The Law and the Prophets - Matthew 5: 17-20

The Pharisees have a bad reputation that is mostly undeserved. Their name has become a synonym for hypocrite and legalist. The Pharisees only wanted to please God in everything they did. A Pharisee was “a separated one,” as do words such as “Puritan’ or “Fundamentalist” mean—two other words with bad reputations.  Like the Pharisees, they just wanted to please God above everything.

The Pharisees believed that the way to please God was by keeping His Laws. They took law-keeping farther than most, though. For example, some of them believed you shouldn’t walk more than a sixth of a mile from home on the Sabbath. Others believed that walking with a pebble in your shoe on the Sabbath was sinful, since you were carrying a burden. One Pharisee writer wrote satirically that there were seven kinds of Pharisees, including the “shoulder” Pharisees, who wore their good deeds on their shoulders, the “score-keeping” Pharisee who kept a record of everyone’s sins, and the “bloody-headed Pharisees” who had scars on the foreheads from running into walls while avoiding looking at women. The lengths that some of them went to keep the Law were amazing!

The same is true of Christians today who have the same way of thinking as the Pharisees. Some Christians will not enter movie theaters, play cards, dance, makeup, or wear beards, for fear of offending God. As a boy, I remember old people who would not drink Coke because the bottles reminded them of beer bottles. We’ve all heard of the Amish, who refuse to use modern appliances. And let’s not even talk about what the castrati of Russia did to stay pure!

Pharisees were the largest Jewish group in Jesus’ day, so he was always interacting with them. Early in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus dealt with issues regarding these Pharisees. Jesus had to explain His position to them. If He agreed with them, the crowd would reject Him, because they didn’t trust the Pharisees. But He couldn’t just reject them either because they were actually right about the importance of the Bible, even if they were wrong about how they applied it.

So Jesus started with agreeing with them.  “Don’t think I have come to destroy the Bible,” He said. “I came to fulfill it. The Word of God is important. Not one dot of an I or line of a T will disappear until it is all fulfilled.” The Pharisees were right about the Bible. It is infallible, inerrant, and important. But then he said, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, you cannot enter the Kingdom of God.”

How would Jesus say it today? Think of the strictest, most devout and most restricted religious devotee you know, and insert them here in place of Pharisees. “Unless you out-Puritan the Puritans”,  “Unless you are more God-honoring than a Trappist monk”,  “Unless you are more devout than the Amish”---that is exactly what Jesus is saying.

The problem with the Pharisees and with those like them is not that they’re too righteous, but that they aren’t righteous enough. They try to be righteous, but they miss the point. They have confused obedience with inner change. They go through the motions, but don’t know why they do it.  They have  made a virtue out of ignorance, telling others not to ask questions, but to blindly follow their interpretations.

I have heard many sermons on morality and obedience, the evils of alcohol, homosexuality, pornography, or abortion. These are vital, important issues and we must speak out against them. But most of the sermons I have heard on these subject could have just as easily been preached by a Pharisee, a Muslim, or even a moral unbeliever. Is it really a Christian sermon if there is nothing of Christ in it, but only a lecture on human behavior?  Without real devotion, there is no life in the Spirit.  The Pharisees missed the point--not because they were bad people, but because they never understood God themselves. 

Imagine thinking Moby Dick was just about catching whales! Imagine thinking Hamlet was just about some Old Danish king! It’s not just what the Bible says on the surface, but the truth underlying the Word—the rightful place of God in our lives. The Pharisees read the Bible as a rule book and missed its purpose. The Bible is about a relationship with God. If you leave out the story, the rules don’t make sense. The Law come out of the stories--the story doesn’t come from the Law.

 “The Law”--that is, the set of rules that were kept and embellished by the Pharisees--came mostly from four books in the Bible—Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. If you only pay attention to these four out of the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament, you will naturally miss the point. The Bible is about worship, not Law. Worship is a term that expresses our whole relationship to God—a relationship of love and dependency upon Him. We exist to honor, praise and serve Him. The Laws were instructions on how we worship. Without that relationship, keeping the Law doesn’t mean a thing. 

Think of it like a child’s relationship to her parents. Family relationships are based on love. We have kids so we can love them. Out of love, we make rules for our kids-- “Go to bed”  “Say please and thank you”  “Don’t play in the street.”  These laws are temporary.  Not every parent on the block will have the same rules for their children, but that’s all right. When we get older, if we’ve taught them right, we don’t need these rules. 

As we get older, the love relationship with our children doesn’t change, but the law relationship does. Our kids can go in the street, since they already learned not to. They can go to bed when we want. The love relationship with our parents outlives the law relationship. One day, in the far future when our parents are very, very old, we may even be the ones making rules for them!  Even so, the love stays. The law is temporary, but the love is forever.

No ritual or law we observe in service to God is permanent. When we go to heaven, there will not even be the Ten Commandments. There will be no need to tell people not to worship other Gods, because God will be the only God there. We don’t have to be told to honor our parents, because we will honor everyone, especially our real Father. There will be no stealing, killing, adultery, or bearing false witness. Who’s going to be jealous in heaven, when we will be able to experience every delight all the time?

The Pharisees mistook the Law of God for God.  They were Law-worshippers, not God-worshippers.  Our righteousness must be greater than theirs, because it is based on a love relationship, not a law relationship. We are free to keep the Old Testament laws or not keep some of them, because our righteousness is based not in our scrupulous law-keeping, but on our understanding the Law’s original purpose. 

At first, God gave Adam and Eve two commandments. The first was a positive one—to keep and tend His garden, which is the world. The second was a negative one—not to eat of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. These commands gave them a way to show their love and devotion to Him. Love exists without action, but its expression and practice that requires we do something to prove it. When someone you love is in need, you want to do something to show your love to them. When we love God, we want to show it in some way. Keeping His commandments shows our love.

Adam and Eve’s real sin was not just that they ate the forbidden fruit. It went deeper than that—they fell out of love with God. The sin might have been repaired, if only they were willing to repair the relationship. Instead, they hid themselves, breaking the relationship out of fear and shame. From that time on, humans feared God more than they loved Him, and their approach to Him was fear-based, not love-based. 

Eons later, God created a special people to love Him—the Hebrews. Their purpose was to reestablish devotion towards God, and to call the rest of the world to love Him. In order to maintain that love, God gave them special laws and rituals, to maintain that love through the generations. God created a whole culture by decree, based on the love of Him. It included dietary laws, forms of dress, special days, etc., so they could express what it meant to worship Him. These traditions provided a necessary structure to maintain this love-based community. Like a family needs a house to live together, a community needs rituals and structure to keep it together.

But just as a house is not a family and a set of rules is not a religion. The laws were made as an aid to worship, but they are not worship. They weren’t bad, they just weren’t complete.

