The world loves to laugh. Comedians will always have an audience. People don’t like kill-joys who ruin the party. Yet Jesus says, “” (Matt 5:4). He doesn’t mean that his people are always to be gloomy or morose. Still less is he saying that Christians are to wallow in self-pity.
Jesus has in mind the grief we experience, not just when we lose a loved one (though that is here), but when we become aware of the purity of God and the naked reality of the dark side of our nature. Isaiah the prophet was aware of this when he saw a vision of the glory of God in the temple. ‘Holy, holy, holy,’ the angels sang. Isaiah despaired: ‘Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips’ (Isaiah 6:5).
It is the cry of someone who thinks they are good enough for God and then discovers they are not. None of us is. Malcolm Muggeridge, one-time editor of Punch, wrote: ‘The depravity of man is at once the most unpopular of all dogmas, but the most empirically verifiable.’ Paul the Apostle said: Who will rescue me from this body of death?
The last recorded words of one of the criminals crucified beside Jesus, echo the grief that Jesus is talking about in this beatitude. “Don’t you fear God?” he said to his colleague. “We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve….” Turning to Jesus he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Luke 23:42).
This man was no saint; he didn’t even pretend to be good. Something about Jesus seems to have struck him. Perhaps it was the stark contrast between Jesus’ prayer for his tormentors and the bitter hostility of his friend. He knew Jesus was innocent: “This man has done nothing wrong,” he said. This man feared God sufficiently to recognize his need.
Jesus also had in mind another dimension of mourning in Mt 5:4: grief for the world’s sin. There are times when we are deeply saddened by the sin of the world. We read the news headlines; we hear of the struggles of family and friends. We are aware of the injustice, the cruelty, the selfishness of men and women towards others, and we weep.
JESUS WEPT
Often we are content to condemn the perpetrators. It’s a natural response. But Jesus has in mind another kind of response which he himself exemplified. He wept at the godlessness of people’s lives and what that meant. It’s easy to agree with Jesus’ words in Matthew 23 where he condemns the hypocrisy of the Jewish theologians and the Pharisees. But we stop short of joining him in weeping over the city (Luke 19:41ff).
Down through the ages God’s people have wept at the plight of men and women trapped in the dark little prison of their own ego. Calvin did. So too did George Whitfield and John Wesley, John Newton, William Wilberforce, and the Earl of Shaftesbury.
God’s people are realists. We understand that death is a reality to be faced. We know that sin is unspeakably ugly and black in the light of God’s purity. We also know that eternity exists and everyone of us is rushing towards it. And we understand that God not only exists but has spoken, revealing in his Word the alternatives that will come to pass — life or death, pardon or condemnation, heaven or hell.
‘My followers,’ says Jesus in Matt 5:4, ‘mourn because of the sins and blasphemies of the nation; mourn because of the erosion of the very concept of truth. They mourn over the greed, the cynicism, the lack of compassion evident everywhere. They even mourn there are so few who mourn’.
Have you ever noticed on television documentaries about the past, the sighs of interest, even pleasure, that people express? It might be a program about a long-forgotten people or an ancient city. It might be the revelation of the value of a work of art or a letter found in the attic. Significant ruins and long-forgotten events of the past, family history and uncovered personal treasures, give people pleasure and joy. It gives them a sense of being caught up in the timeless, even the eternal. It gives them a sense of identity and satisfaction. Sometimes it is as though they have found life’s holy grail.
It is into our world with its moments of self-satisfaction and self-sufficiency that Jesus speaks his first recorded words in Matthew’s Gospel: Blessed are the poor in spirit (Matthew 5:3).
ECONOMIC OR HEART CONDITION
With his words the poor in spirit he is not referring simply to the financially or materially poor. His disciples weren’t destitute. While they weren’t necessarily millionaires, they certainly weren’t hard up. Peter and his brother conducted a fishing business, and Matthew (Levi) had sufficient funds to host a large dinner party (Luke 5:29).
The poor. In Old Testament times God’s people were often referred to as ‘the poor’, because they were economically distressed. Sometimes this was caused by oppression, as we see in Isaiah 3:15: What do you mean by crushing my people, by grinding the face of the poor? declares the Lord God of hosts. At other times poor refers to the powerless in society, as we read in Job 20:19: For he has crushed and abandoned the poor; he has seized a house that he did not build. Furthermore, various Hebrew words for poor can mean ‘lowly’ or ‘humble’ as in Proverbs 16:19: It is better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor than to divide the spoil with the proud.
POOR IN SPIRIT
Poor in spirit. However, two words in particular that we find in Isaiah anticipate Jesus’ reference to the poor in spirit. In Isaiah 66:2 we read: Thus says the Lord,… But this is the one to whom I will look: he or she who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.
