Good morning. How many of you are old enough to remember a group duo by the name of Simon and Garfunkel? They were a group in the 60s and 70s. A rock duo group known for a lot of great hits. Sounds of Silence. Mrs. Robinson. Bridge Over Troubled Water. Boxer. Although some of you remember the group Simon and Garfunkel and some of their greatest hits, do you remember the hit called Blessed? Very few of you. Just because some of you might not be familiar with the group and some of you may not be familiar with the song Blessed, I thought it would be an appropriate opening to the sermon today because it is kind of a spiritual song. (Song played here.) Anybody remember that song? Anybody wondering why I would play such a song? I bet some of you had a problem with it because it is a little bit edgy. I had never heard that song before but was familiar with the group. When I heard it last week, I said this is the perfect opening for this particular sermon because the core message of the song is really the core message of the passage we are going to look at called the Beatitudes. The idea that no matter what your condition in life, you are blessed because Jesus Christ stands there with an open invitation to come into the kingdom of God. That is where we are going with it. Last week, we started a sermon series called Learning to Live Like Jesus. It is a follow-up of our series in the fall on discipleship. This series is based on the Sermon on the Mount. As I talked about last week, the Sermon on the Mount is kind of like a manual for discipleship. It is a curriculum for Christ-likeness. We are going to look today at the first 12 verses of chapter 5, which would be summarized by the word beatitudes. Beatitudes is simply a fancy word that means blessed but blessed doesn’t necessarily mean a state of happiness. It has more of an idea of a state of being well off. The word blessed, before it was given a Christian link, it was actually a word that would be applied to the Greek gods and goddesses. They would be considered blessed. They would be considered very well off. I would like somebody to read chapter 5, verses 1-12. (Matthew 5:1-12 read here.)
When you listen to those words, they kind of sound a little bit comforting, but if you are honest with yourself, sometimes those words are a little bit confusing. They cause you to scratch your head. We don’t know exactly what Jesus is trying to say here. The traditional school of thought is that some people suggest that these conditions in life should be pursued because they lead to the virtuous life, a good life. If we want to be blessed, we should pursue these types of things also. In other words, we should go out and try to be poor in spirit. We should try to mourn. We should try to be meek. Many of you probably come from a church where you have heard that these are the virtues that should be pursued. Maybe you heard it in a small group setting in a classroom or maybe in your own person reading through your Bible study. The only thing that is possible is that this interpretation that we are so used to may actually be incorrect. Incorrect in the sense that what Jesus is saying here is not that we should pursue these types of conditions in life so that we may be blessed. He is saying that in spite of these conditions in life, we are blessed. That is a different angle on things. I would ask that the people here who are used to seeing it the other way would put off any resistance to this type of teaching and just hear me out.
In order to understand the interpretation I want to give, we have to revisit a little bit of background. What we have here is Jesus coming onto the scene in ancient Palestine 2,000 years ago or so. The central theme of Jesus Christ was the kingdom of heaven. Jesus came proclaiming that the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven is here. The people are to repent and believe the message. When Jesus says that the kingdom is here, what he is saying is that through my coming, God is doing something special. God is about to break into our reality and reestablish his kingdom on earth. In doing so may be able to free the people of their oppressive enemies, particularly the Romans whom they seem to be oppressed a lot by. That is good news for the Jewish people that have been waiting for this new king to come. Really it is bad news for the people that were non-Jews because the Jewish people saw the kingdom of heaven as some sort of an exclusive club that was limited based on certain criteria. For one, there were some Jewish people who felt that the kingdom of heaven was reserved only for males. If you were a woman, you could not get into the kingdom of heaven. In many ways, women were very low on the totem pole. They were treated like livestock in many different ways. Also, you had to be a good Jew. A Jew that followed all the law. You didn’t have any sin in your life. A Jew that followed the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. You also had to be somebody that was very physically fit. If you had a sickness or illness or you were crippled or blind or whatever, you would be considered unclean, so you are not going to be welcome into the kingdom of God. You couldn’t be poor. To the Jewish people, being poor was a sign of abandonment by God. If you are familiar with the gospels, you know that these types of people are the very type of people that Jesus went out to reach. As we visited some of the stories and went through the series called The Story, we saw that Jesus would be found hanging out with the tax collectors and the sinners and the prostitutes and the wine drinkers and that sort of thing. Not only would Jesus be attracting the Jewish people who were interested in the coming kingdom of God, but would be attracting the marginal people. The people on the fringes of life. Also, the curiosity seekers who were just thrilled to death when they began to see all the miracles and the demonstrations of power that Jesus did throughout those first couple years there. Jesus was very good about attracting crowds of people. People who wanted to know more about this kingdom of God and really wanted to know whether or not they were a part of the in crowd or the out crowd.
