The Beatitudes Part 7 (Matthew 5:3-12)

Three things struck me when I read this final part of the Beatitudes. First, people who want to dismiss Jesus as nothing more than a good teacher will have to ignore verses 11 and 12. Verse 10 talks about those persecuted for the sake of righteousness. The next verse clearly connects that idea directly to Jesus. The persecution is on account of Jesus. So, Jesus is equating himself with righteousness. Verse 12 connects Jesus’ disciples with the Old Testament prophets which means Jesus is equating himself with God. This passage is one of many that make it impossible to so easily dismiss Jesus. He just didn’t leave that as an option.

The second thing was really a baffled question. Why are so many American Christians surprised when their faith makes people mad at them? Jesus clearly states here and in other verses that, if you are truly living for him, the world will retaliate. However much we may wish it otherwise, we do not live in a Christian world. To further compound that problem, if we are truly living as God calls us to live, we are fundamentally different from the rest of the world. And, despite all the lip service given to tolerance, the world does not respond kindly to differences.

The third thing that struck me was that the “reward” for persecution is the same as for being poor in spirit. The last beatitude loops back to the first. Is this a rhetorical device used to tie things up? Perhaps it is but it is meaningful nonetheless. We aren’t meant to view the Beatitudes as a disjointed list or a menu to choose from. They are a single unit, a description of what ALL Christians are supposed to be. Taken together, these verses show what God wants us to grow to be, the way He wants us to react to the world He sends us into. It would be a daunting prospect except all we have to do is follow Jesus. God will take care of the rest. In such infinitely capable hands, blessed are we indeed.

The Beatitudes Part 6 (Matthew 5: 3-12)

What is a peacemaker? A literal definition would be “one who makes peace.” While this is certainly correct it’s one of those totally unhelpful definitions found in more annoying dictionaries. “Making peace” implies the establishment of a state free from strife. So does that mean peacemakers avoid conflict and seek to not rock the proverbial boat? I know several people who ascribe to this definition but I have never understood why they think avoiding issues is peaceful. In my experience all it does is cause pain and resentment to fester under the surface. At best it creates a false image of peace, one that is rapidly torn to shreds when the buried negativity finally busts out. The aftermath is usually ugly and incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to overcome.

What, then, does it mean to “make peace”? True peacemakers do not avoid conflict. Instead, they seek to resolve it, to turn arguments into conversations, to change animosity into cooperation. None of that is simple. It takes someone with a true gift from God to achieve such things. Peacemakers need a deep understanding of people’s hearts and an ability to put things in perspective. Establishing peace doesn’t mean eliminating disagreement. It means establishing an environment (external and internal) where disagreements and differences don’t result in anger, fights, and hatred. Free will and varying personalities ensure that problems will arise but that doesn’t mean we can’t live together peacefully. That’s the way God intended humanity to live in the first place before our own sin messed everything up. Peacemakers bring about this intended state, if only partially. That’s why this beatitude calls them the children of God: they work to restore what their Father originally created.

The Beatitudes Part 4 (Matthew 5:3-12)

Mercy seems like an obvious trait for someone to desire. After all, we always want to be shown mercy from those in power over us. When mercy is actually shown, however, we often think less if that power. We think that person is too soft for the position or too weak to enforce the rules. We consider them suckers and fools, gullible and weak-minded. Some people have “Show no mercy” as their life motto, even going so far as tattooing such prominently on their bodies. This view is even held by many Christians, at least until they talk about God. Then, they say mercy is a good thing. I’m never sure that they mean it though, that they don’t still view mercy as a weakness even in God. This negative view of mercy originates in humanity’s deep-seated arrogance. We desire to feel powerful so we twist our perception of mercy as something we have done. We want to believe that we have pulled one over on authority, manipulated the situation somehow. That way we don’t have to admit our own weakness.

This perception tragically prevents us from seeing the strength mercy requires.Punishing someone is easy. Letting someone face the “natural consequences” of his/her actions is easy. Strictly enforcing enforcing the rules is easy. Showing passion and forgiveness takes true strength because people often view those merciful acts as freebies instead of opportunities to change that they really are. God bestows mercy to give us the chance to grow. It is an act of love. Let’s face it. In many ways, it would be simpler for God to just wipe us out. Humanity is, after all, an awful lot of trouble. Instead, God’s love gives us those second chances we so desperately need. This beatitude is pointing out the obvious: If God shows us mercy, we can do no less for our fellow man.

The Beatitudes Part 3 (Matthew 5: 3-12)

The fourth beatitude involves those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. I thought this one was pretty straightforward until I started thinking about definitions. Jesus isn’t just saying that this is a good thing. He clearly identifies a desire for righteousness as a vital need for our survival. How does he do that? By the imagery he uses to describe it. He doesn’t use words like seek or want. He uses the words hunger and thirst, words that identify the two most basic needs for physical survival—food and water. What does this comparison mean? It seems to me that Jesus is saying righteousness is a basic survival need as well for he is praising the fervent pursuit of it, a desperation for it.

