Pulpit Notes
We live in a time where everything seems to be getting more radical and shocking all the time. Politics is definitely getting more radical. But everywhere you look, someone is trying to get your attention by being more shocking, more outrageous, louder, more brash.
What do we do in this environment to get noticed as Christians?
What does it even mean anymore to say that the good news of Jesus Christ was radical? Radical in what way? Is the gospel designed to stand out on its own in the midst of a doom scrolling social media world?
Everything in our technological world is supposed to be easy and labour saving. Every technology is designed to make some aspect of our life easier. Or make it more powerful. Or extend its reach. Go faster. Amplify.
Or they draw us in and keep us constantly amused and entertained. The algorithms work in the background tracking everything we do, everything we interact with online through our computers, tablets and smartphones. Everything is tailored to keep you maximally engaged.
Seamlessly. Invisibly. Outside of your awareness.
In contrast to the noise of the messaging and media world in which we drown, the message of Jesus is the still, silent voice, the whisper. It is, as Jesus will say in the verses that follow our passage today, a lamp that gives light to a dark room. It is a message that we at once struggle to hear while at the same time it is very unsettling and jarring.
The whole of the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew really introduces to the reader for the first time the teaching of Jesus. Then and today, what it means to participate in the Kingdom of God is not something that the world desires. And the kind of person that God is looking for is not the kind of person the world values.
The Sermon on the Mountain is framed by saying that he went up on a mountainside and began to teach them, that is the crowd who was following him. People often think that Jesus is re-doing Moses’ journey up Mount Saini and that the Sermon on the Mount is like a second giving of the law, like what we are receiving her is a new set of commandments, but I think that misses the point.
If we look to then end of the sermon on the Mount, we see the crowds expressing amazement with his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law. Who has “authority” to speak, to give a new law? That is right, God is the one who can declare a new way, a new mode of living.
Even though the people cannot articulate fully what is happening, they are sensing something different. Jesus is not just preaching or explaining the scriptures. He is speaking like one who speaks the scriptures into existence.
They are recognizing that Jesus is shaping something new. They are witnessing the miracle of scripture happening right before their eyes and ears.
What Jesus is doing here is not so much giving a set of commands, but revealing what life in the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven is supposed to be like. Jesus allows you to know it when you see it.
Especially in the beatitudes, we are not dealing with something transactional. If you do such and such, this will be your specific reward. Rather, he is describing the way someone who is part of the kingdom of God lives, this is how you know that people, yourself included are in the kingdom, you can see it in their actions.
And when you live in the kingdom this is the life that you enjoy. It is a revealing of a future reality today. What is now hidden “in Christ” is now revealed in the life of the believer and the believing community. The two things are revealed together, the actions and the blessing.
There is a kind of “he who has will be given more” quality to the beatitudes.
At the same time, the life of the kingdom of God reveals on a day-to-day basis the sacrifice of the cross. All of these behaviours involve some form of sacrifice.
The kingdom of God is not additive. In other words, it is not a piece that you add to your otherwise fabulous life. I have my career, I have the gym, I have my friends, I have my emotional self-care, and Jesus fills out my life with the spiritual component. It’s not like that at all.
Being in the kingdom of God will require from you sacrifices throughout the whole of your life. If you want to keep your life you will lose it. The beatitudes are about what losing your life for the sake of the kingdom of heaven looks like. Jesus is painting a word picture for us of life within the kingdom.
The kingdom of heaven is a state of blessing. Peace. Shalom. What does it mean to live in this blessed state. What does it mean to live the heavenly life?
We tend to think of the spiritual life as we do a few hard things and then we get rewards and once the hard things are done. Once we put them behind us, and we can just enjoy the blessings. Like vacation or going on a cruise. We are living the good life, the blessed life.
Instead, we must understand that it is the doing of these hard things that reveal and sustain the blessedness of the kingdom of heaven. Without them there is no experience of the kingdom of heaven.
So, what are these things, these hard things that characterize the life of the cross and the life of the kingdom of heaven?
“Poor in spirit.”
In the ancient world, the poor are those who are dependant upon the generosity of others to meet their day-to-day needs. They are not self-sufficient or self-reliant. There are no “self made men” in the kingdom of heaven.
A humble dependence on God’s grace in all things characterizes those who live in and reveal the kingdom of heaven to this world.
“God helps those who help themselves” is the opposite of what it means to be part of the kingdom of heaven.
“Those who wait upon the Lord will be lifted up like eagles.” Waiting, patient waiting is what characterizes and brings the blessings of the kingdom of heaven. We live in a world that biases action and doing, getting things done. Rise and grind. But God values that we wait on him and are dependant upon his move.
This beatitude is very specific. Those who are poor in spirit, who are dependant upon God, who wait on him, theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
So where are the go-getters and the action minded? Good question.
“Mourners”
Now this does not first of all mean people who are suffering grief or loss, although it can as a secondary thing. Primarily, this has in mind people who look out over the world and are deeply pained by what they see, who know that this is not the life God intended for us when we were created.
Seeing the world in this way they lament the human condition, the way it affects those close to us, but also the world in general.
This dovetails back to the first beatitude. Seeing the world and what has become of it, mourning over it, lamenting, they then turn to the only one who has the power to fix the human condition, and they bring their grief over what has become of us to God, and they wait on him to find their solace and comfort.
As we experience the first fruits of the kingdom of heaven in our lives and the life of the church, it only heightens our grief over what has become of the world, especially for all of those near and far who live outside of the reality of the kingdom. In a sense the comfort we have in God’s grace only heightens our sense of grief.
