Dan Herold | Matthew 5:1-12 | 1/29/2017
Today we have a unique opportunity. Today we get to hear Jesus preach to us. In our Gospel reading we heard what are commonly referred to as the Beatitudes. Those Beatitudes are phrases talking about the blessings which we enjoy as followers of Jesus, but it also serves as the introduction to one of Jesus most well known sermons–the sermon on the mount. So just sit back and listen as your Savior speaks to you this morning through the very same words he spoke to his disciples over 2000 years ago!
First of all let’s set the scene. A couple weeks ago we heard Jesus quote the words of Isaiah that said the land of Zebulun and Naphtali would be blessed and they were blessed because that is where Jesus began his ministry…in the region of Galilee in the northern part of Israel somewhere around 100 miles north of Jerusalem. That’s where Jesus had met his first disciples who were fishermen on the Sea of Galilee. So it’s there in that picturesque rural area populated by farmers and fishermen that Jesus began to teach, and one day he took his closest followers—his disciples—with him and headed up one of the mountains that surrounded the Sea of Galilee.
And there, on the mountainside, he began to teach his disciples. He would teach them about all aspects of Christian life in this Sermon on the Mount which takes up nearly 3 chapters in Matthew’s Gospel. He didn’t have a church to preach in, a school to teach in, or a seminary to train these disciples, but it was on an unnamed mountainside along the Sea of Galilee where Jesus began to preach, teach, and train his disciples.
So then, what was it that Jesus preached to his disciples? What does he have to say to us this morning? Well, as Jesus speaks to his followers he tells us that we are blessed! But what does it mean to be blessed? Some people would equate it to being lucky, but Jesus means more than that. When he says that we are blessed he means that as his followers we are privileged, we are set apart in a class of our own. And then he goes onto to tell us how we are blessed and why we are blessed.
Listen once more to what Jesus says to us as he begins his sermon;
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
5 “Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
10 “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.
12 “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Now, I don’t know about you, but when I hear those words I don’t think of myself. When I hear Jesus talk about the pure in heart, the peacemakers, those who are gentle, and so on I don’t know why, but I just don’t think of myself. I think, “Oh, he’s talking about someone else…someone more holy, than I am…he couldn’t be talking about me!” But he is! He’s talking about me, each of you, and all his followers throughout the world! So, let’s take a closer look at these statements and see how Jesus can say these things about us…let’s see why and how we are blessed according to Jesus.
Let’s take the first two together because they are similar to each other.
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
How can Jesus say that the poor in Spirit will receive the kingdom of heaven? When you are poor you often need to rely on others don’t you? You need to rely on friends and family for help, you need to rely on your employer that they will continue to pay you a fair wage for your work—you need to rely on others because you need something that you don’t have.
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Well, we all are pretty poor in spirit on our own aren’t we? None of us have found a way to perfect ourselves…we all have flaws and we all fall short in one way or another. But Jesus has what we need! So even though we might be poor in Spirit, we won’t have to go without because Jesus will provide and he’ll provide us with the kingdom of heaven. He died on the cross to be our Savior so that he could give us the thing we desperately needed, but didn’t have. He restored our relationship with God so that we would inherit the kingdom of heaven. And then any time we mourn, anytime we are sad, anytime we are troubled by our own shortcomings or the problems of this world Jesus is there to comfort us and remind us that he is there to provide for us.
Next, let’s look at verse 6. That might be the key verse in Jesus’ whole sermon.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
Those words right there contain the key to understanding how Jesus can say that we are blessed or privileged and how he can say that about us even when we don’t always see it in ourselves. Once you get a taste of something you want more of it don’t you? If I go to a restaurant that I’ve never been to before and get something I like it’s hard to order something different the next time I come back.
In the same way, once we get a taste of what God has to offer, we want more of it! Once we see his power to change lives through the forgiveness that Christ won for us, we can’t get enough! We hunger and thirst for it, and Jesus says that he will never let us go hungry or thirsty, but he will fill us up! With any other commodity in the world there are limits on how much you can own. Even a resource as plentiful as water is limited to what exists on this planet, but Jesus’ forgiveness is limitless and he promises to give it to his followers who hunger and thirst for it.
And once we get past that statement–once we understand that Jesus promises to fill us up spiritually with the good wholesome food of the gospel, then the statements that follow make sense and fit right in. When I know that Jesus fills up every empty place I see in myself then I can read the words,
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”
And it all starts to click. Jesus can say those things about me because they are true! Since Jesus has filled me up with his love and forgiveness I can be merciful, I am pure in heart, I am a peacemaker! I am all those things because that is what Jesus has made me!
On our own we are none of those things…we are very spiritually hungry and thirsty people on our own. But Jesus has filled us up with righteousness so that we can be all those things he says we are. And when we are merciful, pure in heart, and peacemakers, and then God’s gifts are compounded. In addition to just having our hunger and thirst satisfied we receive mercy, we will see God, and we’ll be called sons of God. God’s grace is so immense it almost could make your head spin trying to understand it.
He gives gifts more impressive than any lottery jackpot you could imagine–and you don’t even need to buy a ticket! Our gracious God lovingly gives these gifts to us for free. He does warn us, though, that there will be those who persecute us because of our faith. He says we’ll be persecuted because of righteousness, we’ll be insulted and lied about because of our God, and we may have to suffer all kinds of evil. But even those statements are followed by a promise…the kingdom of God will be ours, our reward in heaven will be great! Jesus is upfront and honest with his followers that persecution will be part of life, but even through those trials God blesses his people!
And finally, Jesus says,
“Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
I don’t know that I have ever wondered if Isaiah was in heaven, or Daniel, or Jeremiah, or any of God’s prophets for that matter. But just think, Isaiah was harshly persecuted and was executed be being sawed in half. Daniel was thrown to the lions, and Jeremiah was imprisoned for preaching God’s message. But when we hear those names we think of how greatly God blessed them and how they devoted their lives to God’s service. That’s something for us to keep in mind as followers of the one true God. We were never promised that this life would be easy and free from trouble, but we were promised that it would be jam-packed, pressed down, and still running over with blessings from our Savior who loves us so much that he died for us.
We rarely recognize what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Too often we are tempted to focus on the negative and feel sorry for ourselves. That’s not the message Jesus preached though, is it? He called us “blessed,” set apart, privileged. And that is what we are are. We are privileged to have our hunger and thirst for righteousness satisfied and then to have God shower blessings upon blessings on us as his grace is demonstrated in our lives. That’s the message that Jesus preached to his disciples on that mountainside and which he preaches to us, his disciples, today.
We are truly blessed—we are privileged to call Jesus our Savior and to have him call us his followers. From that relationship with Christ, a relationship forged through Word and Sacrament, we receive immense blessings and ultimately the promise that we will inherit the kingdom of heaven. So then,
“Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great.”
AMEN.