The Beatitudes.
Matthew 5:1-12
Interestingly enough when we think about beatitudes we often get this sought of thinking going on that these things, poorness of spirit, mourning, etc should be our attitudes. However the word beatitude comes from the Latin word for ‘blessed’, ‘beatus’ which is what Jesus was talking about at the start of his Sermon on the Mount. He was talking about blessings and why particular people would be blessed, once again there are all sorts of thinking about why these groups of people will be blessed and how God sees these people.
If we look a bit further at ‘blessed’ the word, from the Greek it’s not about, physical stuff, again this is related to the spiritual, about receiving God’s favour, it can though be about good feels associated with receiving God’s favour. (repeat)
Over the next six weeks I’m going to attempt to answer why these blessings come about and just why Jesus gave us this teaching, I’ll also attempt to make a few leaps towards what this all means to us here in Sydenham and how we could be addressing receiving or witnessing these blessings in our lives.
The first couple of verses of this passage appear to have a fairly straight forward sought of description to them: let’s have a look at what is being said here.
“Now when he (Jesus) saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them, saying…“ What happens next is that Jesus speaks forth the beatitudes.
Why the wee description about the where and how he began?
Well in other interpretations the words of verse two are slightly different, the ‘Restoration Scriptures’ say “And he opened his mouth, and taught them saying” where the ‘Revised Standard Version’ says, “and he opened his mouth and taught them saying”.
If you were listening very closely to me as I said that you would have noticed the only difference between the two versions was a slight pause. One has a comma punctuating the sentence and the other does not.
So why would Matthew say “he opened his mouth and taught them saying?”
A) Because we need to know Jesus was not a ventriloquist.
B) Because we need to know that the disciples were not taught by osmosis.
C) Because we need to know that Jesus didn’t teach by telepathic means.
D) None of the above!
While all three of A, B and C are correct, none of them apply to this verse, the reason Matthew pointed out that Jesus “opened his mouth” is because he is wanting the reader or listener to understand that what is coming out of the mouth of Jesus is really quite important, it would be a bit like me saying, “listen this is well worth hearing, it’s well thought out and has something important wrapped up in it!” These words that were to be spoken had a set will and purpose. Or in New Zealand speech what was to follow was, ‘gusty stuff, worth hearing, listen up.’
This term ‘he opened his mouth’ was a fairly well used Hebrew saying and crops up quite a bit in the Old Testament in situations where something with a bit of substance was to follow.
An example of this is from Psalm 78:2 and this is quite important, this Psalm is referred to in Matthews gospel in reference to Jesus teaching all those years later, this Psalm is a bit prophetic, it’s written by and in the style of a wisdom writer about God. It says this, “I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter hidden things, things from old”. If we look at Matthew 13:35 after Jesus had told the parables of the mustard seed and the yeast we read, “So it was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet: “I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world. “
What we have here with this whole “He opened his mouth to speak” business is that Matthew is pointing to Jesus divinity. The words of Jesus mouth are worth hearing, impacting and in the cases recorded in the gospels, in these beatitudes they are not just that, they are life changing, life giving and countercultural.
For those of us who believe that Jesus is a person of the Godhead, that he is undivided in essence and co-equal in power and glory, with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit we are left with, the importance of Jesus words, being extreme when we remember that God spoke light and all of creation into existence. This from Genesis 1:3 “and God said, ’let there be light,’ and there was light.” So the importance of what Jesus says can not be underrated.
Let’s start with one beatitude and unpack it a bit: The first one he spoke when he opened his mouth! Before I start on the beatitude I would just like to say it does not say blessed are the poor, they are not, there is nothing of a blessing in being poor. What it doe say is this.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Now this verse points out two things if one occurs and then there will be a consequence. So if you’re ‘poor in spirit’, you are blessed because then yours is ‘the kingdom of heaven’.
This can be compared to a statement like blessed are the thristy for they will look for something to drink. Really you’re not blessed because you’re thristy. You’re blessed if you realise that you are thirsty, then you go and have something to drink. If you didn’t realise, the consequences would be dehydration or worse.
What the poor in spirit are, are those who realise just how poor in spirit they are.
The truth is we are all poor in spirit, realising that comes from understanding that without God, none of us can have true spiritual wealth.
I remember when I was a young bloke I went to church, I hung out at the Youth Group doing all the cool youth group stuff, car rally’s, progressive dinners, bible studies, formed a few lasting friendships, listened to a few interesting speakers, I even became a church member.
