In his book, The Big Ego Trip, Glynn Harrison, Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry, University of Bristol, UK, writes of the way the self-esteem ideology has led to a culture of narcissism and entitlement. Dr. Harrison observes, ‘On almost any measure you care to mention – precision of terminology, evidence of beneficial effect, potential for harm, philosophical integrity – self-esteem ideology promised big, but delivered small. It’s time to turn back and set out on a different path…’ (p.130).

He continues: ‘…I believe the Christian worldview provides the coherent narrative that we long for’ (p.130f).

Why would an eminent professor of psychiatry suggest this? What does Christianity offer?

Genesis. It’s said today that in order to live life to the full we need first to learn to love and forgive ourselves. But the Bible sees things very differently as we learn from Genesis 1.

Confusion exists over Genesis because, influenced by a culture of science, we ask the wrong question. Genesis is not interested in the how of creation. It is concerned with the who and the what. The Bible narrative begins by telling us that God created all things and that everything has its origin and meaning in him.

Image-bearers. Furthermore, we learn that God created men and women in his image (1:26ff). We are the glory of his work. And unlike other ancient creation accounts, we’re not a final emanation, created to serve the needs of the god(s). Rather, God has ordered everything in such a way that, under him, we have the responsibility and joy of overseeing his creation. As C.S. Lewis put it in his Narnia series, we are royalty. As rulers under God, we are expected to learn from him, to trust him and to find our meaning and purpose in him.

However, as Genesis unfolds, we learn that the glorious hopes for humanity are dashed. In chapter 3 tragedy enters the scene of perfection and peace. Failing to follow God’s command, men and women succumb to the temptations to be independent of God, to indulge their appetites, and to see themselves as gods. The innocent joy in their relationships with God and with one another is shattered. Tainted now by self-interest, we have a strange capacity for both good and evil. If we’re honest, we know we deserve to be judged. The dread shadow of death now hovers over us all.

But there is a ray of hope. Genesis chapter 3 holds out a clue, indicating that hopelessness and death need not be the end of our story.

Many centuries later, a remarkable birth occurred. It is recorded by two witnesses – Matthew, a Jewish tax-collector, and Luke, a non-Jewish physician. Astonishing though it is, both reveal that with the birth of Jesus, divinity came amongst us. The names the baby was given are significant: Jesus means God saves, and Emmanuel means God with us. Jewish and Roman historians of the time reference Jesus but it is Matthew, Mark, Luke and John who fill out the details.

Jesus’ public ministry focuses on the kingdom, or the rule of God. Jesus is unique in history – in the purity and integrity of his life, the power of his words, his compassion for the needy, and in his unexpected capitulation to the deceit of the Jewish authorities and the power of Rome. Yet, it was through his death and resurrection that Jesus the Messiah opened the door to life in all its fullness for anyone who turns to him in repentance and in faith.

This is the Jesus whose counter-intuitive Sermon on the Mount includes the Beatitudes that we are considering in this podcast series.

The sixth Beatitude reads: “Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God” (Mt 5:8).

Throughout the Bible the heart speaks of who we are.

Purity of heart is something God has always expected of his people. In Psalm 24, King David asks, Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? To which he had answered: Those who have clean hands and pure hearts, who do not lift up their souls to what is false, and do not swear deceitfully…

God, the maker of heaven and earth is holy. Indeed, when Isaiah, one of the great prophets saw a vision of the heavenly throne room, he exclaimed, not “Wow”, but rather, “Woe is me, … for I am a man of unclean lips” (Isaiah 6:5). And the prophet Jeremiah chillingly speaks of the human heart as being deceitful … and desperately wicked… (Jeremiah 17:9).

And Jesus concurs: “… It is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person” (Mark 7:21-23).

How then can anyone be pure in heart?

It’s important to read Jesus’ words in the context of all the Beatitudes. Purity of heart is not a work nor a legalistic piety that will open the door into God’s presence. Rather, in the flow of the Beatitudes, we are blessed when we are aware of our spiritual bankruptcy and our need for salvation (Mt 5:3), when we weep over our sin and the sins of the world (Mt 5:4), and when we hunger and thirst for righteousness (Mt 5:6).

Purity of heart is the outworking of the salvation that Christ alone has achieved for us. The Letter to the Hebrews says to believers: Make every effort… to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14).

