"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God." Matthew 5:8
In this, the sixth Beatitude, Jesus tells us how to obtain perfect spiritual vision ... if we want to see God, then this is the great text. But as before, we should begin by defining our terms and in this case, we must determine what is meant by "pure." Its Old Testament usage generally referred to internal cleansing and it is very likely that this is just what Jesus was referring to as the "pure in heart" comes from the rhetorical answer to the question posed in Psalm 24:3, 4 "Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart." Significantly, the Old Testament prophets looked forward to the day when God would given His people clean hearts. Ezekiel records God's words: "I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh" [36:25, 26]. Similarly, Jeremiah envisaged a new covenant in which God would put His "law in their minds and write it on their hearts" [31:33].
In Jesus' day the need was dire because of the Pharisees' complete externalizations. Hence the warning of Jesus: "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish and then the outside will also be clean. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness" [Matthew 23:25-28].
But in addition to this primary meaning, "pure" also calls for a purity of devotion. William Barclay tells us that the root word in the Greek "described clear water, sometimes metals without alloy, sometimes grain that had been winnowed, and sometimes feelings that are unmixed." As it is used in our text, it carries the idea of being free from every taint of evil. We must keep this squarely in mind because it is normally supposed that "pure" as in "pure in heart" primarily refers to being pure in mind regarding matters of sensuality, and it certainly does include those matters. But the idea cannot be so limited, for it goes far deeper. Here in the sixth Beatitude it means a heart that does not bring mixed motives or divided loyalties to its relationship with God. It is a heart of singleness in devotion to God -- pure, unmixed devotion.
Consider our experiences with people we've met who while greeting us keep looking around both beside and behind us at other people and things. They really are not that interested in us; but perhaps only see us as objects or means to an end. In the God-man relationship such behavior is scandalous. On the flip-side, "pure" may be represented by the words focus, absorption, concentration, sincerity, and singleness. "Blessed are the pure" is thus a very searching statement, because focusing on God with a singleness of heart is one of the biggest challenges for 21st century Christians. Very few in this frenetic age are capable of the spiritual attention this Beatitude calls for.
Moreover, the depth of what is called for here is seen in the qualifying words "in heart." We are to be singly focused "in heart" on God. In the Scriptures, heart means more than just the mind; it also includes the emotions and the will. It is the totality of our ability to think, feel and decide. So "pure in heart" means that not only our minds but also our feelings and actions are to be concentrated singly on God. If our focus is merely intellectual, we are not pure in heart. This is a most daunting requirement -- a radical cleanness of heart, totally focused on God.
The depth of this heart requirement is further underscored by the realization that it is from the depths of our hearts that all our human problems come. Jeremiah said, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure" [17:9]. Jesus said, "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander" [Matthew 15:19]. On top of that He said, "Nothing outside a man can make him 'unclean' by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him 'unclean.' ... For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts" [Mark 7:15, 21]. The Scriptures are conclusive on this matter, but our hearts tell us the same. All we have to do is look into our own hearts of darkness, observing the mixed motives, the distractions, the divided loyalties, to know this is completely true. The words of Ivan Turgenev, the 19th century Russian novelist, speaks for us all: "I do not know what the heart of a bad man is like. But I do know what the heart of a good man is like. And it is terrible."
The looming question before us is, therefore, how can we ever accomplish this? This Beatitude is far beyond our reach. Jesus is asking for perfection! And at the end of the first section of the Sermon on the Mount, this is precisely what He demands, "Be perfect, therefore, as your Heavenly Father is perfect" [Matthew 5:48]. How can this not drive us to despair, for none of us perfectly models any of the Beatitudes? None of us perfectly exhibits poverty of spirit. None of us perfectly mourns our sins. None of us is perfectly humble and gentle. None of us perfectly hungers and thirsts. None of us is always merciful. No one is perfectly pure in heart. Then what are we to do? There can only be one answer ... we must cast ourselves on the grace and mercy of God and thus receive His radical renewal. We must ask Him to implant and nourish the character of the Kingdom in our lives. God demands a humanly impossible character, but then gives us that very character by His grace. And with that He bestows a humanly impossible vision.
Because this Beatitude's sublime benefit is a vision of God Himself. Here, as in the preceding Beatitudes, the word "they" is emphatic: "for they [they alone] will see God." And as with the other Beatitudes, the future is in immediate reference as to what goes before. They will see God as they become pure in heart. And the seeing is continuous. What this means is that it is possible to actually see God in this life -- now! Of course, we do not see Him in His total being, because that would be too much for us. However, we do see Him in many ways. We see God in the pages of His Word. We also see and celebrate God in His creation. This kind of seeing is the special possession of the believer. We see the footprints and the hands of God in nature. And those of us in faith, also see Him in the events of our lives -- even the difficulties. Job exclaimed after his varied hardships of life, "My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you" [Job 42:5].
This sixth Beatitude goes even further as it tells us that the purer our hearts become, the more we will see of God in this life. The more our hearts are focused on God, absorbed with Him, concentrated on His being, freed from distraction, sincere -- single, the more we will see Him. As our hearts become purer, the more the Word lives and creation speaks. Even the adverse circumstances of our lives seem to sharpen our vision of God. Seeing God in this life [what I often call "God sightings"] is the summum bonum -- the highest good, because those who see Him become more and more like Him. "And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit" [2 Corinthians 3:18].
But there is even more to seeing God, for the "pure in heart" will one day see Him face to face. And in that split second of recognition, believers will experience more joy than the sum total of accumulated joys of a long life. We will behold the dazzling blaze of His being that has been, and always will be, the abiding fascination of angels. Both Scripture and reason demand that we understand that it will be the greatest event of our eternal existence -- the visio Dei, the vision of God.
For us as believers this Beatitude is, thus, both an opportunity and a challenge to develop and enhance the purity and focus of our hearts. Yet we must also realize that only God can make our hearts pure ... as the Apostle Paul describes in Philippians 2:13, " ... continue to work our your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose." We must also fill ourselves with God's Word. In the Upper Room Jesus told His disciples, "You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you" [John 15:3]. Immersion and interaction with God's Word will purify. Lastly, we should think about and meditate on just what we'll be in eternity. The Apostle John described just what such a hope will do to us: "Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure" [1 John 3:2, 3]. We will be transformed at the visio Dei into the likeness of Christ! This is the most fantastical thing we could ever be told! And this is our purifying hope.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Let Mercy Lead
"Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy." Matthew 5:7
According to Kent Hughes, the basic idea of the Greek word translated merciful is "to give help to the wretched, to relieve the miserable." Here the essential thought is that mercy gives attention to those in misery. From this we make the important distinction between mercy and grace. Grace is shown to the undeserving; mercy is compassion to the miserable. Thus the synonym for mercy is compassion. But mercy goes beyond compassion or becomes compassion in action because it involves more than just a feeling; mercy exists when something is done to relieve the distress. This is a theme throughout both the Old Testament [see Hosea and Amos 5] as well as the New Testament. Jesus' Himself made it perfectly clear when, after He had told the Parable of the Good Samaritan, He asked His questioner: "Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? The expert in the law replied, 'The one who had mercy on him.' Jesus told him, 'Go and do likewise'" [Luke 10:36-37].
But there is probably no greater example in Scripture of mercy than the story of Joseph and his brothers as it displays both great mercy and great forgiveness. New Testament scholar Robert Guelich has shown that especially in this Beatitude merciful describes one who forgives and pardons another who is in the wrong. Years after Joseph had been sold into slavery, they stood before him in Egypt literally "at his mercy" and he showed them exactly that. There was compassion as he wept for their misery, and then action as he met their needs. There was forgiveness as he restored them all to his grace, saying, "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good" [Genesis 50:20]. The merciful person remembers his own sin and God's mercy to him; he understands the weaknesses of others, and he forgives.
The reason the merciful are blessed is that "they will be shown mercy." Like the preceding four Beatitudes, the word "they" in the phrase is emphatic: "Blessed are the merciful, for they [they alone] will be shown mercy." Other Scriptures teach the same idea. James says, "Judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful" [James 2:13]. Jesus Himself says, "For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins" [Matthew 6:14, 15].
Please don't miss the point here and suppose that this Beatitude teaches that one can merit God's mercy by performing acts of mercy. Such an idea would be at complete variance with the rest of Scripture which teaches salvation by grace alone, by faith alone [see Ephesians 2:8, 9]. Moreover, if receiving God's forgiveness could only be merited by becoming forgiving, none of us would ever be truly forgiven, for none would ever absolutely meet this standard. What this Beatitude does mean, however, is that those who are truly God's children and as such are objects of His mercy, will themselves be merciful and will receive mercy in the end. Showing mercy is the objective evidence that we have received mercy.
