The Life of Blessing and Joy
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Here we continue our celebration of the epiphany, the appearing of Christ in the world. And the Gospel brings us to the Sermon on the Mount, which opens with the beatitudes, little sayings of blessing and joy meant to change the world. My daughter, Bea, is in part named after the beatitudes. Her name, Beatrix, means bringer of joy. And just like the firstborn daughter or son brings a unique joy to their parents, Jesus gives us a picture of blessing, of true happiness, wisdom for a blessed life following him. He had gathered quite a crowd after the miracles he had performed in the previous passage, and now the source of all happiness and blessing takes this moment to tell the crowds about the good life of faithful obedience to God and his ways. And so this morning, we’ll take a look at each of the beatitudes and unpack them just a bit.
The first three look at different aspects of humility. Perhaps surprisingly, the happy life following God isn’t just boldly doing whatever you feel like in the moment. Indeed, a prophet of today’s world might put out their own beatitudes beginning with just that. But Jesus isn’t just telling us what our sinful hearts want to hear. He tells us what we need to hear. And so he begins
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
To be poor in spirit, is to know your need before God, to be humble in your need of him, to posture yourself in a way that acknowledges your need. Remember Jesus’ first word in Capernaum, repent. Repentance is impossible without being poor in spirit, to know and acknowledge and act from your need of God. Each beatitude not only tells you how to be, but Jesus gives us a result: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. If the kingdom of heaven is something you desire, are you in any sense poor in spirit? If not, some reflection, some repentance is in order.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” To mourn here, is to mourn over sin. Those who grieve over their sin, will be met with comfort by God. Those who do not, will not. The beatitudes, the path to the happy life of blessing in God starts out with true soul searching. Looking under the floorboards at the secrets we’ve hidden there, having a moment hit, of Oh no, what have I done? And taking a moment to weep in our souls before Jesus. The person who can do this is the person who will be met with God’s comfort. If it seems impossible, it is for everyone, in and of themselves. But we can ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to us the depth of our sin, if we can’t yet see it and it’s at that point where true healing begins.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” The spoil doesn’t ultimately go to the go-getters, not what’s worth attaining. If you desire a bigger piece of the pie, greater wealth, your own little planet to yourself, you may get them, but you won’t inherit the earth. The heavens and earth will pass away and a new heavens and a new earth will take their place, and if you want the prime real estate there, you will need meekness. The thing is, a meek person isn’t ambitious. They aren’t thinking about whether they left money on the table in a deal. They are content and they aren’t even interested in inheriting the earth. But , in a beautiful and lovely irony, counterintuitive to the way the world looks at drive and its relationship to possessions, the meek will inherit it nonetheless.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” What does it look like to hunger and thirst for righteousness? It’s again being aware of our need of Jesus, of our inability to attain righteousness on our own. Have you ever had the feeling of wanting righteousness as badly as you want food and drink? The only way to feel this, is to be aware of our lack of righteousness. Again, an awareness of our sin becomes the thing that brings us into this blessing. And the blessing is fulfillment, being filled, having received righteousness. To receive righteousness means to hunger and thirst for it. We are given a very literal opportunity to live this out, to identify hunger and thirst with our need of righteousness during Lent, starting in a few weeks. At that time especially, the Church has set aside a time for fasting, repentance, and study of Scripture.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” The peace that comes with being merciful, the joy, the blessing, is palpable. I find that the Holy Spirit greets me with an embrace when I’m merciful, which is itself a form of mercy. But this is true in an ultimate sense as well. If you want final and total mercy that lasts into the new heavens and new earth, you have to give it as well, to that guy on CNN or Fox News, to Donald Trump and Joe Biden. It’s impossible to be the good Samaritan without being able and willing to show mercy, and to follow through, even with those we’ve been trained to despise.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Spiritual blindness is a punishment God gives us for sin. Sin eventually dulls us to the things of God. We can’t hear him, think rightly about him, love him, and we certainly can’t see him. But with a purified heart, not just a courageous heart, but a heart that is pure, where sin is chased out, a heart that doesn’t harbor anything vile, evil, lustful, bitter, the owner of a purified heart will see God, will have spiritual eyes to see and hear and love God and will in the last day see him face to face.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” Those who practice peace and broker it when there’s strife will be called the sons of God. How are we doing with practicing peace? Are we feeding peace or war into our hearts? Is peace or war coming out of our mouths, out of our faces, the looks and emails we send to others? A child of God spreads the kingdom of God through peace. We can nurture peace in our hearts by remembering the promises of God, remembering the grace we’ve received and acting in the world from the peace that fills our hearts. Those of us who enjoy stirring the pot a little too much, would do well to focus on this. And let’s remember the promise, they will be called sons and daughters of God. God’s favor, his adoption process that he brings us into, brings us peace and from there we become characterized by peace. And being characterized by peace, we are rightly called God’s children, his sons and daughters.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. A persecuted person feels unsafe in their own home. There’s no place to call home for someone persecuted. Their peace is at risk, but Jesus provides a home, a place, a kingdom to the persecuted person when they’re persecuted for being righteous. Righteousness will offend. And offended people persecute. But if the offended are offended unjustly, if they are offended because of something truly righteous in God’s eyes, and not just for the sake of stirring up trouble, and they react with persecution, with a threat or actual damage to your peace, your home, your life, Jesus is letting us know that there is a safe haven and an ultimate home waiting for you in heaven. Your spirit can rest there, whether in this life, or the next.
Jesus takes it further:
11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
If the persecution you receive wasn’t over righteousness in general, but about Jesus, you will have good company in heaven with the prophets who were also reviled and persecuted and evil was uttered against them because they were faithful to bring God’s words to the world. People don’t like God’s words. God’s words confront the lies we tell ourselves. They displace idols in our hearts and in the hearts of others. Idols are everywhere, in the public square, in our homes, in our church, in our very hearts. Wherever we see even a good thing turned into an ultimate thing, there sits our idol. Our idols and the idols of others command us to rebel against the true God and his Son Jesus Christ. And they manifest in us and in the world and revile against those confronting them. But when you confront them, and when you are reviled against and persecuted and people utter all kinds of evil against you because of being truthful about Jesus Christ and who he is in relationship to you and to the world, to reality, you might feel like despairing. But Jesus encourages us to find strength in him. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.
Jesus starts with inner chambers of our hearts and guides us out into the world. He doesn’t promise that we’ll make it through unscathed, but he does promise that we’ll make it through. The words of the beatitudes are brought to even greater light through the path Jesus makes for us to be changed, transformed by his sacrificial death and the victory he accomplishes at the resurrection. Because of him, we can hear these words and by the power of the Holy Spirit and the free gift of the Father, we can hold these sayings dear and live the true life of joy and blessing that God desires for each of us. So let’s look to Jesus who adopts us into his family and gives us a new citizenship in the kingdom of heaven. Let us trust in him and walk in his ways and he will make our path straight.