Here’s the  Pharisee’s problem. They confused the house with the family. Jesus didn’t come to change the house, but to heal the family. There wasn’t anything wrong with the way they worshipped, it was the object of their worship.  When we focus on the details of the Law, It becomes like an OCD obsession. We wind up keeping the Law for its own sake, not for God’s sake. We take the Bible and make it an idol, not a tool. We maintain the house, but there’s no one at home.

Have you ever heard of the expression, “You can’t see the forest for the trees?” I think there are two kinds of people in the world, those who only see the forest, and those who only see the trees. One sees only the big picture, while the other sees the details. The Pharisees were “tree” people. They became so obsessed with the details of theology and morality that they forgot to love God and others. 

 The Old Testament law contains many detailed descriptions about how to keep the Sabbath, what to eat, etc., but is also includes Leviticus 19:18, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” If the details get in the way of the love, then we must set aside the details long enough to get the big picture.

Most of us would consider ourselves religious, but that doesn’t make us right. Just doing religious things don’t make us God’s. In order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven—that place where God is really our master—we must enter through the love of Jesus. We must first love Him, with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. He must be above all things to us. When we put Jesus, first, it is never an issue as whether or not we will obey. If it is within our power, as much as we can we will obey. God’s grace does the rest, giving us the strength to obey.

Jesus can give us what the Law never could, which is the power to be good. He made us good through the Cross. 

Salt and Light

Jesus gives two metaphors to explain what it is like in the Kingdom of God—salt and light. 

The first is salt. Salt is a potent substance—a little of it goes a long way. Notice that He didn’t say, “You ought to be salt,” but said, “You are salt.” It isn’t what you do, but about who you are. If you have surrendered your sovereignty to Jesus, then you flavor everything around you.    

Christians wonder, “What am I called to do?” You weren’t called to do anything, but to be something. You are a flavoring—the flavor of Christ. When we yield to Jesus and live in imitation of Him, then we take on His personal characteristics—His “smell.” Aided by the Holy Spirit, who lives inside of us we manifest publicly the life of Jesus.   

 The salt of Jesus’ day was mined from the shores of the Dead Sea and had a lot of other stuff in its chemical makeup. If it got wet, the “salty” salt leeched out of it, and it lost its flavor. Then it was no good as a flavor but was used to resurface roads. 

Just because we attend church doesn’t mean we have joined the Kingdom of God.  You can’t be in Christ’s kingdom without giving Him allegiance and yielding Him control. If you don’t surrender, you can’t flavor the world with Jesus.  

In the movie Private Benjamin Goldie Hawn played a valley girl who joined the army on a whim. Her recruiter told her all the wonderful things the army would do. She didn’t realize that joining the army meant surrendering personal freedom. She told her drill sergeant “I did join the army, but I joined a different army. I joined the one with the condos and the private rooms.” 

 Many Christians say, “I gave myself to Jesus, but a different Jesus. I surrender to the Jesus that guarantees me health, wealth, and prosperity, and who doesn’t demand so much from me.” If you think that, then you’ve got the wrong Jesus. Without surrender, you’ll never be salt. 

This is not just a call to commitment though—it’s a revelation of how God is going to change the world. The kingdom won’t be advanced by conquest or promotion, but by the influence of those who have been transformed in their everyday lives. The more we are like Christ, the more we will change the world. Governments are not made or toppled by our action, but are changed from the inside by people being like Christ. When Jesus enters our lives, we must live like Him.

Imagine the church as a kind of saltshaker and from which we pour out to influence society. If salt doesn’t flow it usually means that the salt inside has mixed with something else, usually water, that prevents it from naturally flowing. If a church isn’t touching others, it usually means the nature of Christ has become mixed with some idol that prevents us from giving Christ full allegiance. That idol is most often our own connections to the Christian community. We have started to love our own community and tradition more than Jesus. Our allegiance needs to be to Jesus first and our Christian family or community second. The idol of community is subtle and disastrous. When we think of ourselves an Americans first, or a family member first and a Christians second, then we are not living under the kingship of God. But God will allow us no other ultimate allegiance but Himself. He wants to be our comfort and joy, and will allow no others.   If we cannot leave the company of our family and traditions then we have confused our attachments. We have decided that we do not want to live for Christ alone, and that we cannot live without the favor and comfort of others. We stay in the saltshaker because we are stuck on one another. 

Fear also keeps us in the saltshaker. We are afraid that unbelievers will influence us more than we will influence them. But this only happens when we take our eyes off Jesus. Fear of God erases all others fears.  When we seek to please Him, we only fear not being like Him. When we look aside from Jesus, we fear everything else. 

This leads us naturally to the second metaphor Jesus uses—light. In a dark room, even the smallest light will enable us to see.  One small LED light can be enough to navigate our bedrooms at night. Light, doesn’t have to work at shining. It just exists. A person in the Kingdom of God doesn’t have to work at being a witness. Just show up. 

Nevertheless, if light is not in a prominent place, it cannot be seen. In Israel, all the cities are on hills. It’s easier to see enemies coming when you can look down on them. It was also for location purposes. If you are lost, you can see the lights of town. Cities in the mountains are located in valleys for defensive reasons as well. If you are hidden in a valley, you are less likely to be a target. In a valley people become suspicious of people from the next valley. When we are afraid of what others will think of us we hide our problems away. 

Christians are supposed to be weird! If we aren’t peculiar, then we are probably not reflecting Christ! When we surrender to Jesus, He becomes our only Judge. We no longer consider what the rest of the world thinks. All that really matters is what Christ thinks. We become a light to the world, not a place that needs the light of others.

Jesus uses a second image to explain this idea of light, which is hiding it under a bushel basket. This means putting walls around our light. When we fear what others think of us more than we fear God, then we must protect ourselves from others. We hide ourselves away behind wicker walls like a light under a basket. Our allegiance to Jesus doesn’t have to be hidden. We do not need walls to protect us. We just need to be ourselves.

Witnessing for many people doesn’t feel natural. That is because it often isn’t. People are sometimes guilt-driven witnesses. They hear some preacher talking about the necessity of sharing Jesus, and how everyone else is going to Hell, and we guiltily go and share. But if we are surrendered to Christ, none of this has to be unnatural. If we are living with our eyes on Jesus, seeking to imitate Him, then what we do is a natural witness. 

Jesus says, “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

When we are surrendered to the Kingdom of God, our good works are not our good works—they are God’s good works. We are only doing them because we are seeking to walk, talk, act, and think like Jesus. When people see that someone who is an unashamed Christian does good works in Jesus’ Name, it naturally follows that they will give glory to God, not to Jesus.