This interpretation suggests two very penetrating tests. The first is this: If we have no mercy toward those who are physically and economically in distress, we are not Christians. This is precisely the point of the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Jesus told this story to demonstrate that the religious establishment of His day did not fulfill the Great Shema of Israel:
4 Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God is one LORD: 5 and thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. 6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be upon thine heart: 7 and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. 8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be for frontlets between thine eyes. 9 And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thy house, and upon thy gates. -- Deuteronomy 6:4-9
-- loving God with all one's might and one's neighbor as himself [Luke 10:25-28]. The fact that the priest and the Levite both turned away from the needy Israelite man proved that they did not love their neighbor as themselves; they thus failed to fulfill the Law and were lost. But the Samaritan's act of mercy showed that he loved his neighbor as himself, and that he was living within the gracious parameters of the Law. He was a lover of God and man.
If we remain impassive or callous to human need and refuse to do anything about it, we need to take a good long look at ourselves and see if we really are believers. The Apostle John perhaps says it best: "If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?" [1 John 3:17]. This is a test that many churchgoers have never liked and perhaps have even rejected outright. If so, they are in great peril of soul.
The second test involves the corresponding act of mercy -- forgiveness. The test is this: If we refuse to exercise mercy by extending forgiveness, we are not Christians. Of course, it is frightening to maintain that we cannot be truly forgiven unless we have forgiving spirits. But it is true, because when God's grace comes into our hearts it makes us merciful. Forgiveness demonstrates that we have been forgiven. So the telling line is this: If we refuse to be merciful, there is only one reason -- we have never understood the grace of Christ. We stand outside His grace and are unforgiven ourselves.
Jesus taught this in the Parable of the Unmerciful Slave [Matthew 18:21-35]. The slave owed his master an immense sum -- in today's currency in excess of $20 million. The debt was impossible to repay, so he pleaded with his master who, with astonishing compassion, forgave him the entire debt. Incredibly, however, the wicked slave went out, found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a little over $2,000, and threw him into prison for failure to pay. When the other slaves reported this injustice to their master, he summoned the wicked slave: "'You wicked servant,' he said. 'I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had mercy on you?' In anger, his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. This is how my Heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart" [Matthew 18:32-35].
These are hard, violent, surgical words. But they are mercifully so. The Lord here warns the religious crowd among us who attend church, can recite the appropriate answers, lead outwardly moral lives, but inwardly hold a death grip on their grudges to take stock of their lives. If we have no desire to forgive others our very souls are in danger.
Remember that Jesus gave us these Beatitudes so that we can ascertain two things: first the authenticity of our faith, and second, the health of our spiritual lives. In the searchlight of this Beatitude, "Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy," is our salvation authentic? Are we merciful? Are we forgiving? Or do we hold grudges among our treasured possessions?
According to Kent Hughes, the basic idea of the Greek word translated merciful is "to give help to the wretched, to relieve the miserable." Here the essential thought is that mercy gives attention to those in misery. From this we make the important distinction between mercy and grace. Grace is shown to the undeserving; mercy is compassion to the miserable. Thus the synonym for mercy is compassion. But mercy goes beyond compassion or becomes compassion in action because it involves more than just a feeling; mercy exists when something is done to relieve the distress. This is a theme throughout both the Old Testament [see Hosea and Amos 5] as well as the New Testament. Jesus' Himself made it perfectly clear when, after He had told the Parable of the Good Samaritan, He asked His questioner: "Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? The expert in the law replied, 'The one who had mercy on him.' Jesus told him, 'Go and do likewise'" [Luke 10:36-37].
But there is probably no greater example in Scripture of mercy than the story of Joseph and his brothers as it displays both great mercy and great forgiveness. New Testament scholar Robert Guelich has shown that especially in this Beatitude merciful describes one who forgives and pardons another who is in the wrong. Years after Joseph had been sold into slavery, they stood before him in Egypt literally "at his mercy" and he showed them exactly that. There was compassion as he wept for their misery, and then action as he met their needs. There was forgiveness as he restored them all to his grace, saying, "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good" [Genesis 50:20]. The merciful person remembers his own sin and God's mercy to him; he understands the weaknesses of others, and he forgives.
The reason the merciful are blessed is that "they will be shown mercy." Like the preceding four Beatitudes, the word "they" in the phrase is emphatic: "Blessed are the merciful, for they [they alone] will be shown mercy." Other Scriptures teach the same idea. James says, "Judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful" [James 2:13]. Jesus Himself says, "For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins" [Matthew 6:14, 15].
Please don't miss the point here and suppose that this Beatitude teaches that one can merit God's mercy by performing acts of mercy. Such an idea would be at complete variance with the rest of Scripture which teaches salvation by grace alone, by faith alone [see Ephesians 2:8, 9]. Moreover, if receiving God's forgiveness could only be merited by becoming forgiving, none of us would ever be truly forgiven, for none would ever absolutely meet this standard. What this Beatitude does mean, however, is that those who are truly God's children and as such are objects of His mercy, will themselves be merciful and will receive mercy in the end. Showing mercy is the objective evidence that we have received mercy.
This interpretation suggests two very penetrating tests. The first is this: If we have no mercy toward those who are physically and economically in distress, we are not Christians. This is precisely the point of the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Jesus told this story to demonstrate that the religious establishment of His day did not fulfill the Great Shema of Israel:
4 Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God is one LORD: 5 and thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. 6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be upon thine heart: 7 and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. 8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be for frontlets between thine eyes. 9 And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thy house, and upon thy gates. -- Deuteronomy 6:4-9
-- loving God with all one's might and one's neighbor as himself [Luke 10:25-28]. The fact that the priest and the Levite both turned away from the needy Israelite man proved that they did not love their neighbor as themselves; they thus failed to fulfill the Law and were lost. But the Samaritan's act of mercy showed that he loved his neighbor as himself, and that he was living within the gracious parameters of the Law. He was a lover of God and man.
If we remain impassive or callous to human need and refuse to do anything about it, we need to take a good long look at ourselves and see if we really are believers. The Apostle John perhaps says it best: "If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?" [1 John 3:17]. This is a test that many churchgoers have never liked and perhaps have even rejected outright. If so, they are in great peril of soul.
The second test involves the corresponding act of mercy -- forgiveness. The test is this: If we refuse to exercise mercy by extending forgiveness, we are not Christians. Of course, it is frightening to maintain that we cannot be truly forgiven unless we have forgiving spirits. But it is true, because when God's grace comes into our hearts it makes us merciful. Forgiveness demonstrates that we have been forgiven. So the telling line is this: If we refuse to be merciful, there is only one reason -- we have never understood the grace of Christ. We stand outside His grace and are unforgiven ourselves.
Jesus taught this in the Parable of the Unmerciful Slave [Matthew 18:21-35]. The slave owed his master an immense sum -- in today's currency in excess of $20 million. The debt was impossible to repay, so he pleaded with his master who, with astonishing compassion, forgave him the entire debt. Incredibly, however, the wicked slave went out, found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a little over $2,000, and threw him into prison for failure to pay. When the other slaves reported this injustice to their master, he summoned the wicked slave: "'You wicked servant,' he said. 'I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had mercy on you?' In anger, his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. This is how my Heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart" [Matthew 18:32-35].
These are hard, violent, surgical words. But they are mercifully so. The Lord here warns the religious crowd among us who attend church, can recite the appropriate answers, lead outwardly moral lives, but inwardly hold a death grip on their grudges to take stock of their lives. If we have no desire to forgive others our very souls are in danger.
Remember that Jesus gave us these Beatitudes so that we can ascertain two things: first the authenticity of our faith, and second, the health of our spiritual lives. In the searchlight of this Beatitude, "Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy," is our salvation authentic? Are we merciful? Are we forgiving? Or do we hold grudges among our treasured possessions?
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
The Fullness of Hunger
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." Matthew 5:6
Nutritionists have dramatized the importance of diet by telling us that we are what we eat. The thinking goes, if we eat too many doughnuts and cream puffs, we essentially become walking pastries. And the argument is pretty sound, at least as far as it goes. However, in the realm of the mind and the spirit, "we are what we eat" becomes even more penetrating. If we feed on violence, excitement, erotica, and materialism, we eventually will personify them. We do "become what we eat."
