Matthew 5:8 God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God.

Last week (in what felt like one of the most awkward messages I’ve ever shared):

1. We should—be poor (in such a way that we leave space in our lives for relationships—with people and with our Heavenly Father)

2. God blesses—those who are poor

3. Those who—are poor will realize their need for God (which of course leads to their inheriting the Kingdom of Heaven)

This week:

1. We should—have pure hearts

2. God blesses—those whose hearts are pure

3. Those who’s—hearts are pure will see God (a clearly different promise than any of the previous payoffs)

This beatitude, in my opinion, is the most difficult. It’s almost impossible to gauge. It’s almost impossible to simply change. Our ability to adhere to this as if it were a command is limited to our actions because we can only indirectly affect the desires of our hearts. We can change our priorities in terms of what we do, (i.e. how we spend time, money, talents, etc.) but we can not make our hearts pure about those changes. We can give more but part of us will expect more in return (selfish ambition). We can spend more time helping others but part of us will expect more frequent pats on the back (vain conceit). It would seem Jesus is calling us to keep in check what we cannot control.

It is really only possible to see any real progress in this beatitude as a byproduct of careful adherence to all other commands listed here (for a really long time). Your heart, I would suggest, will become purer as you intentionally live a purer life (doing the things Jesus has laid out for us to do). Please note that when I say purer I do not mean it in the stop-smoking-and-cussing-and-listening-to-Van-Halen sense but in the doing-what-God-has-called-you-to-do-simply-because-he-has-called-you-to-do-it-and-you-want-to-honor-him-with-your-life sense.

For a clearer image (single example) of what it looks like to live with a pure heart we’ll take a brief look at the life of Jesus:

In Luke 22 Jesus has just been betrayed by Judas and handed over to the Roman guards. They moved in and grabbed Jesus violently (this I’m assuming judging by how the disciples reacted) and declared they were arresting him to take before the judges: 49-51 When the other disciples saw what was about to happen, they exclaimed, “Lord, should we fight? We brought the swords!” And one of them struck at the high priest’s slave, slashing off his right ear. But Jesus said, “No more of this.” And he touched the man’s ear and healed him. This is an event I’m sure you’ve all heard before (as with every other story I’ve used to illustrate these teachings). This event is a perfect image of a man whose heart is pure. Very simply we see Jesus being attacked, reacting with compassion, then… This ellipsis is the most important element of this story for our purposes this time around. What happens after Jesus reacts with compassion? He’s taken before a judge, sentenced to a cross, and killed. That’s makes for a really great lesson in the payoff of compassion. But here’s what I want us to see. Jesus reacted the way he did in this situation knowing full well it would not benefit him later. He helped and healed a man that was still going to beat him and kill him. We know Jesus’ heart is pure in this story because we see him reacting in such a way that he has nothing to gain from doing what is right. Jesus isn’t operating under some strategic pretense. He’s not trying to earn anyone’s respect as a way to get out of all of this. He’s not playing mind games with these people. He’s doing what is good and right and beautiful because his heart is pure (there is nothing else to read into this).

So, for us, the question becomes how do we start to live with pure hearts? How can we control something as deeply engrained and as painfully unmanageable as our (hidden and selfish) motives? I’m going to offer what sounds like a really simple answer to that complicated question but I hope I don’t make this sound easy. It is simple; it is not easy. This beatitude is, I would argue, the desire of every one of our hearts (or we would not ever bother opening a Bible or coming to church at all). We do not always do what is best in our pursuit of this, but it is somewhere down deep, exactly what we desire. We wish we wanted to do what was right just because it is right but we can not seem to silence our “selfish ambitions and vain conceit” (as Philippians depicts it).

Here’s the simple (but not easy) solution: live the other beatitudes. A pure heart is the end result/byproduct/payoff of living the other beatitudes Jesus has called us to live (for a long time—over the course of a life). And we won’t really know how we’re doing on this one except insofar as we see God in everything. Our hearts are becoming purer when we feel God’s beauty and love in every aspect of our lives. When we live out of the overflow of a pure heart every menial task becomes worship and it’s meaningful and powerful.

My word of encouragement to you in light of this, though it may sound hypocritical, is pretend your heart is pure (do what you know is right and good and holy whether you mean or not—pretend to mean it). In time you will start to forget your impure motives, your selfish ambitions, and you your vain conceit. And instead you will see God.

