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.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Matt 5.6
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
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.
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.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)