Consider the case of Elvis Presley, "The King of Rock and Roll" ... long live the the king! It is pretty easy to conclude that he never really understood this. His life was a pitiful pursuit of materialism and sensuality. In his heyday, he earned between $5-$6 million a year [and that was back when $1 million was a lot of money]. It is estimated that he grossed $100 million in his first two years of super-stardom. He had three jets, two Cadillacs, a Rolls Royce, a Lincoln Continental, Buick and Chrysler station wagons, a Jeep, a dune buggy, a converted bus and three motorcycles.
His favorite car was his 1960 Cadillac limousine. The top was covered with a pearl-white Naugahyde. The body was sprayed with forty coats of a specially-prepared paint that included crushed diamonds and fish scales. Nearly all the metal trim was plated with 18 kt. gold. Inside the car there were two gold-flake telephones, a gold vanity case containing a gold electric razor and gold hair clippers, an electric shoe buffer, a gold-plated television, a record player, an amplifier, air conditioning and a refrigerator that was capable of making ice in two minutes. He had everything.
But beyond that, his sensuality was legendary. Those friends and family most familiar with his state in the last months of his life tragically reveal that Elvis had very much become the victim of his appetites. He had become what he had eaten -- in the saddest and profoundest senses. His life provides a dramatic example of what not to do as we consider Jesus' teaching in this fourth Beatitude, because in it He sets forth the appetite and menu that bring spiritual well-being: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." In this splendidly paradoxical sentence Jesus tells us what we ought to eat and how we must eat if we are to have spiritual health and ultimate satisfaction. Spiritual health comes from hunger.
So what does this "hunger and thirst for righteousness" mean? Some have supposed that this is objective righteousness described in Romans that God reckons to the believer's account, sometimes called imputed righteousness -- "righteousness from God" [Romans 1:17; 3:21, 22; Philippians 3:9]. And while this righteousness is foundational to our salvation, it is not what Jesus was referring to here. Others have confined the meaning to social righteousness, the righteous treatment of the poor and oppressed. This may be part of the meaning because in the preceding context [Matthew 4:12-17] Isaiah 9:1, 2 is quoted and this refers to the social justice that will result from the coming Messiah's reign.
However, according to R. Kent Hughes, the root meaning here is determined by the seven occurrences of "righteousness" in the Sermon on the Mount that indicate it means a subjective righteousness, an inner righteousness that works itself out in our living in conformity to God's will -- righteous living. Thus, those who "hunger and thirst for righteousness" long to live righteously, and for righteousness to prevail in the world. It is a passionate desire, which begins in our own lives, that all things should be lived in line with God's will. This desire to live in compliance with God's will is expansive. It includes an increasing sense of our need for God -- a desire to be like Him. To hunger and thirst for righteousness means longing after the practical righteousness that the Beatitudes represent both personally and in the world. We who hunger and thirst want the character of the kingdom. We pant after the fruit of the Spirit. We want God's will and all it entails.
This Beatitude is a call to pursue conformity to God's will stated in the most extreme of terms. The intensity of this call is difficult for us to comprehend because if we are thirsty today, all we need to do is turn on the faucet for cold, refreshing water; or if we are hungry, we just open the refrigerator. However, to the ancient Israelite the expression was terribly alive because he was never far from the possibility of dehydration or starvation. This is not a comfortable picture. Jesus is far from recommending a polite and refined desire for spiritual nourishment, but rather a starvation for righteousness, a desperate hungering to be conformed to God's will.
Moreover, this Beatitude is further intensified by the fact that this hungering is continual. "Blessed are those who are hungering and thirsting for righteousness." King David, at his best, was like this. He walked with God as few men have. He penned some of our favorite Psalms about his lofty spiritual experiences. And at the same time he wrote of his continual thirst and hunger: "O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water" [Psalm 63:1]. This is the way it is for us as healthy believers. We never have enough of God and His righteousness. We are always hungry.
The language of this Beatitude does not make sense to our modern ears. Indeed, it is too strong for many Christians today. It rules out sleek, self-satisfied, halfhearted religion. In fact, hungering and thirsting for righteousness is the only approach that Jesus in this Beatitude accepts. Yet for many of us, Jesus' pronouncement uncovers buried, almost forgotten glimmers of our past spiritual lives, when we first came to Christ and had this perpetual hunger and thirst. However, time may have blunted many of our desires. Many of us have let "the realities of life" take over and that unquenchable hunger and thirst has ceased. Too many of us have become content with lives of lesser and more limited devotion. If this is us, then we must heed the call and be restored to what we were meant to be in Him. We must never be spiritually satisfied. We must pray that with each passing decade of life we continue to find ourselves more thirsty for a life pleasing to God.
Why? Because Jesus pronounces those who are spiritually famished to be "blessed" or approved. The reason being that it is only those who truly hunger and thirst that know Christ. And that is why this is such a penetrating warning to modern "Christians." Concern for righteous living is on the decline in the evangelical church. Many of us watch more murders and adulteries on television in a single week than our grandparents read about in their entire lifetimes -- and with virtually no twinge of conscience. Our casual viewing is almost a tacit approval of evil. So if we have no deep inner longing for righteousness, we had better initiate a careful analysis of our individual souls. And as such, Christ's words are a gracious test. And if we do discover a hunger and thirst for righteousness there, if the Lord has given us a holy discontent with our lives, then we can be assured that we have His smile.
Lastly, this Beatitude is, of course, another attention-grabbing paradox. It suggests that those who continually hunger are satisfied. Yet, how can we be hungry and satisfied at the same time? Or how can we be satisfied and experience hunger? Satisfied but never satisfied? Full yet empty? Content but discontent? An example might be seen in a plate of hot brownies and milk. Eat one or two and we are completely satisfied -- for maybe 30 minutes [if even that] -- and then we begin to hunger for more! And we eat again with same effect. This sublime cycle can often continue until the entire plateful is consumed. This paradox also describes a spiritual cycle. The more we conform to God's will, the more fulfilled and content we become. But that, in turn, spawns a greater discontent because we see better just how far short we fall from His perfect example. Our hunger increases and intensifies in the very act of being satisfied.
Paul lived in the blessing of this paradox. He wrote to Timothy, "I know whom I have believed" [2 Timothy 1:12]. Yet to the Philippians, in my life-verse, he expressed a profound longing for Christ -- "to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death" [Philippians 3:10]. Paul knew Christ more intimately perhaps than anyone who had ever lived, yet this intimacy and satisfaction made him long for even more.
This is perhaps why the image of a divine feast is used more than once by Jesus to illustrate the satisfactions of the kingdom. On one occasion Jesus told His disciples, "And I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom" [Luke 22:29-30]. Or consider the words of Isaiah: "Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare" [Isaiah 55:1, 2]. Or finally consider again Jesus' own words: "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well" [Matthew 6:33]. We must remember that Jesus has provided us with both the menu and the appetite. The main course is righteousness -- conformity to His will; and the method is desperation. The result will be profound satisfaction, both now and forever. Hear again Jesus' words to the adulterous woman at the well: "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water" [John 4:10]. He who has ears, let him hear.
Nutritionists have dramatized the importance of diet by telling us that we are what we eat. The thinking goes, if we eat too many doughnuts and cream puffs, we essentially become walking pastries. And the argument is pretty sound, at least as far as it goes. However, in the realm of the mind and the spirit, "we are what we eat" becomes even more penetrating. If we feed on violence, excitement, erotica, and materialism, we eventually will personify them. We do "become what we eat."
Consider the case of Elvis Presley, "The King of Rock and Roll" ... long live the the king! It is pretty easy to conclude that he never really understood this. His life was a pitiful pursuit of materialism and sensuality. In his heyday, he earned between $5-$6 million a year [and that was back when $1 million was a lot of money]. It is estimated that he grossed $100 million in his first two years of super-stardom. He had three jets, two Cadillacs, a Rolls Royce, a Lincoln Continental, Buick and Chrysler station wagons, a Jeep, a dune buggy, a converted bus and three motorcycles.
His favorite car was his 1960 Cadillac limousine. The top was covered with a pearl-white Naugahyde. The body was sprayed with forty coats of a specially-prepared paint that included crushed diamonds and fish scales. Nearly all the metal trim was plated with 18 kt. gold. Inside the car there were two gold-flake telephones, a gold vanity case containing a gold electric razor and gold hair clippers, an electric shoe buffer, a gold-plated television, a record player, an amplifier, air conditioning and a refrigerator that was capable of making ice in two minutes. He had everything.
