The Sermon on the Mount
Matthew 5
What Life is Like in the Kingdom of God
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven." Matthew 5:3-10(NIV)
Happy
“Blessed” more or less means happy. In these “beatitudes” Jesus does not list things to do. He is not saying that if I do A then I will get B. That’s works not Grace.
Jesus is teaching grace. In God’s Kingdom the impoverished, the persecuted, those who hunger for a better world, but are not experiencing it, those from humble circumstances . . . . .all can view themselves as blessed, as happy because God is with them and because God will not allow their bad circumstances to be the last word of their lives. Each will be compensated for in heaven (read vs. 12 in your Bible).
None of this is an “ought”, rather life as it is. Virtually all reports I receive from the third world tell of the happiness of the poor relative to the spiritual impoverishment of us Americans who “have it all”. We’re simply not a very happy bunch. Who is richer? Those who live short lives in impoverished communities who know God and his provision or those in the first world who have garages (equipped with openers!) and too many clothes and too much food and too much TV and internet, but are too consumed with consumption to know God?
Prayer
“Father, I am among the consumed consumers. Forgive me, Lord. As an addict to comfort and complacency I need your help. In Jesus’ Name. Amen”
INTERESTING THOUGHT FOR THE DAY...& MORE
ReplyDeleteI always considered the Beatitudes as unique in
the Bible..comprehensive, concise guidance for living as God wants !
In John 12, Mary (of Martha and Mary) had a valuable, extremely valuable bottle of perfume. Lovingly, she used it to cleanse Jesus' feet. Judas Iscariot, reprimanded Mary for it. Judas wanted the money, or so he wanted it to appear, to be given to the poor. Jesus corrected him. "The poor you will always have among you, but you will not always have me".
ReplyDeletePoint is this (and it is not to withhold from the poor, I feel I must clarify):
what would happen if, while rummaging around in our bag of spiritual idealogues, we chose to clean house and remove some items.
What if we took away, for instance, the cause of the day, you know the one thing we feel helps us to have something to work for, the thing that makes me in my own mind feel good about my Christianity, what if we laid that aside?
And what if we took away a few of those doctrinal issues, the ones that can get us all tied up in knots and tells us "we really have the inside track". We'll lay them aside for the moment.
And, let's see, what about church agendas? Whether I'm pulling my weight, or giving enough money, or spending too long in the bathroom- could we add that to the rest, too?
What would be left in our bag?
Would Jesus be there? Would we recognize Him?
We make piles. And sometimes the "stuff" on those piles isn't what's in our garages. They are things in our hearts and heads that take the place of being able to know Jesus in the simple way he gave us, through His Holy Spirit.
Wow Lynda - that is awesome. Thank you for taking the time to share these wonderful insights.
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