Preached · June 8, 2018
Back to the Beginning
We are going into week two of our brand-new sermon series, Life on the Rocks, taking a look at Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 6, and 7. We're in the book of Matthew chapter 5, verses 3 through 12. Last week we called this sermon Life on the Rocks because we wanted to pay attention to what Jesus said at the end of the sermon. At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, he says whoever hears these words of mine and puts them into practice, actually does them, is like someone who builds their house on a foundation of rock. And so we believe that the Sermon on the Mount is best lived on the rocks, best when we actually practice it—not just hear it, not just read it, but live it out.
And this week, we're going back to Matthew 5, back to the beginning of the sermon, to hear what it actually says, to hear what Jesus is actually asking us to be and to do. So if you missed last week, that's all right. We're kind of beginning again today in Matthew chapter 5.
And so we're talking about the Beatitudes. We're talking about who is blessed. We're talking about what Jesus says really matters. Jesus is actually answering a question that's kind of been asked by philosophers throughout the ages: Who is well off? Who's doing okay? Who do we consider rich? Who do we consider has nothing to worry about? Who do we consider is actually going to make it just fine? Aristotle asked this question, and Plato asked this question, and Kierkegaard asked this question, and so does Jesus. And Jesus gives us the answer in Matthew chapter 5.
SkyMall Theology
So when I think about who is well off, I think about SkyMall. Anybody remember SkyMall magazine? If you've ever gone on an airplane, it was ubiquitous. It was everywhere in front of you, in the seat pocket—this magazine called SkyMall. And it offered you the ability to shop while flying. Because flying wasn't good enough. Hurtling through the air at 600 miles an hour wasn't good enough—you could also do some light shopping through SkyMall. And SkyMall was famous for its absolutely absurd, ridiculous products. I just want to highlight a few of them.
You know that you're well off if you've purchased a custom pet portrait canvas. Could be yours for $49. If you could afford this through SkyMall, maybe you're well off. Now, this next one I actually think would be fantastic. It's the relax-and-nap pillow. I'm a stomach sleeper, but I often suffocate, and I could really use something like this. The caption could also be the "I give up" pillow. Anybody need one of those?
Now here's another one. This is the sole-of-feet foot tanner. So if all of you is tan except your feet—you wear socks with your sandals, shame on you—you could get a sole-of-feet foot tanner for the low price of $229. Now, this is the part I love. It says this item was delivered in eight days with standard delivery; rush delivery in two to four business days, or next-day deliveries available on orders placed before 12 noon. I want to hear the story so bad of who's the person who needed rush delivery on their sole-of-feet foot tanner. "My feet are bare. They are not tan, and that needs to be fixed today." Who is that guy?
And then you know you are really well off if you buy the Sea Breacher customized boat. Now, if you are a person of means and you attend Good News, you have one responsibility in life: buy one of these—it's a submarine, a submersible—buy one of these, go sneak up on a group of kids in one of the harbors, and then come up. That is your one responsibility in life.
Now, this could be a way to define who is well off. It's probably not the best way. But when Jesus says things like "Blessed are the...," he is proclaiming who is well off. Who is doing okay? Who's going to make it?
And so in order to figure out what this passage is talking about, Matthew 5, we need to figure out the answers to three questions. Number one, what is the kingdom of heaven? The kingdom of heaven permeates the text of the Sermon on the Mount. It's the number one thing Jesus talks about, so we'd better figure out what that is if we're going to get this text right. Number two, we're going to figure out what it is to be blessed. What does "blessed" really mean? And number three, we're going to talk about who are the unblessables—the people we think maybe this passage doesn't apply to.
What Is the Kingdom of Heaven?
So we're actually going to back up a little bit into Matthew chapter 4. It says that when Jesus heard that John had been put into prison—verse 17 of chapter 4—from that time on, Jesus began to preach, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." And in Mark and Luke and John, you may hear the phrase "the kingdom of God." The kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God. And so Jesus hears that John is put into prison, and he embarks on his public ministry and starts to proclaim that the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, has come near. And this is the number one thing that Jesus talks about throughout his ministry. It's not how to go to heaven when you die. It's not how to get your sins forgiven. The number one thing Jesus talks about is the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of heaven.