But beyond that, his sensuality was legendary. Those friends and family most familiar with his state in the last months of his life tragically reveal that Elvis had very much become the victim of his appetites. He had become what he had eaten -- in the saddest and profoundest senses. His life provides a dramatic example of what not to do as we consider Jesus' teaching in this fourth Beatitude, because in it He sets forth the appetite and menu that bring spiritual well-being: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." In this splendidly paradoxical sentence Jesus tells us what we ought to eat and how we must eat if we are to have spiritual health and ultimate satisfaction. Spiritual health comes from hunger.
So what does this "hunger and thirst for righteousness" mean? Some have supposed that this is objective righteousness described in Romans that God reckons to the believer's account, sometimes called imputed righteousness -- "righteousness from God" [Romans 1:17; 3:21, 22; Philippians 3:9]. And while this righteousness is foundational to our salvation, it is not what Jesus was referring to here. Others have confined the meaning to social righteousness, the righteous treatment of the poor and oppressed. This may be part of the meaning because in the preceding context [Matthew 4:12-17] Isaiah 9:1, 2 is quoted and this refers to the social justice that will result from the coming Messiah's reign.
However, according to R. Kent Hughes, the root meaning here is determined by the seven occurrences of "righteousness" in the Sermon on the Mount that indicate it means a subjective righteousness, an inner righteousness that works itself out in our living in conformity to God's will -- righteous living. Thus, those who "hunger and thirst for righteousness" long to live righteously, and for righteousness to prevail in the world. It is a passionate desire, which begins in our own lives, that all things should be lived in line with God's will. This desire to live in compliance with God's will is expansive. It includes an increasing sense of our need for God -- a desire to be like Him. To hunger and thirst for righteousness means longing after the practical righteousness that the Beatitudes represent both personally and in the world. We who hunger and thirst want the character of the kingdom. We pant after the fruit of the Spirit. We want God's will and all it entails.
This Beatitude is a call to pursue conformity to God's will stated in the most extreme of terms. The intensity of this call is difficult for us to comprehend because if we are thirsty today, all we need to do is turn on the faucet for cold, refreshing water; or if we are hungry, we just open the refrigerator. However, to the ancient Israelite the expression was terribly alive because he was never far from the possibility of dehydration or starvation. This is not a comfortable picture. Jesus is far from recommending a polite and refined desire for spiritual nourishment, but rather a starvation for righteousness, a desperate hungering to be conformed to God's will.
Moreover, this Beatitude is further intensified by the fact that this hungering is continual. "Blessed are those who are hungering and thirsting for righteousness." King David, at his best, was like this. He walked with God as few men have. He penned some of our favorite Psalms about his lofty spiritual experiences. And at the same time he wrote of his continual thirst and hunger: "O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water" [Psalm 63:1]. This is the way it is for us as healthy believers. We never have enough of God and His righteousness. We are always hungry.
The language of this Beatitude does not make sense to our modern ears. Indeed, it is too strong for many Christians today. It rules out sleek, self-satisfied, halfhearted religion. In fact, hungering and thirsting for righteousness is the only approach that Jesus in this Beatitude accepts. Yet for many of us, Jesus' pronouncement uncovers buried, almost forgotten glimmers of our past spiritual lives, when we first came to Christ and had this perpetual hunger and thirst. However, time may have blunted many of our desires. Many of us have let "the realities of life" take over and that unquenchable hunger and thirst has ceased. Too many of us have become content with lives of lesser and more limited devotion. If this is us, then we must heed the call and be restored to what we were meant to be in Him. We must never be spiritually satisfied. We must pray that with each passing decade of life we continue to find ourselves more thirsty for a life pleasing to God.
Why? Because Jesus pronounces those who are spiritually famished to be "blessed" or approved. The reason being that it is only those who truly hunger and thirst that know Christ. And that is why this is such a penetrating warning to modern "Christians." Concern for righteous living is on the decline in the evangelical church. Many of us watch more murders and adulteries on television in a single week than our grandparents read about in their entire lifetimes -- and with virtually no twinge of conscience. Our casual viewing is almost a tacit approval of evil. So if we have no deep inner longing for righteousness, we had better initiate a careful analysis of our individual souls. And as such, Christ's words are a gracious test. And if we do discover a hunger and thirst for righteousness there, if the Lord has given us a holy discontent with our lives, then we can be assured that we have His smile.
Lastly, this Beatitude is, of course, another attention-grabbing paradox. It suggests that those who continually hunger are satisfied. Yet, how can we be hungry and satisfied at the same time? Or how can we be satisfied and experience hunger? Satisfied but never satisfied? Full yet empty? Content but discontent? An example might be seen in a plate of hot brownies and milk. Eat one or two and we are completely satisfied -- for maybe 30 minutes [if even that] -- and then we begin to hunger for more! And we eat again with same effect. This sublime cycle can often continue until the entire plateful is consumed. This paradox also describes a spiritual cycle. The more we conform to God's will, the more fulfilled and content we become. But that, in turn, spawns a greater discontent because we see better just how far short we fall from His perfect example. Our hunger increases and intensifies in the very act of being satisfied.
Paul lived in the blessing of this paradox. He wrote to Timothy, "I know whom I have believed" [2 Timothy 1:12]. Yet to the Philippians, in my life-verse, he expressed a profound longing for Christ -- "to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death" [Philippians 3:10]. Paul knew Christ more intimately perhaps than anyone who had ever lived, yet this intimacy and satisfaction made him long for even more.
This is perhaps why the image of a divine feast is used more than once by Jesus to illustrate the satisfactions of the kingdom. On one occasion Jesus told His disciples, "And I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom" [Luke 22:29-30]. Or consider the words of Isaiah: "Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare" [Isaiah 55:1, 2]. Or finally consider again Jesus' own words: "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well" [Matthew 6:33]. We must remember that Jesus has provided us with both the menu and the appetite. The main course is righteousness -- conformity to His will; and the method is desperation. The result will be profound satisfaction, both now and forever. Hear again Jesus' words to the adulterous woman at the well: "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water" [John 4:10]. He who has ears, let him hear.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
The Survival of the Meekest & Other Paradoxes
"Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth." Matthew 5:5
Two men faced each other on the pavement before the governor's palace. One was Jesus Christ, the meekest man who had ever lived. The other was Pontius Pilate, a man of extraordinary pride. Jesus appeared as the epitome of weakness, a poor Jew caught in the inexorable tides of Roman history, frail and impotent, a man destined to be extirpated from the face of the earth. Pilate, on the other hand, was the very personification of Roman power. The tides of history were on his side, and as a part of Rome, he was heir to the earth.
The two figures are opposite ends of a tragic paradox. Jesus Christ, the prisoner, was the free man. He was in absolute control. Jesus, the meek, would inherit not only the earth but the entire universe. Whereas, Pilate, the governor, was the prisoner of his own pride and sin. He could not control even his own soul, and thus, he had no inheritance.
Jesus not only taught the paradox "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth" -- He actually lived it. He, in fact, was the master of the paradox. His teaching was typically salted with shining contrasts like: "Last is first; Giving is receiving; Dying is living; Losing is finding; Least is greatest; Poor is rich; Weakness is strength; Serving is ruling." For Christ, paradoxes were an especially effective way of enabling people to see essential spiritual truth.
The beauty of a paradox is that it grabs our attention because it falls on our ears with an elevating dissonance. In the case of Matthew 5:5, it would seem far truer to say "Blessed are the proud, the strong, the intimidating, for they will inherit the earth." But Jesus is teaching survival not of the fittest but of the meekest! And immediately we wonder, "how in the world are the meek going to inherit anything?" Does Jesus not know that life does not work that way? Just look at those who occupy the White House, the Capitol, the executive suites of Wall Street or Fifth Avenue -- the strong, the self-sufficient, the overbearing, the more than capable, the aggressive, the ambitious. The world seemingly belongs to such as those. So it would seem that the last thing the average man would want to be known for is meekness. It would seem that Jesus has made a great mistake, but of course, He hasn't. Indeed, the third Beatitude provides an infallible law of life and a remarkable power for living and dying.
So to begin, what does "Blessed are the meek" mean? Or more specifically, what does the word "meek" -- or as many translations render it, "gentle" -- mean? As before it will be helpful to begin with what it does NOT mean. Understand first that meekness is not weakness. It does not denote cowardice or spinelessness or timidity or a willingness to have peace at any cost. Neither does it suggest indecisiveness, wishy-washiness, or a lack of confidence. Meekness does not imply shyness or a withdrawn personality. And it cannot be reduced down to mere niceness.