In the Kingdom of God none of us see God completely but we’re trying and little by little our hearts are becoming purer and his face is becoming clearer.

Matt 5.3

Matthew 5:3 God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.

Last week:

1. We should—be humble (meaning we should find our value in our relationship with our Heavenly Father alone)

2. God blesses—those who are humble (with true value)

3. Those who—are humble will inherit the earth (i.e. allow yourself to be ruled and you will rule)

This week:

1. We should—______________________

2. God blesses—those who ____________

3. Those who—are poor will ____________

Did I just lose anybody? Is it clear at all why I would not want to start this series with this teaching? It makes plenty of sense to me why Jesus would find it fitting to begin his teaching here—everyone he’s talking to is actually already very poor. So he starts his talk here with some points that would have been both controversial and counterintuitive to his listeners but ultimately Jesus would have found favor in their eyes by making these statements. The difficult thing we now have to process is that Jesus did not make this statement simply to find favor in the eyes of his audience. He said this because it’s true. And since it’s true we’re faced with a difficult set of questions because we are not poor. I’m going to try to tackle two of the primary questions this raises in this message: (1) What does Jesus mean by poor? (2) If I’m not poor, am I doing something wrong (should I change how I’m living to try to become poor)? In order to get the strongest possible answer for these questions I want us to turn to the life of Jesus as well as another one of his other teachings on the matter. We find when we look at Jesus’ life that every single thing he teaches, he lives.

I’ll give just a few references to Jesus take on possessions and the things that keep us from being “poor” then I want to spend a short while talking about why, perhaps we find Jesus living (and suggesting that we live) this way. Hopefully we will understand more fully what any of this has to do with our spiritual lives.

Matthew 8:19 Then one of the teachers of the religious law said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” But Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” Here Jesus is reacting to a statement that I would imagine was becoming a mantra of many in the crowd that followed him. That statement happens to be one that we’re still declaring today. We’ve written countless songs featuring this line and many of us were taught to pray it as soon as we were old enough to talk. The statement of course being, “I’ll follow You wherever you go.” Before we get any further into how Jesus reacted to hearing this coming from the crowds I want to say that this is a great attitude. I’m not going to suggest that we stop singing those songs or praying those prayers but Jesus turns around to the people and reminds them just what this means. “[He] replied, ‘Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head.’” Jesus is actually offering to these people who say they’ll follow him anywhere a picture of what following him means.

BEGIN TANGENT: this is very nice of him considering the fact that many of those called to follow Jesus were called and had no idea what they’re signing on for. He does not tell Peter when he calls him away from his leisurely fishing trip that he will be crucified upside down with his wife if he get’s out of that boat. He doesn’t tell Saul that he will be beaten and imprisoned routinely for the rest of his life (i.e. until he is brutally martyred) if he jumps back on his donkey and rides out to plant and consult for churches. TANGENT ENDED.

So what does this mean? What is Jesus saying here with this talk of foxes and birds? He’s saying, you want to follow me, I’m homeless. This whole encounter is a little bit difficult to understand because we cannot see Jesus’ nonverbal cues or hear the inflexions of his voice but I imagine there was an audible slant to this sentence. He’s saying are you sure this is what you want? Most of the animal kingdom even claims little real estate. But, Jesus says, I don’t. The people (and we) are left to consider what this might mean.

In Matthew 6:31-32a, in what is perhaps an extension of the beatitudes, Jesus begs, “don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘what will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers…”

Jesus reminds us in this passage that the things we build our entire lives around are really of little circumstance. We worry about our bodies—how we’ll decorate them or how we’ll stuff or not stuff them. We worry about our bills which come primarily as a result of our endless pursuit of the things we want and think we need. And what he essentially pleads is you’d be better off poor. And not necessarily in the sense of complete poverty but as it pertains the qualifying element of this beatitude. “God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him…”

So, what does Jesus mean by poor? He means that your longing (as demonstrated in the actions and pursuits of your life) is for communion with your Heavenly Father to the extent that the other things you used to want and need start to fade away. Jesus tells his followers, I don’t need a home because it is not necessary for me to accomplish what God has given me to accomplish.

If I’m not poor, am I doing something wrong (should I change how I’m living to try to become poor)? Only you can answer that question for yourself. How many things in your life are you pursuing that have nothing to do with what God has called you to accomplish. Is it easy for you to stop realizing your need for God because you don’t exactly need him? How many of your worries have something to do with your possessions (or things you intend to possess)?