So what is it? What is he talking about? Well, we immediately see Jesus start to put the kingdom of heaven into practice if we keep reading. Jesus is walking beside the Sea of Galilee. He sees Simon and Andrew, and Jesus says to them, "Come, follow me," and they follow him. And then he does the same thing with James and John. He says, "Come, follow me," and they follow him. So Jesus starts proclaiming that the kingdom of heaven has come near. Then he starts calling disciples. And then what does he do? Verse 23 in chapter 4:
Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and illness among the people. And news spread about him all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those who suffered severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed.
So we see that the kingdom of heaven has something to do with discipleship, something to do with following Jesus, and something to do with preaching and teaching and healing. Whoever brought their sick, their demon-possessed, those who were mentally ill or unstable—Jesus heals them.
So for the sake of time, we could give a really long technical definition of the kingdom of heaven, but here's my one-sentence definition: the kingdom of heaven is life as God intends it. If there is sickness, Jesus wants it to be healed. If there is hunger, Jesus wants people to be full. If there is sorrow, Jesus wants there to be joy. And so Jesus proclaims this kingdom—not only proclaims it, he enacts it. He goes around and makes it so.
So this is the number one thing that Jesus talks about. He goes and proclaims the kingdom of heaven, and then we turn to the next chapter of Matthew, and he starts giving this sermon. So we can see that the Sermon on the Mount has to do with the kingdom of heaven. What is kingdom life like? What does it mean to be part of the kingdom? The kingdom of heaven is life as God intends it. Jesus proclaims it, and he enacts it. When there's sickness, he makes people whole and healed. That is the topic of the Sermon on the Mount.
What Is It to Be Blessed?
So question number two: what is it to be blessed? What is it to be hashtag-blessed? Or, in other words, our primary question: who is well off? Now, when we think of the word "blessed," we tend to think of it in the hashtag-blessed kind of way—the thing you put on Facebook or Instagram when things are going really well for you. "Hey, I scratched off a lottery ticket, I won 10 bucks, hashtag blessed." "Hey, I went to JCPenney, and lo and behold, they had a sale, and I am hashtag blessed." "Hey, I bought a new car, it goes 100 miles an hour whether I wanted it to or not, I'm hashtag blessed." So we think about material possessions. We think about physical things that make us blessed.
But a first-century Jew, when they hear the word "blessed," they're not thinking about it that way. Because blessing has a source, and it doesn't come from my own luck. It doesn't come from my own hard work. Blessing has a source, and it's from God. God is the one singular source of blessing. So I'm not thinking about stuff. I'm not thinking about material. I'm thinking about God. And what is it to be blessed? From a Jewish perspective, to be blessed is to have and enjoy God's presence and favor. It's to know that God is on your side. And if our God is for us, who could be against us? That is what it is to be blessed.
Now, first-century Jews knew what it was to be blessed. What they didn't know is if they were. Because in their history, they had been exiled off of their land. The temple had been destroyed. And even though they had returned to Palestine, returned to the promised land, they're still being oppressed, serving under Roman rule. And the temple, even though it's been rebuilt, has not returned to its former glory. And so their primary question, if you're wandering around Jerusalem or Galilee or Nazareth or Bethlehem, is: Are we blessed? Do we have God's favor? Do we have God's presence?
And Jesus starts proclaiming that the kingdom of God is here, and "I'm going to tell you who is blessed." Jesus takes on the voice of God and says, let me explain who is blessed—who can have and enjoy God's favor and presence. Another way to say who is blessed is that the blessed enjoy God's kingdom today. It's not a future event that they have to wait for. It's not something they have to die to get to. They enjoy God's kingdom today.