In our society, the reason people don’t glorify Jesus is because there are so many other people who seem to be doing bad things in Jesus’ name. The overall impression of churched Christians is not high in this country. But the people who do bad works in Jesus’ name are not following Jesus. They seek to glorify themselves or the institutional church, but they don’t glorify Christ.

Once I approached a man on the street who was reeling drunk and invited him to church. He said, “No, I’m a Baptist.” Great! I said. “What church do you attend?

“Baptist,” he answered. So, what local church?

“Baptist.” So, are you a Christian?

No,” he insisted. “I’m a Baptist!”

We aren’t Baptists, Presbyterians, Pentecostals, or independent. We are part of the kingdom of God, followers of Christ who seek to imitate Him in everything we think, feel, say, and do. The flavor of Christian we are is of relatively little importance. The flavor of Christ is how we seek to be known. 

Live in surrender to Him on your job, in your home, in your neighborhood and on the street. Be who you are, and be Christ’s and everything we say and do will be salt and light to the world. 

“The Resurrection of the Body, and the Life Everlasting” - Revelation 21: 1-2

Most people think they know the Bible teaches about the afterlife--but they are wrong. Much of what we know about it comes from Greek philosophy—especially Plato—not the Bible.

Here’s the idea that most people have. Bodies are mortal, but souls are immortal. Souls come from heaven, but visit earth for a short time. Bodies are not important, just temporary shelters for our souls. Death releases the soul to return to its non-material state. After death, we just float around on clouds. God is there, but mostly we are just hanging out with the rest of our friends and relatives to make it.

This picture doesn’t come from the Bible, but from Plato. He taught that human souls are a piece of God’s divinity temporarily broken off to live on earth, which somehow becomes trapped in human bodies. When we die, we are released from this flesh, and go back to God. This material world is bad because it keeps us from God. But the world we go to, Heaven, is a place without material existence.  

We see versions of this idea everywhere, from ghost stories to Highway to Heaven or It’s a Wonderful Life. It’s such a widespread idea that most Christians have never heard or noticed what the Bible really teaches about the afterlife. 

Here are four examples of the misconceptions that you’ve probably encountered.

Misconception #1: “Babies from heaven”.  This idea is that that babies are immortal souls existing in heaven before they’re born. When a baby is born, it drops down into a fetus like a gumball from a machine--or maybe it’s dropped off by storks!

Misconception #2: “Ghosts”. This idea is that spirits of dead people spend their time looking down on earth. Sometimes these spirits visit us. One misconception is that angels are the same as ghosts. if they don’t quite get to heaven, they just hang around some creaky old house!

Misconception #3: “Reincarnation”. This idea has God “recycling” souls returning them to earth in other bodies. Hindus teach that insects, animals, people, and all living things have souls that are reincarnated—which means that if you swat a fly, you may have just killed your dead aunt again! Our lives are a reward or punishment for our last one. If we’ve been really good, we may return as a cow!

Misconception #4: “Dead Momma songs”.  Once we had a bluegrass gospel concert at church. The music was great, but I started to notice a similarity in about two-thirds of the songs—they were all about meeting their dead mommas in heaven (for some reason, it was never their daddies). In these songs, their mommas were mainly sitting around heaven waiting for them to arrive. 

What’s wrong with that, you may ask? Just this--people in heaven aren’t waiting for us. Time doesn’t exist there. In their perception, we are already there. They live in adoration of God.

So if we aren’t floating around like ghosts, what will the afterlife be like?

The Creed says, “The resurrection of the body.”  In the afterlife, we will have bodies. I Cor. 15: 40 says, “There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies. But the beauty of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the beauty of the earthly bodies is another.”  We will be given bodies in heaven, not immediately, but when Jesus returns. 

Not only will we have new bodies, but a new earth to go with it. When Jesus returns, they will all go to a restored earth.  Rev. 21: 1-2, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.  And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”

We aren’t just going to paradise. Paradise is coming here, along with all of its inhabitants. Look at what 1 Thessalonians 4 tells us, “For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.” 

The Bible’s idea of the afterlife is Jewish, not Greek. In Jewish culture, body and soul are one.  “Soul” doesn’t mean a part of ourselves, but all of us. Soul and body cannot be separated. When we die, our essential nature is held in Christ until the end of all things when our bodies are recreated and resurrected as new, immortal bodies. 

Think of it like upgrading your computer. A computer has hardware and software. Software can be stored, but won’t run without the hardware. When your computer wears out, you save the software and reload it on a new computer. When our bodies wear out, our non-material nature is saved in Christ, to be reloaded into a new body at the end time. Our soul is resurrected in a new body.

God is making a new heaven and earth. The Bible doesn’t really say we’re going to heaven to meet Jesus. It says Jesus is coming here to meet us. 

In Roman culture when a conquering king entered a city, the leading citizens of it went out to meet him, so they could join the royal procession. When Christ comes, we will join the dead in a triumphant procession as He claims the throne. This new world is still called earth, to retain continuity between this world in the new world.

Now, there is a lot about this I don’t understand and most of that I don’t need to know. All will be revealed in its appropriate time. So why do we need to know this?  Why do we need to know that when Jesus comes again, He will resurrect our bodies? I believe it’s because of two serious errors the church makes when we don’t understand this.

Error #1—we can act as if this world doesn’t matter. If this world is just going to be destroyed, why do we need to worry about it?  Just get saved and wait for heaven! Why bother with stewardship of the earth, or injustices or abuse, if all we see is just temporary?

Calling this new place “earth” stresses the continuity between this world and the next.  Something of what we create here carries over into the new earth. Our work here matters to God for eternity.

We were put here to make a difference. Adam was put here to be God’s gardener—to be a co-creator with God in Eden. His contributions made it better. Sin got Adam and Eve’s children off track, and the whole world suffered. So God started an Israel to restore humankind’s original purpose. He made Abraham’s children to be a blessing to the whole world. When they failed to be that blessing.  God sent Jesus to bring them back on track, and the rest of the world with them. Christians aren’t here just to wait around to go to leave. This world is still being created, and God is still using us to do it.

The same is true of our bodies. What you do with and to your body matters. From the physical shape that many Christians are in, we have to conclude that most Christians don’t consider ourselves stewards of these bodies. We have become lazy stewards of what we have been given.  

Error #2—We can act as if this world is all that matters. This error is the opposite of the first. Many people, believing that God has given up on this world and that we must make a new heaven and earth alone, through our own efforts. But the Bible is very clear on this—Jesus will restore the world, not us. No matter how much we work at it, earth won’t be restored until Jesus comes again.

