Are you happy? If not, what would it take to make you happy? For most people, happiness seems to have something to do with our circumstances. In our youth-obsessed culture, perhaps we feel we have to look backward to imagine happiness.
“What is happiness?” and “How can I get happiness?” are two of the most pressing questions facing people in the United States today. Most of us don’t have to worry a great deal about food, clothing and shelter. . . Yes, I know that we are in uncertain and painful economic times. But don’t we feel rich when we look at the people in Haiti? Don’t we feel safe compared to the people in Syria? When you don’t have physical security, “personal fulfillment” runs a poor last in the race. Happiness and survival are one and the same. But once your physical survival is assured, life gets a whole lot more complicated, doesn’t it. Some people think that having the right things guarantees happiness; others that happiness consists of the freedom to make your own choices. But here comes the catch. . . The more time you spend looking for happiness, the less likely you are to find it.
Now, mind you, it is not wrong to want happiness. Jesus’ most famous teaching, the Sermon on the Mount, starts out by promising happiness. But he goes on to say that there is only one way to be truly, lastingly happy, and that anyone who wants this kind of happiness had better sit up and listen.
Actually, the word “blessed” doesn’t exactly mean “happy,” although one famous modern preacher has suggested that we call this passage of Matthew the “be happy” attitudes. The Greek word “makarios” really means “fortunate” or “prosperous”. . . In other words, the person who is “makarios” has something bigger than a temporary feeling; there’s something going on here that makes a significant long-term favorable impact on the quality of his or her life. This type of person is truly happy, is truly “blessed.” This is the sort of person who is to be congratulated, and imitated.
The Sermon on the Mount is 3 chapters long. It’s full of short, pointed examples of behavior that Jesus is recommending for his followers. And people often take a single incident, pull it out of context, and try to develop a rule with the illustration as its center. That’s not how this sermon works, though. Sermon illustrations never make sense unattached to the fundamental lessons. There are eight of these lessons, and because each one begins with the word we translate as “blessed”, which in Latin is “Beata,” they are called “the Beatitudes.” Everything in this sermon must be understood in the light of the Beatitudes. They come at the beginning for a reason.
Jesus’ sermon is very carefully organized. Verses 3-16 speak in general terms; the remainder applies these generalities to specific situations. Verses 3-12 comprise the Beatitudes, which is what we are looking at this morning. The first 7 describe the Christian character, that is, poor in spirit, mournful, meek, hungry for righteousness, merciful, pure in heart and peaceful. The last Beatitude, “Blessed are those who are persecuted,” portrays the reaction of the world to people who conform to this description - and how we should handle it. And the next 4 verses describe the general response of the Christian to the world in turn. The remainder of chapter 5 deals with the relationship of the Christian to the Mosaic law, while chapters 6 and 7 expand to cover a variety of other real-life situations, from the religious to the mundane.
The most important thing to remember about the Sermon on the Mount is that it is primarily concerned with character. Jesus makes it very clear that God judges according to the condition of a person’s heart far more than what is visible to the human eye. This sermon teaches his followers how to develop the kind of character God approves of. Now, to be sure, character is played out in action as each person is faced with particular situations, but it is the character that matters. This is not a new code of ethics of morals, a new 10 commandments, but an illustration of a particular kind of person living in the world. The Beatitudes describe the kind of person the Christian is to be, and the rest of the sermon illustrates how that kind of person responds to real life situations.
A number of other points need to be kept in mind as we go deeper into the Beatitudes.
First, all Christians are to be like this. It is not a description of some exceptional Christians, like those the Catholic church canonizes. According to the New Testament, all Christians are already saints, have already been canonized. We are all called to the heights.
Secondly, all Christians are meant to manifest all of these characteristics. Of course each Christian will find some of these to be easier than others. That’s a matter of temperament. But we are not called to be content with the easy bits. We are called to strive for the whole package. And if you really stop to think about them, you can’t really have one without the other. How can you be merciful, for instance, without mourning the pain that calls forth the response of mercy? And trying to make peace is impossible without meekness. You see?
The third point is that none of these descriptions refers to a natural tendency. Each one is produced by grace alone through the operation of the Holy Spirit. There is a sharp distinction between the spiritual qualities Jesus describes and the natural ones which appear to be like them. Of course there are people who appear to be naturally meek, or mournful, or peaceable. But these are not what Jesus is talking about. And just as no one can claim to be Christian just because they are nice people, none of us has the liberty to excuse our lack of mercy or meekness on our natures.
Thanks be to God, whatever we are like by birth, we can by grace become what Jesus described. We are all meant to be what Jesus describes. The Holy Spirit can take the proudest person on earth and make them poor in spirit.
Fourth, the Beatitudes point out differences between the Christian and the non-Christian. Some people want to blur the difference between the Church and the world, in order to attract more people to it. I contend that those people have already identified themselves as hostile to Jesus’ message - who because they are not themselves drawn to its life-changing promises, cannot imagine that others might be. But the truth of the matter is that when the Church, the Christian, is absolutely different from the world, people are attracted to it. Even those who hate it have to listen, have to take note.
Let me give you an illustration. Christians and non-Christians tend to admire different things. Do our news media admire those who hunger and thirst after righteousness? Well, Mother Teresa was a media heroine - until she spoke up on behalf of the unborn. And if we really admired the pure in heart, where would Miley Cyrus and Kobe Bryant be?
The fifth and final lesson is that Christians and non-Christians belong to two entirely different realms. Look at the rewards promised. . . Both the first and the last Beatitudes promise the kingdom of heaven. What on earth would any non-Christian want with that? And yet for us it is the thing most of all to be desired. The kingdom of heaven is Christ’s rule, wherever he is present and exercising authority, where God is honored and praised and obeyed. How can anyone who does not love Christ live for that day, look forward to that day, give up temporary material advantage for the sake of that day? Look at some of the other rewards: the pure in heart will see God; the peacemakers will be called the children of God. It’s a whole different value system. And the currency honored in this world can buy you nothing whatever in God’s kingdom. That is why it is wrong to ask anybody who is not first a Christian to try to live of practice the sermon on the Mount. As preacher D. Martin Lloyd-Jones said, “To expect Christian conduct from a person who is not born again is heresy.”
That is why poverty of spirit comes first on Jesus’ list. There’s a verse in Rock of Ages which means a lot to me. . . “Nothing in my hand I bring; simply to the cross I cling.” That’s poverty of spirit. The reason salvation has to be a free gift is that there is absolutely nothing we can do to earn God’s favor. Everything we have is already a gift from God; how can we possibly presume to suggest that somehow he owes us even more? There is no one in the kingdom of God who is not poor in spirit.
The Beatitudes describe the character of the Christian. It’s the gold standard, the measuring rod, the poverty line. And we’re all below it. Being financially secure, being well educated, having the respect and admiration of your neighbors, none of those get you credit in God’s kingdom. And if you can see that, you’re halfway there. The next step is to sign onto the welfare rolls. . . and start receiving celestial handouts. Because, let’s face it, we’re all charity cases in God’s kingdom.
