Imagine, for a moment, that you’re a part of a crowd. A crowd bigger than the summer beachgoers down here at Glenelg, shoppers at Westfield Marion, or spectators at the Adelaide Oval Test match. People from all over the region have thronged together. It’s a warm day so as you’re pushed forward you’re grateful for the gentle breeze off the coast. The sounds of the seaside fishing industry become lost in the bustle of people pressing forward with energy, anticipation, and hope.
And hope is desperately needed. The people are living in gloom and darkness and despair. There is sickness, suffering and evil everywhere. There is fear and a longing for peace. People tired of the empty way of life with all its broken promises. Those under the shadow of guilt, knowing how badly they had messed up. People sick, and dying, and grieving, aching to be comforted, longing to be honoured and loved rather than rejected and cast away; people looking for grace instead of shame, because they couldn’t measure up and meet the expectations of others.
Then Jesus had come, like a bright light, showing the way in the darkness. He taught in the synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healed every disease and sickness among the people. News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralysed; and he healed them. Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.” (Matthew 4:23-25).
As you stand among the crowd, why is it that you want to see Jesus? What do you want to see from Jesus? What do you want to hear from him?
When Jesus saw all the crowds, he went up the mountain and sat down, and his disciples came to him, and Jesus began teaching them. Jesus preaches a sermon of blessing. His first word is blessing. His repeated word is blessing. And each word of blessing has a promise attached.
Imagine for those people how sweet those words of blessing were. But they were also astonishing words; words that seemed too good to be true. They had never heard of such a concept of blessing before. Aren’t those who are strong and rich and healthy the ones who are blessed? Aren’t those who are born into nobility with power and privileges the ones who are blessed? Aren’t those who have plenty the ones who are blessed? Aren’t those who accumulate riches and lands and treasures the ones who are blessed? Aren’t those who work their way—even force their way—to the top those who are blessed?
So Jesus’ words about the meek and humble and hungry and poor being blessed must have seemed too good to be true, because they are completely counter to every human idea about blessing. Jesus says it is not the arrogant, proud and powerful, but the meek who are blessed. It is not those who accumulate but who give to others in mercy who are blessed. It is not those who pursue self-interests but the interests of others in peacemaking who are blessed.
Our normal way of thinking is that the harder we work, the more we will get. The better we perform, the more we will be shown favour. But that is not what Jesus preaches in his sermon. He speaks of a blessing without conditions. Blessing that comes to those who cannot repay, who cannot earn, who do not deserve. God’s bestowal of blessing is not conditional on how well anyone will perform. It is not conditional on certain works, like if they mourn, then they will be blessed. If they are meek, then they will be blessed. If they are pure in heart, then they will be blessed. If that were the case, God’s framework for blessing would be the exact same as the world’s: measure up, and then I’ll bless you.
Jesus preaches that a person doesn’t have to live according to the beatitudes in order to become blessed—indeed, no one can, unless they’ve first been blessed. That’s why Jesus begins: “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Only those who have first been blessed with faith can know that they are spiritually poor, and recognise their sin, and be sorry for it. Or, what human being can make their heart pure? But only those who have first been blessed have a pure heart because God shares his own purity with them, a pure heart that loves the things of God, and grieves over everything God calls evil which the world calls good.
Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness and pursue it can only do so because God has first blessed them to hear the word and walk by the Spirit. One can only truly show mercy because they have first received mercy from God. Those who are meek (that is, gentle and humble) and show no resentment or intent for revenge when wronged, but work for peace with others, can only do so because they have first been blessed by God and received his peace.
By giving them the beatitudes Jesus teaches them that they have already been blessed—he actually bestows divine of blessing upon them.
This sermon from Jesus reminds us of another time God spoke from a mountain—chapter 20 of Exodus, where God had given the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai. There the people saw the thunder and lightning and the mountain in smoke, and they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die…
The people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.” (Ex 20:18-21).
It is a fearsome sight, as God gives a revelation of his holiness on that mountain. God is not an idol they can forge into their own image. These are his standards. They are not to forget them. They are not to turn aside to the right or the left (Deuteronomy 5:32).
But although there is a stark contrast between the 9 Beatitudes and the 10 Commandments, they are actually two sides of the same coin. The Commandments and the Beatitudes go hand in glove. Together, they both show us the heart of God for his people—the God who is holiness and truth, compassion and grace—who desires his people to live with that same holiness and truth, compassion and grace.
