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

-Matthew 5:8

King David asks: “Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord?  Who may stand in his holy place?”  His answer is simple: “The one who has clean hands and a pure heart” (Psalms 24:3-4).  Building upon this a thousand years later, James clarifies David’s proclamation: “Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded” (James 4:8) to emphasize a single-minded focus.

PURITY

Purity is a familiar word indicating a product to be unadulterated by other contaminants or anything other than what the product claims to be.  Examples would include pure honey or pure water or pure emotion such as the joy of our daughter after bungie jumping on the Corinth Canal in Greece.

More to the point, purity of heart is a state of being transparent with no hidden agenda or deceit.  Clarity of purpose and meaning would be another aspect.  James tells us that pure religion that is acceptable to God is to care for those who cannot reciprocate and to disengage from any worldly activity that would distract us from our devotion to God (James 1:27).

CALL TO PURITY

Indeed, God calls us to be pure as He is pure.  The apostle John tells us that “when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure” (1 John 3:2-3).  Hence, the pure in heart, Jesus says, “they will see God” (Matthew 5:8).

Blessed are the merciful,
    for they will be shown mercy.

-Matthew 5:7

Mercy is a natural step in the Beatitudes of Jesus as we turn from the citizenry requirements of the kingdom of heaven as people who love God with all of their heart, soul and strength.  Through poverty of spirit, mourning over sin, choosing to submit to the will of God and seeking His righteousness we now are ready to turn to the second part of the Great Command, loving our neighbors.   Like God, we love by extending mercy to all with a purity of heart that allows us to become peacemakers who accept persecution for the sake of righteousness and because of Christ.

To illustrate the power of God’s mercy moving through us to others Jesus told a parable about a man who owed a great debt to his king but could not repay (Matthew 18:21-35).  As the king was sentencing the debtor to prison the man pleaded for mercy.  Being merciful, the king forgave the debt and let the man go free.

However, no sooner had the one who received mercy from the king left he soon found a fellow citizen who owed him a comparatively insignificant amount.  However, rather than extending the mercy he had received to the one who owed him money he chose rather to choke him and have him thrown into prison because he could not repay the debt immediately.

Seeing the actions of the unmerciful man, the king’s servants reported what they had observed and they brought him back to the king.  “‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to.  Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’” was the king’s question to the man (vss. 32-33) whereupon the king rescinded his mercy and cast the debtor into prison.  At the conclusion of the parable Jesus makes the point crystal clear:

“This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart” (vs. 35).  God’s mercy is never to be hoarded but distributed freely as He distributes sunshine and rain on the just and unjust alike (Matthew 5:44-45).

MERCY AND GRACE

John Stott makes a distinction between Grace and Mercy that is helpful.  Grace is pardon for sin and its condemnation while Mercy is compassion for sin’s consequences and its victims that leads to cure, healing and help (Christian Counterculture).

Grateful for mercy kingdom people are merciful not out of fear of losing the gracious gifts of their Father.  The motivation is the bottomless well or mercy that has been extended to them.  It compels them to pass along the blessing.  Why?  Because, having meekly submitted their will to their Father and because of their craving His righteousness they strive to be like Him, imitating Him (Luke 6:36).

ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE

A point of distinction between true kingdom people and those who are not is not measured by how much they attend church or how many great works they do (Matthew 7:21-23).  Rather,  how they treat others out of gratitude for the mercy that has been extended to them is a critical consideration.  As James says: “Mercy triumphs over judgment” (James 2:13).

³⁴ Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together.³⁵ One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

³⁷ Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

–Matthew 22:34-40

When asked which commandment of the law was most important, Jesus quoted the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:5) with the assertion that this was ‘the first and the greatest’ commandment.  Then Jesus followed up with another commandment that, He said,  was like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

LOVE GOD, LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR

“All of the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments,” Jesus said.  So, it should not be a surprise to see these commands echoed in the beatitudes.

COMMAND #1: LOVE GOD

‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’

How does a person love God with the totality of his or her being?  Turning to the Beatitudes of Matthew 5:1-12 we find a list of core attitudes of the heart for which the citizens of the kingdom of heaven must be known.

Contemplating an infinitely holy God we realize our brokenness and our reaction is poverty of spirit (vs. 3).  It is our sin that has separated us from God so we mourn the loss (vs. 4).  Turning to God for help we meekly choose to sacrifice our own will and strive to live by His with all we have (vs. 5).  To do this we hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness and not our own by feasting on His word, listening for Him in prayer and joining with other seekers as they worship Him and encourage each other (vs. 6).

THE BRIDGE

Having addressed the most important commandment Jesus mentions that there is another command that ‘is like it’.  In fact, it is as important as the first command because it is not possible to love God without also loving other people who are also created in His image.

