Sermon on Matt. 5:1-21
As Christians living in the stressful 90s, we find ourselves fighting to keep our marriages together, fighting to raise our kids correctly, and fighting to stay one step ahead of the bills, just like everyone else. And when it comes to our faith, we are also fighting to try and read our Bibles more, or to pray more or to go to church more. We spend so much time focusing on our daily life and how to get through it, that we scarcely hear God's congrat-ulations of us. What's that? God congratulates us? For what? In Jesus' sermon on the Mount this morning, we learn that God has a higher opinion of us than we sometimes have of ourselves! In the beatitudes, Jesus lists the ingredients for a Christian life, which are very lofty virtues. But He doesn't say they are goals we must reach alone. The beatitudes are not the NT equivalent of the10 commandments. They are God's gifts! In fact, they really describe what Christians have in them by faith and through the work of the Holy Spirit. And Jesus congratulates us for what God does within us every day in faith.
The meaning of "blessed" (makarios) is really a divine or spiritual happiness. The meaning is best seen in the way the Greeks used the work. For example, if you can remember your geography, you know that the island of Cyprus is in the Mediterranean sea between Greece and Israel. The Greeks called Cyprus "The Happy Isle" because they believed it was a perfect place where you could live off the land without working. One could be perfectly happy their because the gods provided all one needed--a kind of Garden of Eden.
Similarly, Jesus is talking about the type of happiness that is a gift of God and not affected by the fickleness of this world. This type of happiness doesn't depend on chance but on God who gives such blessings. These blessings exist for us here and now, even though we will not fully know them until heaven.
However, we sometimes act like the prodigal son (Lk 15) who tries to find happiness every other way first before coming back to his father. The world's version of happiness depends on chance which can come or go quickly. For example, a few years ago their was a man who won a ten million dollars in the lottery. You'd think he was happy after that. No. It ruined his life! They paid out the money in monthly checks over 20 years which after taxes was less than $4000 a month. He bought houses and cars and so many other things that he couldn't make the payments so the bank repossessed them all. Now all his lottery checks go to the bank to pay off the balance of his bad loans. He's worse off than before because he even lost his original house and can't get another because of his bad credit.
We also try to find happiness in places other than with God. They can only lead to ruin. But when we return to God, just like the father waiting for his prodigal son, we find our Heavenly Father waiting for us in love with his hand out to receive us, clothe us, and feed us. That's what the beatitudes are for Christians--God's way of receiving us, clothing us, and feeding us when we return to him. They express what God intends for Christians because he has put these things in us, through the Holy Spirit, so that we despair of ourselves and rely on God alone.
Let's look at the first 4 beatitudes which are the hardest for many to understand. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." The meaning of "poor" in the text [Greek ] is "absolute poverty," that is, having nothing materially. But Jesus probably spoke in Hebrew (or Aramaic, a Hebrew dialect of the day), so the word "poor" also included the understanding of, "one without enough wealth so as to, 1) be without influence or power & so was, 2) downtrodden and oppressed & so he would, 3) have to trust & rely totally on God. It is the kind of poverty which is good because you are detached from things, making it possible to be attached to God. But it doesn't mean that God wants people to be poor! On the contrary, God wants us to help stop the kind of poverty which oppresses so many people. So we can see that Jesus says that those who realize their own economical, social, and spiritual helplessness find happiness in trusting God for everything. This is what it means to be a Christian, an essential ingredient put in us by the Holy Spirit--we reject the world's and even our own power, because God's is the only real thing: the power of the cross!
The second beatitudes is: "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." "Mourn" here is the [Greek] word used to describe the desperate and complete mourning one experiences at a death. How can this be a good thing? Well, there are some things that only sorrow can help us understand, like the joys of faith and of heaven. For example, there is an Arabic saying: "All sunshine makes a desert." "The land on which the sun always shines becomes an arid place on which no fruit can grow. There are some things only the rains will produce; and certain experiences which only sorrow can beget" (Barclay, p. 93).
But the greatest blessing from sorrow is when one mourns their own sinful condition. Christian faith begins with the sense of one's sin. We can only be truly happy when we first realize how terrible our sins are & how they have hurt God by nailing Jesus to the cross. Then we receive the joy of God's forgiveness of sins through the same cross. One cannot receive forgiveness until their hearts have been prepared by God's law, as it says in Ps. 51:17 "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise"). Remember how terrible Peter felt after he denied knowing Jesus 3 times before he was crucified? Peter mourned his sinfulness so much that when Jesus forgave him and reinstated him after his resurrection, Peter's joy was greater than it could have been before. We also know this joy whenever we are forgiven and the joys of heaven will be greater having known what God saved us from.
The third beatitudes is: "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth." Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, described Meekness as the mean between two extremes. He said it is one of the greatest virtues, between too little anger and too much anger. In other words, being angry at just the right times. Jesus was talking about selfless anger as opposed to selfish anger. Selfless anger is directed against the injustices done to others which we should try to stop, while selfish anger is directed against injustices done to ourself which God calls us to forgive.
The word for "meek" can also refer to an animal that has been trained to accept another's control. Thus, here it tells us that it is a blessing to not be out of control, but to control our passions and be self-controlled. But who can do this perfectly? No one can, so it is actually better to be God-controlled. The opposite of this word is "pride" so meekness also means humility. It has been said that, "You can't teach a man who already knows it all." Well, through faith, we know that we don't have all the answers or all the power. Christians know their sins and weaknesses and are blessed by being forgiven and following God's Will.
Probably the best way of putting this beatitude into English is "One who is gentle knows the joy that God can give as they put their talents to work for God and others." Such a person "inherits the earth" because by first mastering yourself (by following the Holy Spirit's lead), you can then properly lead others, and by first subjecting yourself, you can then serve others.
The last beatitudes we'll look at says: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." True hunger and thirst can only be understood through experience. NT people understood these daily, since they were always on the verge of hunger and the dry Mediterranean winds would parch anyone on a journey. If we don't have that kind of hunger & thirst, we are not ready for the effort and the sacrifice real goodness demands. Today we have the problem of not wanting goodness enough. Instead we want other things like pleasure or wealth far worse.
This beatitude sounds demanding though. Who can desperately want goodness so much that you seek it alone? Again, we see God's work in our lives, for we cannot want what is good by ourselves. The love of what is good is put in us by God, so this beatitude gives us comfort. Jesus didn't say we are blessed by being good, but by wanting goodness. This blessing is for those who, despite their failures and sins, still cling to God above all else (for He is the source of all goodness). One can be a bad musician but still greatly love music. So, even though we are sinners, God gives us the desire for what is good and right, seen best in His Son, Jesus Christ.
These "ingredients" and the rest found in the beatitudes all add up to the Christian attitude. They are possible through the gift of faith. We are blessed and find true God-given happiness when we find ourselves with these attitudes. In them we find the answer to the part of the Lord's prayer which says, "Your will be done," as our desire and will is molded to that of our Heavenly Father's. Amen.