With that setting, what we find in the first few verses, we see that “Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to preach to them, saying ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’” Now this is the first place where we begin to run into a little bit of interpretation problems where scholars disagree. The traditional school of thought is that if Jesus is out there blessing the poor in spirit and welcoming them into the kingdom of God, then I too should be poor in spirit so that I am welcomed into the kingdom of God. That is the problem really. What does it mean to be poor in spirit? A lot of scholars try to over-spiritualize this. Really what Jesus is saying here is that we have to learn to be humble. We have to have a humbleness about our spirituality. I would suggest maybe that is not what Jesus is talking about. In fact, why wouldn’t he just use the word humble? You have to remember the context. Who is Jesus speaking to? I would suggest that probably a third to half of the people in the crowed are already pretty spiritually poor, spiritually destitute. Think about the people in the crowd. There were people in that crowd that had lost all connection to God whatsoever. A lot of atheists. A lot of pagans. They had no spirituality. They had no connection to God. Then you had the people who at one time maybe had a connection to God. They were maybe Jews and were involved in the temple and the sacrifices, but they saw the abuses of the Pharisees and said I want nothing to do with religion. I want nothing to do with God. Kind of like we find today in churches where people have been burned out by religious experiences, they lose their sense of spirituality a little bit. They become spiritually dry. Spiritually destitute. Then you have to remember a number of those people in the crowd were formerly demon possessed. Just got finished being demon possessed. So again they were spiritually destitute. Does it make sense that Jesus would say hey all you people, you need to go out and become spiritually destitute? Does that make sense? A guy by the name of Dallas Willard, a guy who I got a lot of this content from, uses the term spiritual zeroes. He would translate this verse by saying “Blessed are the spiritual zeroes, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” If you think about even the Simon and Garfunkel song, we are talking about the people that the church makes nervous. Spiritual zeroes in life. Jesus is standing up there and looking around and seeing all these people that are already spiritual destitute, and he is looking at the crowd saying blessed are you who are spiritually zero because yours is the kingdom of heaven. What he is doing is extending an invitation to the people that are already spiritually low out there. The people that are marginalized. They have no reason to be accepted into the kingdom of God, and Jesus is extending the invitation. Blessed, for yours is the kingdom of God. Come on in. If you come into the kingdom, I am going to move you from a spiritual zero to a spiritual giant. Tell me which is a better message of hope there? The message that we typically interpret and say Jesus is saying listen all you people, I am going to bless the people that are poor in spirit, so you need to go become poor in spirit. Or saying you who are poor in spirit, you are blessed because the kingdom of God is being made available to you right now. It is a different way of thinking. Jesus was all about invitation. What I am saying in this first blessedness is that Jesus was not blessing people because of a condition that they were in. He was blessing them in spite of the condition that they were in. He was saying I am not blessing you because you have achieved some sort of a spiritual eliteness because you are able to be humble, but in spite of the fact that you are spiritual destitute, I am blessing you. In fact, I am giving you the keys of the kingdom. You are invited in. Which message is the message of hope? I take the time to explain this first one because I think when you begin to start thinking like this, the rest of the beatitudes start making a lot more sense.
He goes on to say “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” What does it mean to mourn? To be sad. To be deeply grieved. Again, how do we try to work this so it is like if Jesus says he is going to bless the people that are grieving, then I should go out and figure out how to grieve. It is like if I said when you leave today, you need to go out there and grieve so stop at a funeral home and go into one of the rooms and just ask if you can grieve for a little bit. People will over-spiritualize it. What he is talking about here is being sorry for your sins. They over-spiritualize it. But again, Jesus is not blessing the condition. He is blessing them in spite of the condition. He is speaking to people who understand mourning better than any of us. I was doing some reading this morning trying to figure out the mortality rates of ancient Palestine. I don’t know whether this is true or not, but it sounds true. There was a very high infant mortality rate. The average age of life was 25 years. You pull out the infant mortality, it runs about 40-50 years. The bottom line is you had people walking all around who were constantly in mourning. They were losing kids days after they were born. Starvation. Diseases. They were losing spouses and family members. They were feeling forsaken by God. Likewise today, there are people here that have experienced the pain of grief. Of losing a spouse of a child. I lost my wife 14 years ago. Debbie lost her husband. If you have ever experienced grief, it is something you would not wish on anybody. It is the weirdest experience. At times, you feel totally forsaken by God, and you feel forsaken by your friends. Because your friends don’t know what to say. When they don’t know what to say to you, you feel like you are a leper because they don’t know how to comfort you so they avoid you. In the midst of that situation, Jesus comes on the scene and says all of you out there that are experiencing any form of mourning, you are blessed because you are going to be comforted. Accept the invitation to come into the reality of the kingdom of God right now and you will be comforted.