In the Kingdom of God the poor are rich because they’re not fooled into thinking that possessions can make them rich.

Matthew 5.5

Matthew 5:5 God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth.

We left off in this series a few weeks ago with Matthew 5:7:

1. We should—be merciful (predetermine our forgiveness of others whether they deserve it or not)

2. God blesses—those who are merciful

3. Those who—are merciful will be shown mercy (i.e. to them, He extends mercy)

This week is, in a way, a bit of an extension of our last lesson:

1. We should—be humble

2. God blesses—those who are humble

3. Those who—are humble will inherit the earth (i.e. allow yourself to be ruled and you will rule)

The first four weeks of this were pretty challenging for me (and I hope for you). I found myself actually examining many of the things I do every day more carefully—holding them up to the light of these scriptures. Asking myself, as we said we would in the beginning: if this is what Jesus looks like, do I look like Jesus? Turns out I don’t. It seems in fact that there are many elements of my personality that I used to associate with my faith in Jesus that appear to be completely unchristian at a second glance. I bring all of this up now because I have separated this series into two sets of four lessons. The first four (those we’ve already discussed) are blessed are those who: mourn, work for peace, hunger and thirst for righteousness, and are merciful. And these four represent, at least for our purposes, actual life changes that we are capable of making. We can consciously and definitively take on the hurt of others and mourn with them. We can do the awkward work of leveling the playing field in order to work for peace when those around us are quarreling. We can set aside time in our lives to seek (hunger and thirst for) righteousness. And we can predetermine forgiveness and live mercifully. But the four beatitudes that remain don’t fit exactly the same mold. The four that remain are Jesus’ instructions to us to be what we cannot be. I’m sure your understanding of this truth will grow as we get into the weeks that lie ahead but for this lesson we’re focusing simply on Jesus instruction to us to be humble.

The pursuit of humility for humility’s sake, unfortunately, is futile. Humility is unlike the other beatitudes we’ve discussed thus far in that it does not involve a simple change in actions (or reactions) but it entails a change in attitude—in personality. I don’t know how many times in your life you have set out to change your personality but I’ve tried a time or two and it does not come easily. My personality, it seems, is what it is and though I can pretend to change certain elements of it, actually changing is a whole different beast. For example, if I were to decide that I am far too delicate a being and I should become a little tougher around the edges, the very best I could do in terms of making this change would be to pretend to be tougher than I actually am (in hopes that I will become tougher over time). After all, if I’ve spent 24 years being delicate and then I simply decide one day that I’ll be tough it’s very unlikely that I will spit back at the next person who spits at me no matter how much I say I want to. The same principle is true of humility. You are not humble. Your culture has not encouraged humility in you. You have not been taught “the last will be first and the first will be last.” You have been taught, “if you ain’t first you’re last.” You’ve been taught self-esteem and self-respect and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with any of those things. We should have confidence and respect for ourselves. We should think we’re important at least to some degree or we could never get anything done. Humility comes into play when we start to determine why we think we’re important. To what aspect of you do you attribute value? To get an idea of what Jesus is communicating to us through this beatitude—what Jesus means when he calls us to humility—I’d like for us to take a look at an event in Jesus’ life when he personified humility.

John 13:1a Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father. And so here we are in the final days of Jesus’ life before he’ll be crucified and he has gathered his disciples together and we’ve all probably heard the story of what happens here. Before we move on into the story I want to point out how painfully awkward all of this is even for me to just talk about so imagine what it would’ve been like to have been there. Jesus is about to start washing his disciples’ feet and most of us cringe at the thought of it. It’s clear to us that this is a perfect (though terribly uncomfortable) picture of humility. There are two verses in particular in this chapter that stand out to me as humility defined and I want to spend the remainder of our time together discussing what these 2 verses have to say to us where we are. Verses 3 and 4 read as follows: Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God. So he got up from the table, took off his robe, [and] wrapped a towel around his waist. If you’ve ever read this before it would be easy to see how you could read verse 3 as simply another reminder that Jesus is the Messiah. But look closer. The statements about Jesus in verse 3 are actually nothing that couldn’t be said of you or me. This is not John saying once more who Jesus actually was in the grand scheme of our redemption. This was John saying these things are, of course, true of Jesus but they are also true of anyone who follows him. So, in essence, what Jesus actually does in verse 3 is he reminds himself of the value he has because of his relationship with his Father. He remembered that his value was found in his connection to the creator of all things and as a result of remembering this truth he did the dirty work of verses 4 and 5.