The resurrection of the body goes with the recreation of the Earth. Just as God’s work and our work have gone into building the Earth as we know it, God’s work and our work both go into shaping our future lives. The bodies will not be destroyed, but perfected.  1 Cor.  15: 51-53:

^“Listen, I tell you this secret: We will not all die, but we will all be changed. It will only take the time of a second. We will be changed as quickly as an eye blinks. This will happen when the last trumpet blows. The trumpet will blow and those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we will all be changed.”

We won’t disappear, but be transformed into something eternal. This body and this world is good, but it is just a template for the eternal earth and eternal body God will build for eternity.

Think of petrified wood. Millions of years ago, a tree produced a single seed, and that seed managed to grow from a single cell into a mighty redwood.  When the tree died, that organic material decayed and dissolved, but it left behind a pattern that became immortalized in the surrounding sand, which hardened into stone. The struggles of that tree to survive can be read in the pattern that was preserved for us to see millions of years later.

Is it really so hard to believe that our lives, our accomplishments may have the same fate? Our accomplishments are not lost, but perfected in a more durable form, like wood to stone. In the process, our imperfections are replaced, our failures burned way, replaced in Christ with something more lasting and enduring.

Lately, I’ve been using a daily devotional that contains “commemorations.” Commemorations are the stories of old saints. There are monks, nuns, missionaries, martyrs, politicians, doctors, social activists and authors from all nations. Their lives are preserved in the stories that are told. They die, but theirs names did not. None of them were perfect people, but their faults are forgotten and their great deeds live on.

In the new heaven and the new earth  is  “life everlasting.”  This world is Earth 1.0.  It’s just a template for Earth 2. The next eternal life will be based on the template of this life, like a fallen tree can become a template for a stone.

What part of us survives into this new world?  The part that looks like Jesus. He is the model for everything enduring and beautiful in us. As we seek to emulate Him in our lives, we create an enduring model for everything that is to come. Our good deeds will be celebrated, our bad deeds will be forgotten, buried in Christ forever as the good in us lives on.

We can take comfort in this--that when we die we won’t be forgotten. In Christ’s return, our good will last forever in the new earth. 

The Holy Christian Church, the Communion of Saints, the Forgiveness of Sins

John 13:34

“A new commandment I give you, love one another.  By this will all men know you are my disciples, by your love for one another.”

Before Jesus commanded us to go into the world, He commanded us to love each other. If we cannot love our brothers who we know, then how can we really love the stranger who we don’t know?  

Even so, Christians are known for their rivalry, pride and infighting. We have no idea what the Creed means when it says, “The holy catholic church,” “the communion of saints” or even “the forgiveness of sins.”

So let’s talk about these three statements.

“The Holy Christian church does not mean the Roman Catholic church. It means the whole, or universal church. Christians everywhere who call upon the Lord Jesus Christ are one. Anyone who confesses Jesus Christ is Lord is part of the true church of God. We are all one in the Lord, and of equal importance in His eyes.

For centuries though, Christians have been trying to find a way not to love our brothers and sisters—or if we love them, to treat them as our inferiors. It isn’t our worthiness, though, that causes us to look down on others, but out unworthiness.  It’s not their sin or doctrinal incorrectness that causes others to look small to us but our pride. 

Pride has nothing to do with how people think about themselves. It has everything to do with how we think about others. Pride, and jealousy are really just the same thing. If we think ourselves better than others, then we are proud. If we think ourselves worse, then we are jealous. Pride is the sinful human flaw that makes us think our job is to judge the servant of another. Whenever we look down on Christians who like different music, organize their church differently, or hold different views on non-essential theological issues, we are overstepping the boundaries of love. It is none of our business how another Christian speaks to God or thinks God speaks to him. We are only responsible for speaking to God and hearing from him for ourselves. We have every right to uphold our own views. We have no right to judge another in the place of God.  

In the church, this pride takes four forms. One is intellectual pride. We think we have all right to refuse fellowship with those who disagree with us. I personally have never seen one whit of difference in the quality of Christian lives between those who believe in Calvinism or Arminianism, infant or adult baptism, or  covenantalism versus dispensationalism.  We all need improvement, but all are capable of being vessels of God’s grace.

Another is emotional pride. Some express their joy more outwardly. But there’s no evidence that more emotional Christians are more righteous than those from less unemotionally free churches.

Another is organizational pride. Some believe their branch of Christianity is the true one, based on their history or lack of history. Catholics are proud that their lineage makes them the true church. Protestants are equally proud that their organization makes them the one real church. Yet God has those who sincerely worship Him among Catholics and Protestants. God seems to have distributed His gifts and favors on Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Catholics, orthodox and Coptics irrespective of their origins. God loves them all.
   

Another group is missional pride. People have different views about what the church should be doing in the world. But the church is not built on our differing views about what the church should be doing. It is built on faith in Jesus. The mission of the church is bigger than any one group within it.

 We are not a church because of what we do. We are a church because of Who owns us. God can task different people with different ministries. He can also task different churches differently, too.

I grew up in mainline Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterian churches, and attended for a time a mainline seminary. My teachers there had little regard for evangelism. To them, Jesus’ real mission was social change. It was all about civil rights and feeding the poor, but they seemed uninterested in whether a person was saved. At the same time, I became involved in Evangelical, Bible-believing Christians who saw the church’s mission as winning souls to Jesus. However, in time I realized that once a person came to Jesus, they had no clue about what to do. They did not talk about changing a life, just winning a convert. After a while, it seemed like one big game of tag, where people got one another to confess Jesus. It never occurred to either side to ask whether social expressions and personal evangelism could both be expressions of a person’s commitment to Jesus as Lord. Our individual callings may be different. Not everyone serves God in the same way we do. Our missions may be different. The Body of Christ—the church--is bigger than our imaginations. Loving fellow Christians does not mean correcting fellow Christians, but accepting them despite our differences of opinion, practice, and passion.

Church is not something we do, but something we are. We are the Body of Christ--whether we share anything else in common is simply unimportant. Christians should serve each other, without insisting on agreement or uniformity of practice or thought.  We are much stronger when we disagree, as long as we disagree in an atmosphere or mutual respect and love. Whether we agree or disagree does not change Christ’s command to love each other. 

“The communion of saints.” A communion of saints is like a marriage of saints. It is when we come together on a local level though mutual commitment to form a family of God. As in a marriage, this communion is more than just saying, “I love you.”  It is a declaration of intent to live together.

Today, we live in an age of consumer Christianity. We think of the local church as being like Walmart or Target. It is a place to go for all our spiritual shopping needs. If another church opens down the street with a better product, we go there. Unfortunately, such an approach defeats one of the fundamental purposes of the church, to be the family of God on earth. If everyone has the attitude that we can leave the family anytime the family goes through a rough patch, then how strong is the family? If we abandon our kids when they are in pain, then who will raise them? If we move in with our neighbor when momma burns the meat loaf, how long will any family last?  But if the local church is to exist, and fulfill what God has called all local churches to do, it must be made of people who commit to each other, no matter what.

