Blessed in All Ways

Text: Matthew 5:1-12

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

          Matthew chapter 5 is the beginning of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. The sermon stretches across three chapters of the Bible and is introduced by saying that “Seeing the crowds, He went up on the mountain, and when He sat down, His disciples came to Him.” It appears that Jesus is separating Himself from the great crowds that were constantly following Him, but then at the end of the sermon, Matthew makes it clear that it wasn’t just the disciples who heard this teaching. He says, “And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at His teachings.” It seems to be, like so many other times, that when Jesus teaches, crowds gather. Perhaps not as many as the 5,000 men, plus women and children who gathered for the miraculous feeding, but a crowd is a crowd.

And Jesus certainly isn’t going to waste an opportunity to teach when people are gathered. They say the same thing about pastors, by the way. Always something to say. And Jesus’ setting is perfect for the teaching He’s about to give. Sitting on the mountain it’s clear that the people would have been thinking about Moses and Sinai and God’s presence in the midst of His people. Moses went up to that mountain to receive a new covenant for a new Israel and to act as its new covenant mediator. Jesus goes up on the mountain to deliver news of a new covenant. One where He is the mediator between God and the people. A mediator that not only teaches God’s Law, but delivers the Gospel through His keeping of that Law, His sacrifice for the people, and His resurrection from the dead. The disciples are Jesus’ Israel. His twelve. But this new covenant wouldn’t only be for them. It was for all who hear the message, both then and now. It’s the message for you. And it begins with the beatitudes. The message that you are

BLESSED IN ALL WAYS.

There are eight beatitudes that declare that those hearing them are blessed. And then in the ninth Jesus shifts from they to you, with Jesus speaking directly to His disciples and the crowds that are overhearing the message. There’s no one outside of Jesus’ blessing here. No one that can say “that’s not for me.” “[Jesus] opened His mouth and taught them, saying,

Blessed are the poor in spirit.”

How fortunate, how blessed are those who are spiritually impoverished, who have nothing to offer God but their sinfulness and brokenness. Luther said on his deathbed, “We all are beggars.” Completely dependent upon God’s grace. Those who are rich in spirit have no need for God. They’re self-sufficient, content in their spirituality, whatever that may be. They already have their reward. But the poor in spirit know the emptiness, the restlessness, the deep darkness of the soul. We don’t always have our religious acts together. There are times when we’re barely able to lift our eyes to heaven and say, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Like the tax collector in the synagogue, we who recognize that we’re poor in spirit go home justified. And the blessing of those who realize this is that “theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

“Blessed are those who mourn.”

How fortunate, how blessed are those who feel the effects of death in the core of their being, who weep even as the world around them laughs. Those who mourn have nothing in this life that brings them joy, and so they live in hope. “Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.” We who mourn wait in the night, watching for the light of day when grief is turned to joy and sadness to gladness, when God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. Those who mourn are forward-looking, future-oriented, living in hope of seeing what is now believed. Are you mourning, grieving, feeling the absence of those you love who have been taken away by death? Blessed are you, for you “shall be comforted” by the resurrection of Jesus. Those who are comfortable in this life will mourn, as everything is lost and taken away. But you who mourn now, will be comforted in Christ.

“Blessed are the meek.”

How fortunate, how blessed are those who are meek, even as the world admires the mighty. The meek cannot fight for themselves, much less claim for themselves a kingdom. For now, the earth is claimed by the strong, the aggressive, the warriors. Strong men lay hold of the kingdom with violence. Nations and people struggle for their piece of the earth. But the meek bide their time, waiting in silence, hoping and praying. In the end, the race doesn’t go to the powerful aggressors, but to the faithful. The spoils don’t go to the mighty but to the meek and the lowly who recognize where their strength comes from. You may feel powerless now, helpless against the forces that threaten you. But in the end, your faith in Jesus will make you strong. It’s the meek, not the mighty, who “shall inherit the earth,” just as our King was meek and lowly.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.”

