Part 5 - Beatitudes – The Merciful and the Pure in Heart
Sermon on the Mount
The Christian Character
Matthew 5:3 - 7:27
(Cf. Luke 6:20-49)
This is Part 5 in a 14-part series of studies I call “The Christian Character” as described by Jesus to a crowd of people on a Galilean hillside as he delivered what is more familiarly known as the “Sermon on the Mount.”
The 14 parts are as follows:
Part 1 – Introduction
Part 2 – Beatitudes – the poor in spirit
Part 3 - Beatitudes – those who mourn
Part 4 - Beatitudes – the meek, and those who hunger and thirst
Part 5 - Beatitudes – the merciful and the pure in heart
Part 6 - Beatitudes – peacemakers
Part 7 - Beatitudes – the persecuted and insulted
Part 8 - Salt of the earth and light of the world
Part 9 - Righteousness exceeding that of the scribes and Pharisees; divorce, oaths
Part 10 - Eye for eye, loving neighbor and hating enemy, being perfect
Part 11 - Three things to do, not to be seen by men and a model prayer
Part 12 - Laying up treasures, eye is the lamp of the body, serving two masters
Part 13 - Do not judge, do not give what is holy to dogs and pigs
Part 14 - Ask, seek, and knock; the narrow gate; false prophets; building on the rock
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Review
Last week we were talking about what it means to “inherit the earth,” by which inheritance the meek are blessed. I offered my understanding, which I do now as part of a very quick review. I suspect that most of readers of the third beatitude – like myself – think primarily about what meekness is and glide past the blessing meekness produces. The earth!?
I do not believe Jesus was referring to the planet we live on. I cannot make any sense of the blessing if it is about the planet.
It’s a stretch to say Jesus meant the meek are more appreciative of the earth, recognize it as the place God built as man’s abode, and are therefore more sensitive to its beauty. It’s a further stretch to say that the meek are destined to govern the planet, or that the meek are the ones who are to “save the earth” from man’s destructive appetites and habits.
The word earth is from the Greek ge (ghay), which may rightly be translated earth. But I believe that here it is a poor and misleading translation in the context of this beatitude. We read in Acts 7 from Stephen’s defense before the Sanhedrin council where the word ge is used several times by the writer. Even within that one chapter, we found the word ge translated “land” 5 times, in addition to being translated “country” twice, “ground” once, and “earth” once where he quotes from Isaiah 66:1, “the earth is my footstool.”
“Earth” is one of several possible correct translations of the word, but not the only one, and none of us came up with a plausible answer last week of what the blessing is (if it is the literal earth).
However, I can see a reasonable meaning if the word is translated “land” and used as a type.
The type can have meaning only if “land” refers to Canaan, a familiar place and idea to every Jew who heard Jesus say it. Canaan was the “promised land,” - promised to Abraham and given to his descendants as their inheritance.
Canaan is well-understood as a type of heaven.
I offered my further belief that Canaan is part of a 3-tier type:
Literal Canaan is a type of the state of being “in Christ.”
“In Christ” is a type of heaven.
• Canaan was a physical place whose specific connection was to the Israelites.
• The nation of Israel is a type of the present state of being “in Christ,” or spiritual Israel.
• The state of being “in Christ” is a type of heaven, the eternal home of the saved.
Canaan was temporary. Our present state of being “in Christ” is a cross between the temporary and the eternal. Until Christ returns, all mankind is destined to die, so this life is only for a time. But as being “in Christ” now, our citizenship is in heaven, and as Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, “…the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." (1 Corinthians 15:53-54)
We examined the fourth beatitude:
(Matt 5:6) Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.
Righteousness is defined by Thayer - state of him who is as he ought to be…the condition acceptable to God
That seems to be a good definition, but let’s not kid ourselves. We have a “righteousness problem.” So did the apostle Paul (Rom 7:7-25)
Let’s not make this more rigorous than Jesus did. He did not say, “Blessed are the righteous,” - which excludes all of us - but those who hunger and thirst after righteousness – which includes all of us.
What is the blessing such hunger and thirst brings? “They shall be filled.”
We mentioned some things that fill those who hunger for righteousness:
• The Holy Spirit (Eph 5:18)
• The knowledge of his will in spiritual wisdom and understanding (Col 1:9)
• Paul sought for his readers to “know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
The scriptures speak of various things that fill those who seek God.
Jesus no doubt means that those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will be filled with that for which they hunger and thirst!
It’s another way of saying what Paul said to the Corinthian church:
2 Corinthians 5:20-21 We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Think of that! We are all living breathing proof that we can’t claim to righteous –
but we hunger and thirst for it! And…“we become the righteousness of GOD!”
How God fills the unrighteousness person with God’s own righteousness is a mystery that I cannot explain, beyond what is said, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us.”
It is not for us to understand. It is for us to believe. It is comforting that Abraham believed, and was accounted righteous.
End of review
Part 5 - Beatitudes – The Merciful and the Pure in Heart
The fifth beatitude: BLESSED ARE THE MERCIFUL, FOR THEY WILL BE SHOWN MERCY. (Matt 5:7)
So that we understand what Jesus says - what is mercy?
Mercy is the fountain from which forgiveness flows.
To show mercy is to forgive a debt or offense. So showing mercy is a choice. Mercy runs directly contrary to the innate human sense that our actions have consequences – a principle that should be an inviolable rule of life – no exceptions.