It is important to resist seeing the first part, loving God, as isolated or detached from the second part, loving one another.  The bridge links the two to highlight how they are compatible with each other, not to contrast them one against the other.

So, we find that the second part instructs us about how the first part works itself our in our interactions with other people.  In other words, as we love others as ourselves, we illustrate God loves others because of our love for God and our desire to be like Him.

COMMAND #2: LOVE OTHERS

“Love your neighbor as yourself” might simply be stated to love others the way that God loves you and other people.  And so, the second set of beatitudes instructs us both about God’s mercy and how we are to extend mercy to others (vs. 7).  God’s purity or holiness is without hidden agendas or deceitfulness; therefore, we strive to be like Him by keeping our focus upon Him as we serve others honestly, with integrity and without guile or trickery (vs. 8).

Loving others is also characterized by a desire to bring peace to conflicting people just as God has reconciled us to Himself through His Son, Jesus Christ (vs. 9 – see also 2 Corinthians 5:11-21).  Finally, loving others as God loves them goes against our natural tendencies of self-serving, self-preservation and self-promotion in order to please others.  Consequently, peacemakers will find themselves in situations where they are open to persecution, criticism and condemnation from others, just like Jesus did (vs. 10).

CONCLUSION

So, bridges are important tools for helping us relate one set of values with another.  They show us the importance of each and they link their interrelationships to each other.  This is especially true with Jesus’ teachings because “All of the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”  These two truths are timeless and they critically undergird our understanding of God’s love for us.

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

-Matthew 5:6

We are all familiar with hunger and thirst.  Physically it is a reality of life.  After 2-3 days of no fluids or 2-3 weeks of no nourishment

Question: how do we know when we are spiritually hungry and thirsty.  I have a theory about this.

Created in God’s image we are born with an innate, spiritual hunger and thirst for who we–humans, male and female–already are (Genesis 1:26-31) . This desire to satisfy our craving for God becomes distorted as we choose to satisfy ourselves independently of His will and write our own rules.

The desire never goes away.  By our choices, however, our sin leads us to distort and warp our desire for God into a god of our own making (Romans 1:18-32).

FINDING GOD’S WILL

This is where the logical progression of the Beatitudes makes so much sense.  For those who have chosen to meekly submit their will to God’s will the natural question is, “What is God’s will?”

For the seeker of God’s will, Jesus is very plain: you must hunger and thirst for His righteousness.  Where can it be found?  The Holy Spirit provides at least three sources for discovering God’s righteousness: 1) God’s word, 2) prayer and 3) God’s people.  The promise is that pursuing God’s righteousness will lead to satisfaction.  There are at least 4 ways this is true:

SATISFACTION

First, to Jesus’ disciples, they had the unique opportunity to witness God’s righteousness embodied in Jesus Christ Himself, day-in, day-out, over a period of three years.  Gathered around Him in this specific setting, the disciples would soon realize that this was more than just going through the motions (Matthew 5:20).

Secondly, to the crowds that were gathering around Jesus and His disciples, Jesus’ teachings in the Sermon on the Mount left them astonished and amazed (Matthew 7:28-29).  Perhaps, at the time, it would convince them that not only could their won personal righteousness reach the perceived lofty nature of their religious leaders but, to be obedient to Jesus’ teachings, must exceed them.  Impossible!

Third, to fully understand the righteousness to which jesus referred would require a perspective gained only on the other side of the cross and the open tomb.  The apostle Paul provides that perspective again in 2 Corinthians 5:21, NIV): “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Finally, in Matthew 25:31-46 Jesus assures that those who have been pursuing God’s righteousness in this world will be ready for judgement day.  What is so intriguing about Jesus’ story is that those who are going to eternal life, like those who are destined for hell, can’t recall ever seeing Jesus in their daily ministry.  What separates them is the fact that the lambs were practicing God’s righteousness without an awareness of Jesus’ blessing.  Their transformation into righteous people came as they become more like their Father because of their desire to be like Him, not to earn most favored status.  The activities of these seekers of righteousness quickly reveals its nature in their pursuit of  justice for others.

CONCLUSION

So, the satisfaction of the search for righteousness comes when we choose to follow Jesus and He, through His sacrifice, declares us righteous.  Flowing out of our brokenness, mourning and meekness we then seek out the will of our Father through His word and prayer in the midst of fellow seekers who are also pursuing the Father’s will.  This hungering and thirsting for His will is a passion that leads us upon a quest to be like Him in such a way that it becomes who we are; second nature.

And so, our desire for Him is brought back to the desire that God has implanted in our hearts from the beginning: to see His image realized in our lives so we can be righteous like Him.  What is truly amazing is that God has already made us like Him because of Jesus; we are only striving to live up to that which He has already declared us to be!