Now, I know some of us, when we read phrases like "the kingdom of heaven," automatically think of afterlife—what happens after we die. We think of this particularly in Matthew 5, verse 12. For those who are persecuted, Jesus says, "Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven." And our minds immediately go to, "after you die, there is your reward." That's not what Jesus is talking about. Jesus says that those who are blessed have God's presence and favor. They have the kingdom of heaven available to them today. Jesus' primary message, Matthew 4:17: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." Dallas Willard translates it as, "it's immediately available to you."
Blessed Are the Unblessables
So, who is blessed? Who is well off? Or our third question: who are the poor in spirit? Because that's how Jesus begins. He begins his sermon by saying, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." Or another way to put it: blessed are the unblessables.
So who are these people? Who is Jesus talking about? And this is where our understanding of the Beatitudes tends to take a left-hand turn. When we read the Beatitudes, we want to read these as the "be-attitudes": be like this, do these things. But that leads us into very dangerous territory, because what it means is that Jesus' message becomes one of legalism. Jesus' message becomes one of, you're not like this, but if you do become like this, then you get God's presence, then you get God's favor. We read the Beatitudes as a list of conditions. But they are not a list of conditions. They are a statement about reality.
They're not, "If you're poor in spirit, then you're blessed. If you mourn, then you're blessed. If you are meek, then you're blessed." Jesus is saying, this is the way things are. This is the way reality is really like. Not a condition statement, but an "is" statement. Let me explain further.
I think we've talked about this a couple of times over the years, but one of the tools we like to teach about grace and law is a triangle that puts God the Father up at top. God the Father is the one singular source of our identity. Our identity doesn't come from what we do. It doesn't come from what we say. It comes from God the Father. And God the Father says, you are sons and daughters of the King. And now, when we allow our identity to lead into our obedience—when we allow what God says about us to then come true in our lives—that's grace. That's grace transforming us to be more like the Father. Ephesians 2 puts it like this:
For by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works.
You see the difference? It's by grace you have been saved, not by works. Why have we been created? To do good works. It's not that our works save us. It's that we are saved so that we may do what God asks us to do.
Now, if we get this wrong, if we do this the wrong way, then our obedience wants to tie us into our identity, and that's legalism. So if I say, if I do A, B, C, 1, 2, 3, then God will love me, then God will accept me, then God will give me his favor and his presence—that's legalism, and it's a dead end. Obedience cannot lead into our identity. God has already granted us an identity in him. He has already called those who put their faith in Christ Jesus sons and daughters. Romans 3:20 says, "No one will be declared righteous in God's sight by the works of the law."
So if this is all true—if our identity comes first and then obedience, and if we try to use our obedience as a way to get our identity, and that's legalism—if all that is true, then the Beatitudes are not the "be-like-this-attitudes," because that would be legalism. Dallas Willard puts it like this:
The Beatitudes simply cannot be good news if they are understood as a set of how-tos for achieving blessedness. They would then only amount to a new legalism.
So if they're not condition statements, what are they? What Jesus is doing—he's not saying "because they"; he's saying "even them." Jesus is not saying, because they are poor in spirit, they're blessed; because they are meek, they will inherit the earth; because they hunger and thirst, they will be filled. He's saying, even those people—they are included in God's kingdom.
Even Them
Now, our minds are really twisted when it comes to this passage, because we come to it and assume that Jesus is talking about good people—good, decent, hard-working people. But remember Jesus' crowd that we read about just a few verses ahead of time. Jesus goes throughout Galilee, and he teaches in their synagogues, he proclaims the goodness of the kingdom, and he starts healing every disease and illness among the people. So people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those who suffered severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, the paralyzed. In this society, this is the lowest of the low. Demon-possessed people, sick people, paralyzed people, mentally unstable people—there must be something wrong with them. God's blessing can't possibly be upon them; they're sick. God's blessing can't possibly be upon them; they're demon-possessed.