Putting these ideas together, Jesus’ words Blessed are the poor in spirit are a reference to a poverty of spirit that acknowledges spiritual bankruptcy. It is our honest recognition that we are unworthy of God; our acknowledgement that our world-view and life-style all too often reflect the converse of the first commandment that says, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength. We have set up alternate gods of our own devices to worship: money, sex, power.
Poverty of spirit is the deepest form of repentance, exemplified by the guilty publican in the story Jesus told – the publican who prayed from the back of the Temple: God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Poverty of spirit is being honest with God about ourselves. It is the admission of our impotence without him in our lives.
WHAT IS JESUS CALLING FOR?
What Jesus is calling for is a profound change in our relationship with him and in our lifestyle. But we will only want to do this if we believe that Jesus is the transcendent king.
Simon Peter, when he was confronted by Jesus’ power and purity, knew that a deep gulf existed between himself and Jesus: Depart from me, Lord, he said, for I am a sinful man (Luke 5:8). Matthew (Levi), for his part, knew there was more to life than money. Called to follow Jesus he handed over the tax office to others, and obeyed.
To anyone who sees how impoverished they are before the One who transcends all things, Jesus says, Blessed are the poor in spirit…
We don’t remember great leaders simply for who they were or what they did, but also for the things they said. George Washington’s Inaugural speech as president and Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, come to mind. So does Winston Churchill’s speech in May 1940: I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat; and his stirring and challenging words the following month: ‘We will fight on the beaches… We will never surrender …’
BEATITUDES
The greatest speech?What we often overlook is that the speech of Jesus of Nazareth known as the Sermon on the Mount, is generally regarded as one of the finest speeches ever.
Significantly, Matthew has not recorded any words of Jesus before his ‘Sermon on the Mount’ thus giving it greater weight. In the previous chapters (1-4) Matthew develops one vital theme: Jesus is God’s long-promised Messiah. Jesus, we find, stands in the line of the great kings of Israel: he is a descendent of the greatest of all Israel’s kings, King David (1:1). Significantly, foreigners called the Magi, come and worship him as king (2:1-6). At his baptism (3:14-17), Jesus is called God’s ‘Son’, a title uniquely reserved for the kings of Israel (Psalm 2). By the time we get to the end of Matthew 4, we learn that people have come to hear Jesus from every corner of the vast empire that David and Solomon had ruled in the golden age of Israel’s history (4:23-25).
Now in chapter 5 Matthew introduces us to the first words of the king – what we might call ‘The King’s Speech’. Blessed are the poor in spirit,…Jesus began. How easy it is to say these words. Yet as we will see over the coming weeks, they are challenging and disturbing.
What does it mean to be ‘blessed’?‘Happy’ is a poor substitute. Those who are blessed will generally be profoundly happy, but blessedness cannot be reduced to happiness. To be ‘blessed’ means to be approved, or to find approval. When God blesses us he is approving us.
JESUS’ CHALLENGE TO US
Jesus’ first words challenge us to ask, ‘Whose blessing do I want more – other people’s or God’s?’ Do we covet more the blessing of family or friends or of a superior at work? Jesus wants us to see that God’s blessing is worth infinitely more than anything else. If we agree with him, then his beatitudes speak to us very personally and very deeply.
One significant feature is that the first and last beatitudes promise the same reward. The first is: Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The last is: Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.To begin and end with the same expression is called an ‘inclusion’. Everything that stands between the two can be included under the one theme – here, the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus’ Beatitudesset out the standards that he, as the king, expects of his people. They serve to introduce the Sermon on the Mount which, taken as a whole, sets out what we might call the constitution of God’s kingdom. Jesus is not interested in people who live a veneer of holy living. He is committed to seeing lives of integrity – integrity in the home, in all our relationships, in the world of commerce and on the field of play, in completing tax returns and in the use of the internet, in the movies we watch and the magazines we devour.
When, by God’s grace we work at living out Jesus’ words, then we discover God’s blessing.
How should we respond to the cultural changes in Western society exemplified, for example, by the decision this week regarding marriage handed down by the Supreme Court of the United States? While delighting many, it is a decision that stands against, not just the Bible, but the natural order of the world. How, we ask ourselves, can we make our voice heard?
We tend to forget that the New Testament times were not dissimilar to our own. In his First Letter, Peter the Apostle, for example, was writing to followers of Jesus Christ who were suffering or about to suffer severe persecution for their faith. Their world was marked by narcissism and self-interest. Sexually decadent, it was an age of entertainment and alcohol.
People to whom Peter was writing were the victims of oppression. They were living under one of the most powerful and ruthless dictatorships in history, the Roman Empire. They had no vote and no free speech. Yet the gospel of Jesus Christ triumphed.