God now expects the hearts of his people to be pure. Ask yourself, ‘What it is that I think about when we put away my phone? Do I let my mind linger on images that have tempted me? What dominates my private thoughts? To what extent is my true inner self expressed in my words and actions?’

Furthermore, how do I view myself? Where do I look for meaning and purpose? Do I crave self-esteem through self-help mantras or the praise of others? Or do I thank the Lord because he has adopted me as his son or daughter? Do I now pray for his grace to live with a pure heart taught by his Word?

While seeing God in all his glory is in the future for us, we can experience something of it now. For as we see and delight in the rightness of his ways, so our hearts will be drawn into a deeper love for him. To know God is to have his Spirit, the Spirit of the Lord Jesus within us, the Spirit who assures us that we can call God, Abba, Father. No wonder Glynn Harrison wrote that the Christian worldview provides the coherent narrative that we long for.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

© John G. Mason – October 21, 2020

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In his book, God is Good for You, Dr. Greg Sheridan an Australian commentator writes: ‘… Christianity has been marginalized in the popular culture in the West …’ He notes that there are ‘very few Christian celebrities, or rather celebrities whose primary fame is due to their Christianity, their works or writings’.

Consider President Abraham Lincoln’s letter on January 19, 1863 to the textile workers in Lancashire, England, who, at great personal cost, had voted to continue to reject cotton produced by slaves in the US Confederacy. Deploring the sufferings arising from this decision, Lincoln wrote: “Under these circumstances I cannot but regard your decisive utterance on the question as an instance of sublime Christian heroism which has not been surpassed by any age or in any country”.

Lincoln’s words point to the traditional understanding of Christianity that, amongst other qualities, calls for mercy.

How would Lincoln’s reference to ‘Christian’ be understood today? Greg Sheridan comments, ‘Christians have a right to be worried about what is happening to their beliefs in the West.’ ‘… The primary challenge is not intellectual but cultural,’ he writes.

How do we respond to this changing world that denies the sacrificial practice of Christianity?

Come with me to Jesus’ fifth Beatitude, one of the eight ‘Blessings’ found in his Sermon on the Mount recorded in Matthew chapter 5. “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be shown mercy”, we read in verse 7 (Mt. 5:7).

The words mercy and grace are often used interchangeably, but there is a distinction. Grace is a love that is underserved. Mercy is love’s response to someone’s misery and helplessness.

Mercy responds to a world in pain because of humanity’s ‘me first’ problem. For despite the extraordinary advances in science and technology, we find it impossible to solve the issues of hunger and poverty, corruption and injustice, tension and conflict. In his Parable of the Good Samaritan Jesus provides an object lesson in neighbor love which, if practised, would lead to a world of selflessness, genuine love, kindness and mercy. It is a neighbor love that is motivated and shaped by God’s love for us and our love for him.

It is significant that when God came amongst us in the person of Jesus of Nazareth his priority was not first to destroy Roman rule, or to cure all the sick, or to deal with all the social ills of the world.

That said, he did reach out to people in need. The ancient historian Josephus says that Jesus carried out ‘remarkable feats’. The Gospel records tell us he enabled the deaf to hear, the blind to see and the lame to walk. And he wept with those who grieved.

Yet despite his divine powers Jesus allowed himself to be betrayed and put to death. His priority was to follow the highest path of mercy and grace – mercy for the helpless, grace for the undeserving. Through his voluntary death he addressed our broken relationship with the living and one true God. He the sinless, chose to die in our place – the sinful.

When we come to understand and personally experience this mercy of God, we will want to be merciful to others. Mercy is more than feeling compassion. It acts in doing good for those in need.

So what does this mercy look like in practice?

We show mercy by providing food for the hungry person, clothes for the needy and a bed for the homeless. In the big cites of the world mercy needs to be tempered with wisdom. For if we give to everyone in need, we will quickly find we don’t have the means to live ourselves.

This is why Christian foundations are formed so that resources can be used more effectively for those truly in need. In the churches I was involved in setting up in New York City, we supported and were involved in various care missions in the city as well as providing scholarship funds for children in Africa orphaned through AIDS.