“Meek” “praus”
There is much debate over this word. Many think this is a call for Christians to be doormats. This is not the case at all. This is, in many ways, the essence of the cross itself.
We face all kinds of situations where we might be tempted to act out of anger, or with justified violence, or to manipulate someone – for their own good or the good of the church, of course – to become embittered and unpleasant, instead we actively and consciously choose a different path.
We choose to be gentle, to be kind, to sacrifice ourselves and our ambitions, for the good of another person. We don’t do this because we are weak, but because this reveals the essence of Jesus’ saving work, the way of the cross. Jesus could have called a legion of angels to his aid, but he didn’t, because obedience to the way of God and his kingdom was more important.
It is also someone who accepts the truth about himself without lashing out. Instead of getting defensive and digging their heels in and lashing out, they receive the truth and are open to repentance and change.
This is how you inherit the earth, the kingdom of God.
“Hunger and thirst after righteousness”
What is it that is most important in your life? Above your career, your friends, even your family. Do you above all else in your life hunger and yearn to experience the fullness of God’s saving righteousness? Do you above all else in all you do want your every action to be right with God? More than making money, more than nice things, more than being liked and respected by others, more than fitting in, more than having the power to “do things.” Above all of these things and more are you seeking a right relationship with God?
If you are, God’s promise to you is that he will fill that relationship space. If you want to be close to him, he will be close to you.
“Merciful”
God himself says that he desires mercy, not sacrifice. In many ways this is related to “meekness.” I could demand satisfaction and punishment because of what you did, but instead, I choose mercy. I choose to forgive.
It is a trust in the justice of God. You don’t have to punish people. You don’t have to make them pay. You can forgive. It is something we do, not something we feel. It is tied into God’s mercy towards us.
Holding on to unforgiveness puts up a wall between you and the mercy, the grace of God.
God forgives us and we forgive others. It is moving in the space of grace. Forgiveness evokes the kingdom of heaven and brings the blessing of the mercy of God into our lives.
“Pure in heart”
There are two meanings of the word katharoi in Greek. One meaning is to be clean, like a clean shirt.
The other is related to metallurgy, where you have an unmixed metal. Pure gold. Pure silver. Pure iron. Pure copper. It’s not so much that you are perfect, but that you are not mixed with any other metals.
Your heart is not divided between God and other things. Your devotion to God is singular. Everything you do is devoted to God, even the mundane stuff of daily life.
This devotion allows you to see God, not just in the future, but to reveal that sight of him today. We talk all about seeing God at work all around us. Seeing God flows out of a singular unalloyed devotion to him in all of life.
“Peacemakers”
This is not so much geared towards world peace, although that could be included. Primarliy, it has to do with the nitty gritty of how we get along with people on a day-to-day basis. Are we the kinds of people who operate in harmonious cooperation?
It begins with our families and with the church.
In this sense we imitate God who brings rain on the just and the unjust. Do we get along only with those who are easy to work with? Or can we work together with difficult people?
There are those who would take advantage of us as Christians. And part of waiting on the Lord is waiting on his judgement. We can work with difficult, toxic, self-serving people because we trust in the judgement of God. We can wait on the Lord. We will be lifted up.
Our peacemaking, our patience, reveals the judgement of God because it heaps burning coals on their heads. We follow the way of Jesus because our goals are not the goals of the world.
“Blessed are you when you are persecuted because of righteousness, and because of the name of Jesus.”
Our way of life as Christians is prophetic. The way we conduct ourselves will bring scorn and a backlash. When we are right with God and we reveal the blessings, the beatitudes, of God in our lives it calls out and exposes the poverty, immorality, the emptiness and foolishness, the cruelty and injustices of the world, and people who are not of the kingdom of heaven will resent it.
It will further expose all the foulness of the world, and this foulness will be directed at us in hatred. We will be blamed for all that is wrong. Persecution is coming and will come, so make yourselves ready.
But we are bearing witness to the reality of God’s heavenly kingdom. In a world of sin and evil, a world dominated by influence of the “powers and principalities,” the devil and his demonic forces, we bear witness to the reality of life to come, of God’s heavenly kingdom. This is what the word “martyr” means. When Jesus says you will be my witnesses, he says you will be my martyrs. We are the people who self-consciously, like Jesus, choose the path of sacrifice, of the cross to bear witness to this radical reality of the kingdom of heaven being revealed through us.
You might be thinking again, does Jesus call us to be doormats, to just roll over and die? What about the policeman, the soldier, the king or magistrate tasked with maintaining justice? God can put Christians in these positions, but we must understand that these roles, manifestations of kingship of God are, in this present world, tasked with grappling with a world of sin, evil and injustice. They do so with the tools of a sinful world, that of violence.
They are often not making choices between good and evil, but between a lesser evil and a greater evil. They hold the sword to punish the wicked and defend the vulnerable.
Sometimes they will take up the task of defending the people of God with the sword. They know these are the way of the world that are passing away. But they take them up as mourners. And to that degree they are able to hold onto the kingdom of heaven even as they deal with the messiness and ugliness of the world using the tools the world provides us.
In mourning the violence they wield, they too will be comforted.
But the revelation of God’s heavenly kingdom is not a thing of this world, and it is the kind of thing that evil men will try to exploit and take advantage of. This is why we should not put up with manipulative, exploitive and bullying behaviour within the church community because they hide the light of the kingdom.
The beatitudes are showing us a radical way of living in world of darkness. If we live this way. If we reveal the kingdom of heaven in our lives in this way, not only will we enjoy the blessings of God, but we will truly be a shing light in a bleak, dark and empty world.
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