That leads to another question. What is righteousness? The definitions I explored all boiled down to either “following divine law” or “free from guilt and sin” which, in a practical sense, come down to the same thing really, something the Bible says no human is capable of doing: being perfect and blameless. So, why is Jesus presenting us with an impossible task? Simple. It isn’t impossible for God. The only source of righteousness is God Himself. To truly pursue it is to pursue God. To hunger and thirst for it is to hunger and thirst for God. In doing so we desperately seek to become who God alone can make us, to become who God always intended us to be. Can we ever be righteous in our own right? Of course not. But, we don’t have to be. The only righteousness that matters is that which Christ granted us through his death and resurrection. Jesus is not extolling the obtainment of righteousness, only the hunger and thirst for it, that desperate hunger and thirst for the presence of God. The best part of this beatitude is that it guarantees our success. Our hunger and thirst will be satisfied.

The Beatitudes Part 2 (Matthew 5:3-12)

Next up in the traits of people Jesus called blessed are those that mourn. Wait. What? People who mourn have suffered loss. They are in pain. God wants this for us? Surely not. If we’re honest with ourselves, we don’t even want to be around people who are mourning. It makes us uncomfortable. We don’t know what to say or do most of the time. You can’t fix grief so being around it makes us feel helpless and we don’t like that. So, initially we surround the mourners but quickly go our own way. Do we really think mourning ends a week or two later? Of course not, but those who mourn are usually left alone to figure out how to keep going. Why, then, does Jesus call those who mourn blessed? Their reward seems obvious: comfort from the only One capable of comforting wounds that go soul-deep. But, what about them makes them blessed? I’ll admit that I’m not entirely sure; however, it seems to me that the defining characteristic isn’t that they are mourning but that they are capable of mourning. People who mourn are people who love, truly and deeply. The suffering is not what we should aspire to do. We are not called to weep and wail in some great show or to make the suffering the new idol of our lives. We are called to love though with such depth that loss will be unavoidably painful. If it isn’t, we didn’t really love.

Third on the list is meekness. The image that comes to mind when most of us hear someone described as meek is a shy, painfully quiet mouse of a person who lacks the backbone to stand up for himself or herself. We perceive the meek as people who will always be trampled on, taken advantage of, and shoved to the side by people strong enough to take charge. All this may be what the word brings to life in our head but it is not what it truly means. A meek person is calm and patient, not inclined to be angry or resentful. Think about what it takes to stay calm when everything around you is in chaos, to be patient when nothing is going the way you think it should. Doing that takes an unmeasurable degree of strength. Becoming angry and resentful may be the more common reaction but it is the easier one. Being truly meek requires a strength of character that can only come from God. It is no wonder that such people inherit the earth. They are the only ones strong enough to handle it.

The Beatitudes, Part 1 (Matthew 5:3-11)

The verses known as the Beatitudes are nothing new to me. I’ve read them before, heard sermons about them, discussed them with others, remarked upon the beauty of their imagery. This time, though, I approached them differently, demanded more of myself as I pondered them. It wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. I’ve been reading and rereading these same verses for over two weeks. At first, I couldn’t see beyond the familiar words to get to the meaning. God brought several things to me that got my brain and heart going though and I realized that I needed to begin with the very thoughts and ideas that were preventing me from digging deeper into this passage. I discovered that I was subconsciously viewing the Beatitudes kind of like a menu. You wanted to be comforted, then you have to mourn. You want to inherit the earth? You have to be meek. I viewed each verse as describing a different group of people who were given something in response to their needs or wants. In other words, I was totally missing the point. Jesus wasn’t listing behaviors and what they would earn you. He was describing the personality traits Christians should all share. And he did so in a very profound way. He took traits that are considered signs of weakness or even insanity and elevated them above what the world promotes, equating them with unimaginable happiness and blessings.

So, what are these traits we should be fostering in ourselves? First we have “poor in spirit” to consider. I don’t know about you, but I don’t know anyone who truly wants to be poor in anything. We are raised to aspire to have more. We may be told to be happy with and grateful for what we have however, no one ever tells us to not try for more. Well, no one does except for God. In the last two weeks I have heard/seen the phrase “poor in spirit” interpreted to mean “broken” and to mean “having no sense of self.” At first, I thought, “Wow. That’s quite a difference in definition.” After thinking a while, however, I realized those definitions aren’t really different at all. We are born with a drive to possess. One of the first words most children speak is “mine.” We rapidly fixate on our things, protecting our stuff, preferably getting more than everyone else. As A.W. Tozer says in The Pursuit of God, our desire to possess things “is so natural it is rarely recognized for the evil that it is; but its outworkings are tragic.” It is not until we are broken that we are able to understand that the objets in our lives are gifts on loan from God. They are entrusted to us but do not truly belong to us. God has made available to us what we need to achieve His purpose for us. It is only after we are broken, after we are released from the chains binding us to objects, that we are free to become all God intends us to be. Only then are we able to truly comprehend all that God is offering us. The kingdom of heaven is, after all, more than our natural state can grasp.