As I have said, the church universal has many missions and many purposes in the world.

God’s people can form many organizations to fulfill the many facets of the Great Commission. But a local church body has one purpose that no parachurch, political, or any other group of individual Christians can do, except a local church. We are entrusted with discipling people into the image of Jesus. An earthly family has one purpose above all others—to raise kids. A church family has one purpose above all other—to raise Jesuses. We exist to be the one agency that can help bring you and your children to spiritual maturity. That is why we meet on Sundays and through the week. There’s better music on YouTube. There are better sermons on any number of websites and books. There are better organized social missions and evangelistic missions everywhere, but we alone are entrusted with the task of raising the kind of people who can make those missions happen. Nothing else on earth can fulfill that function. This can only be done by personal contact on a local and individual level—and the first step in that process is to love each other.

“Love” by itself is too vague a word to describe what we need. In every town it is the solemn duty of the churches to get along, and the duty of people within churches to get along. Pray for each other, spend time with each other, know each other, listen to each other, and welcome each other. 

This brings us to our third statement in the Creed, “the forgiveness of sins.”

 Dallas Willard suggests that the first step in accepting other Christians is to say, “I could be wrong.”  Whenever we insist that we are always right and everyone else is wrong, we have become judgmental. Realizing that we can be wrong means being humble. We must stand before God in humility and allow Him the privilege of correction. The divisions of the world don’t belong in the church. There is no liberal or conservative here. There is no Republican or Democrat here. We are one in Christ Jesus.

Paul says in Romans 14: 1-4, “As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master^] that he stands or falls”

“The forgiveness of sins.” We usually take this to mean the forgiveness of our sins. But it is really about the forgiveness of sins—which can just as easily mean our forgiveness of other people’s sins. Unity begins with forgiveness of each other.  Whenever people live together, we intentionally or unintentionally hurt each other. If we hold on to hurts, then we never really love.  

Christians are notoriously passive-aggressive. We don’t air our grievances, but let them fester. We don’t talk to each other--just about each other.

We don’t have to air all problems, but we must always forgive. We can’t say everything we think or feel, nor should we. Differences can only be discussed where there is trust. But we can forgive our hurts towards others. Forgiveness recognizes the hurts, but takes Christ’s example by letting them go. We should first be humble before God, realizing that we might be the one at fault. Christ has forgiven our sins. All He asks in return is that we do the same for others.

Christians have a mediated relationship with each other. We don’t just love each other, but love for the sake of Christ. If you have a relative who irritates you, you still love them for the sake of the family. Why should it be any different in the church?  We love each other for the sake of Christ. And the closer we get to Christ, the easier it is to love those who Christ loves. 

There’s a story about the Apostle John. When he was an old man people would plead with him to tell them something he heard from Jesus. He would say, “Little children, love one another.” That was all he would say. There is nothing more to be said.  When we love each other, we fulfill the law of Christ.

Why Does Jesus Still Need a Body - Acts 1: 1-12

So far in the Creed, we see two great historical truths--Jesus died physically, and that He rose physically. Now we are confronted with two more—He physically ascended into heaven and will physically return to judge the living and the dead.

But why does He still need a physical body?

Acts 1: 1-12 tells us that a group of people standing on the Mount of Olives saw Jesus ascend into the clouds. Paul estimates this crowd at around five hundred. Afterwards, an angel told the crowd that Jesus would physically come back and in the same way, descending from the sky in a body. This statement prevents anyone else from claiming to be Jesus returned. If someone grew up here, He can’t be Jesus. The Second Coming requires His physical body returning from the sky.

In Jesus’ day, Greeks and Hebrews had different opinions about the bodily resurrection. The Greeks believed that when we die our body stays dead, but our souls went to a place they called Hades or Hellos (that’s where we get the word “hell”). There we exist in spirit form for all eternity, or until we are united again in essence with God.  But the Jews believed the soul and the body were one. The soul is not immortal without a body, and any separation of the two is merely temporary. The Greeks believed that body and soul were both important. When Jesus died, his body was resurrected. A soul is not complete without a body.  Jesus’ resurrection was proof of this. So God preserved His body after the resurrection, waiting for His return to earth.

After the resurrection, Jesus sat down “on the right hand of God,” as the New Testament says in several places.

Now, this is different. We don’t see Jesus referred to as being on “the right hand of God” in His existence before Christmas, when he took on human flesh. Instead, we see Jesus as God’s equal in the Trinity. Philippians 2: 6 says, “He did not consider equality with God something to be held on to, but emptied Himself.” Jesus isn’t on God’s right hand, He is God!  So what does it mean that Jesus is on the “right hand of God?” It is obviously a metaphor, but for what?

When an earthly king sat on a throne, he alone was in charge. He had no equals. But he did have servants and advisors. There was always a number-two man in the kingdom who was usually referred to as the king’s “right hand man.”  He made sure that the king’s word was carried out. In the senate, there is something similar. There is a majority leader, but he has a right-hand man, called the “majority whip.” He keeps the other senators in line with the party. The President has a chief of staff for the same reason.

Now kings and presidents may need a right hand man, but God doesn’t. He is capable of ruling without one. If God is all powerful, why does He need an assistant? If Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit are also God, and coequal with God, how can one be merely the assistant to the other? Jesus isn’t there to be God’s assistant.

But there is another meaning to the metaphor.  Being at the king’s right hand meant something more than just carrying out orders. He also brought things to the king’s attention. 

When Barack Obama was elected president, most African Americans rejoiced. Why wouldn’t they? They had one of their own as president. It was reasonable to assume that their concerns would be heard in Washington! When a presidential candidate picks a vice presidential candidate, he picks someone unlike himself, so that people of a different group will think there will be someone in Washington to represent them. We seek out the ear of the advisors to presidents, because then we know we will be heard. Jesus’ position on the right hand of God is not for His sake, but for ours. It is metaphor to assure us that our concerns will be put before the Lord. God won’t forget human flesh, but will remember it always, since He Himself took on flesh. God will never forget our flesh, since he took it upon himself.

But there is another part of the mystery of why Jesus needs a body now. When He comes again, He will come in a body. He doesn’t have to, but he will.  The Creed echoes the Bible in telling us that He will come again in a physical body to judge the living and the dead. 

I am convinced that our usual way of picturing the last judgment is wrong.  Our popular vision of this judgment is based on a legalistic understanding, and that isn’t what God intended. Our picture of the last judgment is like this. God sits on a white throne.  One by one, we are carried into a room where a list of sins is printed out on a big scroll. The sins on the scroll are detailed, “On March 6, Bill got angry with his friend and called him a bad name. On June 3, he lusted in his heart. On July 7, he skipped church” and so forth. But then, for the believer, we are let into heaven, and none of this counts against us. But if we are not, then the first item on the list sends us to Hell.