But mercy is more than meeting physical needs, pressing though they are. Mercy has compassion for the spiritually lost. Augustine, the 5th century Bishop of Hippo in North Africa, said: ‘If I weep for the body from which the soul is divided, how should I weep for the soul from which God is divided?’ If we say we have experienced God’s mercy shouldn’t we now show mercy to those whose souls are lost for eternity?

When Stephen, the first Christian martyr was being stoned, he said, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” Stephen pitied the souls of those who were stoning him to death.

Mercy prays for others and looks for opportunities to open up conversations about the God who has revealed himself in the Lord Jesus. Let me ask, do you pray for family members, friends, neighbors and work colleagues who are indifferent or hostile to the Christian faith? The most merciful thing we can do is pray for and create ways to draw others to the Lord Jesus.

The outcome of mercy. “Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.”

We are not restored in our relationship with God by being merciful. It is only when we are conscious of our spiritual bankruptcy (Mt 5:3), grieve over our sin (Mt 5:4), and hunger and thirst for righteousness (Mt 5:6), that we will receive the blessing of God’s mercy.

Psalm 103 says, As the heavens are high above the earth, so great is God’s mercy towards those who fear him. Contrary to what many consider God to be, the Bible consistently reveals a God who is not only there but who is slow to anger and merciful.

How then will people around us come to know this? A little further on in his Sermon, Jesus says: “Let your light so shine before others that they see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven” (Mt 5:16).

© John G. Mason – October 14, 2020

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Many people today grieve over the extremes of political divisions in a world that has turned away God. The bitter hatred and vitriol stand in stark contrast to the words and actions of Jesus Christ who came to earth to bring us to God. In his fourth Beatitude recorded in Matthew 5:6, he says: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.”

Today I have a simple question: ‘What do you really long for in life?’ Peace and happiness? Health and fitness? Success in your work or profession? Sufficient resources to enjoy a great lifestyle and check off the items on your bucket list?

Having hopes and dreams is important, but we can be misguided in them.

In Jesus’ parable of the Rich Fool found in Luke chapter 12, he tells of a man who had enjoyed great success with his investments and wondered what he should do next. “I know, the man said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’”

However, there is a chilling conclusion to the parable: But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. ‘Fool!’ What a frightening epitaph. Hungering for wealth and success, the man had left God out of his life’s plan.

Over these weeks we are reflecting on Jesus’ Beatitudes or Blessings that we read in his Sermon on the Mount. Through the centuries Jesus’ Sermon has been regarded by countless numbers, including people whose belief is atheism, as one of the great speeches of all time.

Let’s consider his words: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled.”

Righteousness here refers to a pattern of life that reflects God’s beauty and purity. When we hunger and thirst for righteousness, we long for a life of knowing God, loving and honoring him with all of our being.

Our society chases after money, possessions, fame and pleasure. But is everyone satisfied?  Is everyone happy? Does everyone have enough of what they pursue? Where are blessing and happiness really to be found?

Further on in this Sermon, Jesus speaks about our need for food and clothing. There he says: “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you…”

So, where do we learn what righteousness looks like? Psalm 19 verse 7 following says: The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the decrees of the Lord are sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is pure, enduring for ever; the ordinances of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

The law is not simply a reference to God’s commandments but rather to the breadth of God’s mind and will for his people. These verses of Psalm 19 alert us to God’s good and wise expectations, awakening us to the joy of knowing and loving God personally – trusting and honoring him.

To get the essence of Jesus’ words we need to understand the emptiness of our lives without God. We might say we know God as creator of the universe. We may say we know Jesus as our Savior and Lord, but do we really long for God? Psalm 1 tells us, Blessed is the man or the woman whose delight is in the law or the Word of God, who meditates on it day and night.

We live in a sex-obsessed society. Yes, God invented sex. He gave us the freedom and the blessing to enjoy it but, in the way he sets out – within a publicly committed and witnessed relationship between a man and a woman.

What then does Jesus mean by being filled? Filled speaks of stomachs that are replete with food. Jesus is telling us that God will make his people who hunger and thirst for righteousness happy and satisfied. But there is a paradox. I enjoy a key-lime pie and am satisfied when I’ve eaten some. However, I always want more! Eating one piece creates a desire for more.

That is a picture of what longing for righteousness looks like for God’s people. We long for the day when we will see God in his perfection and goodness. Jesus Christ brings us satisfaction. We can experience joy and hope now. Yet we are dissatisfied. We long for righteousness in all its truth. We have a homesickness for heaven where perfect righteousness will prevail.