But there must be exceptions, or we are all lost – bound for everlasting damnation. Only mercy can reverse the rule and disconnect the consequences from the actions.
Then does the beatitude promise the blessing of mercy to us if we show mercy to those who should rightly suffer as the result of their own misconduct?
Of course it does. If it doesn’t, then what does it apply to? If we take away those who deserve consequences for untoward actions, there’s no one left to receive mercy.
The beatitude does not seem to demand that mercy be shown in every aspect of our lives. A parent whose only response to a misbehaving child is to shield the child from any consequences is in for a hard life of rearing an undisciplined child, who will likely turn out to be an undisciplined adult. Similarly, church members who sin and are stubbornly unrepentant are to be disciplined in love. In these cases mercy is simply not the response the situations demand. But parents and church members who discipline their children are following the example of God himself, who disciplines us for our good. And as our God is a God of mercy, we also may be a people who show mercy to our children, church members and others when mercy is the proper response.
If we are merciful, by whom does Jesus mean we will then be shown mercy?
• Each other?
• Others in the workplace and the world?
• Or God?
At least potentially, all are true.
But it is an unalterable fact that for us to obtain mercy from God, we must show it to others.
From Jesus’ sermon on the mount:
(Concerning debts) Matthew 6:12-15 Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.' For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
The sixth beatitude:
BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART, FOR THEY WILL SEE GOD. Matthew 5:8
What an astonishing statement!
First, who is the blessing for – the pure in heart?
Although the idea of purity of heart is relatively easy to grasp, let’s first consider some of the thoughts it suggests.
? Purity means not diluted. (Purity in heart means the heart’s affections are undivided). If it is diluted, part of me wants to know God and be in his favor, and the other part wants something else.
The great commandment leaves no room for subdividing our affections.
Matthew 22:35-38 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with ALL your heart and with ALL your soul and with ALL your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment.
? Clean (as having been washed)
? Being pure in heart is being like Jesus. In going about his “Father’s business,” as he referred to it while still a child, he was single-minded, and his heart was undivided all the way to the cross. No contaminants entered his heart, and therefore none influenced his actions.
What does it mean that the pure in heart will see God? Does it mean a tangible way, or a spiritual way?
Moses requested to see God’s glory.
Exodus 33:19-20 And the Lord said, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But," he said, "you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live."
When Isaiah was called upon (or commissioned) to prophesy to God’s people, he saw the Lord seated on a throne (or a vision representing Him).
Isaiah 6:1-5 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory." At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty."
What was Isaiah’s problem – or what did he suppose was his problem?
“I am a man of unclean lips...”
If Isaiah feared for his life because of that experience, how then does Jesus say the pure in heart will see God?
We may not be able to fully resolve the question of the extent of Jesus’ meaning, but there are certain things we may know for certain:
No one, including Moses and Isaiah, has literally seen God. The apostle John declared:
John 1:18 No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known.
Seeing God in a literal, physical sense is not possible. Why?
1 Timothy 6:15-16 …he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.
Sometimes after business in town and I drive westward toward home in the afternoon, the sun is low over the plateau. The sun blinds me so that at times I cannot see the road – cannot see it! I have to slow to a crawl for a while to avoid going off the road or running into a stopped or slowed vehicle if a driver ahead is also blinded by the sun.
The diameter of the sun is about 864,000 miles. That’s 109 times the diameter of the earth. The temperature is over 5,700 degrees. Yet it is only a medium-sized star. Betelgeuse – a red giant star – is 700 times bigger than our sun, and 14,000 times brighter! God created our sun, Betelgeuse, and every star in every galaxy – discovered or undiscovered.
Physically, the universe is lighted by the stars. But when we consider the sum of all the light emanating from all the created stars (if there really is a finite number of stars) … how bright is the unapproachable light where God dwells?
Moses (as we read a moment ago), tucked away in the cleft of a rock, with God placing his hand over the cleft and removing his hand only after he had passed by, saw what God called “my back.”
Yet the face of Moses was so radiant the people were afraid to look at him because he had been TALKING with God!
So Moses wore a veil on this face when he spoke to the people.
To look directly into the face of God himself is an experience no human would survive.
But in the common perception, God is too often thought to be small and ordinary – even powerless. That perception is borne of willful ignorance, or hardening of the heart. Paul shows the veil Moses wore to be a type of the hardening that prevents us from seeing God.
Still, we are left wondering what Jesus meant when he said, “the pure in heart shall see God.”
To see Jesus is to see the Father.
John 14:8-9 ESV Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
They had seen the Father in Jesus; but they just didn’t realize it. They had not yet seen the completed work of Jesus in the cross, the tomb, the resurrection, and the sending of the Comforter. When that happened, they were to see the completed work of Jesus – until he returns - and in that completed work, see God.
Turn to 2 Corinthians 3 and read vs12-18 with me.
Christ takes the veil away, so that we may not only see the glory of the Lord but be transformed into the same image ourselves!
How do we “see the glory of the Lord” and not die? Like Moses and Isaiah, we do not literally see the full force and brightness of God’s glory.
In Christ the veil is lifted so we see God in a more luminous way than we would if not for Christ lifting the veil.
That, I believe, is what Jesus referred to on the mountain in Galilee.
When his mission on earth was completed, those whose hearts are pure now see God with greater clarity and illumination than even Moses and Isaiah could envision.
