Sunday Sermon: Matthew 5.1-12. The Beatitudes.

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

This section of the “Beatitudes” is one of the most loved portions of the Gospels. It forms the beginning of what’s become known as the “Sermon on the Mount”. This is the first and longest message of Jesus that we have in Matthew’s Gospel. Jesus has been announcing that the kingdom of heaven was at hand, and he’s been calling for people to repent. Now, in what could be described as his manifesto, Jesus unveils the ethical guidelines for life as a disciple; the quality of righteousness that characterizes life in The Kingdom of God, now in part, but fully in the future. We can certainly count ourselves as the primary audience for this passage because we too are followers and seekers. This is as much about us now as it was to Jesus’ first audience.

Many years ago I remember going to see The Life of Brian and there was a lovely sequence where we saw Jesus in the distance delivering this sermon. Much humour was made of how the sermon was received and understood by those on the fringes of the crowd who were too far away to hear Jesus clearly.

“Cheesemakers? Did he say blessed are the cheesmakers?” I sometimes wonder whether in our own ways we don’t quite hear and understand Jesus’ message either.

The beatitudes give a picture of the character of the true people of God, those who are a part of his kingdom and have the full blessings of the kingdom to look forward to. Taken together they give a picture of the perfect disciple of Jesus. How exactly to become like this is the sort of detailed teaching that’s developed throughout the rest of the Gospel but we should be able to draw some simple applications.

Perhaps it would be helpful at the beginning to deal briefly with this word “blessed.” There is a tendency today to translate the word as “happy” but that doesn’t seem to capture all that is intended here. This term is an exclamation of the inner joy and peace that comes with being right with God. Happiness may be a part of it of course but it’s a happiness that transcends what happens in the world around us. It’s a happiness that comes to the soul from being favoured by God. That’s why it can call for rejoicing under intense persecution. In some ways Jesus’ declaration of “blessed” is his description of the spiritual attitude and state of people who are right with God and he’s praising them for their character and pledging divine rewards for it.

The opposite of Jesus’ “blessed” in Matthew would be the “woes” pronounced later against the scribes and Pharisees. Those woes pass judgment on the people who refuse to recognize and do the full will of God. The woes describe their character as well, but it is an evil and hypocritical character and the woes are a promise of judgment if those lives continue in their wickedness.

So, let’s take these “blessed” one at a time.

Firstly, “Blessed are the poor in spirit”: People who are “poor in spirit” are those who are humble before God. They realize that they have nothing in this life that they can contribute to receiving the kingdom of heaven. They’ve humbled themselves and repented with deep contrition; and they’ve come to God as helpless and hopeless sinners – a term we don’t much like these days. There is no arrogance in them, no self-righteousness, no self-sufficiency. They’re free from their own pretensions, and therefore they’re free for God. Everyone who wishes to enter the kingdom must be “spiritually poor,” because salvation is a gift from God and humility is required to enter the Kingdom of God.

The blessing Jesus announces is that “theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” It’s the poor in spirit, those who have humbled themselves and become dependent on God and who have come with a broken heart and a contrite spirit seeking God who inherit the Kingdom.

This is a call to repentance, for us as much as for them. We must humble ourselves before God and acknowledge that we bring nothing of our own power, possessions or merit and our lives must be lived in total dependence on God. Now, there’s a challenge.

Jesus then turns to “those who mourn”: those who mourn will be comforted.

Everyone experiences sad and tragic losses at some time or another in this life. Jesus came and announced the kingdom was at hand and he expected that the response of people would be tears of contrition. The Messiah would comfort those who mourn, but the comfort would come because he would save them from their sin, the cause of the mourning.

So this type of mourning is mourning not just for the suffering and sadness of life, but for the sinfulness that causes it. Those who mourn understand that their grieving is ultimately for a world that is lost and ruined, in which God and his will don’t prevail. But in their mourning the disciples of Jesus have opened their hearts to God knowing that their grieving isn’t without hope. They know that their weeping and grieving is for a time only because they know that death doesn’t have the final victory because the dead in Christ will be raised, and that hope brings them comfort.

So the application for us concerns the focus of the mourning, not the mourning itself. As we face the sadness of life, we can do so with hope if we’ve mourned over sin - a clear sign of faith.

“Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth” is next. In the Bible the meek are those who have a spirit of gentleness and self-control. They’re free from malice and a condescending spirit. The meek don’t exploit and oppress others. They aren’t given to vengeance and vendettas. They aren’t violent, and they don’t try to seize power for their own ends. In short, they’ve emulated the nature of Jesus in their lives and learned from him. This doesn’t mean that they’re weak or ineffective in life. They may be gentle and humble, but they can - and do - champion the needs of the weak and the oppressed.

The promise here is that they’ll possess the land. What land is meant? It signifies a sense of place, a security, an inheritance from God. Those promises which will be realized with the second coming of Jesus when there will be a new heaven and a new earth: a promise that will be fulfilled in a far more glorious way than anyone could imagine. The new creation won’t be possessed by the powerful despots, the ruthless tyrants, or the manipulative schemers. It’ll be possessed by the meek.

Meekness, gentleness and goodness are part of the fruit of the Spirit – they’re produced in the Christian by the Holy Spirit. So the direction we should follow to cultivate a spirit of meekness would be to listen to the Spirit, to be controlled by the Spirit of God so that the qualities of Jesus can be produced in us and through us. Is that something we seek daily?