But then, there’s this other judgment, which is presented in I Corinthians 3: 13-15,

^“each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.’

This is depressing, because it sounds as if God drags that scroll out again, after throwing it away!  We  aren’t let off the hook for judgment after all! The second judgment—the judgment of works, presumably determines whether we get a mansion in glory or a shack, or maybe a condo! 

This is done (presumably) on the basis of how we have kept God’s law. Our judgment allegedly based on a series of commands and how well we keep them. 

But there’s the problem. A command-based system of judgment doesn’t require Jesus’ personal return. All we need is a cosmic computer to keep track of whether or not we’ve done enough. It’s a self-centered approach to salvation, a morality tied to our willpower and knowledge of the Law. It doesn’t require Jesus, only a copy of the Ten Commandments. It is not changed lives and heart, only changed behaviors. Dallas Willard calls it the “Gospel of sin management” not the gospel of Jesus.  In fact, it isn’t a Gospel at all, but bondage to the Law.

But there is another way of looking at the last judgment that does require Christ’s presence. It’s the one I believe the Bible really teaches.

I’m a member of a health club, though I confess that I don’t go as often as I should. Frankly, it makes me feels a little uncomfortable. I go there in my T-shirt and shorts, displaying my lumpy, pasty, wrinkly body, and I’m confronted with perfect, beautiful bodies all around me. There are gorgeous people who must spend every spare minute lifting weights and keeping in shape! They aren’t condescending or judgmental to me. They don’t have to be. I feel convicted of my own flabbiness, just by being in their presence. 

Some feel that way when they go to church. They look at the people around them and don’t see their struggles or flaws, but only the outside illusion of goodness. They feel judged just by showing up.  Some people even feel that by comparing themselves to others, they come out ahead. They can be smug about their righteousness, because they have checked off all the boxes that convince themselves in their own that they are pretty good people.

But one day, they will stand at the last judgment, and there is Jesus. Jesus doesn’t have to say a thing to judge us, he just has to show up. We know the kind of life He lived in that flesh, and it was a lot better than any of us imagined. That body is a trophy of righteousness, glorified in the flesh by His perfect life and sinless death. Beside him, we all look weak and imperfect.

Jesus in the flesh is a judgment to us all. We don’t need the law to condemn us. We only need to look at the life that Jesus lived, and realize that this was what He had in mind for us. 

This may seem like bad news to us, but it is really good news. John tells us this in 1 John 3: 1, “And we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see him as He is.”

The Christian life is not one of rules and regulation but one of humble imitation of Jesus.  Jesus is presented before us as a model to copy. We are to spend our whole lives, not following some rule book, but imitating His divine perfection. Our failure is due to the frailty of our flesh. We are like someone trying to copy a picture exactly right with bad eyesight and a shaky hand. We do what we can, but fail always. But when Jesus returns, we at last see clearly what we were seeking to accomplish. But in that judgment, he does not hand out rewards for being good artists or punishments for being bad ones. Instead, he takes our poorly realized images, and turns them into perfection. Our dirty mirrors are polished and our rough sketches are filled with glorious color. We become like Him, and remain like Him forever.

Jesus will return in the flesh, to glorify us in the flesh. He returns to show us what we are and will be, and to make us like Himself. Our bodies crippled with age and abused with sin becomes beautiful. Our hearts, broken and gnarled by the stresses of life take on His beauty, until we are fit for a life in His presence forever.

I believe in the Holy Spirit

A pastor teaching a communicant’s class asked the children to describe the Trinity. One boy gave this response:

“Father—an old man with a white beard. Sits on a big, golden chair.

“Son—a younger man with a brown beard. Likes to play with sheep.

“God the Holy Ghost—a white sheet.”

Unfortunately, that remains the depth of many adults’ understanding of the Holy Spirit. For centuries, the church has talked little about Him. In the Apostles’ Creed, there is just one line on the Holy Spirit. But He is just as important as the Father and Son. He is the person of God that is inside of us.

In the book of Acts, the disciples were ready to go out into the world, but Jesus said wait. Don’t go without the Spirit. He was there, but they weren’t aware of Him. They thought it was just Jesus alone. They did not understand that Jesus had done miracles by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.” There are two words for power in Greek. One--exousia--means “authority.”  It is the power of the courts or the power of the law to order an action or to forbid it. But (as every parent knows) the power to order or forbid is not enough. You have to be able to enforce it.

The word used here is dynamis, as in “dynamic”, “dynamo,” and “dynamite.” It is actual power to make things happen. We may make rules and pass laws, but we need dynamite to make them happen. 

We don’t have that dynamite, but God does in the power of the Holy Spirit. He runs us, we don’t run Him. He is not some superpower we control—we are under His control. This is one of the unique claims of Christianity among world religions. God not only gives us laws to obey and tasks to do, but then He gives us the power through His indwelling Spirit to accomplish what He commands.

Before Pentecost, the entire church was a hundred and twenty people huddled together in an upper room, hiding from the people who had just crucified their leader. After Pentecost, they were so bold and powerful that they made three thousand converts in a single day. Before Pentecost, they were scared rabbits. After Pentecost, they were lions.  Before the coming of the Spirit, they could not even stand up to the ridicule of ordinary people. After Pentecost, they could stand before kings with confidence. Everything changed with the coming of the Holy Spirit. There were no professional speakers among them--just fishermen, tax collectors, ex-prostitutes, slaves, and even terrorists. Even so, when the Holy Spirit came upon them they shook the foundations of the world. 

Christians today often feel defeated in our personal lives. We want victory over sin, freedom from addictions, depression, guilt and despair, but we don’t get it. Many doubt they will amount to anything, because we fail to understand that it is not “our” witness that counts. It’s the Holy Spirit working through us that really makes the difference. 

Jesus said the disciples should stay in until they are baptized—that is, engulfed--by the Holy Spirit. Imagine standing on the beach when a tidal wave hits you. That’s what the Spirit does. When He comes, He engulfs you in His power.

Lately, I have been talking a lot about how God wants us to imitate Jesus in everything. This seems impossible, and so it is, unless the power of the Holy Spirit makes it possible. You can’t form yourself into Christ’s image, but the Spirit can. We just cooperate with the process. The Spirit does the work. 

In Joel 2: 28 God says, “I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh.” He didn’t say that God will pour out His Spirit on priests, scribes, prophets, or professional churchmen. He pours out His spirit on housewives, truck drivers, accountants, secretaries, children of anyone else who is willing to jump in front of the wave. He gives power to preach and witness, to love our enemies, and forgive those who hurt us, persevere in the face of temptation and overcome our shyness. He doesn’t just change the world--He changes you. 