And also pay attention: these are folks who start following around Jesus by the hundreds and the thousands. Don't they have better things to do with their time? Don't they have day jobs? I'd love to imagine the conversation between one of these followers of Jesus and his wife. "Hey, Ricky, where have you been the past couple days? You kind of disappeared for a while." "Oh, well, I've been following this teacher." "Oh, what's his name?" "Well, his name is Joshua. He seems like a good guy." "Well, tell me about Joshua. Certainly he must come from a really great place, a really high pedigree." "Well, no, actually, he comes from Hicksville in Galilee." "Oh, okay. Well, certainly he has a great education. Must be really well-read, trained by the best rabbis and scholars." "No, actually, Joshua from Hicksville—well, he's a stonemason. He's a construction worker. That's his trade."
By the way, we often say Jesus was a carpenter. If you've ever been to Israel, you don't see a lot of trees. The Greek word is tektōn. It means builder. The primary things that builders built with in Palestine were rocks. Jesus was a stonemason. He was a construction worker.
Okay, so you're following around Joshua. He's from Hicksville in Galilee. He doesn't have any good training. Well, what's his primary message? Well, it's that God's kingdom has come. "Did Rome leave?" "No." "Is he trying to raise up an army?" "No, no. He says that's not what we're supposed to do." So you're following Joshua from Hicksville, who is a construction worker with no good education, and his primary message is that the kingdom of God has shown up, but he's not trying to raise an army. What are you doing, Ricky?
And Jesus says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." Now, this is not a good thing. Blessed are the spiritually destitute. Blessed are the ones who don't have a day job, who start following around some wacko from Hicksville in Galilee. Blessed are the ones who are demon-possessed and sick, which must mean that God's blessing can't possibly be upon them. Blessed are the ones that, if you called on them in Sunday school, they'd either laugh at you, avert their eyes, or give you the finger. Blessed are the ones that, if you asked them to preach the sermon, they'd be so embarrassed they'd run out the back door. This is the crowd that's following Jesus. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the spiritually destitute. Blessed are the ones who we all thought were unblessable.
Now, this isn't a list of "be like this." It's a list of "even them can experience God's power, favor, and presence." Even them can experience God's kingdom today. If we look at this list, we see kind of a definition of the poor in spirit. And again, we've been so trained to read this as a positive list that we miss out on what somebody hearing this for the first time would read it as. Blessed are the poor in spirit—the crybabies. Those who mourn, verse 4—the weak. "Meek" we've kind of turned into this nice Christian word, "Jesus meek and mild," but it's those who don't fight back. It's Captain America before he gets the super-soldier serum, for any Marvel fans. Blessed are the wronged, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness—those who are wrongfully imprisoned or shot or in some way taken advantage of. Blessed are the merciful—which in our society, mercy is not necessarily your virtue; you've got to get your own, take what belongs to you. Blessed are the pure in heart—what we might call the goody-two-shoes; nothing's ever quite good enough for them, and they'll be happy to tell you about it. Blessed are the peacemakers—the conscientious objector, the pacifists. How dare they? And blessed are the persecuted, the ridiculed, the spat upon.
We read this traditionally as this list of things that we ought to be like, where the original audience would hear this and say, "Even me? Even me?" And then Jesus tells us what the kingdom of heaven will be like, what the blessed can experience today: they will be comforted by God. They will inherit God's promises. They will be filled to overflowing. They will receive God's mercy. They will see God. They will be God's sons and daughters—and they can enjoy it today. This is not a list of "because they." It's a list of "even them."