If we take the time to consider the humility of Jesus we’ll find over and over again that his humble actions and reactions to those around him are always actions and reactions that come as the result of his confidence in his Father. Humility for Christians is not a self-hating lack of confidence or an overall victim mentality. It’s remembering that we only truly have value because of who our Father is. No action or mistreatment or judgment from anyone can take that away. I think if we could really get our heads around this idea, humility would could naturally. We would remember that “the Father [has] given[us] authority over everything and that [we have] come from God and [will] return to God. So… it only seems natural for us to serve the people that God loves who are all around us.

In the Kingdom of God value is in God alone and because of that value we will inherit all things.

Matthew 5.7

Matthew 5:7 God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

Last week we discussed how:

1. We should—hunger and thirst for righteousness (and not become easily distracted from our pursuit of God by any of the trivial things after which we hunger and thirst)

2. God blesses—those who hunger and thirst for righteousness

3. Those who—hunger and thirst for righteousness will be satisfied (i.e. they will hunger no more, neither shall they thirst)

This week:

1. We should—be merciful

2. God blesses—those who are merciful

3. Those who—are merciful will be shown mercy (i.e. to them, He extends mercy)

We should desire to see others on the receiving end of mercy (when they don’t deserve it—otherwise it would not be called mercy) and we, as followers of Christ, should exude this mercy. We should become beacons of God’s infinite mercy.

All of that sounds lofty and nice and I doubt anyone would bother to disagree with anything I’ve stated so far. These are biblical and universal truths that we all know to be certain. People who don’t hold grudges live longer (especially in Steven Segal films) and happier lives. People who help those who can’t help themselves are obviously doing something right—something we can all agree is beautiful. Forgiving those who come to you broken and truly sorry is obviously freeing (and at times, fun) and so we do this 70x7 times (make sure you’re keeping count though because when offense# 491 roles around you’re in the clear). And all of these do indeed demonstrate mercy. But I want to present to you is that these images of mercy are not what Jesus is referring to in this sermon.

If you thought these concepts of mercy were what Jesus was talking about consider the final verses of Matthew 5. Here Jesus says if you only love those who love you first you’ve done something that even the corrupt (Godless) do and if you are only kind to those who are kind to you first, congratulations you have done something that even the pagans (anti-God) do (v.46-47). What I’m getting at here is that Jesus, in this beatitude sermon, (as I’m sure will become increasingly clear in the final four weeks of this series) is not calling us to live out common-knowledge-nice-guy/gal principles. When he ends this chapter he even recaps for us that he never intended to tell us the “rules of fair play.” We already know those, as do the corrupt and the pagans and the rest of the world. What Jesus is saying is that if you live this way (read: the way of the Kingdom of God) you will look immensely different from everyone else around you. Your decisions and actions and reactions and attitudes and longings will be peculiar and thought-provoking and possibly offensive (simply because people prefer to feel justified in their depravity by seeing others in the same state) to those around you.

So if Jesus is not simply calling us to show mercy the way that “even the pagans” do (i.e. the natural/universal way), then what is he calling us to do?

To answer this question (or at least to offer my best attempt at an answer to this question) I want to take a quick look at an event near the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.

In Matthew 9:2 “Some people brought to [Jesus] a paralyzed man on a mat. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “Be encouraged, my child! Your sins are forgiven.” You’ve probably heard this before. The book of Mark gives us a little more detail on the story (that this man was lowered through a whole in the roof of a house where Jesus was teaching) because Mark wants us to see the man’s desperation. Matthew leaves these details out because he wants us to see Jesus’ mercy. And when we strip away the context and simply watch as the events unfold, we see Jesus forgive the man of his sins before the man or any of his friends even ask for forgiveness. Before he even knows if that’s why they’re coming to him. It’s not, by the way. They’re coming to him so that hopefully he will heal this man. Jesus (as far as I can tell) doesn’t even know what kind of a guy this is. He just forgives him without even asking him if he’s sorry for his sins and he forgives without judging whether he thinks this guy deserves to be forgiven or not. This is mercy.

There’s actually a very simple way of looking at this story and this beatitude when we consider Jesus actions here. Mercy is basically a predetermined forgiveness. Mercy is a completely different way of looking at the world all around us. When we are merciful we see everyone around us through a lens of forgiveness and grace.