I did some classes and was welcomed as a member of the church…but I knew there was something that was not quite right with Andrew. There are some who would have said there was alot not quite right with Andrew and there are some who probably think that there is something not quite right with Andrew still.
What I had realised and it’s not something I could have even put into words at the time, was that I was spiritually poor. There was something wrong in my life, I wasn’t just poor, I was spiritually broke. I had an understanding of my physical self, my emotional self and my intellectual self but spiritually I was broke. I became aware of this, I knew there was something missing, you see the whole God thing had got me thinking and I looked into it a bit, I saw people could encounter life change because of this mystical kind of connection they had with God, I looked into the bible and as a young bloke I wasn’t much of a reader but I found that I could crack through the bible at a reasonable rate of knots. There was a lot of stuff in here I didn’t understand but I kept on reading it, I started to learn from it about God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Which is interesting because at home God and Jesus didn’t get much of a look in and the Holy Spirit was seen as something odd people engaged in, out there, sort of weird, far beyond reality stuff…that kind of Holy Roller carry on.
Out of my poorness, out of my spiritual poverty I learned that God does enter into our lives, that by his Holy Spirit our whole reality alters, that when his Holy Spirit enters our lives, we become citizens of the kingdom of heaven.
In Ephesians 5:4-5 we read this: “For while we are in this tent, (meaning our bodies), we groan and are burdened (who has an ache or pain, bills to pay, a job to go to) because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed in our heavenly dwelling, so that the mortal my be swallowed up by life. Now it is God who made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.”
What is to come is eternal life, this happens as soon as God’s Holy Spirit comes into our lives.
What needs to happen before this spiritual poverty, this poorness in the spirit can be taken from a persons life? So that blessings come from God:
1) Realisation, that’s one of the things. I’m sure that there are plenty of people who don’t realise their spiritual poverty. This is where Christian witness is so important, until you encounter people who have a relationship with God you might never be aware of your own spiritual poverty.
Imagine if everyone drove the same model Smart car, lived in the same model house, ate exactly the same food at all meals and there were no other obvious options. That would give everyone I suppose a sense of contentment in the same way people are content with their, living without God, in ongoing broken relations, addiction, practising falsehood, cheating, lying their way through life, or perhaps even less obviously, just not seeing their place in God’s plan, turning their backs on a relationship with him, declaring their goodness of person but living without a right relationship with their creator.
I don’t think it is any accident that Matthew follows the beatitudes with a couple of words of wisdom about witness; with Jesus telling his disciples they are the ‘salt of the earth’ and that they are ‘the light of the world’.
As we witness, if our witness is one in which we are people who are connected to God, be sure that people will acknowledge their own need for him in their lives, as they see our fulfilment in our relationships with him… another thing that brings growth of spiritual means is
2) An understanding of our lack of God in our lives brings with it the potential for life change to occur.
Back to comparing this to being thirsty, understanding I’m thirsty I could potentially head off to the jug with an empty glass and get a drink, I may not. More fool me if I don’t… could stay thirsty. It is then up to me. But Rochelle might see that I could do with a drink also and offer to get me one… I may refuse, my loss, just as some refuse to see their spiritual poverty, their loss.
But to those who do accept their spiritual poverty, theirs is the kingdom of heaven. We all can be blessed but not all are, because they do not see, or choose not to see their spiritual poverty. To be blessed because you are spiritually poor requires an acknowledgement that you are spiritually poor (SBI).
3) Jesus came so that we could have life in all it’s abundance. What comes to us out of our realising this spiritual poverty is abundance, for if we do realise and act on that realisation ‘ours is the kingdom of heaven’, Peter the apostle puts it this way, “Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.” (2 Peter 1:2).
Or these words of Jesus when he was talking to his disciples, about those who didn’t follow him, this was after the disciples asked him why he spoke in parables. “He replied, ‘The knowledge of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and he will have abundance.’” (Matthew 13:11-12b) Blessings from God often start small and build as we seek after having right relationships with him.
What occurs is that in realising our spiritual poverty, in understanding our lack of God in our lives…we seek after God and are enriched with the things of God, with the knowledge of the kingdom of heaven, life becomes abundant, enriched beyond our previous understanding. We are blessed!
Where are you with God, maybe you struggle with him, maybe you know that spiritually you are poor? I know this might be a bit on the nose but be blessed because you are spiritually poor requires an acknowledgement that you are spiritually poor, if you would like to come into a relationship with God for the first time, we have a place here we call the mercy seat, a place where you can meet God. If you’ve been working on your relationship with God for some time but still feel that there is something missing and would like to experience his grace and power at work in your life, come also and be prayed for. Come.
