Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Pondering the Beatitudes

A few months ago, our pastor asked me to preach for a Sunday while he was out. I excitedly accepted and then began praying to discern what God wanted me to speak on. It did not take long before I felt a peace that He wanted me to take the congregation through the beatitudes. These first twelve verses of Matthew five should be incredibly significant to us all. In these twelve short verses, Jesus lays out the most comprehensive list found in the New Testament of characteristics that define the people of Jesus' kingdom. As with the rest of the sermon on the mount, these are very practical, dealing with our everyday lives in this physical world. These are not spiritual ideals which we hope to achieve internally or some fluff like that.

Now as I started studying these, I began to realize just how radical they were. To make a long story short, I came to the understanding by the grace of the Holy Spirit that the mainstream church system of today is not representing Jesus. All of us who have put our faith in Him are His ambassadors on the earth, we represent Him to those around us. But while we should be characterized by these characteristics from Matthew 5, the church today is known by entirely different things (political issues, worship styles, hypocrisy, judgment, etc.) and are therefore blaspheming the name of Jesus. God cares deeply about how people represent Him. Remember Moses? God told him to speak to the rock, but Moses was upset with the people and struck the rock twice in anger. He misrepresented God to them as being angry and frustrated. But that was not the case. So God told Moses that because he misrepresented Him, he would not be able to enter the promised land. As Moses represented God to the Israelites, so we represent Jesus to the world.

The following are my own ponderings on the beatitudes, led--I pray--by the Spirit of Truth living within me. These are the characteristics we take on when we become followers of Jesus. Whether or not our life physically manifests these is dependent on our willingness to lay down our lives before Jesus and therefore let our inward reality become our outward truth. I was tempted while writing these down to write that these characteristics "should" define Jesus' follower or point out that we should "strive to" present ourselves as such to the world. But the awesome reality is that when we were first saved, we received as a free gift from God the righteous perfection of Jesus! When you look inside us now, you don't find darkness and depravity, you find Jesus! So the incredible reality is that we ARE defined by these characteristics, whether we show them on the outside or not. But now let us remember the words of Jesus, "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it." It's when we humble ourselves and give our lives to Him that these inward realities become our outward characteristics.

  • “Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5.3) – Followers of Jesus recognize that they cannot accomplish God’s purposes in the world by their own power. It is only by the work of God’s Spirit within us that we are empowered to live the lives He wants us to live.
  • “Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted.” (Matthew 5.4) – The world we live in is in a sad condition. Pain, suffering, and hurt are all around. The condition of the world brings us to tears. Followers of Jesus cannot look at the world and ignore its terrible state, but instead acknowledge the reality and let it drive them to do something about it.
  • “Blessed are the meek, For they shall inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5.5) – In the kingdoms of this world, the rich, the powerful, and the independent are exalted. But in Jesus’ upside-down kingdom, the least shall be the greatest. In His kingdom, humility is the standard by which greatness is measured, and the meek find themselves blessed.
  • “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled.” (Matthew 5.6) – Righteousness is a gift given to us by our loving God and Savior. Followers of Jesus live to make that inward state their outward reality. While others hunger and thirst for the passing pleasures of a fallen world, we yearn for our lives to reflect the righteousness of Jesus.
  • “Blessed are the merciful, For they shall obtain mercy.” (Matthew 5.7) – From whom much is given, much is required. Even though we each spent part of our lives ignoring Him, Jesus showed us mercy by giving His life for our sake. It is from the overflow of His incredible mercy given to us that we are left with no other choice but to be merciful to those around us.
  • “Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God.” (Matthew 5.8) – God cannot stand hypocrites. Jesus’ followers live lives of integrity, where their outward lives match their inward reality.
  • “Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God.” (Matthew 5.9) – Violence has no place in the life of a believer. We know that “vengeance is mine, says the LORD.” Jesus told his followers to “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you. To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also. And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who asks of you. And from him who takes away your goods do not ask them back.”
  • “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5.10) – There is a huge difference between persecution for the sake of righteousness and persecution brought on because of pride, judgment and hypocrisy. Followers of Jesus whose outward lives match their inward reality will find themselves living radically different from the people around them. This is because the value system of Jesus’ kingdom is radically different from the value system of this world. This inevitably brings on persecution, but only for a time. Jesus’ follower look forward to a day beyond this where Jesus’ kingdom is fully in place and all pain, suffering, and sadness are things of the past.
  • “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5.11-12) – It is an incredible fact that those people throughout history most characterized by humility, love, non-violence, mercy and righteousness have also been the most persecuted. They find themselves surrounded by a hostile world on one side and a power-hungry and judgmental church on the other. This is not an easy path to take, but it is the path that leads to Jesus. Blessings come to those who follow Jesus, and those blessings far outweigh the costs.