I’d like to offer you two stories from personal experience that I feel outline two fundamentally important elements of this mercy to which Jesus is calling his followers:

· I have a (4 ½ years) younger brother who has pretty much been around since I was 4 ½. I cannot talk or even think about mercy without remembering what I was like toward my younger brother. I think of times when he crossed a line that we both knew he shouldn’t have and I think of how much joy it brought me to witness his punishment being administered. I can actually remember times when I was disappointed to see him punished less severely than what I considered to be fair. And I have to wonder if I really ever grew out of that barbaric state of mind. Part of me loves hearing stories of people being caught doing things they shouldn’t have been doing and then having their punishments administered. We love sex scandals and drug busts. We love to catch people in lies. I don’t think that’s what Jesus had in mind. Mercy moves people toward forgiveness, not punishment.

· I was having lunch with a friend once and he started talking about someone he worked with who had been recently demoted to a less demanding position (the work load was weighing on her too heavily). It was okay with her (the demotee), possibly even prompted by her, and fortunately her bosses were able to work with her instead of firing her. But the conversation took a turn when this friend stated his irritation at the fact that this person’s salary was not lowered. My jaw dropped. He was serious, and clearly saw no problem with his position. (The mercy of the pagans says don’t fire her, but don’t pay her well either; the mercy of Jesus says “should you be jealous when others are blessed?” Matthew 20:15). I suggested that perhaps all salaries (and in turn) food, shelter, happiness, etc. should be distributed based on some arbitrary man-made gauge like physical strength or beauty or IQ. The weak, ugly, dumb ones of course should starve to death. And the beautiful and brilliant ones should have their pick of more resources than they could ever possibly need. (Perhaps this is where we currently reside.)

I’m sure there is some area of your life where one of these elements of mercy is being neglected. You may have a habit of judging people based on stereotypes or past experiences. The mercy of the pagans says this is okay as long as it’s true—make sure they get what they deserve. The mercy of Jesus says wipe the slate clean for people over and over and over (before they even ask for it). You may treat people certain ways (better or worse) based on their worth in your eyes. The mercy of the pagans says of course you do, some people are more valuable (talented, beautiful, intelligent, etc.) than others. The mercy of Jesus says everyone is valuable and deserves love, appreciation (perhaps compensation), and attention.

Do you see everyone around you with mercy? Are you the type of person who forgives even when the offender never apologizes? Are you able to avoid judging a person’s worth based on their appearance or natural abilities?

In the Kingdom of God mercy comes cheap—show mercy and you’ll be shown mercy.

Matt 5.6

Matthew 5:6 God blesses those who hunger and thirst for [righteousness] for they will be satisfied.

Two weeks ago we discussed the 9th verse of Matthew chapter 5: the beatitude that reminds us to work for peace. We broke that verse down in this way:
1. We should—work for peace (meaning we should forgive and encourage others to do the same)
2. God blesses—those who work for peace.
3. And those who—work for peace will be called the children of God (i.e. Christians or heirs of heaven).

This week we’ll be discussing the 6th verse of this chapter. And we’ll start by breaking the similarly:

1. We should—hunger and thirst for righteousness
2. God blesses—those who hunger and thirst for righteousness
3. Those who—hunger and thirst for righteousness will be satisfied (i.e. they will hunger no more, neither shall they thirst)

I’m sorry to put you through that yet again but it’s important and soon you’ll understand why.

It would probably be in our best interest to start by defining biblical (as if there is any other kind) righteousness. Righteousness (or justice as some translations have it) is essentially right standing with God. Things that are righteous (or just) are things that God looks at and sees as being correct or precisely as he intended for them to be. When a relationship is righteous it exhibits a give and take of love and appreciation that God desires for his children. When a community (or church) is righteous, God smiles at its corporate actions and activities because that community is doing exactly what he called and equipped them to do. When an individual is righteous he or she is living to the best of his or her ability to please God in everything. Sure there may be short-comings but ultimately he or she seeks God despite them.

Tonight I want us to focus primarily on the pursuit of individual righteousness (as opposed to corporate or relational). I’m interested in this particular facet of righteousness because it’s really the only one over which we can attain any true degree of control in a practical sense. We cannot aspire to corporate (community or church) righteousness unless we’re each seeking individual righteousness (which will unite us in heart and mind).

