Beatitudes
Sermon on the Mount # 1

a sermon on Matthew 5.1-12
by David C. Mauldin
Westminster Presbyterian Church, Mobile, Alabama


Fall means college football, and college football means pageantry. Even people who don’t like the game often enjoy the band. The sight of several hundred musicians playing and moving in well-choreographed unison is powerful. When they’re down on the field and they play their school’s song or something patriotic, you can feel energy surge through the crowd.

Every marching band needs precision. Conformity and unity are what makes the performance work. Imagine, if you will, a rogue band member. A large band has taken the field for its halftime performance. Things go smoothly at first, but then some guy with a trumpet begins to move out of step from the others. At first you think he just goofed up, but soon it becomes apparent that he is doing it on purpose. He is marching to a different beat, playing a different tune, completely out of step with everyone else. … And then it happens … a drummer steps out of rhythm and begins moving in sync with the rogue trumpeter. Then a saxophone. Soon a dozen members out of the hundreds out there are playing a different tune, marching to their own rhythm. Needless to say the band director would be beside himself, and the performance would be memorable.

OK, hold that picture in your mind. I’m coming back to it. Now, however, I need to say something about the exciting sermon series upon which we have embarked—or possibly you have been hijacked. Today we begin our series on the Sermon on the Mount. It will run to 17 sermons before it is over, but they will not be consecutive. We will have interruptions along the way, but I don’t think that will matter. Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount represents a challenge every preacher must face sooner or later, and I am glad you will be coming along with me. As I explained in the newsletter, the difficulty with the Sermon on the Mount is not so much understanding it as putting it into practice. My preaching it is only the first step. We will all need the support and encouragement of one another if we are going to do more than file it away as interesting information. G.K. Chesterton once said, “Christianity has not been tried and found wanting, it has been found difficult and left untried.” The success of this series will be determined as all of us take these teaching to heart and put them into action. Throughout the history of the church, God has done amazing things when people have embraced the Sermon on the Mount and started living by it.

Just so we are all on the same page: The Sermon on the Mount is not really a sermon, and it may not have happened on a mount. Otherwise the name fits perfectly! The Sermon on the Mount is what we call the collection of Jesus’ teachings in Matthew, chapters 5-7. In all probability, these are things Jesus taught at different times and places on more than one occasion. Matthew has collected them and presented them as a sermon delivered one day on a mountain. Luke contains much of the same material, although arranged differently, and Luke has Jesus standing on a plain. These details hardly matter, but what does matter is that these are Jesus’ teachings for the church about what it means to be his disciples. One odd feature Matthew and Luke share: Both say Jesus was with large crowds when he gave these teachings, but both also say that he turned to his disciples and directed these teachings to them. I find that significant. These may be teachings anyone can hear, but they are meaningful to those who come to Jesus with a desire to follow him.

As we turn our attention to what Jesus taught, I have become convinced the Sermon on the Mount can be divided into three parts. It begins with Good News. It ends with warnings. And in between, it tells us how we ought to live. For us it will break down like this: 2 sermons of Good News, 3 of warning, and 12 about how to live. It sounds as if this is going to be a popular series, doesn’t it? Everyone loves being to how to live! Yet there it is, and we will take it as it comes. To do anything else would be an injustice to scripture and to you.

Today we start with the Beatitudes, and they are part of the Good News that comes right up front in the Sermon on the Mount. This is important. In fact, if you get nothing else from this sermon, I want to be sure you understand this: The Beatitudes are not practical advice for successful living. Instead Jesus is preaching Good News about something God is doing.

Why is it important to grasp this point? Because if you think the Beatitudes are like a fortune cookie, an advice column, or a commencement speech, you will find they don’t work. You think to yourself, “How can I be happy? I want to be happy.” Knowing that the Greek word behind the English word “blessed” in this passage means happy, you read the Beatitudes as instructions. Happy are the poor in spirit. Happy are the meek. Hmm … could be worth a try. But after a while you decide you are not happier or thinner. You don’t live in a bigger house, and your hair has not started to return. You become like the man who, when asked by his son what his religion was, answered, “You know, the one with all the well-meaning rules that don’t work out in real life.” “Christianity?” the boy asked. “Yeah, that’s the one!” the man exclaimed.

That is the classic knock against Jesus by those who only halfway understand his teachings. I have heard people say, “If everybody would do what he said, the world would be terrific; but of course, too many people won’t, so it doesn’t work. You can’t live that way or people will run over you.” If Jesus were a teacher of ethics who observed how the world works and then offered advice based on his findings, that criticism would be true. But he wasn’t. He was a prophet who came preaching the kingdom of God. He was the Son of God who came to make that kingdom a reality.