Again, Dallas Willard, in his Divine Conspiracy, puts it like this:
Blessed are the physically repulsive, blessed are those who smell bad, the twisted, misshapen, deformed, the too big, too little, too loud, the bald, the fat, and the old—for they are all riotously celebrated in the party of Jesus. Blessed are the flunk-outs and the drop-outs and the burned-outs. Blessed are the broke and the broken, the drug-heads and the divorced, the HIV-positive and the herpes-ridden. Blessed are the brain-damaged and the incurably ill. Blessed are the barren and the pregnant too many times. Blessed are the overemployed, the underemployed, the unemployed, the unemployable. Blessed are the swindled and the shoved aside. Even the moral disasters will be received by God as they come to rely on Jesus, count on him, and make him their companion in his kingdom. Murderers and child molesters, the brutal and the bigoted, drug lords and pornographers, war criminals and sadists and terrorists, the perverted and the filthy and the filthy rich. You can be blessed in the kingdom of the heavens. There is forgiveness that knows no limits to the pederast and the perpetrator of incest, to the worshiper of Satan, to those who rob the aged and the weak, to the cheat and the liar, the bloodsucker and the vengeful. Blessed, blessed, blessed, as they flee into the arms of the kingdom among us.
This is the message of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. This is the message of the Beatitudes: that even them can be included in God's kingdom and blessing today.
Two Responses
So that leaves us with two questions. Number one: how can we bless the unblessables in our life? If we believe as a church that the church exists for the benefit of its non-members, if we believe that we are blessed in order that we might be a blessing, then this extends to those we would dare call unblessable. And so we have to ask ourselves: who do we count as unblessable in our life? Who do we say couldn't possibly be included, couldn't possibly be welcomed? Who would we snub our nose at if they sat down next to us right now? And then we ask, how can I bless them? How can I show them God's favor and God's presence, available today?
For some of us, this makes us uncomfortable, this makes us cringe. But it's the Spirit of God alive and working within us that makes us able to bless even the unblessable—to say, even them, even they can belong. So who is that for you? Perhaps it's some family members who have wronged and hurt you, and you no longer want to be near them. Maybe it's someone who betrayed you. Maybe it's a whole category of people that you've written off—the lazy, the immigrant, and the refugee. Maybe it's, for my conservative friends, those Hillary voters; for my progressive friends, maybe it's those Trump voters. Who are the unblessables in your life? And how can you bless them?
And then question number two—or statement number two—you are not unblessable. There are those of us sitting here today who think this message couldn't possibly apply to us. Because whatever our past or our history is, whatever our previous actions, or the actions we're planning on today, are, we think, "No, the blessing's not for me." There have been a couple of high-profile suicides this past week. And it's actually a sociological fact that when that happens, it can bring about a spate of other suicides as well. And so I want to be here and tell you today that you are not beyond redemption. You're not beyond saving. You're not past being loved. There are people in this room who will love you unconditionally, as God's Spirit empowers us. And it's our responsibility—maybe we're not in that depressed state, a state that tells us that the best option is to kill ourselves—it's not the hurting person's responsibility to tell us that they need help; it's our responsibility to go offer it in the first place.
And so wherever you are today, I want to tell you that the message of Jesus is: blessed, blessed, blessed. To all who come to rely on his name, you may experience God's power and favor and blessing today.
Prayer
Would you stand and pray with me as our worship team comes forward? Almighty God, we thank you for the message of Jesus, that even they can be included—even those who we feel like are the last people on earth who could receive your blessing. God, we thank you that your grace is sufficient for all. And God, if we put ourselves in that camp—a camp that says I can't know God, I can't experience his forgiveness and love and grace—God, I just pray that your Holy Spirit would wrap around those people right now, and would you just let them know how loved they actually are by you. God, I pray for healing moments all across this room. Wherever there is shame, God, would you bring healing? Wherever there is embarrassment, God, would you bring a sense of belonging? Wherever there is a sense of an unforgivable sin or mistake, God, would your Spirit speak to their hearts and let them know that in Christ all things are possible, that in Christ they are loved.
And God, would you empower this church, this body, to be a people, a family, an oikos, a house of love and forgiveness—that as we proclaim the gospel of the kingdom, as we teach it in the highways and the byways, and as we seek to bring healing, God, that you would bring a crowd to follow us as we follow Jesus, and that we too would say, blessed are the unblessables, for theirs is the kingdom of God. We pray these things in Christ's name. Amen.