Let’s pause to consider what Jesus taught. In response to a question about marriage and divorce (Mark 10:6-8), he brought together Genesis 1:27: Male and female God created them, and Genesis 2:24: For this reason a man shall leave… and cleave to his wife (woman) and the two shall become one flesh. Jesus underlined the male-female nature of the marital/sexual bond.
OPPORTUNITY
So, how should we respond when we feel we have no power and no opportunity? In 1 Peter 2:12 we read:
Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
With his words the day God visits us Peter is referring to the Day of Jesus’ return. On that day, he is saying, unbelievers who have slandered God’s people will glorify God.
OPPOSITION
Good conduct, godly behavior, will not often draw the applause of the crowds. We only need to reflect on the way Christians are mocked today, not just on television shows, but in the social media. Yet, Peter is saying, ‘stand firm with your new way of living. Yes, there will be times when you are slandered and falsely accused, but the very consistency of your life may result in the salvation of others.’
CHANGING LIVES FOR GOOD
Consciously following the prescriptions that the Lord Jesus has laid down for our lives is not only good for us, but our new way of living provides opportunity for people around us to discover God’s good news. Our changed and changing lives challenge others – not least when it comes to the matter of marriage.
Indeed, Peter goes on with a word to wives about the way they might reach unbelieving husbands:
so that… they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives – when they see your respectful and pure conduct (3:1-2).
Now, he is not saying people are converted by seeing the good works of God’s people. Back in 1:12 he states that we become God’s people only when we respond in repentance and faith to God’s gospel of grace. People glorify God (2:12) because they have seen the difference in the lives of God’s people and they’ve been drawn to the faith that has brought about that change.
THE CHALLENGE
The tough question we need to ask ourselves is, ‘What does my life look like to others?’ And if we are married, ‘What does my marriage look like to others?’
In his recent book, The Road to Character, David Brooks observes,
For many people, religious and nonreligious, love provides a glimpse of some realm beyond the edge of what we know. It also in a more practical sense enlarges the heart. The act of yearning somehow makes the heart more open and more free. Love is like a plow that opens up hard ground and allows things to grow…
Love. When we stop and reflect on life, most of us acknowledge our need for love – be it marital love, familial love or filial love. But even then we are not satisfied for long, for we know that this kind of love will never satisfy the depths of our soul. Nor will it last.
Douglas Coupland in his Life After God confessed:
Now—here is my secret. I tell it to you with an openness of heart that I doubt I shall ever achieve again, so I pray that you are in a quiet room as you hear these words. My secret is that I need God—that I am sick and can no longer make it alone. I need God to help me give, because I no longer seem to be capable of giving; to help me be kind, as I no longer seem capable of kindness; to help me love, as I seem beyond being able to love.
Consider Peter’s words in his First Letter:
Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that was to be yours made careful search and inquiry, inquiring about the person or time that the Spirit of Christ within them indicated when it testified in advance to the sufferings destined for Christ and the subsequent glory Life After God.
Notice the words, the grace that was to be yours… It is the promise of God’s love. It is a love that is humbling and disturbing, for God’s love is unmerited on our part and costly on God’s.
God’s love involved the greatest sacrifice of all – the pure for the stained, the powerful for the weak, the glorious for the inglorious. As Peter tells us here, God had long planned to do what he had to, to reveal a love that is far beyond our imagination, a love that would rescue us from his just condemnation of our sin.
Notice how Peter puts it. He tells us that the prophets of old anticipated God’s grace, his act of love, and that the apostles and the gospel-preachers proclaimed it. God’s action in and through his eternal Son was developed over centuries. What the prophets of old searched and inquired about concerning God’s Messiah and his suffering, has now been announced through the gospel.
God’s love and the salvation he holds out to us is found in the sufferings and subsequent glory of the Messiah. Jesus is his name; Messiah or Christ is his title. His sufferings and his subsequent glory have made our rescue possible. As Peter goes on to write in chapter 2:24, Christ’s sufferings were sustained when he bore our sins in his body on a tree. Messiah’s ‘glory’ occurred when God raised him from the dead and gave him a position of honor and power.
Two great themes that bubble throughout the Bible are the ‘sufferings’ and the ‘glories’ of the Messiah. Isaiah, Jeremiah and other prophets had important things to say to their generation, but ultimately they were speaking about the coming of Messiah and the unfathomable blessings he would bring. The Old Testament prophesied the Messiah, the New Testament proclaims him.
No wonder John Newton could pen the words, Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me….
When our own faith is awakened afresh to the reality of God’s love – a love that is deeper and more satisfying than any human love – we will surely want to live in it and live it out. Indeed, when we experience the riches of God’s love we will want to do great things for him.