In classical Greek, the word was used to describe tame animals, soothing medicine, a mild word and a gentle breeze. William Barclay described it a word "with a caress in it." Meekness/gentleness also implies self-control. And Barclay went on to describe it as "strength under control." The meek person is strong! He is gentle, meek, and mild; but he is in control and he is as strong as steel.
To read Psalm 37 would show that Jesus consciously alluded to verse 11, "But the meek will inherit the land," when he formulated the third Beatitude. This statement's location in the heart of this Psalm is deeply revelatory of just what meekness/gentleness rests upon. The Israelites to who the Psalm was written, despite living in the land, did not truly possess the land because of the working of evil men. What were they to do? In a word, trust ["trust," v. 3, 5; "be still ... wait," v. 7]. Thus a deep trust in the sovereign power of God is the key to meekness. Jesus, of course, perfectly displayed this dynamic of trust that is fundamental to meekness. "When," as Peter records, "they hurled their insults at Him, He did not retaliate; when He suffered, He made no threats. Instead, He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly" [1 Peter 2:23].
Jesus said of Himself, "I am gentle and humble in heart" [Matthew 11:29]. As the incarnation of meekness, He displayed it in two distinct ways, both of which showed His power. In respect to His own person, He practiced neither retaliation nor vindictiveness. When He was mocked and spat upon, He answered nothing, for He trusted His Father. When confronted by Pilate, He kept silent. When His friends betrayed Him and fled, He uttered no reproach. When Peter denied Him, Jesus restored him to both fellowship and service. When Judas came and kissed him in Gethsemane, Jesus called him "friend." And Jesus meant it. He was never insincere. Even in the throes of death, He pleaded, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing" [Luke 23:34]. Yet in all of this, Jesus, meek and mild, was in control. He radiated power.
On the other hand, when it came to matters of faith and the welfare of others, Jesus was a lion. He rebuked the Pharisees' hardness of heart when He healed the man's withered hand on the Sabbath [Matthew 12:9-45]. He was angered when His disciples tried to prevent little children from coming to Him [Mark 10:13-16]. He made a whip and drove the moneychangers from the Temple [John 2:14-17]. He called Peter "Satan" after the outspoken fisherman tried to deter Him from His heavenly mission [Matthew 16: 21-23]. All of this came from the very same Jesus, the incarnation of gentleness.
To put it all together is to make an amazing picture. The one who is meek has a gentle spirit because he trusts God. Indeed, there is even a caress about his presence. At the same time, the meek person possesses immense strength and self-control, which he exhibits in extending love rather than retaliation against those who do him evil. But he stands up fearlessly in defense of others or of the truth as the occasion demands.
The reward for meekness is nothing short of amazing: "They will inherit the earth." As mentioned previously, the inspiration for this magnificent paradox is Psalm 37, which encouraged God's people not to fret because of evil, but rather to trust because "the meek inherit the land." In the New Testament, God's people are not a physical nation -- they are gathered from all nations and tongues. And the land/earth they inherit is not a physical plot of ground -- it is Heaven itself. The time is coming when, as fellow heirs with Christ [Romans 8:17], we will reign with Him in his earthly kingdom. We will inherit the earth. We will judge the world [1 Corinthians 6:2]. The paradox will be literally fulfilled, far beyond our wildest dreams.
But there is also a present inheritance that abundantly enriches our earthly existence even now. There is a sense in which those who set their minds on riches never truly possess anything. This was illustrated most classically when one of the world's wealthiest men was asked how much money was enough and his answer was "Just a little more." He owned everything, yet possessed nothing. It is the meek who own the earth now, for when their life is free from the tyranny of "just a little more," when a gentle spirit caresses their approach to their rights, then they possess all. The meek are the only ones who inherit the earth. As in the two Beatitudes preceding it, the "they" in "they shall inherit" is emphatic: "They alone, only they, shall inherit the earth." They are rich right now; and fifty billion years into eternity they will still be lavishing in the unfolding of "the incomparable riches of His grace" [Ephesians 2:7].
So how do we become Christlike in our meekness? There are three concurrent pathways. First, we must realize that a gentle spirit is a gift of the Holy Spirit [Galatians 5:23]. Therefore, it only comes through grace. We must cast ourselves on God, asking in humble prayer that He give us life, make us His children, and instill in us a spirit of meekness. At the same time, we can ask confidently because we know that if we ask anything according to His will, He will do it [John 14:13, 1 John 5:14]. Such asking ought to be continual because every soul needs to grow in grace regardless of one's level of spiritual maturity.
Secondly, we must yoke ourselves to Jesus, for He was the incarnation of meekness. Our Lord said of Himself, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light" [Matthew 11:29, 30]. Jesus promises us that if we yoke ourselves to Him, we will learn gentleness and humility. Lastly, we must notice the progression of thought in the Beatitudes, for it provides us with a three-step ladder to meekness. The initial step begins with the first Beatitude [Matthew 5:3] with poverty of spirit, which comes from a true knowledge of ourselves. We realize that there is nothing within us that would commend us to God. We fall short. We need God. In the next Beatitude [v. 4] we progress to mourning. We most naturally lament the state of our spiritual poverty. Yet this mourning is an enviable state because in it we are blessed and comforted.
We should note that poverty of spirit and mourning are negative. However, when true poverty of spirit and spiritual mourning are present, they make way for the positive virtue of meekness. In a sense, meekness is superior to the two preceding states because it grows out of them. The process is all so natural, so beautiful, and yet also quite supernatural. The test as to whether we are truly meek is not whether we can say we are poor sinners, but rather what we do when someone else calls us vile sinners.
Two men faced each other on the pavement before the governor's palace. One was Jesus Christ, the meekest man who had ever lived. The other was Pontius Pilate, a man of extraordinary pride. Jesus appeared as the epitome of weakness, a poor Jew caught in the inexorable tides of Roman history, frail and impotent, a man destined to be extirpated from the face of the earth. Pilate, on the other hand, was the very personification of Roman power. The tides of history were on his side, and as a part of Rome, he was heir to the earth.
The two figures are opposite ends of a tragic paradox. Jesus Christ, the prisoner, was the free man. He was in absolute control. Jesus, the meek, would inherit not only the earth but the entire universe. Whereas, Pilate, the governor, was the prisoner of his own pride and sin. He could not control even his own soul, and thus, he had no inheritance.
Jesus not only taught the paradox "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth" -- He actually lived it. He, in fact, was the master of the paradox. His teaching was typically salted with shining contrasts like: "Last is first; Giving is receiving; Dying is living; Losing is finding; Least is greatest; Poor is rich; Weakness is strength; Serving is ruling." For Christ, paradoxes were an especially effective way of enabling people to see essential spiritual truth.
The beauty of a paradox is that it grabs our attention because it falls on our ears with an elevating dissonance. In the case of Matthew 5:5, it would seem far truer to say "Blessed are the proud, the strong, the intimidating, for they will inherit the earth." But Jesus is teaching survival not of the fittest but of the meekest! And immediately we wonder, "how in the world are the meek going to inherit anything?" Does Jesus not know that life does not work that way? Just look at those who occupy the White House, the Capitol, the executive suites of Wall Street or Fifth Avenue -- the strong, the self-sufficient, the overbearing, the more than capable, the aggressive, the ambitious. The world seemingly belongs to such as those. So it would seem that the last thing the average man would want to be known for is meekness. It would seem that Jesus has made a great mistake, but of course, He hasn't. Indeed, the third Beatitude provides an infallible law of life and a remarkable power for living and dying.
So to begin, what does "Blessed are the meek" mean? Or more specifically, what does the word "meek" -- or as many translations render it, "gentle" -- mean? As before it will be helpful to begin with what it does NOT mean. Understand first that meekness is not weakness. It does not denote cowardice or spinelessness or timidity or a willingness to have peace at any cost. Neither does it suggest indecisiveness, wishy-washiness, or a lack of confidence. Meekness does not imply shyness or a withdrawn personality. And it cannot be reduced down to mere niceness.
In classical Greek, the word was used to describe tame animals, soothing medicine, a mild word and a gentle breeze. William Barclay described it a word "with a caress in it." Meekness/gentleness also implies self-control. And Barclay went on to describe it as "strength under control." The meek person is strong! He is gentle, meek, and mild; but he is in control and he is as strong as steel.
