Matthew 5:1-12, Jackie Bolen, February 10

Jackie Bolen
Matthew 5:1-12
February 10, 2008
KNU English Church

In the hiking world, there are two extremes with regard to backpacking styles. The one extreme is the, “Everything and the kitchen sink” type. These people carry this massive first aid kit that would rival a well-stocked emergency room. Also in their packs are: a massive tent, indestructible and ready to face the fiercest snowstorm even in the middle of summer. Extra clothes for every imaginable situation. A winter sleeping bag, extra food rations, enough to last double their anticipated time on the trail. Guidebooks, maps, a compass, they have it all.

So what attitude is representative of these people? Fear! They fear the outdoors and think they need to prepare for every possible situation when the reality of dying in a bear attack, getting bitten by a rattlesnake or getting caught in a snowstorm is far lower than getting hit by another car on your way to the trail. Their fear is mostly irrational. These people view the wilderness as something to be conquered, overcome and kept at a distance. They are tied down by all their crap: it takes them at least a couple hours to pack up in the morning, get their bag organized and ready to start walking.

The second type of backpacker, on the other extreme is the ultralighter, When I go backpacking, I carry very little: almost no first-aid, no extra food or clothes. This type of backpacker is characterized by freedom, in that the less you have, the easier the walking is. It’s a life characterized by simplicity….you just have to wake up in the morning and walk. You just get rid of all the stuff that hinders you and have the minimum necessary to survive. It’s about working with the wilderness, being flexible and adapting to the conditions as opposed to trying to conquer it and preparing for the worst-case scenario.

Backpacking really is a pretty simple thing. You just walk through the forest. You get some water from the stream. You eat your simple food. You sleep in the forest. Then you wake up and keep walking. Maybe you see some animals or a beautiful sunset or have a good conversation with a friend or stranger. Yet most people try to make it into this thing that’s so complicated, requiring all this special equipment and preparation and turn it into this thing that is not so amazing or fun anymore. When you’re carrying 30 kilograms of stuff, and walking up a mountain it becomes more torturous than anything else.

Following Jesus, like walking through the forest is also a pretty simple thing that some people make a lot more complicated than it really is. Like where do all these Church type rules come from…about drinking, smoking or having to be nice or having to wear certain things or pursuing certain types of entertainment or conforming to a certain standard of sexual purity, or tithing a certain percentage of our income or who we should spend our time with. These rules are sometimes spoken, but often not. It’s just expected that you’ll follow them if you want to be part of the community. And where do these rules come from? It’s a lot of times not from the Bible or if it is, it’s based upon poor, narrow minded and simplistic interpretations of it that don’t take into account the larger context. These rules often don’t reflect the reality in which Jesus lived his own life. Did you know his first miracle was turning water into wine at a party when the guests had probably already had enough to drink and that he hung around with prostitutes? He was considered a glutton, a drunkard and a friend of sinners by the people of the day. Did you know that he sometimes got angry, like in the temple when he freaked out and starting throwing table and benches around because his father’s house was supposed to a place of prayer and not a market place? Clearly these rules that we follow about not drinking, hanging around with certain people and always being “nice” don’t reflect very well the reality that is Jesus.

So if we claim to follow Jesus, it would perhaps be pretty helpful for us to know what Jesus was actually like, apart from all these rules that we have, which we try to uphold and by doing so, think that we’re following Jesus. By having all these rules, we just end up looking a lot like the self-righteous Pharisees who Jesus didn’t have a lot of good things to say. Or, on the other hand, if we fail to live up to these rules, we just feel guilty all the time when in reality Jesus loves us wherever we’re at. I think God’s grace is far bigger than any of can even imagine.

In reality, following Jesus is pretty simple once you throw off all these extra rules and things that distract you from what is most beautiful and true and that is being loved by Jesus and loving him and the world around you in return. When you’re climbing up a mountain with 50 or 60 pounds of crap on your back, after about 10 minutes, you won’t be having a good time anymore. Sure, maybe it’s beautiful and peaceful and quiet and you’re with good friends but hey, who really cares…all you know is that you need to keep putting one foot in front of the other and you’re just so tired.

To follow Jesus is as simple as seeing the world through Jesus’ eyes and having a life that imitates His. Let me repeat that. That leads us to the question, “What is Jesus actually like and how can we see the world through His eyes?” The text for Today, Matthew 5:1-12 can give us a pretty good idea.

Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach 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 be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Let me give you a bit of background information. Matthew chapters 5-7 is called “The Sermon on the Mount” and it’s probably the most famous public speech that Jesus ever gave that we have recorded. I think it’s even cooler because it’s on a mountain. It kind of seems like all the big stuff in the Bible happens on mountaintops and this is no exception. The Sermon on the Mount is clearly a reference to Mt. Sinai, where God revealed His will to Moses in the Old Testament. Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of this law that was revealed to Moses and he comes to bring blessing instead of cursing.