This verse reminds us that we must hunger for righteousness—hunger, that is, without having our hunger fulfilled--and to thirst for righteousness—to thirst without having our thirst quenched. It's important what we remember that righteousness is an ideal to which we aspire. We cannot become perfect before heaven so we hunger and thirst unendingly. We battle our temptations and unhealthy urges literally until Kingdom come. I’d like to take a brief look at an event in the life of Jesus to see a perfect image of hungering and thirsting for righteousness.

One chapter prior to Jesus’ Beatitudes sermon Jesus gets caught up in a strange little situation. He’s fasting in the desert in Matthew 4 seeking God for a really long 40 day period (before embarking on his public ministry which will lead to his death) when he’s approached by the devil. Now, before I talk about this devil I’d like to bring to your attention a strange point concerning Jesus’ activities in the desert. He is taking this beatitude 100% literally. He’s hungry and thirsty because he is on a complete fast in the desert (i.e. he is not eating or drinking anything at all and that leaves one physically hungry and thirsty) and why is he hungering and thirsting in the desert? Because he desires righteousness. He is hungering and thirsting for righteousness. He wants to do what is right and just in his Father’s eyes. He wants to be prepared for everything his ministry might throw at him. He wants to start this journey by making sure he knows where he’s headed. And at some point in his fast a very peculiar thing happens—the devil comes along and tells Jesus that he should turn a stone into bread and eat it (v. 3). Odd.

BEGIN TANGENT. We’ve all created an image of the devil in our minds. We have certain expectations for what he’ll do and say. We’re pretty sure we know what he’s up to most of the time. And if the devil picture you’ve painted in your head is anything like the devil picture I’ve painted in mine he’s not likely to come along and offer helpful solutions to practical problems (like, for instance, suggesting that you eat some bread if you’re hungry). He’s not likely to suggest you do anything that doesn’t clearly lead to destruction, right? The devil in our minds is essentially a mythical drug dealer who tries get you addicted to something deadly and a liar who tries to trick you into investing money unwisely and a salesman who convinces you that you need every material thing the world has to offer and a Dr. Kevorkian who tries to convince you this could all be over and a pimp who, well, pimps. After looking at this story however I have to wonder if I’ve drawn a caricature instead of a realistic image of the devil in my head. END TANGENT.

This suggestion (to make bread out of stone) doesn’t seem all that bad. In fact I’m not entirely sure of this devil’s intentions (and that's alarming). I don’t see his angle, though I’m sure he’s got one. The thing that the devil suggests Jesus should do (I would propose) isn’t even a sin. Would it be wrong for Jesus to eat a loaf of bread right now if he had one? No (unless of course Jesus had vowed to God that he would not eat for a certain amount of time but the Bible doesn’t say that he did any such thing). So we can only assume that the devil has suggested that Jesus do something here that is not on the level of adultery or idolatry or suicide. If Jesus had turned the stone into bread and the story went on we probably would not have thought much of it. He miraculously prepared food other times in scripture and we’re okay with it. We would just look at this story now and say, remember that time in the Bible when Jesus had breakfast with the devil (The Message’s translation of the Bible would title this section Waffles with Wucifer or something catchy like that), and then we’d add, weird story huh? We might teach that we should try to befriend our enemies and that would be it and we’d move on. But it doesn’t play out that way. Jesus chooses instead to literally hunger and thirst for righteousness—to make the difficult sacrifices necessary to please his Father.

The most important idea for us to adopt from this beautiful picture of Jesus hungering and thirsting for righteousness is that we will be tempted to stray from our pursuit of righteousness and it’s likely to be a distraction we did not expect. It could perhaps even be sinless for all practical purposes but the beatitudes (this one in particular) call us to a deeper level—not just to avoid sinful pursuits. We can no longer simply look out for the enemy that steals, kills, and destroys but also the enemy that is content to distract.

In the Kingdom of God we are sustained by righteousness because we know we can be satisfied by nothing less.

Matt.5.9

Matthew 5:9
God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God.

