Wonderful News! Discussion

What we have here in the Beatitudes are promises to the meek, especially those who suffer for doing God's will. What is coming is well worth the trouble and the wait! Jesus is assuring us that those who turn away from old ways and begin acting in a manner fit for a true worshiper of God will be very satisfied. But let us not hold the conceit that we can work our way into  God's  favor.  Jesus is talking  about the "be-attitude" we should have. He has come to obtain followers who will become good servants after a mind/spirit makeover.

Consider Paul. He did not fit the mold for any of those promises. In fact, after his conversion he looked back on his old self as having been the worst of sinners. Yet after Jesus' stunning intervention, Paul became a worshiper of God in spirit and in truth. We can tell from the humble spirit and content of Paul's letters that, after his conversion, he personally dovetailed very well with all the beatitudes. Or take the case of Peter. He may not have been as sin-sick as was Paul (though, who knows?). But at one point he urged Jesus to part from him because he felt his sin so deeply in the Lord's presence.

Wonderful news for you poor people! The kingdom belongs to you!

We must acknowledge that the poor of Jesus' time were poor! They had nothing to rely on but God alone. Jesus was saying to these nobodies that God was about to do something amazing on their behalf. "Come to me and you will be in excellent shape!" was his message.

In fact, don't even worry about material poverty. If you wish to follow me, Jesus is saying, forget about chasing money.

Wonderful news for you sad-hearted people! Comfort is coming!

Death, pain and suffering were then, as now, conditions that so often drain life of joy. Jesus overcame death, so that those who trust him gain eternal life. Even in this life, they are to count their troubles as joy. Those who are in despair, who see their lives as worthless and hopeless, are about to get a new deal! Throw yourself on the mercy of Jesus and you will be comforted! Once you do this, and mean it, Jesus sends you the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, to refresh you and revitalize you, to make you a new, and fundamentally happy, person -- regardless of afflictions that are very likely to come.

Salvation comes to reverse the agony that entered the human world with the Fall. We mourn, or feel depressed, because we are very locked in to this old world -- in fact, trapped.  But the eternal life made possible by Jesus' sacrifice makes our current misery of little account -- if we avail ourselves of him.

Wonderful news for the meek among you! The earth belongs to you!

One might interpret this promise to include the prophecy of the Millennium, the reign of Christ on earth, or, that is, when there will be heaven on earth. Those who are meek enough to see their need of Jesus and receive his word will be those chosen to stay on earth until the end of time.

One commentator says the Greek word translated "meek" implies "gentle but strong." Such a description well suits the true follower of Jesus, who is to be "meek and lowly" but who is nevertheless "more than a conqueror," who can do "all things through Christ who strengthens" him.

We may infer from this assurance that a Messianic Millennium (=heaven on earth) is in store. But even before that great event, once a person has meekly asked Jesus to save him, or has asked the Father for salvation in the name of Jesus, he receives the Holy Spirit and becomes a son of God, not in theory but in truth. As a son, he is given the keys to the kingdom -- though, as a beginner, he has much to learn about use of the keys. Wherever he sets his foot, he owns that ground -- because God owns it. Further, wherever he goes, God's mercy and grace go with him -- so that all his spiritual and material needs will be met (as we will hear in other Sermon teachings).

In other words, those who are meek enough to receive Christ become sons of God and thus share in all God's possessions, including "the land," meaning the Promised Land of God's kingdom, wherever that might be. (There is little if any distinction between the words "land" and "earth" in the gospels.)

Wonderful news for you who hunger and thirst for what's right! You will get your fill.

People who are yearning for a state of affairs in which right prevails over wrong can have their dream come true! Ask Jesus into your heart and an interior revolution occurs and will keep occurring. You will receive the Holy Spirit into your being along with Jesus and the Father. So, though you have no power from your old self, you now have power from God to imitate the ways of Jesus -- and like it!

No one can be righteous on his own account. The burden of sin is too great. Yet those who place their trust in Jesus are accepted by the Father on Jesus' account. Jesus wraps them in his robe of righteousness so that they may commune with God as friends. "Any friend of Jesus is a friend of mine," says God. That robe is like the "wedding garment" spoken of by Jesus.

Wonderful news for you who show mercy! Mercy will be shown to you.

Mercy does not come easily to one whose mind is absorbed with self or is racked by a desire for revenge. Recall all the people who strode by the injured robbery victim. Only the heart of the despised Samaritan was filled with mercy for the man. The others were too busy -- driven by needs of self.