The Sermon on the Mount, while closely related to the Old Testament radically differs from the current understanding of it, in the time of Jesus. The Jews looked forward to a Messiah who would rescue them. Their conception of it was that the Messiah would be this great political leader who would free them from the Romans who were ruling over them and that He would establish a new Jewish Kingdom to rule the world. But the Sermon on the Mount and Jesus’ life itself turns this conception upside down in that the most humbled are the most exalted. The poor, the mourning, the hungry, the merciful, the pure, the persecuted are what God’s Kingdom is all about. These are not exactly common characteristics of political rulers.

So not only does Jesus challenge the current interpretation of the Old Testament, he goes beyond it as well. The Laws of Moses in the Old Testament demanded righteousness. So did Jesus, but in addition to this, he demanded a right attitude as well. In reality, you had to BE right as well as doing right.

So let’s try to figure out what doing and being right actually means and who Jesus was and how we can look like Him.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

Something that is very rarely talked about these days is humility and yet this is the very essence of Jesus: who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross.

I look around and see a lot of pride in this world. As in, “My country is better than yours.” “My Church denomination is better than yours.” “I have white skin and you have brown which means that I’m better than you.” “I’m a man and you’re a woman which means I have more value than you.” “I’m rich and you’re poor so obviously I’m not sinful and you are.” “God bless my country at the expense of the rest of the world.” The list goes on. We have all these rules and ideas that actually get in the way of knowing God and seeing the world through His eyes because they maintain our pride when in reality, it’s the humble to which God gives His Kingdom. It’s the poor in Spirit, who imitate Jesus all the way to death on a cross that are actually following Him. It’s in suffering like Jesus that He is all the more real. It’s in turning our eyes off of ourselves and to this hurting world around us that we are following Jesus. It’s regarding others as more important than ourself. And it’s depending on Jesus to help us with all these things and being thankful for God’s grace, both in our lives and those around us.

To the humble belongs God’s Kingdom. It’s actually quite simple really. Imitate Jesus in His suffering, dying to yourself and the things of this world. Forget about all these rules that only make you feel guilty or maintain your self-righteousness.

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

There are 9 words for mourning used in the New Testament and the one used in Matthew 5 is the strongest possible one. It refers to the type of mourning you would do for the death of a loved one; it’s a deep, inner agony. Martin Luther calls the entire Christian life an act of repentance, for our sin and for the state of this world.

It’s actually quite simple really. The humble with receive God’s Kingdom and those who mourn will be comforted. I look at the world around me, so many hungry, sick people in the two thirds world juxtaposed with so much greed and apathy in the first world and I wonder how anyone could not mourn? I look at the world and see so many broken relationships and hate and wonder how you could not be sad about it. And finally, I see God’s beautiful creation being destroyed by our consumption and wonder if the people who claim to be truly happy all the time are just maybe not looking closely enough. The world will one day be made new and until that day, we should mourn for the imperfection of creation.

Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the Earth.

So I think that the Jews of Jesus’ day were a lot like us. We are all pretty good at spiritual pride and self-sufficiency. Like by focusing on the externals instead of living a life of simplicity seeking the things that really matter, we think that God will somehow love us more. The Jewish people 2000 years ago actually believed that when the Messiah came, he would commend them for their external acts of righteousness. Where they went wrong was forgetting about the bigger things like justice, mercy and putting others before themselves. I think they probably got a bit of a shock when they began to understand what Jesus was all about. Jesus, the weak and humble God-Man, somehow, meekly dying on a cross. Bizarre really, when you actually think about it. God, being the very antithesis of violence and vengeance, describing himself as a Shepherd, a servant of all.

Anyway, it all seems pretty simple. Humility, mourning and meekness all fit together easily it seems. It’s these people who will inherit this Earth in the age to come. Meekness, as in a willingness to follow God even to the death with a single-minded determination. Unrelated to our common idea that meekness means being nice or having a lack of conviction. This gives me hope. Some more Church type rules out the window it seems.

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

I look around me and see a lot of well-fed people so I’m not sure we entirely understand what it means to be hungry and thirsty.

So one time when I was hiking, I ran out of water. It was a hot, hot June day in New York State. I usually don’t carry that much water because I plan pretty carefully where the streams are and where I can fill up. Anyway, I had no water by the time I got to this place where my guidebook and map said there’d be a stream. When I got there, it was this slimy, slow-moving, low-lying stream that I probably wouldn’t even let my dog drink out of. I consulted my book. Another stream in about 6 miles. So on I walked…getting hotter and hotter as the mid-day sun beamed down on me. My mouth got drier, my muscles got weaker, I started to feel kind of faint. I couldn’t stop thinking about water; it became an obsession. I started to get delirious and was practically sprinting down the trail…having visions of water all along the way. Finding the next stream was a happy, happy occasion.

Anyway, imagine if we actually hungered and thirsted for righteousness like our lives depended on it? This would involve becoming more and more dissatisfied with our self and our efforts to win God’s approval. It would involve freedom from dependence upon external things because nothing can really satisfy us except for God. People, addictions, money will never really fill the emptiness that we all feel inside of us, only hungering and thirsting for God will. It almost just seems easier and simpler this way. Hunger and thirst for God and His righteousness and you can stop worrying about all these other less important things that consume so much of our time and energy.