Next up are “those who hunger and thirst after righteousness”. This beatitude is saying much more than most people think. It’s not simply describing those who are righteous, or who try to do good things. It’s describing their passion in life - they hunger and thirst for it. The word “righteousness” probably has two meanings. One would certainly be in our personal lives - the strong desire to be pleasing to God, to do what God wants, to live up to the will of God but out of this would grow the desire for a wider righteousness, for social justice in a world that is unrighteous and unjust. The desire for personal righteousness can’t be separated from the world around us and this righteousness will be fulfilled as we grow daily to be more like Jesus in our personal ethics and our social and political concerns.

Surely all Christians are for righteousness, but how does the desire become so intense? As we seek to apply this beatitude, we depend again on the Holy Spirit who leads the believer into righteousness and the closer we grow in discipleship, the more sensitive we become to the unrighteousness and injustice in the world. Is that us? Do we show that passion for justice?

We move on to consider “the merciful”. Those who understand mercy know their own inadequacies, dependence, weaknesses and incompleteness and because of that insight, know how to show mercy to others. Showing mercy includes both forgiveness of those who wrong us and compassion for the suffering and the needy. The merciful are called “blessed” because they place showing mercy above their own rights: they don’t take a hostile stand against people in need but try to show kindness to others and heal wounds. It’s not that they’re merciful by nature, but because they’ve been shown mercy and live in constant dependence on God.

And because they understand mercy and show mercy to others, the word from God is that they shall obtain mercy. Ultimately this looks forward to the coming of the king and the Day of Judgment when, by God’s mercy, they’ll be welcomed into the kingdom. They’ll receive mercy, not because they did enough good deeds, but because they understood how important mercy is in their own relationship with God and were eager to share it with others. They learned to forgive others because they were constantly being forgiven; they learned to show mercy to others because they were being shown God’s mercy every day.

So, what do we need to do? It’s important that we have a good understanding of the grace of God in our own lives and this comes from the experience of confession of sin and thanksgiving for forgiveness - two aspects of our discipleship that often get neglected. The reality of our own spiritual condition and God’s way of dealing with us must never be forgotten. Do we live in a constant awareness of God’s forgiveness which shapes our dealings with others?

“Blessed are the pure in heart” describes both an inner purity and a singlemindedness. The “heart” is used in the Bible for the will, the choices we make and so to be pure in heart relates to the decisions we make, the desires we have, so that our thoughts and intensions seek to be in line with those of God.

Elsewhere, the “heart” is used in the Bible very differently. At its worst it’s constantly acting selfishly and causing pain. Jesus said it was what came from the heart that defiled people: evil thoughts, impure desires, blasphemies and the like. Nothing short of a change will bring about a pure heart. Jesus doesn’t explain that here; but his language of being born again begins the process. The transformation from a heart influenced by the standards of the wider world to a pure heart will come by following Jesus, but it won’t be an easy or a swift change. Those who enter this kingdom of righteousness must have this new heart and then the promise is that such people will see God. We’ll see God in all the events and circumstances of life but the Bible promises much more. Here on earth the full vision of God is denied to us but one day he’ll be fully visible to our reborn eyes.

How do we gain pure hearts? Being given a “new heart,” begins when we commit to discipleship and it continues through spiritual growth as we follow Christ. Walking in the light, meaning learning to live by the word of God, will change the way we think so that our hearts will grow more and more pure -  but we must be constantly vigilant. Are we?

“Blessed are the peacemakers”. God is the God of peace; His whole plan of redemption is to provide peace with God for those who were formerly alienated from him, and ultimately bring peace to the whole world. This is the goal of Jesus’ mission.

In our world, though, there’s strife and conflict with little hope for peace and unity. We see this in our newspapers and on the TV daily. The peace that God brings is not necessarily a cessation of hostilities, tolerance, or the readiness to give way although they may be part of it. The true peace that the world needs calls for a complete change of nature and begins with reconciliation with God and extends to reconciliation with other people. True peacemakers are those who promote the kingdom of God. Their lives are given to reconciling adversaries, quenching hatred, uniting those who are divided, promoting true understanding and spiritual love. The quality described here is one that’s spiritual and not just a political seeking of peace.

And the promise is that the peacemakers shall be called the sons of God. In the New Testament sonship is a powerful expression of salvation. It means that believers have been born into the family of God, and have a personal relationship with the Father and as a consequence are joint heirs with Jesus. Their salvation is a birthright.

Finally, Jesus considers “those who are persecuted”.  That’s a hard one for us because here in the West this isn’t something that many of us experience beyond indifference or mild mocking but we know that life for Christians elsewhere can be fraught and dangerous. But the blessing stated here for those who suffer such persecution in this world is that their destiny will be a complete contrast to their present humiliation because theirs is the kingdom of heaven and that’s not a future reality only - we have it now.

We should be living for Christ in this world, living the way members of the kingdom should live, championing righteousness and justice, showing mercy, remaining meek and poor in spirit: all the things that the beatitudes praise. But we should know that genuine righteousness is offensive to many, and so we need be prepared for opposition – and it’s more of a shock to us when it comes for being so unexpected in our society.

So where does that all leave us? It leaves us with many challenges: the challenge of regular self-examination. Are we meek? Are we humble? Do we thirst after righteousness? Are we peacemakers? Are we merciful and pure in heart? Of course we aren’t but the challenge is to throw ourselves onto the resources of the Holy Spirit: to seek that guidance and strength in everyday life and to recognise that the road to the Kingdom of God takes us well away from the norms of our society.

Amen.