Then he goes on to say and “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” Again, if I told you when you leave here today just go out and be meek. Some of you would be okay but others would have a really hard time. We start thinking meek can have a very positive meaning. Meek means strength under control. That is not a bad definition because in some sense it is true. But in a negative sense meek cannot be a good thing. It is like you are overly submissive. You are a doormat. You are easily bullied. Is that a good place to be? Not in this world. I don’t want to get into politics at all. I have been watching some of the Republican debates and it is just entertaining. I hate to say this, but it is especially entertaining to watch Trump and Jeb Bush go back and forth. Jeb Bush gets most of the blows because Trump fights a little dirty. He is not afraid to hit below the belt. Now Jeb is saying he is just a bully. Trump doesn’t care. I found this quote in the newspaper where Trump says “Mocking his rival as meek, Trump said ‘I think Jeb is a very nice person, but we need toughness. With Jeb’s attitude, we will never be great again.’” If you like Trump or not, I think it is kind of true. I think Trump’s numbers are so high and Jeb’s are so low because nobody wants a meek president. Very few people want a meek president I would say. If you can’t stand up to Trump, how is going to stand up to Putin or the crazy guy in North Korea. That is just the reality of it. So Jesus comes into the situation and sees the people that Simon and Garfunkel would describe as the sat upon, the George McFly, Jeb Bush, the people that are always last in line, and he says “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” In other words, he is saying you were always last in this life, but if you accept my invitation to come into the kingdom of God, you are going to be first in line when I start doling out your inheritance. That is a very positive thing.
Then he goes on to say “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” There is no doubt that we are supposed to be righteous. We are supposed to have right relationship with God and right relationship with others. But is this what Jesus is saying? Some suggest that what he is talking about here is justice. People who really hunger and thirst for things in the world to be made right. Back in the day in ancient Palestine, things were terribly wrong for so many people. Especially the poor people or just the common people out there. They were under Roman rule. They were under the Roman Empire and the Roman Empire needed lots of revenue to make things work, so they would impose a lot of taxes on people. When they couldn’t pay their tax bill, they would take away their land and then they lost their ability to work, which means they became day laborers and they were a dime a dozen. A lot couldn’t find work. They become unemployed, and they became beggars. People went from land owners to beggars and thinking what has gone wrong here. Something does not seem right? God what is going on here? I worked all my life for this and now you have taken it away. I just hunger and thirst for righteousness. Some of you people have been treated unjustly. Maybe it is by an ex-spouse who took advantage of you. Maybe it is by an employer. Maybe it is by the government who didn’t give you what you deserve or anybody that didn’t give you what you deserve. Maybe you are an elderly person getting into the twilight years and seeing all your pension and your savings and your 401K go away because of something that happened in China. You are saying something is not right about this. God I want you to make things right. Jesus steps in the middle of that situation and says you are blessed because if you enter into the kingdom of heaven, you will find what you want. In fact, you will be full. You will be made whole again.
Then he goes on and talks about the merciful. He says “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” Again, he is looking at the crowds and seeing all these people that are very needy, but when you have a lot of needy people, you also have people that are willing to extend compassion and kindness and mercy to those. We see that. We have people in the church who are very good at that. People that will stop and help the needy while others will just walk away. When you have people who are overly merciful, what happens? They happen to get taken advantage of. Over and over again. They keep putting themselves in the circumstances where they are continuing to be merciful and continuing to be taken advantage of. They are crying out saying Jesus you have told me that I should care for the least of these, but they keep taking advantage of me. I wish I could just get appreciation or something for that. Jesus says “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” In other words, if you enter into the kingdom way of life, the kingdom way of living, the kingdom way of understanding, and the mercy that you showed to somebody else who deserved it, I will show it to you who didn’t deserve it.
This one is a little more tricky. He goes on and says “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” We know that Jesus talked quite a bit later on in the Sermon on the Mount about the importance of maintaining a pure heart. A pure soul. That cannot be denied. But if we want to be consistent with the way we are applying this logic to all the other beatitudes, we have to be consistent here by saying maybe Jesus is not blessing the pure in heart. He is blessing them in spite of their pure in heart. Some would suggest that what he is talking about here when he says pure in heart as the perfectionist in life. Anybody here a perfectionist? You can admit it. Some of you are perfectionists about your home, your schoolwork, your studies, your office space, or whatever. What I am talking about here is perfectionist of your soul. There are some people here who can never be good enough. Consequently, they make people around them miserable, but they make themselves miserable. No matter what they do they can never feel like God has accepted them or that God really loves them. Or that when they die they are going to see God. I will be transparent with you. A year and a half ago I had open heart surgery. Some of you have been in that place where you are sitting in the bed waiting for them to roll you into the operating room. Even though the chances are low that you are going to die, you can’t help but say they are going to turn my heart off for about seven hours. That just doesn’t seem right. I better make sure I am prepared. I did have peace, but in the back of my mind I said when I wake up, am I going to see family members? Am I going to see the devil? Or am I going to see God? I am being honest with you. As a pastor, you can never be good enough. You are always questioning your motives. Some of you are like that. Jesus steps in and says blessed are the pure in heart, the perfectionists, for they will see God. He is saying basically you will get to the point that even though you are in this condition now, you are going to get to the point where you are going to not only see God, you are going to see the one that was perfect so that you didn’t have to be perfect. He is not suggesting that you pursue this type of thing but that you are blessed in spite of those things.
