In today’s Gospel reading from Matthew 5 we have a sermon from Jesus. It is often called ‘The Beatitudes.’ ‘Beatitudes’ is from a word that means ‘blessed.’ If we made a picture of all the things that we have in life that are blessings from God, what could we draw? [suggestions from children/congregation…draw items on paper]
Sometimes it might seem that people who don’t believe in God and don’t follow Jesus have more blessings in their lives than us. Life might seem easier for them; they have more money than we do, a bigger house, better job, they can just go and do what they want…and sometimes people who don’t believe in God and don’t follow Jesus can be mean to us because we trust in Jesus and the Bible, they can make fun of us or bully us, or make life hard for us because we are Christians. It might seem as if we aren’t that blessed after all.
But when I paint this picture, there are so many more things that can now be seen that were there all along. There is baptism which washes away our sin and makes us a part of his church, the children of God. There are angels who protect us, who we will sing with in heaven. There is Jesus, who promises to be with us always, with his love and help, until we see him in heaven forever. Jesus says the blessings his people have will be:
- they will see God.
- they will be called sons of God.
- theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.
- Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in the heaven.
Let’s read this verse together: “Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven.” We can’t see what our life in heaven will be like—but this is God’s greatest blessing to us!
SERMON:
Blessing is an important word in Jesus’ sermon today—in fact it is his key theme. It is often said that this is Jesus’ first sermon, however, we heard Jesus’ first sermon in last week’s Gospel reading, when Matthew tells us Jesus began to preach: “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near” (Matthew 4:17). Jesus had come with this proclamation to a people walking in darkness and living in the shadow of death, particularly Israel’s Northern tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun, who were the first to experience God’s judgment for turning aside from him and putting their trust in the pagan nation Assyria. Ironically, the mighty Assyrians in whom Israel put their trust became their oppressors, and God’s people were once again living in slavery rather than living under God in freedom.
Jesus came to earth to be the Light from heaven promised through the Prophet Isaiah:
“Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,
the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles—
the people living in darkness
have seen a great light
on those living in the land of the shadow of death
a light has dawned” (Matthew 4:15-16)
In Jesus, the Kingdom of Heaven was close by; God’s kingdom of divine grace that had come down from heaven to earth and broken into human history through flesh and bone, to bring freedom and blessing and salvation for the people from their sin. Jesus was the light for the people to see the way out of the deep spiritual darkness they had plunged themselves into, by proclaiming: “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near!” The call of ‘Repent’ that Jesus preached was a call for the people to turn to him with their sin for him to take it from them by bearing it himself.
This reign of God’s grace in Jesus spread throughout Galilee, as Jesus went teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing 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).
Just imagine, for a minute, that you are in those crowds—crowds in a dire situation, miserable, knowing how badly they had messed up, and that there was nothing they could do to get themselves out of it. Crowds wondering if there was a way back to ever being God’s favoured people again. Crowds longing to hear a word of grace and hope. If you were in those crowds, why would you turn to Jesus?
I’d like to show you another picture now, an image I came across some time ago: of a man lying on the footpath, presumably passed out and homeless. Words across the picture challenge the viewer: “What if God were found here? Would you listen or turn away?”
What if God was found with people like this—beggars passed out on the street, not able to stand, at the mercy of others just to survive?
God is found here. In the person of Christ, God came to be the help of those who can’t help themselves. Could it be that we are really no different than people such as these—those who have made poor life choices; the homeless, the disabled, the misfits, the immoral, those who have no time for God, who we feel so uncomfortable being in the presence of? In our natural spiritual state, we are all like this before God. Like beggars with tatty and dirty clothes our righteousness before God is as filthy rags. Like beggars laying on the footpath we cannot stand before him. Like destitute beggars without anything to offer, we in ourselves have nothing to give in order to be pleasing before God; unable to do the good we know we should do, unable to help ourselves.