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

-Matthew 5:5 (NIV)

In English, being meek can easily be misunderstood as ‘weak’.  For example, the Merriam-Webster online dictionary gives the following definitions: 1) enduring injury with patience and without resentment, 2) deficient in spirit and courage, and 3) not violent or strong.  When we turn to different translations of the word ‘meek’ (NIV, KJV) we come away with renderings as “gentle” (NASB) or “humble” (NLT, GNT).

The original Greek word stresses strength under control.  The best  illustration of true meekness is Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane:

Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” – Matthew 26:39, NIV

The truth is that there is not an English word that truly represents the Greek original.  There are English words for ‘strength’ and there are English words for ‘gentle’.  Having the strength to act at will, yet choosing to restrain and to submit approximates words such as obedient, humble, and disciplined.

MEEKNESS: A BEATITUDE BRIDGE

Meekness is a critical part of the Beatitudes that both builds upon mourning and opens the door to righteousness.  Beginning with recognizing the disparity between God’s holiness and our brokenness (poor in spirit) we are brokenhearted to realize that our sin has been the cause of that separation (mourning).  Undone, we realize that our Higher Power knows exactly what we need and He provides the cure through His Son who bears our penalty Himself.

In meekness we accept the fact that God’s will is best and we devote ourselves to surrendering our own will and submitting to Him.  How does a person submit to God’s will?  The answer begins a life-long, impassioned quest for learning His will and applying it to our daily walk; we pray and examine His word, hungering and thirsting for righteousness.

INHERIT THE EARTH

When Jesus promises that the meek “will inherit the earth” it is true that He is speaking directly to the end times when Jesus comes again (Revelation 21).  I would suggest, however, that there is a way of understanding this promise that is present and real.  As we submit to Gods will we find that there is no location in God’s creation where He has not already gone, nor is there any place where the human heart can go that God has not already been.

For the meek there is no place on heaven or earth that is excluded to them for God’s will leads them there.  From the darkest corners of the human heart to the most horrific circumstances on the face of the earth, God is there and His presence can be reflected most brightly when His children shine the light of His presence wherever they go (Matthew 5:14-16).

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

-Jesus-Matthew 5:4 (NIV)

Closely related to the previous beatitude (“Blessed are the poor in spirit”), to mourn is to grieve over the cause of separation between the most holy God and His creation: sin.  Genesis 3:8-9 suggests that God would spend time walking with Adam and Eve in the garden “in the cool of the day.” The tragic chain of events is described in Genesis 3 which concludes with a series of curses that include banishment from the garden of Eden and the Tree of Life.

The rest of Scripture is about God’s initiatives to restore that original relationship with mankind.  Kingdom people begin with acknowledging the insurmountable gap between the holiness of God and man’s yearning to live by his own rules and chart his own course.  This gap applies to every person who has ever lived from the beginning of time.

Mourning acknowledges the cause of that insurmountable gap which is our brokenness and propensity to offend God by our self-centered thoughts and actions.  Even when we make godly choices we are vulnerable to pride in what we believe to be our own  accomplishments.  This circular reasoning measures one’s own righteousness within the limited sphere of one’s own experience rather than within the infinite sphere of God’s holiness.  A way of illustrating this is found in the danger of prosperity.

MOURN OVER PROSPERITY

It is tempting for us to mistakenly equate God’s blessing with prosperity.  James 1:10  warns that “…the rich should take pride in their humiliation….”  Jesus warns the church in Laodicea that they precariously believe they are rich, wealthy and in need of nothing when, indeed they are “…wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked” (Revelation 3:17).

In Matthew 19:16-30 a rich man comes to Jesus to inquire about the key to eternal life.  Having kept the commandments all of his life he is confident in his own righteous behavior.  Nonetheless, he feels that something is still lacking.  At this point Jesus instructs him to sell all he has, give it to the poor and to follow Him (vs. 21).  Matthew tells us that the rich man went away sad because of his great wealth (vs. 22).

Jesus takes this opportunity to tell His disciples about how difficult it is for the prosperous to enter the kingdom of heaven.  The disciples are astonished and exclaim: “Who then can be saved?” (vs. 25).  Jesus states clearly: “With man this is impossible…” and I am reminded of the first two beatitudes: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”  and “Blessed are those who mourn…” (Matthew 5:3-4a).

MOURN FOR COMFORT

If poverty of spirit before a most holy God brings us into the kingdom, then mourning about our sin–from which it is impossible to save ourselves–brings comfort. This oxymoron can only have one answer, which Jesus provides to the disciples’ question “Who then can be saved?”

Matthew tells us that “Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.””  This is truly an astonishing statement for it is the One Whom we offend Who, Himself, extends us comfort.  

How does God do this?  Paul answers this beautifully in Colossians 2:9-15.

⁹ For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, ¹⁰ and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. ¹¹ In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh^[b] was put off when you were circumcised by^[c] Christ, ¹² having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

¹³ When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you^[d] alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, ¹⁴ having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵ And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

This is most certainly Good News to the poor in spirit kingdom people who mourn over their sin and find comfort in Christ.