How fortunate, how blessed you are who have no righteousness of your own. If you hear nothing else, at least hear this – you cannot gain righteousness by your works any more than your hunger and thirst can produce food and drink. The world feels that same hunger and thirst too, and tries to fill it with spirituality, pleasure, money, and power. But these things can never truly satisfy. Even after they’re attained, there’s still a nagging hunger and thirst. Instead our desire should be, as the Psalmist says, “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.” We’ll remain hungry until we feed on the Bread of Life. We’ll remain thirsty until we drink the Wine of heaven. We who are hungry and thirsty are empty, waiting to be filled by God who gives the bread of His body and the wine of His blood as food and drink. How fortunate, how blessed we are to hear these words, “Take and eat, this is my Body given for you; take and drink, this is my Blood shed for you.” This is the foretaste of the feast to come where you will be filled by the One who “fills the hungry with good things.”

“Blessed are the merciful.”

How fortunate, how blessed you are when you show mercy to others. In doing this you’re a picture of the grace of Christ for your neighbor. To have mercy is to live outside of yourself, to live for your neighbor by love, to be that Samaritan on the road to Jericho. Mercy is love shown to the loveless, in all the acts of kindness done simply because they needed to be done, not for reward or recognition. No one receives a prize here in this world for mercy, because mercy happens hiddenly, quietly, without fanfare. But it’s never forgotten by the Merciful One who had mercy on us all by His dying and rising. You “shall receive mercy.”

“Blessed are the pure in heart.”

How fortunate, how blessed you are to be pure hearted, yet who can honestly claim such a thing? Our hearts are anything but pure, filled with hatred, slander, gossip, thievery, lies, lust, and idolatry. How can we see God with such impure hearts? Yet here, in the sixth beatitude, we begin to catch a glimpse of something not so obvious at first. Jesus is speaking of Himself, first of all. For He alone is pure in heart. But He’s there on this mountain as part of His work to make us pure in heart so that we too might see God. And to look at Jesus in faith is to see God. He’s there to create a new heart and a new spirit within us. To transplant a living heart where our dying heart once was. To replace our sinful heart with one of righteousness. Because it’s only with the heart that He can give that we’re able to “See God.”

“Blessed are the peacemakers.”

How fortunate, how blessed are those who bring peace. “They shall be called sons of God.” Again, peacemakers are not a thing that we can be on our own. Only the Prince of Peace, who reconciles all things to His Father by His cross, can deliver the peace that this world cannot give. And only then can you be peacemakers in the Prince of Peace, bringing that message of reconciliation and peace to the world. How blessed are those who are equipped with the Gospel of peace and who speak a peace this world doesn’t know and cannot have apart from Christ.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.”

From this mountain on which Jesus is speaking, He can already see the mountain of His cross. Calvary, where He was persecuted in order to fulfill all righteousness, was the place where the kingdom of heaven fully came to the earth. And that kingdom is now yours by faith. But it’s not without it’s persecutions. As Christ suffered, so also will the members of His body suffer. The first disciples suffered at the hands of both church and state, persecuted by the government and by the religious leaders. And we shouldn’t expect anything less in this life. To be in Christ is to be crucified with Him. Certainly we hold on to the promise of being raised and glorified with Him, but first crucified with Him. Your sufferings for righteousness’ sake are His sufferings. This is why we rejoice in our sufferings, as Christ works in us endurance, character, and hope. We recognize that these are simply the labor pains of a new creation and they don’t compare with the glory to come. There is hope for the future. Nothing short of the kingdom of heaven. Which is the promise for those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.

And then Jesus looks directly at His disciples, and at you as well. He directs the final blessing to you. This is for you. “The words for you require all hearts to believe.” Blessed are you. Fortunate and blessed “when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

It doesn’t sound like what we’d like to have to endure to be blessed. But it’s exactly what our Lord endured on our behalf. And so, we do rejoice at what He has done for us. We’re glad that His sacrifice has made us free. And we’re blessed to be promised the kingdom of heaven. Both here and now and into eternity. A promise mediated by the One who sees the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, the hungry and thirsty, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and those who are persecuted. And who laid down His life so that we would be blessed in all ways. Amen.

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.