And those who thirst for revenge are, at root, being driven by "the flesh" (the corrupt natural mind), which asserts its need to be boss and which fears and loathes humiliation. Such attitudes may make some sense out in a Darwinist jungle somewhere (though I doubt that), but they are the hallmarks of the lost, whose minds cannot operate well because of the rampant sin-sickness that so afflicts the world.

Consider the author of "Amazing Grace," John Newman. He was a cruel 18th Century slave-trader. Those slaves got little mercy from him. Yet, when Jesus got hold of his heart, Newman repented and became a man of mercy, who vigorously fought the slave trade.

I doubt that this saying should be read to mean that nice people will go to heaven. I believe the verse implies two ideas:

¶ All those kindly people of ancient Judaea who had despaired of anything much for themselves were in for a surprise! God's kingdom was at hand for them. The Millennium, so to speak, was dawning.
¶ Once a person is born again, his heart becomes merciful. And whenever he misses the mark in that respect, God lets him know.   He has already received mercy, and he   will receive   unlimited mercy as   he goes along. Jesus daily "washes his feet" in order   to take away  the sin that  occurs during his walk through this world. When he is in need, he receives mercy as his needs are met.

Wonderful news for you pure-hearted! You will see God.

As the psalmist said, "a broken and a contrite heart, O God, you will not despise."

The first step to "seeing" God is to cast aside self, which occurs when one realizes the depth of one's degraded state.

Generally, unregenerate man cannot see God. Recall the Israelites requiring Moses to veil his face because the brilliant shekinah light radiating from his face was unbearable. That much direct connection to God was more than they could tolerate. People who saw God would die, according to Israelite beliefs.

Consider the fact that unregenerate, fallen man has an unclean spirit -- which is to say, his own spirit. If that unclean spirit were to look God in the eye, it would die (what happens on Judgment Day). In fact, Adam's disobedience made him unclean and he died immediately, as did his wife Eve. Earthly descendants of Adam, being influenced by this fallen world, grow up askew -- even when parents have very good intentions -- and find that sin has a hold on them.

The spirits of the fallen are dead. They are prohibited from direct contact with God, who does not look upon sin (though he is certainly aware of it). Thus, the angels with the flaming swords bar the way back to the garden of Eden. There is only one ticket to paradise: to receive Jesus as a personal rescuer. He has paid for your spirit and soul by his enormous sacrifice so that you can be declared "clean" in God's eyes. You become transformed by the renewing of your mind and being, as Jesus, the Father and the Holy Spirit come in to sup with you. You are no longer dead, but alive with a transformed spirit, able to worship God in spirit and in truth. You have been born again, this time of the spirit.

Once a person has been reborn in spirit, he is able to "see God" without perishing. Consider Thomas, who was gently chided by the risen Jesus, for his inability to perceive that "the Father" was standing right there looking at him in the person of Jesus the son.

Once Thomas had received the Spirit (if he hadn't yet, he soon would), he not only could "see God," he could do so forever. There was no need for spiritual death. That would be impossible once Jesus had chosen him. True, the man of the abyss (usually denoted in English as the son of perdition) was chosen for the role of traitor, but he was not chosen, like the other 11, for eternal life. He seems to have been one of those strange souls that have not been made in the image of God, as they are unlike God and cannot connect to him.

To recap: as the believer walks with Jesus every day, Jesus washes his feet spiritually. In other words, the false moves, bad habits, puzzlements, impure reactions and routine mistakes that ensnare every believer walking through this world are dealt with by the Lord so that the believer can walk again tomorrow, whether in this world or the next.

Wonderful news for you peacemakers! You will be called God's children.

Compare that with these words also spoken by Jesus:

Don't think I am here to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
For I come to set a man against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
And a man's foes will be those of his own household.

Also note:

I came to throw fire onto the earth -- and I strongly wish it already aflame!

So on the one hand Jesus proclaims the excellence of being a peacemaker and on the other he tells us he is quite the troublemaker.

The proper attitude is love for one another. Yet, the fire --- the message of salvation -- the Word of God -- was already crackling, and the Holy Spirit was about to fall onto  the earth or onto "all flesh" -- all sorts of people. The worldly will recoil at those who join up with Jesus. Families will make life difficult for those who do not play by the old rules. Society will do likewise, because the world, once it takes notice, sees true Christians as aliens who are intolerable to be around.

Jesus is being very serious.

Think about this saying:

If anyone [as an adult] comes to me, and does not hate his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brothers, and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

The word "hate" here does not imply ferocious rage against someone. It is like Abraham "hating" his son Isaac when he obeyed God and prepared to offer him as a sacrifice. Abraham loved his son. But he knew that obedience to God had to take precedence over his feelings. Faith in God was paramount. Jesus is saying that the real Christian must be so devoted to him that if his family turns against him, if his wife leaves him and his children are taken away, he is to stick with Jesus, to never let go -- even if that means his own life. In fact, a person who submits fully to Jesus must, one way or another, die to self.