Yes, this is a picture of you and me. Unless we see ourselves like this, our justification before God is on thin ice. For if we think we are too capable, too respectable, too moral, too righteous, too spiritual, to be associated with people like the man in this image, then we risk thinking we are better than others; more deserving of God’s Kingdom; that God takes notice of us because of our behaviour and how we present. If we think like that, then our confidence is really in our effort, appearance, and behaviour, not in Christ.
The great crowds followed Jesus because they heard his sermon “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near”—and saw in him the hope of the Messiah they had longed for, freedom from the mess they had got themselves into. They knew their only hope in their spiritual poverty was him. So how sweet Jesus’ words would have been to their ears as he sat before them on the mount: “Blessed are those who are poor in spirit, because theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, because they will be comforted.”
Jesus’ statements of blessing are completely countercultural. Most people believe those who measure up to the required standard are those deserving of being rewarded. Most people would say that those who help or respect them first would be deserving of their favour in return: “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.” This conditional way of thinking is part of our human nature. We impose conditions all the time, like: “those who don’t measure up shouldn’t be blessed because they didn’t deserve it.” We even expect God would treat people this way.
But instead of preaching more law to a people who couldn’t do what they should, Jesus proclaimed that God will not wait to receive from them first before he blesses them. God won’t withhold favour until he can be sure they will repay him or measure up. God’s bestowal of blessing is not conditional if they mourn, or are meek, or hungering and thirsting for righteousness or are pure in heart, or make peace, or pursue righteousness. If that were the case, God’s framework for blessing would be the same as the world’s: “Measure up, and then I’ll bless you.”
But we need God to take the initiative. A person can only recognise their spiritual poverty if the kingdom of heaven has first revealed this to them through the word—just like when Jesus toured Galilee proclaiming: “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near.” It is in connection with this that Jesus says: “Blessed are those who mourn because they will be comforted.” Those who are spiritually poor can only recognise their sin and be sorry for it because they have already been blessed with eyes and ears of faith. As God brings us to the awareness that we have nothing to give him to earn his love and favour, and are complete beggars, we join with all those in the gospels who came to Jesus, begging: ‘Lord, have mercy’, just as we have done again this morning.
That is why Jesus preaches: “Blessed are the pure in heart because they will see God.” What human being can make their heart pure? The pure in heart can only be so because in the person of Christ, the Kingdom of Heaven has come and reigned in a person’s heart so that they believe the word of God and are made holy by Christ’s presence with them.
From this new heart a person begins to hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness and pursue it. They show mercy to others rather than insisting on their own rights, and work at making peace rather than escalating conflict—all because they have first been blessed by God. Those hungering and thirsting for righteousness are satisfied when they turn to Jesus, who takes away their sin and exchanges it with his very own righteousness.
The Beatitudes are Jesus’ own words proclaiming the identity of people whom God has already chosen; Jesus’ own words that ‘bless people into’ the Kingdom of Heaven. These blessings show us the shape of the life God gives us as his blessed people—even if it may not always seem like that. Jesus says: “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you by speaking all kinds of evil against you on account of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven. For in the same way they persecuted the prophets before you.” In times of insult and persecution for our faith it might seem that God has withdrawn his blessing. But it is like the picture in the children’s address—the blessings are not absent, even if we can’t see them. For the world scorns Christ and his church, and so persecution of Christians is the very sign that a person is a child of God following Jesus, holy in Christ and set apart from the world.
All of this can only be so because Jesus himself was persecuted. It was on another mountain—Mount Golgotha—that Jesus was persecuted for you; persecuted to the point of shedding his blood on the Cross to take away the sin of the world. By his holy life and sacrificial death Jesus met the demands of God’s holy law in our place, and through faith this righteousness is ours, even though we don’t deserve it.
“Blessed are you!” What a sermon—delivered by the Son of God himself! What good news of grace for beggars helpless to help themselves! Jesus, who is here again today, still proclaims this good news to you. And so when Jesus comes again to judge the living and the dead, you and all the other saints who have turned to him in faith will see God—the God who himself says to you: “Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven!” Amen!