How are we engulfed in the Holy Spirit? Before we answer, let’s get rid of an old and incorrect notion. That notion is this--you have to feel the Spirit for Him to fill you. There is no place in the Bible that says that we have to necessarily feel the Holy Spirit filling us. The Holy Spirit is inside of all Christians at all times, yet they don’t always feel Him.

Think about it like riding on an airplane. When the plane is in the air, you don’t feel the motion, yet you are flying hundreds of miles an hour whether you feel it or not. The issue isn’t whether we feel the Spirit, but whether we are on board. Christians don’t experience the Spirit not because they aren’t “feeling” it, but because they are afraid to get on the plane.  

So how do we receive the Holy Spirit? We can’t rush Him. He comes in his own way and time.  Meanwhile, there are some things we can do to prepare. They are the same things the disciples did between the ascension and Pentecost. 

First, we submit to Him. Shut up and sit down. Be still. Jesus calls this “waiting.” Waiting on the Lord is more than just sitting back. It is realizing who is in control, and waiting for orders. The biggest reason we fail to obtain the power of the Holy Spirit is because we are too anxious that we are not doing enough, when in reality we are already doing too much. 

We have this idea that we should be doing “something.” But what we do doesn’t matter, unless the Holy Spirit is already working through us. The Bible says, “Be still, and know that I am God.”  When we are busy with our own plans, we lose our focus, and make a god out of our own activities. Our impatient, fleshly approach to the work of God constantly calls us to say, “But we have to be doing something.” But this isn’t guidance, its panic. Our relationship to God must begin in stillness and silence.   

 Think about what lifeguards are taught. They are told to be careful approaching a drowning person, because they are usually panicked and reaching out in every direction for something to hold onto. In this state they are dangerous to themselves and anyone near them. They must wait until they stop thrashing around, until their energy is exhausted. Only then can he get close enough to save them. 

The same is true of the Spirit. A person who is overly desperate, who thinks that he must do anything and everything next isn’t being still. A person who is screaming can’t also be listening.  Only when we learn to sit in stillness, waiting before the Lord, can we be led by Him. Sit still so He can move us. Don’t do anything, don’t even make plans to do anything, until you have mastered the art of holy listening.

Second, we seek the Holy Spirit. While we sit still, we pray. After Jesus left, the first thing the disciples did was to go into the upper room and pray for the Spirit. They asked for the Spirit, and they got Him. We don’t get the Spirit by reading another book, going to another revival, or watching a television program. We don’t get Him by good intentions. We must ask until we receive. Luke 11:13 says, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” Before you pray for your loved ones, your church, the world, or anything else, ask for the Holy Spirit. Let Him lead you, and He will. If you have the Holy Spirit, you will be able to ask for all the rest with greater effectiveness. Paul says that we don’t even know how we should pray, but that the Holy Spirit will pray through us. That’s more effective than our prayers.

Third, we release the past. Releasing the past means we release our sins, our hurts, and our ideas. Think of the Spirit as a wave, and ourselves as a boat. The past is like an anchor that keeps us in place. The wave may rock us, but unless we release the anchor it will not move us.

Releasing our old sins is really the same as forsaking our false gods. Addictions are basically idols. We form habits of conformity to some behavior or substance, as a way of coping with problems. For a drug addict, every needle is a prayer to a false god, pleading for temporary relief from their loneliness. Repentance is recognizing that God is the one who can solve our problems, and seeking to look to Him, instead of our abilities, or someone else. We turn from our old gods and turn to the real One. 

Releasing our old hurts means forgiving those who have hurt us. Forgiveness is a conscious decision not to seek retribution or to allow their hurts to govern our actions. It isn’t feeling—it’s a choice to let go.

Releasing old ideas means being willing to change our traditions and approaches. We learn a lot from tradition, but when our old ways of thinking become more important than the move of the Spirit, we become prisoners of the past. Someone once remarked that the last seven words of the church are, “We never did it this way before.” That’s the last seven words of our spiritual growth too. Jesus said we can’t put new wine in old wineskins. When the Spirit comes, He creates new paths. Traditions are helpful and constructive, unless we treat them as an idol, then they keep us from following the Spirit.

Fourth, we rely on the Spirit to move. Think of our lives as a ship. But we aren’t a rowboat, we are a sailing ship, and the Spirit is the wind. The Spirit is what pushes us where we need to go. When we ignore the Spirit, we are rowing when we need to sail. Again, think of the Christian life as surfing. The surfer swims against the tide to get out where the waves are, but then power of the wave carries him home. We must put effort into submission, seeking, and releasing, but then we must seize the wave of the Spirit when we see it. At first, this seems strange. But in time, we increasingly become aware that the Spirit is leading us. Sometimes, His leading comes with a bang, and sometimes with a whisper. But the Spirit comes and God’s power moves.

Don’t seek emotional fulfillment. Don’t seek results. Don’t seek great insights into how things happen. All these things will come to us if we just seek the Holy Spirit. The Spirit will lead us into all things if we get still, seek Him, release our past and rely on His power.  

Blessed - Matthew 5: 1

Over the next few weeks (with the exception of Palm Sunday and Easter) we are going to find out what the Sermon of the Mount says and what it means. The first part we will be discussing is the Beatitudes. 

A beatitude is a “blessing” statement, where we are pronouncing God’s blessing on people. They are found all through the Scriptures. It is a statement that God is on someone’s side.

Scholars who study beatitudes say that they fall into two groups. The first group describes the blessing of people who are blessed because of what they have done or perceived. Psalm 1 for example, “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked.” In this case we are blessed, because we aren’t among the wicked. It also describes the blessing of those who work hard, live clean, and prosper because of it. It’s easy to see why a person who eats healthy and exercises an hour a day will be blessed with good health. We say that if we tithe, go to church, or get baptized, then God will bless us

.

The second group of beatitudes describes people who are blessed in spite of what they have done or how they are perceived. In these statements what comes after the blessed doesn’t cause the blessing, but just the opposite. It is ordinarily something that means we are not blessed. When Jesus tells us to bless those who curse us, He does not mean we bless people because they curse us, but in spite of the way they treat us. When God says, “Blessed is the man whose transgression is covered.” He doesn’t mean we should go out and commit some whopping big sin, so we can be blessed. A person who sins against God doesn’t deserve a blessing, but we should bless them anyway. Neither is a person who is sick “blessed,” because of sickness. The blessing of God is in spite of our condition, not because of it. It is rather in spite of our sins that God blesses us as an act of grace.

So, which kind of blessing are the Beatitudes? Are the poor blessed because of their poverty, or in spite of it? Does being poor, bereaved, or persecuted make us blessed?