Last week we started by examining the verse we were about to study carefully—breaking down the actual syntax of the sentence. The verse if you remember was, Matthew 5:4 “God blesses those who mourn for they will be comforted.” And after looking just a bit closer at this verse we interpreted it to mean that:
1. We should—mourn (mourning meaning hurting with those who are hurting).
2. God blesses—those who do mourn.
3. And those who—mourn will eventually have no reason to mourn anymore (i.e. they will be comforted).
And we’re going to break down every verse in this series just like that to get started so that we can dodge any temptation to intentionally misunderstand what the verse actually says. And though it may seem tedious with some of these verses I think you’ll see clearly why it was necessary when we move into the final weeks of our study here:
1. We should—work for peace
2. God blesses—those who work for peace.
3. And those who—work for peace will be called the children of God (i.e. Christians or heirs of heaven).
This one seems a little more straightforward in terms of how it might apply to us than last week’s verse but it actually has the potential to be a little confusing. And the main cause for confusion with this verse is how we decide to interpret the phrase “work for peace.”

Using the word work beside the word peace implies that there is actually an active role for us to play in this. I think too often many of us Christians view our role and responsibility in terms of peace is that of complete pacifism indicating that we have no opinion on any given matter. And the rest of us seem to think working for peace means choosing the side we deem as being correct and then fighting for that side. Those of us who adhere to the former hear peace and we think, avoid conflict. But I can’t help but think that if Jesus wanted us to simply avoid ever being caught up in conflict there would have been a clearer way for him to present that to us than to tell us to work for peace or to be peacemakers. Additionally, if Jesus wanted us to simply avoid all conflict then why do we find him right in the middle of it throughout his ministry? In terms of the latter stance, if Jesus wanted us to choose a side in every battle and argue for its correctness then peace really isn’t the right word at all—competition is. For a better understanding of what working for peace looks like in the Kingdom of God consider Jesus’ reaction to having a woman caught in the act of adultery placed before him (John 8:3). The different ramifications of simply avoiding conflict, choosing the “correct” side, and working for peace in this situation are matters of life and death. And we’re faced with situations similar to this all the time; although they may not be life or death situations they do serve to present a picture of Jesus (good or bad) to the world all around us that doesn’t know him. Let me explain what I mean by this before I get into how Jesus actually handles the situation.

Every day you are given hundreds of opportunities to weigh in on little conflicts, whether it’s some form of gossip (work, political, celebrity, church, etc) or someone looking to vent about troubles with his/her spouse or friends or parents. And the really important thing for us to grasp is that with every one of those situations that people lay at our feet we have the opportunity to either work for peace (reacting as a child of God) or we work against peace.

Now if we could jump back to this event in John 8 I think we can start get a picture of what it looks like to work for peace in conflicts. The Bible says that this woman was caught in the very act of adultery.

I can never seem to make that statement in a message without wondering off on a brief tangent. I can’t help but picture these religious leaders (pastors essentially) sneaking around following a woman from their congregation that they think has been acting strange (about 85% of churchgoers are convinced that this is what pastors do) until eventually they see her head off to a cheap pay by the hour motel under a bridge somewhere. Then they kick in the door and grab the woman and escort her to church, naked I presume. Ridiculous right? I’m so glad there are no longer people in our churches who watch for their brothers and sisters to screw up so they can take it public. Tangent ended.

So here stands Jesus, some local religious leaders, and a sheet covered (for the sake of lustful wondering minds) woman. Everyone here wants to hear what Jesus says should be done with her. This is clearly a conflict. The way I see it, Jesus has three options: he can avoid the conflict (i.e. take the not my problem route and she’ll be killed), he can choose a side (i.e. he could choose her side, approving of her sinful deeds or choose the side of the religious leaders and she’ll be killed), or he can work for peace. Now some people seem to recall Jesus taking the side of the woman in this story. I think that is a misunderstanding. To ”take her side” would be to approve of her actions and Jesus does not approve of her actions. He works for peace. And working for in this situation (as with every situation) looks like leveling the playing field. Jesus reminds the religious leaders that they too have needed to be forgiven from time to time and so should forgive this woman. He also reminds the woman that her accusers are gone but only she can keep them away by changing her ways.

Working for peace for us means that we assume (even if wrongly) that everyone in a given situation is doing their best to do what is good. And when people come to us with conflicts we remind them that we all make mistakes and need second chances and forgiveness and fairness. I know how ridiculous that sounds at first. It seems ridiculous to me as I’m typing it but think about it seriously. How many major conflicts could be solved by both parties assuming that the other is just trying to do what is good? Our greatest conflicts come from people trying to read each other—judging motives and predicting future actions. The role of a Christian working for peace is not to run away from conflict or to choose a side but to eliminate judgment of motives and to promote complete honesty. In the Kingdom of God we believe peace takes work because we’re bent on judging and punishing but we remember that we (more than) once needed forgiven so now we forgive and encourage others to do the same.