Richard Bewes in The Goodnight Book records John Stott’s response to his question, ‘What are you looking forward to more than anything else?’ John Stott replied, ‘I think I can truthfully say that I look forward to being more like the Lord Jesus Christ in my character. That, above everything else.’

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.”

© John G. Mason – October 7, 2020

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We don’t normally like to think of ourselves as being meek. These days meekness is usually associated with someone who is weak and submissive. Someone who is timid and easily pushed around. Yet in the third Beatitude in his Sermon on the Mount Jesus says, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth”.

The Beatitudes lay the foundation for Jesus’ Sermon recorded in Matthew chapters 5-7. An interesting feature about these eight beatitudes is that the first and last make the same promise. The first reads: “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”. And number eight says: “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

To begin and end a series of statements with the same theme is called ‘an inclusion’. This means that everything between the first and last statements is included in the one theme – in this case, the kingdom of heaven. We are to think of Jesus’ Beatitudes as the standards of God’s kingdom. They’re not just descriptions of the attributes of different sets of people who are members of the kingdom – some are meek while others are merciful. Rather they capture features that the Lord expects of all his people.

Jesus expects his people to grasp the reality of their spiritual impoverishment: they are poor in spirit. His people mourn over their own broken relationship with God and mourn that humanity is tragically lost because it has rejected its Maker. And now thirdly, Jesus is describing another quality of his people – meekness.

So what does it mean to be meek?

Jesus’ words in Matthew chapter 11:28-30 help us. There he says: Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle – literally meek – and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

As the Gospel of Matthew unfolds we learn that Jesus, the eternal Son of God, came amongst us, not with the trappings of royalty and privilege, but with self-deprecation and lowliness. He came, not to exercise unbridled or terrorizing power, but to honor God by serving men and women in their greatest need. He set aside his glory to rescue us.

Here we begin to learn the rich meaning of meekness – gentleness and humility in serving the best interests of others. Someone who is meek does not insist upon their rights. They think of others before themselves.

Consider for a moment the scene around Jesus’ crucifixion. Jesus was naked, exposed to the idle curiosity of the crowd and the vulgar frivolity of the soldiers who were making a party of it. “If you are the king of the Jews,” they taunted, “save yourself.”

And yet the extraordinary thing is this. There’s no spirit of revenge. Jesus didn’t curse his tormentors. Instead, as Luke tells us, we hear a prayer: “Father forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing.”

Now it’s also important to notice that the kind of meekness that Jesus is speaking about in the Beatitude is not that of the person who is a pushover. Meekness is not to be confused with being nice and easy-going. Meek and lowly as he was, Jesus could take a whip to greedy money-changers in the Temple. We mustn’t confuse meekness with weakness.

“Blessed are the meek,” Jesus says.

Is it not true that many of us who claim to be God’s people have forgotten this? We have stalled on the first two letters of the word meek – the letters, me, Me! At the personal level we are so often more concerned with justifying ourselves than building one another up in our relationship with the Lord Jesus. And is it not true that we are often more committed to giving our opinion about church or ministry matters than we are at reaching others with the good news of the gospel?

Back in 9^th century England, King Alfred, a professing Christian, was not only a capable military strategist but also a wise and visionary ruler. It seems that because he knew the Christ who had taught the Beatitudes, he worked for peaceful solutions even with the most ruthless of his enemies. As Arthur Bryant in The Story of England: Makers of the Realm comments: Alfred had the wisdom to realize that the sword, though powerful to defend, could settle nothing permanently, and that only the conquest of the heart could endure.

Following his defeat of the marauding Danes, Alfred made a peace treaty with Guthrum, the Viking King – a treaty which identified land in East Anglia for the Danish Vikings. Alfred’s meekness led to the Christian baptism of Guthrum and peace in the land.

“The meek shall inherit the earth” Jesus promises. He was quoting from Psalm 37. He was saying that only the truly meek will learn contentment. Their ego is not so inflated that they insist they deserve more. Indeed, because as God’s people they are learning from him, the meek understand that they are co-heirs in the inheritance with Jesus (Romans 8:16f).