When he says, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted,” he is not reporting something we could go down to the funeral home and observe. He is saying something startling and more deeply true. He calls certain kinds of people blessed because God is establishing his kingdom. God is claiming the world as his own. God is about to turn things upside down and inside out. Those who are working the system pretty well right now are in for a rude shock. Those who put their trust in God and wait for his kingdom will be rewarded; and that is why Jesus says they are blessed.

So the most important thing to know about the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes is this: Jesus teaches all this on the basis of the coming kingdom of God. What he says is true, not because the world seem to work this way, but because of what God is doing. Go back to the marching band and the rogue trumpet player. Shakespeare said: “All the world’s a stage, and we are merely players.” But I say to you: “All the world is a football field at halftime, and we are members of the band.” We all know how the world works, and we all know how to play along. What makes us the same is not uniforms. It is our human nature. Different though people are in many ways, deep down there is a similarity. We march more or less in unison, and we play the same song. It is a song about avoiding suffering, having a good life, making a difference, and taking care of one’s own. It is the only song we know—the only song anyone ever thought to play. And then comes Jesus, the rogue trumpet player, playing a new song—God’s song.

He says things are not quite what they seem. We forgot about God when we took the field, and because of that we’re playing the wrong tune. He begins to play a different tune, and he invites us to join him.

This leads us to another critical truth, without which you will not understand the Beatitudes or the Sermon on the Mount: Following Jesus means swimming against the flow, cutting against the grain, marching to a different beat. Why? Because the world is not the way God wants it to be. Praise God it isn’t! Nothing gives me more comfort when I read the newspaper than to know God wants something better for us. Look at the mess the world is in. That is where human nature takes us. When we swim with the flow, that is where we end up. God’s way is different, and he wants us to live his way starting right now. He is not finished yet. His kingdom is not quite here. His will is not yet done on earth as it is in heaven. And no one but Jesus Christ can make that a reality. But he does not want us to wait until he makes it easy for us. He wants us to be like him and live God’s way now—no matter the cost. And you know what? According to the Beatitudes, you may think you are in a bad spot now, but you are actually blessed. I saw a T-shirt once that portrayed what I am trying to say. On the front of the shirt dozens of tough looking fish (maybe they were sharks) were swimming to the left. Right in the middle was a little fish shaped like the Christian symbol you have no doubt seen on car bumpers. This little Christian fish was swimming the other way, and it had a mischievous smile. … We read the Beatitudes and we know Jesus is talking about people who swim the other way. They are blessed.

Before we move on, I want to define two terms so that we avoid misunderstanding. The first is kingdom of heaven. This is not a fancy way to say “heaven,” as if when Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” he meant “They will go to heaven when they die.” Instead, kingdom of heaven is another way of saying kingdom of God. Often Jews considered God’s name and even the word God too holy to say. So out of respect for God they substituted another word when they could. Matthew does this at times. Instead of “kingdom of God,” he writes “kingdom of heaven.” It is the same thing, and according to all the gospels this is what Jesus preached about. What is this kingdom? To be brief: It is the reign of God over creation. It is what happens when God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven. The Book of the Revelation puts it nicely: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever” [11.15]. The biblical, Christian view of the end is heaven and earth joined as one, God’s glory fully revealed, and all things under the authority of Christ. What this means in practical terms is that God is going to set things right. All the brokenness of the world that causes you and me so much grief, God is going to deal with it. When he does, that’s the kingdom: all creation—heaven and earth—the way God intended it to be.

The second term that might confuse is the word blessed. Because the Greek word behind it has a range of meanings, including “happy,” some translations have Jesus saying, “Happy are the merciful … happy are the pure in heart.” The problem with this is, he is not talking about feelings. He is talking about your standing before God. The opposite of blessed is not “unhappy.” The opposite is “cursed.” Jesus did not invent the Beatitude form. We find it elsewhere both in scripture and outside it. The Psalms, for example, often talk about who is blessed. So does the Law of Moses. We often read: “Blessed are those who do X. Cursed are those who do Y.” When Jesus tells us who is blessed, he is talking about their standing before God much more than how they happen to feel at the time. This is important. I have known Christians who think something is wrong with them or that they are giving a poor witness if they are not chipper all the time. But Jesus does not ask us to be happy all the time, nor does he promise to make us happy. Certainly he fills our life with joy, but he asks us to walk the road he took, and that is a mighty hard road. It is not easy to love in a world that hurts so much. Sometimes we hurt, and maybe that means something is right with us. But even when we hurt, we are still blessed.

