MATTHEW 5:1-12
One day as he saw the crowds gathering, Jesus went up on the mountainside and sat down. His disciples gathered around him, and he began to teach them.
“God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him,
for the
God blesses those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
God blesses those who are humble,
for they will inherit the whole earth.
God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice,
for they will be satisfied.
God blesses those who are merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
God blesses those whose hearts are pure,
for they will see God.
God blesses those who work for peace,
for they will be called the children of God.
God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right,
for the
“God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way.
Say what!?
Jesus is crazy! I’m not. How my culture has taught me to think is the right way. It’s the logical way. How could anyone think differently?
Poverty is for losers, in fact most people are poor because they made (make) bad choices! Only those with large egos claw to the top of the heap. They take hold of the power the
But I’m a Christian, a follower of Jesus. So I need to reinterpret Jesus’ sermon because he surely couldn’t mean what he seems to say. So, surely he talks about spiritual poverty without any connection to material poverty. Humility only speaks to my teachability (and only by those I choose to listen too!). A pure heart just means I have faith in Jesus. After all mere mortals cannot really have a totally pure heart. Can they? And peacemaking means I need to work at getting along with my spouse and kids, maybe you too.
I’m much more comfortable with this paragraph. So now I can do my Bible study in relative comfort. Thank God for my logical mind.
So why do I have this nagging sense that Jesus had something far more radical than I want to deal with; ideas that would totally upset the carefully crafted justification for my lifestyle, politics, and culture bound assumptions?
Lord God, grant me the kind of faith that fully follows your Son, even and especially into ideas that would unravel my world and reconstruct something discordant with the way things are. - Mike Leamon
Good people Bad things
The very first words of this classic sermon are disturbing. Jesus starts off by affirming bad things will happen to good people. God in fact blesses us when bad things happen to us and we respond the right way. I have been trying to help people who have had some really bad things happen to them lately and honestly, it is hard to see God’s blessing.
How do we reconcile the blessing of God and bad things that happen to us? Trust. When life does not make sense, there is only one thing we can do, trust God. Hard times in life either make or break us. Depending on how we respond we will either move forward in faith or struggle with doubt and despair. The difference in the two directions lies in our ability to trust God’s sovereign power.
Trusting God to bless despite bad circumstances is not natural. But then, God never asked us to continue on in normalcy after our salvation encounter with God. God wants to transform us by the renewing of our minds (Rom. 12). Renewed minds trust no matter what. Knowing what is coming in this classic sermon, much of it will not jive with my natural tendencies, but I praise God for calling me out of the normal into the supernatural.
Father, I do not understand how blessing comes from persecution or danger or hardship but I trust you to do as you have promised in your word. Help me to trust you in the pit of despair as well as on the mountain. I praise you for the hope of blessing despite bad circumstances. - Dan Jones
No comments:
Post a Comment