Consider the people who were hearing Jesus on that day. They were a crowd who knew how unblessed they were. If they didn’t, then their rabbis would have informed them. Most rabbis of the day believed in a form of the “prosperity” gospel. If you had money and health, then it was because you did something to deserve it. If you were poor or sick, then you must have sinned. Since most people were poor and sick, they believed that God was against them. They had to endure the self-satisfied smugness of the elite, who were assured of their own righteousness, because they were blessed. Their smugness was like salt poured into the wounds of the poor and downcast. It still is, for the have-nots who live in the presence of the haves. There is no way these people could have seen themselves as blessed. But now the Kingdom of God had come and things were going to be different.

 Now the people who were not blessed would have something that the others didn’t. They would have the Kingdom, and the Kingdom was going to be different and better than anything the rich ever had.

Most interpreters of the beatitudes infer that there is some connection between the things mentioned and the blessing of God. But the blessing of God isn’t because we are poor or meek, or mourning but in spite of it.

Some people teach, that being poor is somehow a blessing. If we can’t be poor, then we need to be poor “in spirit.” But what exactly does that mean? Does that mean we ought to think we are poor, even if we aren’t? But if you’ve ever been poor, you know that’s nonsense. There is nothing blessed about being homeless, or not having money to eat or pay your bills. As far as the “In spirit” part that Matthew includes, which some confuse with humility disappears when we look at Luke 6, where Jesus just says “poor”.  Poverty is a wretched state—it isn’t a blessing. Those who try to convince you that somehow poverty itself is a blessing have in all likelihood never had to endure it.

I worked as a volunteer in an emergency assistance center interviewing people who needed help with food and rent. On the first day, I met an elderly woman who had worked hard all her life. Her husband had died and her social security was not enough to support her. According to the laws of the state, she was allotted only sixteen dollars a month in food stamps. It broke her heart to even ask for help, and it broke my heart, too. We cried together, I’ll never forget the hurt pride of that woman--the utter despair on her face to come begging for food. There was nothing “blessed” about that. 

But who is to say who suffers most--a person who is poor through poverty, or a rich person who suffers from addiction, depression, or mental illness?

“Blessed are those who mourn.” Have you ever lost a loved one?  Did you enjoy it?  I don’t think so! It would be cruel to say that we have to go around emulating people who have lost their parents or their spouses so that God will comfort us! 

In Jesus’ day, the life expectancy was around thirty-five years of age. Most of that was due to an infant mortality rate close to fifty percent. Half of all women died in childbirth. If you lived past birth, sixty was considered a ripe old age. Grief and mourning was an almost constant state in that society. The prayer, “If I die before I wake” was a serious prayer, even for young children. It was made worse by a religious community which taught that death in childhood was a curse on the parents. 

“Blessed are the meek.” Don’t confuse this with the spiritual virtue of humility. He was talking about those who were low on the socio-economic scale. If you were a peasant, or if you not a Roman citizen, you had no protection under the law. 

“Blessed are the peacemakers.” We could read this as saying that this is a blessing, because instead of a blessing in spite of, but I don’t think so. Being a peacemaker is dangerous—when you try it, both sides shoot at you! There is a reason that people like Gandhi and Martin Luther King were assassinated.  Being a peacemaker means that people on both sides hate you.

“Blessed are the pure in heart.” Have you ever known the difficulty of trying to be pure in heart?  The Pharisees tried to be pure in heart, but they failed miserably. When a person tries to be holier than the people around them, they are ridiculed, reviled, and held up as “holy Joes” “hypocrites” or “holier than thou”.  There is no one more unpopular in any group than people who want to stay pure when everyone else is sullying themselves with sin.  It doesn’t matter whether or not they really are doing this, it is the perception that is so painful. It doesn’t even matter whether or not they are right in the way they are doing it. Can you imagine how hard it is for a devout Muslim woman to wear a hijab, when all her Christian neighbors think she is a terrorist for doing it? It’s a hard life.

“Blessed are they who hunger and thirst.” Which person hungers and thirsts for righteousness more—a saint or a sinner? When we really mess up, it’s like being thrown into a cesspool of regret. Don’t tell me it’s a blessing to be there—it’s not. Self-proclaimed saints don’t hunger for righteousness.

  

Prostitutes, drug addicts, and alcoholics do. “Good” people think they know what it is like to be sinners, but we really have no idea!  But even if we are so sanctified that we agonize inside every time we miss church, we are pitiful people. It is no blessing to be so obsessed with our own sins that we can’t get over them.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted.” I cannot imagine how many Christians would keep their faith if being a Christian meant losing the freedom or the right to keep their families. Many would fall away. Those who are persecuted are certainly not happy. Right now, there is a missionary named Andrew Brunson, sitting in a Turkish prison with twenty Muslims awaiting trial on a trumped-up charge, when his only crime is being a Christian missionary. Just one country away in northern Iraq Christians are being decapitated and crucified. I would hardly call them blessed, though.

The conditions of life are not what causes us to be blessed or not blessed, but our participation in the Kingdom is. Jesus does not raise the question of how we got into our present state of misery, but he promises that the Kingdom of God can be ours, even when we are suffering. This is the opposite of the Pharisees, who claimed that contentment, popularity and financial ease are a sign of God’s blessings, and that those who have them are in God’s favor. Such people are living in the kingdom of men, not the kingdom of God. Wherever you are in life, whatever you are going though, you can find help, when you enter the kingdom of God. When you enter the Kingdom by making Jesus your ruler, you will find a whole new way of living that doesn’t depend on what you had before. The kingdom of God can be yours.

Rich people already think they have the kingdom. They feel great! Poor people think they have been denied the kingdom, because they don’t have what rich men have, so they try to take it from the rich. But Jesus says it doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor. This is a new world order, not a continuation of the old one.

It isn’t where we come from, that causes God to bless us, but where we are going. It isn’t the place where we now live that makes us blessed or not blessed. It is the place of Christ in our hearts. The kingdom of God has come to establish God’s peace in our hearts, despite our current circumstances.

If Jesus were speaking to us today, He might not talk in the same categories. He may say “Blessed are the fat, because in the Kingdom, they will have their appetites satisfied.” “Blessed are the divorced, because in the Kingdom, they will have their loneliness met.” “Blessed are the addicted, because in the Kingdom, they can find freedom from addiction.” “Blessed are the outlaws, because they can find their way back to being law-abiding.” “Blessed are the refugees and the homeless, because they can find a home in Christ.”

Jesus proclaims the kingdom of God. It is His kingdom to offer. Peace will not come until we are inside the Kingdom. Without obedience to the Lord, none of the blessings of the Kingdom is ours. But when we make Jesus our Lord, He will give us a life that will keep blessing us, no matter what.