So when we hear the Beatitudes, we hear them as Jesus announcing Good News to the church—to the church in every age, whether that be his disciples or us. The church looks to Jesus and says, “Lord, we need your help. Things are not good at the moment. We are poor. The world rushes by, and everybody grabs whatever they can. They all want power. They all want to be self-sufficient. They all want wealth. But not us. We are poor. But we look to you. We know every good thing comes from our Father’s hand. We are counting on you, Lord, to see us through.” And Jesus says, “Don’t you know you are blessed? Don’t you know the kingdom of heaven belongs to you?”

The church says, “Lord, we are mourning. Our hearts are filled with sorrow. We see suffering and brokenness all around us. It is more than we can bear, and we are not able to do nearly enough. Everybody else hardens their hearts. If they are OK and the people they love are OK, then they don’t have to worry about anyone else. The world’s pain no longer breaks their heart. But it breaks our heart, as we know it breaks yours. We are mourning, Lord. Things ought not to be this way.” Jesus says, “I know. Be patient a while longer. You are blessed. You will be comforted.”

The church says, “Lord we are meek. That doesn’t mean we are passive or shy. Moses was meek, and he confronted Pharaoh. You are meek, and you drove moneychangers from the temple. We too burn with a righteous zeal. But like you we do not use our power to bend others to our will. We do not use violence to coerce people to believe or to do God’s will. Some people do, Lord. There are people in this world who blow things up in the name of their god. Even people who are not religious think power is the ability to coerce others. We are meek, Lord, and that’s not an easy way to be in this world.” Jesus says, “I know that. I more than anyone know that. Yet I say that you are blessed. Do you not realize that the earth belongs to you? When the kingdom comes, the whole world will belong—not to those who would take it by force—but to you.”

The church says, “Lord, we hunger and thirst. Sometimes literally. Always, however, we hunger and thirst for righteousness. We want to please you. We want to do what is right. But sin still lurks in our hearts. It can be so hard to do the right thing. Help us, Lord, fill our stomachs with bread and our hearts with goodness.” Jesus says, “My grace is sufficient for you. I know your needs—your physical needs, your spiritual needs. You are blessed. You will be satisfied.”

The church says, “Lord, there is not much mercy in this world. People savor the sweet taste of revenge. Everybody has been hurt, and everybody wants somebody to pay. Those who get hurt pay back double. But the result is chaos—an endless cycle of retribution. We want to be different. You forgave us. You died for us and took away our sin. Because we are forgiven, we want to forgive. We want to show mercy. Help us, Lord, it isn’t easy. We get hurt just like everyone else.” Jesus says, “You do. I know. But you are blessed, for you are merciful. Because you are merciful, you will receive mercy from me.”

The church says, “Lord, we love you with a single-minded passion. We want to seek first your kingdom. We want to love you with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength. But there is so much down here to distract us and to divide our loyalty. Most people are devoted mainly to themselves. Plenty of wicked things entice human hearts. In fact, plenty of good things (though not as good as you) entice human hearts. We want pure hearts—hearts set on you, with everything else in balance and serving you.” Jesus says, “Blessed are the pure in heart. They will see God.”

The church says, “Lord, this world needs healing and reconciliation. People fight one another. Nations go to war. Races distrust one another. Some neighborhoods are violent. Families fall apart all over the socio-economic spectrum. We need peace. We need reconciliation. But nobody else seems to want it. Even those who do are at a loss to make it happen. Help us, Lord. Give us peace.” Jesus says, “You are blessed because you are peacemakers. And do you know what I call peacemakers? I call them children of God.”

The church says, “Lord, do you know that we suffer because we follow you? In some places we are despised and insulted. People make fun of our faith. In other places we are rounded up and put in prison or killed. In still other places our churches and homes are burned while the authorities do nothing. Can you help us, Lord?” Jesus says, “I know your suffering. I feel every pain. I suffered too, remember. So did the prophets. When these things happen, remember that I am with you and know that you are blessed. You won’t feel blessed, but you are. The kingdom of heaven is yours, and I am not ashamed to call you my own. I am the Alpha and the Omega. I am the one who makes all things new. And I will put things right. And when I do, you will be on the right side. You will rule with me in glory. I ask you to follow me to the cross, but beyond the cross, I promise you the resurrection.”

. . . . .

You see why I call the Beatitudes “Good News”? Swimming against the flow is not easy, but that’s what disciples of Jesus do. They play his tune and march to his beat in a world that only knows the wrong song. But God is going to do something. In fact he already has done something. He raised Jesus from the dead, and that’s all the hope we need to convince us he plays the right tune. He is doing something now, working in our lives and in the world around us. Jesus wants us to know, even when the going gets tough, that we are blessed. Amen.

rev_mauldin@yahoo.com
September 10, 2006