Furthermore, Jesus is saying that the day will come when the meek will inherit the new heaven and the new earth. It will be a time when this Beatitude will literally be fulfilled. Throughout eternity God’s people will continually rejoice that this Beatitude is literally true. Indeed, they will be grateful that by the grace of God they learned to be meek during their life now.

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” What is your response? Do you really want to be one of Jesus’ disciples, exemplifying in your life those qualities that were so evident in his — meekness and humility in serving the best interests of others?

© John G. Mason – September 30, 2020

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The world loves to laugh. Comedians will always have an audience. People don’t like kill-joys who ruin the party. Yet Jesus says, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Mt 5:4). He doesn’t mean that God’s people are always to be gloomy or morose.

Still less is he saying they are to wallow in self-pity.

He has in mind the grief we experience when we become aware of the purity of God, and the reality of the dark side of our nature. Isaiah the prophet was keenly aware of this when he saw a vision of the glory of God in the temple. ‘Holy, holy, holy,’ the angels sang. He despaired: ‘Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips’ (6:5).

It is the cry of someone who, thinking they are good enough for God, discovers they are not. None of us is. Malcolm Muggeridge, a former editor of the British Punch magazine, wrote: ‘The depravity of men and women is at once the most unpopular of all dogmas, but the most empirically verifiable.’ Paul the Apostle writes: Who will rescue me from this body of death? (Romans 7:24)

The crie de couer of one of the criminals crucified with Jesus echoes the grief Jesus is talking about in his Beatitude. “Don’t you fear God?” the dying criminal 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, yet something about Jesus stirred hope within him. Perhaps it was the contrast between Jesus’ prayer of forgiveness for his tormentors, and the anger of his friend. He knew Jesus was innocent: “This man has done nothing wrong,” he said. “Today you will be with me in paradise,” Jesus promised (Luke 23:43).

There is another aspect of grief: Grief for the world’s sin. Are there not times when we are grieve over the injustices, the human trafficking, the looting and destruction that has accompanied the current protests? The influence of marxism with its anti-God philosophy in schools, universities and the media? Increasingly we see around us a world that has lost sight of the reality of God, and we weep.

Down through the ages God’s people have wept at the plight of men and women trapped in the darkness 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 in the light of God’s purity. We also know that eternity exists and that we are all rushing towards it. We understand that God not only exists but has spoken, revealing the alternatives that will come to pass — life or death, pardon or condemnation, heaven or hell.

‘My followers,’ Jesus says, ‘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 that there are so few who mourn’.

Where then is there comfort in this troubled world? “Blessed are those who mourn,” Jesus says, “for they shall be comforted.”

In grieving over our own sin, we are comforted with the knowledge of Jesus’ pardon and absolution when we turn to him with an honest and repentant heart. Paul the Apostle tells us in his Letter to the Colossians (2:13f), that the charges which stand against us have been nailed to the cross of Christ. The future tense, …shall be comforted that Jesus promises, stands behind Paul’s words. The comfort we long for from God could only happen once his perfect sacrifice had been made. The cross of Christ holds out to us a true comfort and joy, because through Christ we now have peace with God.

John Newton, who wrote the hymn, Amazing Grace, said: I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I hope to be – but by the grace of God I am not what I was.

And there is more. Insofar that we mourn the lost-ness of people around us, there is the comfort that comes when they respond to God’s gospel. In Colossians 1:5-6 Paul writes that the gospel, the word of the truth, has come to you,… In the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing. Too often we don’t experience this aspect of God’s comfort today because, silenced by or fearful of the voices around us, we have ceased to promote God’s good news.

Which brings us to another layer of comfort: the comfort that history is moving to an end point. A day will come when Christ will be revealed in all his might, majesty, dominion and power. Our own relationship with God, now hidden in Christ, will be revealed in all its glory.

Before you go to bed this evening why not read Jesus’ words afresh: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted”. You may want to kneel beside your bed and open your heart to God. As you pour out your heart to him, ask him for his full and free forgiveness. Pray also for your family, friends, colleagues and the nation.

When we put our lives in the hands of the Lord Jesus his promise of comfort rings true. His plan is to turn this troubled world, this vale of tears, into a dawn of lasting comfort and joy. His death has made it possible. His resurrection assures us of it.

© John G. Mason – www.anglicanconnection.com

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