To read Psalm 37 would show that Jesus consciously alluded to verse 11, "But the meek will inherit the land," when he formulated the third Beatitude. This statement's location in the heart of this Psalm is deeply revelatory of just what meekness/gentleness rests upon. The Israelites to who the Psalm was written, despite living in the land, did not truly possess the land because of the working of evil men. What were they to do? In a word, trust ["trust," v. 3, 5; "be still ... wait," v. 7]. Thus a deep trust in the sovereign power of God is the key to meekness. Jesus, of course, perfectly displayed this dynamic of trust that is fundamental to meekness. "When," as Peter records, "they hurled their insults at Him, He did not retaliate; when He suffered, He made no threats. Instead, He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly" [1 Peter 2:23].
Jesus said of Himself, "I am gentle and humble in heart" [Matthew 11:29]. As the incarnation of meekness, He displayed it in two distinct ways, both of which showed His power. In respect to His own person, He practiced neither retaliation nor vindictiveness. When He was mocked and spat upon, He answered nothing, for He trusted His Father. When confronted by Pilate, He kept silent. When His friends betrayed Him and fled, He uttered no reproach. When Peter denied Him, Jesus restored him to both fellowship and service. When Judas came and kissed him in Gethsemane, Jesus called him "friend." And Jesus meant it. He was never insincere. Even in the throes of death, He pleaded, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing" [Luke 23:34]. Yet in all of this, Jesus, meek and mild, was in control. He radiated power.
On the other hand, when it came to matters of faith and the welfare of others, Jesus was a lion. He rebuked the Pharisees' hardness of heart when He healed the man's withered hand on the Sabbath [Matthew 12:9-45]. He was angered when His disciples tried to prevent little children from coming to Him [Mark 10:13-16]. He made a whip and drove the moneychangers from the Temple [John 2:14-17]. He called Peter "Satan" after the outspoken fisherman tried to deter Him from His heavenly mission [Matthew 16: 21-23]. All of this came from the very same Jesus, the incarnation of gentleness.
To put it all together is to make an amazing picture. The one who is meek has a gentle spirit because he trusts God. Indeed, there is even a caress about his presence. At the same time, the meek person possesses immense strength and self-control, which he exhibits in extending love rather than retaliation against those who do him evil. But he stands up fearlessly in defense of others or of the truth as the occasion demands.
The reward for meekness is nothing short of amazing: "They will inherit the earth." As mentioned previously, the inspiration for this magnificent paradox is Psalm 37, which encouraged God's people not to fret because of evil, but rather to trust because "the meek inherit the land." In the New Testament, God's people are not a physical nation -- they are gathered from all nations and tongues. And the land/earth they inherit is not a physical plot of ground -- it is Heaven itself. The time is coming when, as fellow heirs with Christ [Romans 8:17], we will reign with Him in his earthly kingdom. We will inherit the earth. We will judge the world [1 Corinthians 6:2]. The paradox will be literally fulfilled, far beyond our wildest dreams.
But there is also a present inheritance that abundantly enriches our earthly existence even now. There is a sense in which those who set their minds on riches never truly possess anything. This was illustrated most classically when one of the world's wealthiest men was asked how much money was enough and his answer was "Just a little more." He owned everything, yet possessed nothing. It is the meek who own the earth now, for when their life is free from the tyranny of "just a little more," when a gentle spirit caresses their approach to their rights, then they possess all. The meek are the only ones who inherit the earth. As in the two Beatitudes preceding it, the "they" in "they shall inherit" is emphatic: "They alone, only they, shall inherit the earth." They are rich right now; and fifty billion years into eternity they will still be lavishing in the unfolding of "the incomparable riches of His grace" [Ephesians 2:7].
So how do we become Christlike in our meekness? There are three concurrent pathways. First, we must realize that a gentle spirit is a gift of the Holy Spirit [Galatians 5:23]. Therefore, it only comes through grace. We must cast ourselves on God, asking in humble prayer that He give us life, make us His children, and instill in us a spirit of meekness. At the same time, we can ask confidently because we know that if we ask anything according to His will, He will do it [John 14:13, 1 John 5:14]. Such asking ought to be continual because every soul needs to grow in grace regardless of one's level of spiritual maturity.
Secondly, we must yoke ourselves to Jesus, for He was the incarnation of meekness. Our Lord said of Himself, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light" [Matthew 11:29, 30]. Jesus promises us that if we yoke ourselves to Him, we will learn gentleness and humility. Lastly, we must notice the progression of thought in the Beatitudes, for it provides us with a three-step ladder to meekness. The initial step begins with the first Beatitude [Matthew 5:3] with poverty of spirit, which comes from a true knowledge of ourselves. We realize that there is nothing within us that would commend us to God. We fall short. We need God. In the next Beatitude [v. 4] we progress to mourning. We most naturally lament the state of our spiritual poverty. Yet this mourning is an enviable state because in it we are blessed and comforted.
We should note that poverty of spirit and mourning are negative. However, when true poverty of spirit and spiritual mourning are present, they make way for the positive virtue of meekness. In a sense, meekness is superior to the two preceding states because it grows out of them. The process is all so natural, so beautiful, and yet also quite supernatural. The test as to whether we are truly meek is not whether we can say we are poor sinners, but rather what we do when someone else calls us vile sinners.
Monday, January 17, 2011
The Only Thing Sadder than Sorrow
"Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted." Matthew 5:4
To truly confront the sin within us is a devastating experience. If pastors preached on sin, as my pastor Erik Braun did yesterday as he described Zacchaeus' encounter with Christ in Luke 19, many people would flee their church pews never to return ... not so much for us at Four Oaks as we're used to it by now ... but the painful reality of sin's effect on our souls should never be glanced over or trifled with. The abiding fact is that man has always been in need of such an encounter. And to this end Jesus has given us the second Beatitude, because it shows the necessity of truly facing one's sin.
The intimate connection of this second Beatitude with the first is beautiful and compelling. The first Beatitude, "Blessed are the poor in spirit," is primarily intellectual [those who understand that they are spiritual beggars are blessed]; the second Beatitude, "Blessed are those who mourn," is the emotional counterpart. It naturally follows that when we see ourselves for what we are, our emotions will be stirred to mourning. Again as with the first Beatitude, it is impossible to overstress the importance of these spiritual truths as they relate to the gospel. The Beatitudes are NOT the gospel because they do not explicitly explain Christ's atoning death and resurrection and how one may receive Him. But most certainly, they are PREPARATORY to the gospel.
The Beatitudes are preparatory in the sense that they slay us so that we may live. They hold us up against God's standards for the kingdom so that we can see our need and fly to Him. They cut through the delusions of formulaic Christianity and expose the shallowness of "Christians" who can give all the "right" answers but do not know Christ.
To begin with, what does the paradoxical pronouncement "Blessed are those who mourn" mean? Maybe we should start with what it does not mean. Jesus does not mean, "Blessed are grim, cheerless Christians." Christ is not pronouncing a Beatitude on a forlorn disposition. Neither does He mean, "Blessed are those who are mourning over the difficulties of life." The Bible does not say that mourning by itself is a blessed state. Sorrow is not blessed any more than laughter is.
A great day has come when we see our sinful state apart from God's grace and begin to mourn over its devastating consequences in our souls, words and deeds as described in Romans 3.
Souls: "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one" [vv. 10-12].
Words: "Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit;" "the poison of vipers is on their lips;" "their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness" [vv. 13-14].
Deeds: "Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know" [vv. 15-17].
Such are we all if left to ourselves. There is always room for decline if we resist the grace of God.
But it is an even greater day when we are truly confronted with our individual sins, when we refuse to rationalize them away, when we reject superficial euphemisms, when we call sin "sin" in our lives. And it is the greatest of all days yet when in horror and desperation over our sin and sins we weep, so that the divine smile begins to break through.
Such personal mourning is naturally expansive because one who truly mourns over his or her own sins will also grieve over the power and effect of sin in the world ... as so many have done this past week following the unspeakable tragedy in Tucson, AZ. David mourned for the sins of others in Psalm 119:136, "Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed." This, in fact, was the great characteristic of Jeremiah, the Weeping Prophet, known for the many tears he shed over his people Israel. Of course, no one was more grieved by the sin of the world than was our sinless Lord Jesus. Through the mystery of the Incarnation, His heart became a spiritual seismograph registering the slightest tremors of the earth's pain and sorrow. It is no wonder that some thought Him to be Jeremiah returned from the grave [Matthew 16:14].
With this understanding we can begin to see the brilliance of Jesus' paradox in the second Beatitude. He stands truth on its head, and it then shouts for us to take notice and comprehend, "Blessed [approved] are those who mourn [over sin -- that is their own sin and the sins that poison the world], for they shall be comforted." Christ begs for us to understand and we are blessed if we hear and put our understanding to work.