When God gave the commandments at Mount Sinai, it was never to establish a set of conditions by which the people could measure up and earn God’s favour and come to him. Before God even gave the commandments he declared: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” (Exodus 20:2). Their relationship with God was completely dependent on his gracious initiative and action. God had redeemed them to be his own, for no other reason than he wanted to. He gathered them to himself for life with him—life that the idols of the surrounding nations could never give them. The commandments showed the people what God’s desire for them was. They are not just a list of rules, but a revelation of the relationship the holy God desires with his people, whom he makes holy by his own presence as he dwells among them.
When God in Christ speaks on the mount at Galilee, the Beatitudes were never to establish a set of conditions by which the people could measure up and earn God’s favour. God had had already come to them with blessing.
The commandments say: This is what living as God’s own people looks like.
The beatitudes say: This is what living as God’s own people looks like.
They are simply another way of expressing the same desires God has for the lives of his people. As we heard the prophet Micah’s words today:
“And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)
To act justly and love mercy and walk humbly is to live by God’s commandments. If we live by God’s commandments, we will act justly, lover mercy and walk humbly with God. If people are living with meekness, they will be honouring father and mother, and all those whom God has put in positions to exercise right authority for our good, not disrespecting them or undermining them and going our own way. If people are hungering and thirsting for righteousness, they will have no other gods but fear trust and love God above everything else. They will ache over injustice and sorrow over every evil disruption to God’s plan for the world. They will call on his name and enter the sabbath rest by hearing and learning his word. If people are merciful they will not kill or harm one another or steal from one another, or scheme to get from others what is not our right to have, but generously help our neighbour in all their needs. If people are pure in heart husbands will be loyal to their wives and wives loyal to their husbands even in their most secret thoughts and desires. People will not give false witness, or be deceitful, spread rumours or gossip, because how one loves God and others privately should be the same as it is publicly, and what is murmured in secret should be able to be shouted from the rooftops. As peace-makers God’s people would be speaking the truth in love, a defender of others’ reputations, and encouraging family and workers to remain loyal.
Both the Beatitudes and the Commandments show us God’s heart for his people. But there is one glaring difference between the two. The Commandments are powerless to help us live the way of God’s heart. The Beatitudes on the other hand, not only show us how God wants us to live. They show us how Jesus lives for us and blesses us to do that which we cannot do in human strength alone.
Jesus came to say and do what the law cannot say and do. He came to bring hope and help to those who can’t measure up and who society sees as unworthy or even beyond the point of no return. He came to this world that is unholy, unable to live God’s way and undeserving of his favour. He came for people who knew were unrighteous in God’s sight, and like those at Mount Sinai, were afraid to even approach God; so unholy they feared that if God even spoke to them they would die. Jesus spoke to those who carried the burden of guilt because of their spiritual poverty, and were remorseful for their sin.
Jesus is the One truly pure in heart, who comes to us to share his holiness with us. Jesus is truly the merciful One and the great Peacemaker, who has brought peace between us and God. He did this by being persecuted himself on another mountain, mount Golgotha, where he shed his blood on the Cross to take away the sin of the world, and meet the demands of God’s holy law for us. Though Jesus was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich (2 Corinthians 8:9) He has done for you in baptism what the law at Sinai could not do—washed away your sin to give you a pure heart as he dwells within us with his own holiness.
Jesus’ words of blessing were not just for that time, that place. They are his living word for today, here, for us. We do not have to imagine we are in the crowd listening to Jesus. God has gathered us into the crowd—into the great gathering of the Communion of Saints; the church he makes holy and pure of heart by water and the word, and the body and blood of his Son. As you stand among the crowd, why is it that you want to see Jesus? What do you want to see from Jesus? What do you want to hear from him?
God has gathered us into the great crowd of witnesses of all times and places to hear Jesus preach the beatitudes to us again, today. As we listen, the Holy Spirit goes to work in the hearts of those who hear, so that we live God’s way not out of a sense of burdensome obligation, but willingly and eagerly—so that with changed hearts, pure hearts, we desire the things of God for our life, his church and the world, and seek peace and pursue it.
As we also live in a dark world under the shadow of gloom, may we be fully satisfied with a righteousness that is not of our own, but that of the holy Son of God himself. Blessed are you who hear Jesus and come to him. For yours is the kingdom of heaven! Amen.
Pastor Tim Ebbs
St Paul’s Lutheran Church, Glenelg
Fourth Sunday after Epiphany, 2026
