anticipate and enjoy God in spite of their difficulties, heaven will seem more like a long-awaited homecoming, instead of just a visit to a new place. Jesus’ promise of rewards proclaims that no matter how things appear, there is no future in evil, only in good … and God wins in the end! Here’s another truth for you, from the Beatitudes:
THE TRUTH OF GREAT REVERSAL. Over time, I’ve learned to respect, and even long for, these rewards that Jesus promises… The truth is though, that these rewards lay somewhere in the future, and dangled promises don’t always satisfy immediate needs… That being said, along the way I’ve also come to believe that the Beatitudes describe both the present as well as the future—the Beatitudes being a wonderful contrast of how to succeed in the kingdom of heaven, as opposed to just the kingdom of this world. While modern society usually lives by the rules of survival of the fittest, Jesus brought us the truth of great reversal: The kingdom of God, unlike the kingdom of this world, is an ‘Upside Down Kingdom.’ If you’re poor, you’re going to be blessed; ‘lucky are the unlucky’ Jesus seems to be saying…
Have you ever wondered why that is—why God might prefer the poor? It was actually some Catholic scholars who coined the phrase: “God’s preferential option for the poor” to describe this phenomenon that appears throughout both the Old and New Testaments. So, why would God single out ‘the poor’ for special attention over any other group? Author Monika Hellwig helped me out with that. Here’s a list she gives of ‘advantages’ to being poor:
- The poor know they are in urgent need of redemption…
- The poor know not only their dependence on God and on powerful people but also their interdependence with one another (Great Depression?)…
- The poor rest their security not on things, but on people…
- The poor expect little from competition and much from cooperation…
- The poor have an uncanny ability to distinguish between necessities and luxuries (something that seems to disappear once we have a little)…
- When the poor hear the Gospel preached to them, it sounds like GOOD NEWS and not like a threat or a scolding…
- The poor can respond to the call of the Gospel with a certain abandonment and uncomplicated totality because they have so little to lose and are ready for anything…
I’ve never had it sound so great to be poor! In a nutshell, through no choice of their own—and they may urgently wish otherwise—poor people find themselves in a posture that befits the grace of God. This, folks, is Jesus’ upside-down kingdom! It is the truth of great reversal. And finally then, we come to the third truth:
THE TRUTH OF PSYCHOLOGICAL REALITY. More recently, I’ve come to discover this truth: Not only did Jesus offer us an ideal to strive for, with appropriate rewards in view … and not only did he turn the tables on our success-addicted society; Jesus also gave us a plain formula of psychological truth—the deepest level of truth that we can know on earth! Here it is: The Beatitudes reveal to us that what succeeds in the kingdom of heaven … also benefits us most—more than anything else could—in this life here and now. Here’s some examples…
- Blessed are the poor in spirit … Blessed are the meek: Have you ever noticed that those we look up to in life—those who’ve really made it (kingdom of this world) in wealth, popularity, and stardom … are sometimes the most miserable people on the planet? In God’s eyes, it seems to be the servants, not those being served, who are the favored ones—the graced ones, the ones who know peace…
- Blessed are the pure in heart: This one may be more for the men than for the women, but applies to both on some level… There was a French Catholic writer by the name of Franҫois Mauriac, who even in his old age wrote about his struggle with the sin of lust. He explained, “Old age risks being a period of redoubled testing because the imagination in an old man is substituted in a horrible way for what nature refuses him.” (You can read between the lines…) Anyway, Mauriac dismissed most of the Church’s arguments in favor of sexual purity: Marriage will cure lust, self-discipline can master lust, true fulfillment can only be found in monogamy. Apparently, they didn’t work for him. But, what he did conclude was the only one reason to be pure, and that is what Jesus presented in the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. The love that God holds out to us requires that our faculties be cleansed and purified before we can receive a higher love, one attainable in no other way. That, folks, is the motive to stay pure. By harboring a sin like lust, we limit our own intimacy with God…
- Blessed are the peacemakers … blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness: Ghandi learned from the Sermon on the Mount (Beatitudes) and he said, “Christianity has always insisted that the cross we bear precede the crown we wear.” Think of Martin Luther King, Jr. He gave his very life knowing that the peacemakers … those who are persecuted for Jesus … will be blessed…
- Blessed are those who mourn: There is no more effective healer than what Henri Nouwen calls ‘a wounded healer.’ I can’t help but think of our own local chapter of Compassionate Friends: blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted…
- Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness: This describes all who I’ve mentioned today, doesn’t it—Franҫois Mauriac, Henri Nouwen, Martin Luther King, Jr.? I can now understand why the Bible constantly repeats this one saying of Jesus more than any other: “Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
Jesus came, he told us, not to destroy life … but that we might have life more abundantly, “life … to the full.” For all of their ‘sacrifices,’ these people that I’ve mentioned just a moment ago seem to me more fully alive than most, not less. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness … get filled…
Folks, when we come to better understand Jesus’ teaching—through the Beatitudes in particular, we will then come to know who Jesus really is and why he came. “Lucky are the unlucky.” That’s the truth … according to Jesus. Are you beginning to understand now … why Jesus came … and who Jesus is? He’s the one who loves us so much that he came for us to have an abundant life—not a mediocre life … but an abundant life. And, isn’t that a treasure worth pursuing?