Matthew 5.4

The first 12 verses of Matthew 5 teach what some call The Beatitudes, others The Sermon on the Mount, and what is called perhaps the most difficult and perplexing of all of Jesus’ teachings to all who have ever carefully considered these words. It is after a close examination of the words of this message of Jesus’ that Mohamed Gandhi infamously (to us) expressed the idea: "I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ." And he was right. The closer I look at these words the further I feel I am from living as a part of them.

Before we jump into this I want to encourage you to look at this carefully. Look at Jesus Christ carefully. No matter where you are in your spiritual journey, and even if you don’t feel you are on a spiritual journey at all, this glimpse of Jesus is worth your time. I want to encourage you to focus on looking past everything you’ve been told about Jesus and everything you’ve interpreted by studying people claiming to represent him and simply consider what he has to say. Does it ring true with how the world all around us operates? Is his way a better way?

Each of these verses plays an important individual role in creating a bigger picture that Jesus is illustrating for us here but each verse can stand on its own—can be examined on its own. With that being said I want to make the disclaimer that I will not necessarily be teaching these verses in the order they appear in your Bible. Jesus had his reasons for teaching these in the order he did because of who he was teaching. I have my reasons for changing that order slightly because of who I am teaching. Now if you would please join us in Matthew chapter 5…

Matthew 5:4
God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

I’d like to get started in this by first unpacking the actual syntax of this verse. I think it’s going to be important to do this with every verse in this list. That is, I think we should start by actually breaking down the sentence structure so that we understand everything it could possibly mean from every possible angle before getting started. It’s tempting to look at difficult teachings like this one and try to exempt ourselves from doing what it clearly calls us to by trying to blur the lines. Many of us look at things like this and say it was strictly metaphoric or strictly legalistic and either way you have to force something to happen in the words. I think that by carefully breaking down the sentence containing the TRUTH we’ll find that there just aren’t that many angles. It means what it says but it’s still important for us to proceed with caution. Here’s my breakdown:
1. We should—mourn.
2. God blesses—those who do mourn.
3. And those who—mourn will eventually have no reason to mourn anymore (i.e. they will be comforted).
So, for me, this brings on these questions: What does it mean for me to mourn (i.e. what is Jesus getting at)? For what/whom does Jesus want me to mourn?

In order to start answering this question I think it’s important that we get a solid definition of what it means to mourn. To mourn is first and foremost to express sorrow or grief over any undesirable circumstance—most often it is associated with death. Here in Jesus’ words death could mean a literal or spiritual lack of life. When Jesus says we should mourn he means that we should hurt when there is reason to hurt—when we see others hurting. It should bother us when we see the hopelessness of unbelievers or the hurt of our believing brothers and sisters. It should bother us that people are hungry, cold, sick, depressed, injured, etc.

For a better understanding of what this kind of mourning looks like, consider Jesus arriving at the tomb of Lazarus. Here we find every Sunday school child’s favorite Bible verse: “Jesus wept.” He mourned. But why? Does Jesus cry here because he misses his friend Lazarus? Of course not. I know this because Jesus knows that Lazarus is not gone forever (John 11:11) why would he mourn over someone he knows he’ll see in 10 minutes. Jesus mourns here because he looks around at all of the people he cares about, and they are hurting—they’re shattered. John 11:33 says Jesus saw the mourners and a deep anger welled within him and he was deeply troubled, then he wept in verse 35. Jesus saw things that were just so painful that it made him angry—the bible says it troubled him deeply—and it’s for this that he mourns.

So when Jesus says “God blesses those who mourn” he means that we should be aware of our surroundings. We should know who’s hurting and why. And we should care. He’s calling us to open our eyes to the people all around us, our friends and enemies, strangers and family, and when our eyes are opened he’s calling us to take on the weight of their hurt. In the Kingdom of God no one is alone and certainly not when they’re hurting.

I hope you can recognize that through this study of the Beatitudes I’m going to try to focus much less on what we should do—how we should look and feel and act—and focus much more on what the Kingdom of God is like. We don’t have to try to act or feel or look a certain way, we can just be a part of what God is doing in the world all around us. And from what I can tell God is comforting the mourners and Jesus mourns beside them so let us mourn as Jesus does. Let us join the Kingdom of God.