Matthew 5
- Blessed are the poor in spirit.
NOT the poor in money – not the poor in anything other than a downcast spirit and soul of hopelessness. God has not looked on you with blessing. You live the life of curse and lack of blessing. God’s wrath must have looked on your life as worthy of nothing better than the dust of the earth.
- For theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.
How can this be? Cursed. Living as souls paying the price of every sin. How can one so downcast in heart be blessed with the Kingdom of Heaven?
- Blessed are they that mourn.
We all mourn. We mourn the loss of a father, a mother, a husband, a wife, a child, a dear friend, a relative. We mourn their loss by death, by war, by famine, by disease, by abduction, by slavery, by imprisonment, by addictions, by drugs, by alcohol, by divorce, by hatred, by broken relationship, by loss of all hope of making all that is death and evil into desperation of grief. We all wail in the mourning of our hearts, broken again and again until the final grieving as death. I need freed from this!
- For they shall be comforted.
What comfort short of death has any man? What peace may a suffering servant know?
- Blessed are the meek.
The self-made, driven man is the one blessed by his own hand. Do we not aggressively pursue the best God has for our life now? God helps those who help themselves, right? Those who want to expand their kingdom of blessings on earth cannot be gentle, submissive, mild and gentle. The world will take from me every blessing, if I am meek.
- For they will inherit the earth.
How can I end up with nothing, yet inherit the earth?
- Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness.
No, not blessed are the hungry – not blessed are thirsty. Am I not hungry every day? Do some hunger for food in their extreme poverty and even thirst for unpolluted water to drink? Yes, these do suffer more than me and more than you. But here in this place Jesus asks the filled and the hungry both to hunger and thirst after righteousness. Hunger to do the right thing before God at all times and in all ways. Desire to feed your flesh with the food and water of God.
- For they shall be filled.
How can I be filled with the bread and wine of righteousness? How can the Word of Jesus fill the hunger of my soul?
- Blessed are the merciful.
Who would show me mercy? Do the rich and the powerful not enslave us without mercy? Will the conquering nation show mercy on the slaves of their might? Will the poor criminal not pay every penny owed to the rich man, while the influential will bribe the judge?
- For they shall obtain mercy.
Will God please show me some mercy, and the unrighteous justice?
- Blessed are the pure in heart.
I stand before God with a hypocritical heart and a soiled soul.
- For they shall see God.
How will I be cleansed of my impure spirit of the flesh?
- Blessed are the peacemakers.
We live in a place where our conquerors have forced peace. Shall I make peace with the unrighteous? We have peace only when we give in to the rule of our leaders.
- For they shall be called the children of God.
Does God not call on His children to fight for what is right? Can we be instruments of peace in a place of war? Is it the place of children to fight for the Father?
- Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.
Have the righteous and unrighteous both not been persecuted? Why would I do what is right knowing that I will be persecuted?
- For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
And if I do not do what is right? Will heaven have my soul?
- Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake.
Is the man also a Prophet? Why does he say that others will speak evil of me for his sake?
- Rejoice, and be exceeding glad; for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
I don’t want to be persecuted for my own sake, let alone for the sake of this Jesus. The Prophets of God were opposed by evil men of their captors and of their own religion.
(Just some possible thoughts of some in the multitude, hearing Jesus teach the Beatitudes.)
To be continued…