It should also be noted that mourning is most certainly not in vogue today, despite its necessity for spiritual health. It should also be said that humor and laughter are good and necessary for the believer and no less than Solomon has written that a merry heart acts as a "good medicine" [Proverbs 17:22], and we all know this to be true. So despite the fact that laughter is essential, the world does not see the same need for sorrow. In fact, the world so despises sorrow that it has gone to great lengths to avoid it. We post-moderns have structured our lives to maximize entertainment and amusement in a vain attempt to make life one big party. We laugh even when there is no reason to laugh, and, in fact, often laugh when we really should be weeping.
The world thinks that mourners [and especially those who mourn the course of the world, who mourn over sin] are mad. And sadly, it is not much different with the church. Some actually hold that if we are good Christians, filled with the Spirit, we will experience a life without sorrow and that we almost literally will walk around like modern day Mona Lisas with plastic smiles on our faces. There are far too many pastors who, though they claim to be in the evangelical tradition, never mention sin in their preaching because that would make their people unhappy. The obvious result is a Christianity that is pathetically shallow -- if, indeed, it is even Christianity at all! True Christianity manifests itself in what we cry over and what we laugh about.
In matters of spiritual life and health, mourning is not optional. Spiritual mourning is necessary for salvation. No one is truly Christian who has not mourned over his or her sins. You cannot be forgiven if you are not sorry for your sins. Because there is one thing worse than sin and that is the denial of sin, which makes forgiveness impossible. In fact, the saddest thing in life is not a mourning heart, but a heart that is incapable of grief over sin, for it is a heart without grace. Without poverty of spirit no one enters the kingdom of God. Likewise, without its emotional counterpart -- grief over sin -- no one receives the comfort of forgiveness and salvation.
Moreover, for Christians, mourning over sin is also essential for ongoing spiritual health. R. Kent Hughes notes that the verb used in this verse is the most intensive of the nine verbs employed in the New Testament for mourning, and it is continuous. Godly believers, therefore, perpetually mourn, and thus perpetually repent of their sins. And what is the result of our mourning? In the first Beatitude we saw that an ongoing poverty of spirit leaves us open to the ongoing blessings of the kingdom. Here, our ongoing mourning opens us to His unspeakable comfort and joy.
Lastly, notice that this comfort is actually immediate. Don't misinterpret the future tense, which Hughes states is merely used to sequence mourning and comfort because the actual sense of Christ's words is, "Blessed are the mourners, for they will be immediately comforted, and they will continue to be so." And notice, above all, that the basis for this comfort is forgiveness. Believers are the only people in the world who are free from the guilt of their sins. The word "they" is emphatic. The sense is: "Blessed are those who mourn, for they alone will be comforted." We can actually know we are mourners if we have the paradoxically comforting sense of God's forgiveness. This forgiveness is also accompanied by changed lives, diminishing the sources of so much personal sorrow -- arrogance, judgmentalism, selfishness, jealousy among others. Therefore, comfort springs from within -- literally from changed lives. May this be true of each of us.
To truly confront the sin within us is a devastating experience. If pastors preached on sin, as my pastor Erik Braun did yesterday as he described Zacchaeus' encounter with Christ in Luke 19, many people would flee their church pews never to return ... not so much for us at Four Oaks as we're used to it by now ... but the painful reality of sin's effect on our souls should never be glanced over or trifled with. The abiding fact is that man has always been in need of such an encounter. And to this end Jesus has given us the second Beatitude, because it shows the necessity of truly facing one's sin.
The intimate connection of this second Beatitude with the first is beautiful and compelling. The first Beatitude, "Blessed are the poor in spirit," is primarily intellectual [those who understand that they are spiritual beggars are blessed]; the second Beatitude, "Blessed are those who mourn," is the emotional counterpart. It naturally follows that when we see ourselves for what we are, our emotions will be stirred to mourning. Again as with the first Beatitude, it is impossible to overstress the importance of these spiritual truths as they relate to the gospel. The Beatitudes are NOT the gospel because they do not explicitly explain Christ's atoning death and resurrection and how one may receive Him. But most certainly, they are PREPARATORY to the gospel.
The Beatitudes are preparatory in the sense that they slay us so that we may live. They hold us up against God's standards for the kingdom so that we can see our need and fly to Him. They cut through the delusions of formulaic Christianity and expose the shallowness of "Christians" who can give all the "right" answers but do not know Christ.
To begin with, what does the paradoxical pronouncement "Blessed are those who mourn" mean? Maybe we should start with what it does not mean. Jesus does not mean, "Blessed are grim, cheerless Christians." Christ is not pronouncing a Beatitude on a forlorn disposition. Neither does He mean, "Blessed are those who are mourning over the difficulties of life." The Bible does not say that mourning by itself is a blessed state. Sorrow is not blessed any more than laughter is.
A great day has come when we see our sinful state apart from God's grace and begin to mourn over its devastating consequences in our souls, words and deeds as described in Romans 3.
Souls: "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one" [vv. 10-12].
Words: "Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit;" "the poison of vipers is on their lips;" "their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness" [vv. 13-14].
Deeds: "Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know" [vv. 15-17].
Such are we all if left to ourselves. There is always room for decline if we resist the grace of God.
But it is an even greater day when we are truly confronted with our individual sins, when we refuse to rationalize them away, when we reject superficial euphemisms, when we call sin "sin" in our lives. And it is the greatest of all days yet when in horror and desperation over our sin and sins we weep, so that the divine smile begins to break through.
Such personal mourning is naturally expansive because one who truly mourns over his or her own sins will also grieve over the power and effect of sin in the world ... as so many have done this past week following the unspeakable tragedy in Tucson, AZ. David mourned for the sins of others in Psalm 119:136, "Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed." This, in fact, was the great characteristic of Jeremiah, the Weeping Prophet, known for the many tears he shed over his people Israel. Of course, no one was more grieved by the sin of the world than was our sinless Lord Jesus. Through the mystery of the Incarnation, His heart became a spiritual seismograph registering the slightest tremors of the earth's pain and sorrow. It is no wonder that some thought Him to be Jeremiah returned from the grave [Matthew 16:14].
With this understanding we can begin to see the brilliance of Jesus' paradox in the second Beatitude. He stands truth on its head, and it then shouts for us to take notice and comprehend, "Blessed [approved] are those who mourn [over sin -- that is their own sin and the sins that poison the world], for they shall be comforted." Christ begs for us to understand and we are blessed if we hear and put our understanding to work.
It should also be noted that mourning is most certainly not in vogue today, despite its necessity for spiritual health. It should also be said that humor and laughter are good and necessary for the believer and no less than Solomon has written that a merry heart acts as a "good medicine" [Proverbs 17:22], and we all know this to be true. So despite the fact that laughter is essential, the world does not see the same need for sorrow. In fact, the world so despises sorrow that it has gone to great lengths to avoid it. We post-moderns have structured our lives to maximize entertainment and amusement in a vain attempt to make life one big party. We laugh even when there is no reason to laugh, and, in fact, often laugh when we really should be weeping.
The world thinks that mourners [and especially those who mourn the course of the world, who mourn over sin] are mad. And sadly, it is not much different with the church. Some actually hold that if we are good Christians, filled with the Spirit, we will experience a life without sorrow and that we almost literally will walk around like modern day Mona Lisas with plastic smiles on our faces. There are far too many pastors who, though they claim to be in the evangelical tradition, never mention sin in their preaching because that would make their people unhappy. The obvious result is a Christianity that is pathetically shallow -- if, indeed, it is even Christianity at all! True Christianity manifests itself in what we cry over and what we laugh about.
In matters of spiritual life and health, mourning is not optional. Spiritual mourning is necessary for salvation. No one is truly Christian who has not mourned over his or her sins. You cannot be forgiven if you are not sorry for your sins. Because there is one thing worse than sin and that is the denial of sin, which makes forgiveness impossible. In fact, the saddest thing in life is not a mourning heart, but a heart that is incapable of grief over sin, for it is a heart without grace. Without poverty of spirit no one enters the kingdom of God. Likewise, without its emotional counterpart -- grief over sin -- no one receives the comfort of forgiveness and salvation.
Moreover, for Christians, mourning over sin is also essential for ongoing spiritual health. R. Kent Hughes notes that the verb used in this verse is the most intensive of the nine verbs employed in the New Testament for mourning, and it is continuous. Godly believers, therefore, perpetually mourn, and thus perpetually repent of their sins. And what is the result of our mourning? In the first Beatitude we saw that an ongoing poverty of spirit leaves us open to the ongoing blessings of the kingdom. Here, our ongoing mourning opens us to His unspeakable comfort and joy.