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

Jesus – Matthew 5:3 (NIV)

To be blessed by God is more than just being happy.  To be blessed by God does, indeed, make one happy.  It only makes sense that the created person would desire to please his or her Creator.  Jesus is explicit as He teaches His disciples the pathway to God’s blessing in eight elegant* principles (Matthew 5:3-12).

The first of these eight principles specifies poverty of spirit as the first step towards God’s blessing.  This principle was not a new revelation.  It has always been an essential quality of those who would receive the blessing of God.  Here are just some of the biblical characters who exhibited this quality of brokenness:

• Abraham (Genesis 18:27)
• Jacob (Genesis 32:10)
• Moses (Exodus 3:11; 4:10-12)
• King David (Psalms 51:17; 1 Chronicles 29:14)
• King Solomon (1 Kings 3:7)
• Job (Job 42:5-6)
• Isaiah (Isaiah 6:5)
• John the Baptist (John 1:27; 3:30; Luke 7:28; Mark 9:35
• The Tax Collector (Luke 18:13-14)
• The Roman Centurion (Luke 7:6-9)
• Simon Peter (Luke 5:8)
• The Apostle Paul (Romans 7:18; 2 Corinthians 4:7; 1 Corinthians 3:6-7; 1 Timothy 1:15-16)

It would be hard to imagine a person exhibiting a proud and haughty spirit when suddenly confronted by God’s immediate, visible presence.  The challenge for us is to maintain that sense of His abiding presence and our own brokenness.

POOR IN SPIRIT LIFESTYLE

The truth is that before a holy God no one can stand in His presence  because, as Paul stated, “There is no one righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10).  The real contrast this first beatitude forces  is between those who acknowledge their brokenness and humble themselves accordingly and those who do not and will not.

For those who seek God’s blessing this first beatitude is fundamental to entrance into the kingdom of God.  It is where God-followers strive to live because it is where we all exist.

*  I use the word ‘elegant’ to describe these beatitudes in the sense of a beautiful cut diamond set upon a black velvet surface to enhance its beauty.

Bookends are used to keep books together.  They also metaphorically describe how we keep other objects together.  In the gospel of Matthew there are two important kingdom bookends that help us define the contents of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7.

IMPORTANT BOOKENDS

The first bookend is in Matthew 5:1-2 where Jesus sees the crowds and goes up to the mountain.  Here his disciples gather around Him to listen to Jesus’ as He begins to teach them.

The second bookend is Matthew 7:28-29 where Jesus’ audience has expanded beyond His disciples to include the crowds.  They have been listening in and are amazed at Jesus’ authoritative teaching.

These bookends tell us that what Jesus has to say is very important.  We know this because just before the final bookend in Matthew 7:28-29, Jesus contrasts two groups of people.

In Matthew 7:24-25 He addresses those who listen and apply His words to their lives.  Jesus describes them as wise builders who anchor their foundation upon a rock.  Their building will stand firm in the storms of life.

In contrast, in Matthew 7:26-27 Jesus describes those who also listen but do not put His words into practice.  These people are like unwise builders who place their foundation upon sandy soil.  When the storms come their house will not survive.

BEATITUDE BOOKENDS

At the very beginning of the first bookend Jesus launches into 8 beatitudes that fall between two other bookends.  The first tells His audience that being poor in spirit is the way to the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:3).  The concluding beatitude addresses those who are “persecuted because of righteousness” for theirs is, once again, the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:10).

These bookends tell us that between them are listed the crucial qualities of people who are  citizens of the kingdom of heaven.  Those qualities include poverty of spirit, mourning over sin, meekness, righteousness, being merciful, having purity of heart, being makers of peace and suffering for the sake of righteousness.

THE VALUE OF BOOKENDS

The Sermon on the Mount is important material for followers of Jesus Christ for at least three reasons.  First, Jesus said their application would make the difference between those who survive the storms of life and those who do not.  Second, for those who are citizens of the kingdom of heaven, the sermon provides a roadmap to maturity in the kingdom.

The third reason is anchored in the next-to-the-last parable Jesus used to underline their importance.  In Matthew 7:21-23 Jesus tells us that there will be people who appear at Judgement Day, thinking that they are, indeed, citizens of the kingdom of heaven.  They will come before Jesus pointing to the many things they have done to verify their eternal citizenship.  Jesus’ shocking response to them should be sobering to us all as He says, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!” (vs. 23).

CONCLUSION

Perhaps there could be no greater tragedy than to go through life with a false sense of confidence in one’s salvation only to find, in the end, that one had missed the entire point of kingdom citizenry: knowing Christ and being known by Him.  Herein lies the power of the Sermon on the Mount.