Reflections on The Sermon on the Mount: The Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12)
Mine:
Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.
And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Real:
Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.
And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Unified Diff (other than minor grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes that have no bearing on the texts meaning) :
diff -u mine theirs
(That feels pretty good. :)
Reflection:
What to say about the Beatitudes… Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones dedicated a whole sermon to each one, plus 2 introductory and a reflection before moving on to the rest of the Sermon! And here I am with a tiny little blog entry.
Seems kinda pathetic.
Ah well, my goal isn’t to exege/exegete/exegesis (I’ve always assumed the term was ‘exegete’, just as the article says) the passage; just to throw out what hit me as I memorized it.
The phrase, ’seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain…’ has always bugged me. I’ve heard it preached two ways.
At IHOP-KC, they use the phrase to indicate that the Sermon is Christianity 101. Jesus’s going up on the mountain indicates that Jesus was trying to be as visible as he could and speak to as many people as he could (presumably his voice would have more reach speaking from an elevated height). This makes sense to me, as the rest of the New Testament does indeed seem to indicate that the principles set fourth in the Sermon are the grounding principles that should govern the life of a Christian. Beyond that, historically the Sermon has been interpreted thus.
At a few other churches (I can specifically remember a Generation Church message from Judah Smith, although I can’t find it in their archive. Honestly, their messages aren’t all that good, or at least they weren’t when I was listening to them.), I’ve heard it preached that Jesus went up on the mountain specifically to raise the bar of entry. He looks around, sees a bunch of people, and says to himself, “I’m going to find out who’s serious. Anyone who follows me up this mountain should be enough evidence.” This would seem to be supported by the next statement that ‘when he sat down, his disciples came to him.’ The text seems to indicate that the people he’s talking to are his disciples.
It’s hairy and either way involves reading into the text something. On the one hand, Jesus may have been George-Whitfielding or C.H.-Spurgeoning it and shouting his lungs out from the top of a mountain so that all the crowds (because they were numerous) could hear him. On the other hand, he may have been sitting in a tiny grove with a select group of people around him who had been willing to climb the mountain because they were interested in him. The text isn’t all that clear. I think, despite the text leaning more heavily to the bar raising interpretation, the rest of the New Testament does point towards the Sermon being for the great mass of Christianity.
There’s a great degree of debate around the meaning of ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit’ and the synoptic passage in Luke where ‘in spirit’ is dropped.
I’ve debated this long and hard with several of my friends and when it comes down to it, no consensus was reached. I’m of the firm opinion that Christians should seek to live life as simply as God will permit them to live it, because simplicity offers freedom from the cares of the world. This does not deny the fact that God does call some people to have lots of money, but even then I do struggle with God calling people to live lives of extravagance. I suppose if he’s called you to live in a rich neighborhood then you have to live in a big house. But, again, your life should be as simple as it can be while still fulfilling the call God has placed on it.
Others seem to see this position as too simplistic and despising the blessing God wants to pour out on his people, not only spiritually, but physically. Obviously, this leans towards the prosperity Gospel, but I see some merit to it. As with most things in the Christian life, the answer isn’t black and white and the issue ultimately comes down to you examining your heart before God to see if your motives are giving glory and honor to God.
Now, because you’re an astute reader you’ve noticed that I’ve conveniently ignored the passage I memorized and focused on the one that ends with ‘you poor’. I have a good reason, though, for ignoring the ‘in spirit’ version: I have no idea what it means. It may mean having a humble and appropriate opinion of yourself. Maybe it means having a humble attitude despite having wealth? I don’t know. I’ve thought harder about the other version. /me shrugs.
The promises in the Beatitudes are insane. I’ll list them in the hopes that their full weight would be felt. We get:
- The kingdom of heaven.
- To be comforted.
- The earth.
- To be satisfied.
- Mercy.
- To see God.
- To be son’s of God.
- A great reward in heaven.
We, who deserve (notice the lack of the ‘d’ on the end of that. We don’t ever go from deserving to no longer deserving. Only Christ gives us any hope. That’s why it’s awesome that we receive mercy.) hell instead get all of that, provided we move towards being poor in spirit, mourning, meekness, hunger and thirst for righteousness, mercy, purity of heart, peace making, and righteousness that always leads to persecution.
If this doesn’t strike as the most ridiculous and unjust thing, you don’t know your own sin.
I have always clung to the promise that when I hunger and thirst for righteousness, I will be satisfied. What I love about the promise is that it’s not made to those who are righteous and it’s not made to those who have the ability to be made righteous. It’s made to people who desire righteousness. God wants our desire for righteousness, not our ability. Once we desire righteousness, it’s him who completes it. In fact, it’s him who gives us the desire in the first place by his grace!
One new thing that really hit me when I memorized this section of the Sermon was that the peacemakers will be called sons of God. I had never seen before seen the connection here between peacemakers being called sons of God and Jesus being the Son of God. There’s a reason all of these blessings are connected with the behaviors they are connected with. I don’t understand or know them all, but this one I believe I’ve seen in part.
Jesus is the ultimate peacemaker. He is called our mediator. A mediator is someone who comes between two parties who’ve got beef with each other and helps mediate a solution. He reconciles the two parties who otherwise would have no hope of being reconciled. There’s never been a relationship in all of history that required a mediator more than God and us. He, the infinite being infinitely worthy of our worship, attention, adoration, and obedience was belittled, mocked, and disobeyed by our first parents and every human being since from birth. This is a crime infinitely worthy of an infinite punishment. God’s infinite mercy led him to be dissatisfied with pouring that infinite punishment out on some of us, though, and in the most unjust and undeserved exchange in history, Jesus willingly substituted the life he lived for the life we all have lived, died the death we should have died, and then God raised him from the dead three days later to prove for all of history that his sacrifice had been fully accepted and pleasing.
Thus, he made peace between us and the Father for all of eternity, enabling us to enter the relationship the Trinity has shared in eternity.
He is our peacemaker!
What this verse, then, is saying is that we who make peace are following in his footsteps. Peacemakers who pursue Godly peace are truly sons of God as only the Son of God has been in perfection.
Finally, the fact that the righteous will be persecuted was highlighted to me again. This, again, is a hard topic. Jesus does not bless all persecution as some of my more cantankerous brethren seem to think he did. He only blesses persecution for righteousness and for his sake. Of course, myself and my curmudgeonly brethren always think that we’re being persecuted for righteousness sake. This is, of course, ridiculous. We are sinners. At Advance 09 this year someone said that we want people to stumble on or exult in the rock of Christ but often times they simply stumble on our ministry style or our personality or our music or our location long before they get to learn if Christ is a stumbling block to them. This is an insightful statement. I believe that is one application of this verse. We will be persecuted! I tremble every time I let myself think about how little I am. At the same time, we can’t use this verse to indicate that all of our persecution is because of how righteous we are. I think it will always be a mix in this life. There will be some aspects that are because of righteousness, but often times the lion’s share will be because we sinned and are being punished justly for it.
Whew… That was not insignificant. If you stuck the whole way through and are now reading this, I hope you were blessed. I was. If you have any thoughts on the Sermon, please leave a comment or contact me.
- On July 10, 2009 @ 4:00 am
- In Uncategorized
- Tagged 5, Andrew, beatitudes, lloyd-jones, martyn, matthew, persecution, poverty, reflection, rewards, simplicity, the sermon on the mount, tim, visher
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