Then he says “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.” Sure we are supposed to be peacemakers. We are supposed to reconcile with others. But again, is this what he is saying? Or is he looking out at the crowd saying there are a lot of peacemakers out there. The peacemakers at that time were the military. The Roman army. They were charged with keeping the peace of Rome. That was not a fun job. I imagine that some of these military guys were nice guys. But because of the religious turmoil, they had to get in the middle of fights and break them up. They are saying I just don’t like this stuff. Some of you have been in the middle of domestic disputes. You are the peacemaker who is constantly trying to keep the siblings from killing each other. I remember my first year here. The people no longer go to this church. I was called into a very tense situation. I was called in by a man to accompany him as he went back to his separated wife’s house and I had to supervise the distribution of their stuff. It was the ugliest thing I have ever experienced in my life. Horrid. It was so sad. These were two people that I had just baptized several months earlier. They were at each other’s throats. Fighting over clothes and trinkets and junk. I had to be the peacemaker. I wouldn’t wish that on anybody. The other peacemakers that we see in the world right now are the police. In the midst of all this craziness going on in the world, it is the police that have to step in and try to figure out who is right or wrong and break it apart and consequently they are seen as the bad guys. Nobody trusts them on either side. The media has portrayed them as the bad guys. Jesus steps into the situation and says you who are a peacemaker, you are blessed because you are going to be called sons and daughters of God sometime. That is because you bear a resemblance to the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ.
Finally, he says “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” We look at martyrs and we hold them in high esteem. People that have been decapitated by ISIS. This weekend there was a missionary who was killed in West Africa. We hold them in high regard. Back in the day, there was persecution. Especially early on when these people started following Jesus. They were experiencing all sorts of persecution. They didn’t have to go out and look for it. This is not a command to go out and look for. You don’t have to go out looking for persecution. All you have to do is follow Jesus. If you start following Jesus, you are going to go against the grain, and you are going to be persecuted by your family and friends and workplace and school and by whatever. Jesus’ answer to that is the same as it was in the very first line. He says “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Time is short here. I just hope you got my point. I am not saying that I am 100% right here or that this interpretation is right. But the more I think about it, I think it is an interpretation that gives a lot of hope. Jesus wasn’t standing out there saying if you want to be blessed, you better start doing all this type of stuff. No. He is looking at the crowd, and I almost think he touched a nerve in everybody in the crowd. He says you are blessed in spite of this condition. If he was standing here today, he would look around at the crowds. He would say there are people out there who are poor in spirit. The people that are nervous about coming to church. The people who have no sense of spirituality. Maybe just came out of atheism. Just questioning everything about God. Jesus says blessed are you because here is an invitation to come into the kingdom and begin to really experience the kingdom of God. To go from a spiritual zero to a spiritual giant. Then he is saying there are people out here going through some sort of mourning. You have lost a loved one, a child, a parent, a job. Jesus looks again and says don’t worry about this stuff. You are blessed. The invitation is open. You will find some sort of comfort there. The meek. People that are bullied in life. They are always the last place in line. People who are pushed around all through life. He is looking at them saying don’t worry about it. As you accept the invitation to come into the kingdom of God, you are going to go from last to first and you are going to experience my inheritance. Then there are people who just long for things to be made right. Maybe you had a spouse who took advantage of you. Maybe the government took advantage of you and you just long for things to be right in your life and in the world. Jesus says you are blessed because you are going to experience that righteousness. You are going to be made full. You are going to be whole again. Blessed are the merciful. There are people here that I know they have the gift of mercy. They give and give and give even though over and over and over again they are taken advantage of. Jesus says this isn’t a bad state. This is a good state because you are blessed. Because yours is the kingdom of God. As you enter into that kingdom, you will find the same mercy that you have given others. Then there are the perfectionists. The people who can never be good enough at whatever they do. The people who always question their motives. Always wondering if their relationship with God is good enough. Jesus steps in and says you are blessed because you will see God. The peacemakers who want to break up the family disputes. You will be called sons and daughters of God. Finally, those who are persecuted. Those who are bold enough to share their faith in the workplace or on the bus or in the school. Jesus stands there and says you are blessed because yours is the kingdom of God. Let us pray.