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.
Of the Beatitudes, these previous 4 statements are considered the inward focusing ones. It’s upon having these attitudes of humility, mourning, meekness and single-minded righteousness that the next 4 outward focused statements can actually be realized.

Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy.

To follow Jesus involves more than just an inward reality. While this is obviously part of it, if you’re truly following Jesus, this will have some sort of impact upon the way that you live your life. It’s more than just a feeling; it’s a desire to share with the world the mercy that God has shown to you.

And what exactly is mercy? 2 stories from the Bible come to mind. The first: a man was walking down the road when robbers came, beat him up and took everything he had. They left him for dead on the side of the road. A highly respected man, a religious leader crossed over to the other side of road because he was afraid of being made unclean. Then, another, a long-time Church-goer comes, and he also doesn’t want to get involved. He speeds up, diverts his eyes and goes along, on his way. Finally, a prostitute, the lowest member of society comes and mercifully, bandaged his wounds, brought him to a hospital, paid his entire bill and came to check on him in a few days. Who was merciful?

Or another story: there was this young, foolish boy whose father was very rich. When he was 18, he asked for his inheritance, which was almost like saying that he wished his father was dead and that he never wanted to see him again. He goes off to some distant country and squanders his wealth on prostitutes and partying. He’s destitute and resorted to life on the streets. He comes home again and his Father is standing at the end of the driveway, having stood there for years, watching and waiting for his lost son to come home, The boy was just hoping that he could at least be a servant. But his Father welcomes him with open arms and restores him to his full status as an honored son.

We have received mercy from God, so go and do the same to the world around you.

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

So back when Jesus was walking around Israel, the dominant religious group were the Pharisees. They interpreted and reinterpreted the Old Testament laws in a very literal kind of way so that these rules covered almost every aspect of their lives in an extremely legalistic kind of way. Jesus’ main issue with them was that they ignored the bigger picture things like love and mercy and justice at the expense of all these little things. Basically, they thought holiness and purity of heart was found within all these rules. Maybe we’re not really so different today? I know I have to make a conscious choice to think big picture and not get caught up in all the little things. Maybe it’s kind of like when I’m hiking and there are mosquitoes and I’m thirsty and hungry and tired. My feet are sore and I stink like and look like a dirty hiker. And the trail is rocky and uphill, obviously all the way. So I walk and don’t feel happy because I’m so focused on the small things when in reality, the bigger picture is that I’m in this beautiful forest, surrounded by mountains and trees. It’s quiet and peaceful. Purity in heart is all about looking like Jesus and seeing the world through His eyes. It’s a single-minded devotion to the one who loves us.

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

So almost everything that we see around us tells us to put ourselves first. Consumerism comes at the expense of peace and a life that is sustainable for all people on this Earth. This spills over into politics where countries greedily seek after what is best for themselves and not the world as a whole. War is the result.

In way of summary, showing mercy, being pure in heart and being a peacemaker are countercultural, subversive and have the potential to be revolutionary. Imagine, if as a group of people, we were actually serious about living this way, how strangely the world would look at us. With the result probably being persecution for we would just be too different and serve as a condemnation for the rampant consumerism that’s so prevalent around us.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Those who faithfully live out humility, mourning, meekness, mercy, purity and peacemaking will be persecuted. If this is something you aren’t interested in, it’s actually pretty easy to avoid: you just have to look like the rest of the world, compromise with it or look uncritically at it.

Being popular with everyone means one of two things: that you either have no faith at all or you have compromised it so much that it really is of no use in God’s Kingdom. Jesus was persecuted and harassed throughout His life and died a painful, humiliating death. Are we actually serious about following Him to this same end?

Listen to what Soren Kierkegaard has to say:

No one can be truth: only the God-man is the truth. Then comes the next: the ones whose lives express that which they proclaim. These are witnesses to the truth. Then come those who disclose what truth is and what it demands but admit that their lives do not express it, but to that extent still are striving. There it ends. Now comes the deceit. First of all come those who teach the truth but do not live it. Then comes those who even alter the truth, its requirement, cut it down, make omissions-in order that their lives can correspond to the requirement. These are the real deceivers.

Following Jesus is hard because it’s often at complete odds with the world. And most of us I think are pretty confused about how to actually follow Jesus because we have all these rules and things that we’re expected to do when in reality they’re not the bigger picture things. Kind of like when I’m hiking and because my pack is so heavy that I forget how beautiful it really is. Following Jesus is as simple as looking like Jesus and seeing the world through his eyes. We look like Jesus when we’re humble, mourning, meek, hungering and thirsting for righteousness. We see the world through Jesus’ eyes when we’re merciful, pure in heart and peacemakers. As a result of things we’ll be persecuted. Yet, the Kingdom of Heaven will be ours, we’ll be comforted, we’ll inherit the Earth, we’ll be filled, we’ll be shown mercy, we’ll see God and we’ll be called sons and daughters of God. It seems worth it to me.