If he is like many of us, and finds that too tall an order, he is to keep asking God for help in the extinguishing of self. Never fear; that is one prayer God hears! It means God's will be done, no matter what I would like!

It's even wonderful when you are abused for the sake of what's right! The kingdom is yours.
When people abuse you, revile you and say terrible things about you because of me, that's also wonderful!
You can be really happy because your divine reward is fabulous. That's how the prophets were treated.

We need not give up when hounded and harassed for doing right, especially not if we are laboring to advance the message of salvation. Heaven is coming our way. Just as Stephen looked up into paradise to see Jesus' smiling face as murderous stones rained down on him, we can expect a similar reception as we persist in spite of cruel opposition, even if martyrdom is not our lot.

Yet, the truth is that many of us do fear persecution and are unwilling to receive the idea of one's own martyrdom.

Why is that? Because our trust in Jesus is not all that it should be. We still cling to this life and its attractions. It is true that this life is to be lived -- and lived more abundantly. But if we are not willing to die for Jesus, then we cannot be his true disciple. And so many who say they are disciples are not. They are double-minded, pulled between the devil and the deep blue sea, so to speak. When one is single-minded, able or at least willing, to surrender all and go flat-out for Jesus, then one is a disciple (=student).

Many Christians have yet to accept these words of their Teacher:

"If you won't give up everything you have, you cannot be my student."

Yet, how many of us cannot even take a lesser level of persecution: shunning -- as happened to the Jews who professed Jesus; they were shunned from synagogues and hence all social life during the first century. Many people worry about what "they" will think, in what the psychologist Thomas Szaz called "the dictatorship of the They." Our acceptance by our social groups is so important that many of us are easily swayed by pressures to conform to group norms. Such group psychology is easily manipulated by clever people, as we know from history's sad record of demagoguery.

The Christian is to be "in the world" -- the system of humans dominated by Satan -- but not "of the world." He is supposed to be different, as coming verses show. Otherwise, he is like unsalty salt: Worthless.

The Christian is assured that, despite his troubles, his journey is worthwhile! All's well that ends well!

So when persecution strikes:

Whoopee! Now you can be sure that God chose you for a wonderful destiny! Plainly, when the unpleasantness hits, we are liable to wince, mutter, groan and complain. But we have nothing to complain about. We "asked for it," by siding with Jesus. And he won't give us -- that is, born-again Christians -- more than we can handle. After all, this persecution is for our own good (whatever our adversaries intend).

Recall the words of the apostle Paul:

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose.

Sometimes persecution comes in the form of temptation: a bribe in the form of a promotion or access to a cute "girlfriend" or "boyfriend." But, as Paul observes, such temptations are the human lot. Yet God always provides an escape route so that the improper offer does not overwhelm you. Of course, if you "romance" the tempting offer, then you are not availing yourself of the fire exit so as to escape the flames of desire.

In any case, the world turns against you because it cannot stand your light, which is the light of Christ. Let us reflect again on Moses descending Mt. Sinai, his face glowing with divine light. The people recoiled to such an extent that he was forced to wear a veil in order to protect them from too much God. Those people were not ready for that much God.

We can learn something from this veiling. A Christian can make an effort not to throw his "holy" around by instead striving for a humble attitude, always considering as better than himself those who are less fortunate in not yet having the light. After all, they are weaker and so are asked to endure more; they are heavy laden by the sufferings due to blindness and their situation as spiritual zombies. Much of the time a Christian who keeps a low profile will avoid trouble. But every now and then -- and this could include the act of going to church or of giving someone a Christian tract -- the Christian's light sets off anger (=fear) in the worldling. It is a bit of a paradox, but it often turns out that a Christian who maintains a lowly profile is letting his light shine -- on those who can receive it.

Let us pause for a moment to think upon the numerous horrendous persecutions of the past, along with many that occur in modern times in places other than America. Right from the gospel's beginnings, Christians endured unspeakable atrocities as the authorities made strenuous efforts to exterminate the new faith. Yet, the gospel was unstoppable -- in those years spreading without use of the sword and in the face of severe sanctions.

Eventually, the church prevailed, only to find that the mix of temporal and spiritual power that followed brought great difficulties. In fact, some sincere believers, over the centuries, were martyred for refusing to recant under pressure from ecclesiastical authorities.

Satan is disposed to come at you through your friends, family and co-religionists.