Lastly, notice that this comfort is actually immediate. Don't misinterpret the future tense, which Hughes states is merely used to sequence mourning and comfort because the actual sense of Christ's words is, "Blessed are the mourners, for they will be immediately comforted, and they will continue to be so." And notice, above all, that the basis for this comfort is forgiveness. Believers are the only people in the world who are free from the guilt of their sins. The word "they" is emphatic. The sense is: "Blessed are those who mourn, for they alone will be comforted." We can actually know we are mourners if we have the paradoxically comforting sense of God's forgiveness. This forgiveness is also accompanied by changed lives, diminishing the sources of so much personal sorrow -- arrogance, judgmentalism, selfishness, jealousy among others. Therefore, comfort springs from within -- literally from changed lives. May this be true of each of us.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Poverty of Spirit: The Key to Life
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God." Matthew 5:3
Each of the nine Beatitudes opens with the word "blessed." So it is essential that we understand what this word means and just as importantly what it does not mean. Contrary to popular opinion, blessed does not mean "happy," even though some translations have rendered it this way. Happiness is a subjective state, a feeling. But Jesus is not declaring how people feel; rather, He is making an objective statement about what God thinks of them. Blessed is a positive judgment by God on an individual that means "to be approved" or "to find approval." So when God blesses us, he approves us. Of course, blessing likely bring happiness and it is also certainly true that blessed people are generally happy. But we should remember that the root idea of blessed is an awareness of approval by God. Blessedness is not simply a nice wish from God; it is a pronouncement of what we actually are -- approved! Blessedness indicates the smile of God or as Max Lucado entitled a book he wrote on the subject, The Applause of Heaven.
The key to studying the Beatitudes is coming to a place in our souls where God's blessing/approval means more to us than anything else -- even the approval of our friends, business acquaintances, and colleagues -- it is at this place that the Beatitudes will penetrate our hearts and speak to us in the deepest of ways. The question is, do we really want His approval more than anything else? Not, do we want to be happy [as proper as that desire may be] but, do we truly want God's approval above all else? If so, we must heed every word of the first Beatitude, for it gives us the condition of blessing in just three words: "poor in spirit." "Blessed/approved are the poor in spirit."
First, like we did with blessed, we should understand what poverty of spirit is not. It is not the conviction that one is of no value whatsoever. It does not mean the absence of self-worth or theologically, "ontological insignificance." It does not require us to believe ourselves to be zeros. Such an attitude is simply not scriptural, for Christ's death on our behalf teaches us that we are of great value [1 Corinthians 6:20, 7:23]. Neither does "poor in spirit" mean shyness. Many people who are naturally shy and introverted are extremely proud. Nor does "poor in spirit" mean lacking in vitality, spiritual anemia, or gutlessness. And most certainly, "poor in spirit" does not refer to a showy humility like that of Uriah Heep in Charles Dickens' David Copperfield, who kept reminding everyone that he was a "very umble person."
So if "poor in spirit" means none of these things, then what does it mean? The history of the Greek word for "poor," ptochos, provides us some insight. R. Kent Hughes relates that it is derived from a verbal root that means "to cower and cringe like a beggar." And thus in the classical Greek ptochos came to mean "someone who crouches about, wretchedly begging." In the New Testament it bears something of this idea because it denotes a poverty so deep that the person must obtain his living by begging. He is fully dependent on the giving of others. He cannot survive without help from the outside. Thus an excellent translation would be "beggarly poor." So if we take this meaning and combine it with the following words, "in spirit," we have the idea, "Blessed are the beggarly poor in spirit." "Poverty of spirit," then, is the personal acknowledgment of spiritual bankruptcy. It is the awareness of and admission that we are utterly sinful and without the moral virtues adequate to commend us to God. It is the recognition of our personal moral unworthiness. The "poor in spirit" see themselves as spiritually needy. My favorite rendering of this verse would be: Blessed are those who realize that they have nothing within themselves to commend them to God, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.
Poverty of spirit is the antithesis of the proud selfishness and self-sufficiency of today's world. The world has its own ideas of blessedness. "Blessed is the man who is smart." "Blessed is the man who is strong." "Blessed is the man who rules." "Blessed is the man who is rich." "Blessed is the man who popular." "Blessed is the man who is satisfied with himself [self-actualized]." Today's men and women think that the answer to life is found within themselves.
Actress Shirley MacLaine was not alone in her journey into self, and perhaps this modern voyage was first championed by Karl Jung. But many in the Church have traveled this path where Christian narcissism is promoted as biblical self-love. However, this subterranean god of self will come to be their Inferno. Someday, if history is allowed to continue, a perceptive artist may sculpt a statue of 21st century man with his arms wrapped around himself in loving embrace, kissing his image in a mirror. To this Jesus answers, "Blessed [approved of God] are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God."
We must understand and embrace a true poverty of spirit, for that is the only way we can ever know God's smile. David became Israel's greatest king and the key to his rise to greatness was his poverty of spirit. Listen to his words when it all began: "Who am I, and what is my family or my father's clan in Israel, that I should become the king's son-in-law?" [1 Samuel 18:18]. Later in life, before his fall, he said, "Who am I, O Sovereign Lord, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?" [2 Samuel 7:18]. Similarly, Gideon, whom we remember for his amazing deliverance of Israel with just 300 men, began with these words: "But Lord ... how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family" [Judges 6:15].
It is also significant that when Jesus began His public ministry, He opened the scroll to Isaiah 61:1 and began with the opening line: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed Me to preach the good news to the poor" [Luke 4:18]. In Isaiah's context, the poor were the exiled people of Israel who had not compromised and who looked to God alone to save them and establish His kingdom. These are always the people to whom He comes. The incarnate Son of God was born to a woman who sang, "My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of His servant" [Luke 1:46, 47]. When Christ was born, the angels announced it to humble shepherds, not to the Establishment [Luke 2:8-15]. And when Jesus was presented in the Temple, aged Simeon and Anna, representatives of the poor in Isaiah's prophecy, exalted God because of Him [Luke 2:25-38]. These are the people to whom Christ is born, and in whom He is born. Lay this to heart, "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit" [Psalm 34:18]. This is the way it has always been and the way it will always be.
Poverty of spirit is also an indispensable sign of grace. No one can truly know Christ without it. There are most likely scores of people in your own community or church, prominent "Christians" if you will, who do not know Christ. They are tares amidst the wheat who perhaps do not even know it [Matthew 13:24-30]. They have never come to a blessed emptiness, to the very end of themselves. They have never confessed, "There is nothing in me to commend me to God," and thus they are lost. The changeless truth is, no one can come to Christ without poverty of spirit. This is not to say that one must have a perfect sense of one's spiritual insufficiency to be saved. Very few, if any, ever come to this. Rather, it means that the spiritually proud and self-sufficient, those who actually think there is something within them that will make God accept them -- these people are lost. Salvation is by faith alone, sola fide, but poverty of spirit is the posture of faith. God pours out His grace to the spiritually bankrupt, for only they are open to believe and receive His grace and salvation.
We never outgrow the first Beatitude, even though it is the basis by which we ascend to the others. In fact, if we outgrow it, we have outgrown our Christianity -- we are post-Christian. This is what was happening in the Laodicean church. And Christ rebuked that failing church with these stern words: "You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see" [Revelation 3:17-18]. Just as no one can come to Christ without poverty of spirit, no one can continue to grow apart from an ongoing poverty of spirit.
Poverty of spirit is foundational because a continual sense of spiritual need is the basis for ongoing spiritual blessing. A perceptual awareness of our spiritual insufficiency opens us to continually receiving spiritual riches. Poverty of spirit is something we never outgrow. In fact, the more spiritually mature we become, the more profound our sense of poverty.
The second half of this beatitude describes our reward: "for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." "Theirs" is emphatic. It means theirs in the sense of theirs alone, barring all others who approach God with a different spirit than that of beggarliness. Again, none but those who are "poor in spirit" will enter the kingdom of Heaven.
Moreover, this reward of the kingdom is both now and future. It is present because all who have life are in the kingdom now. We are seated with Christ in the heavenly places now [Ephesians 2:6]. We are subjects of Christ now. We are overcomers now. We are a kingdom of priests now. This means, literally, that we are kings and queens, and that we reign in life and exercise vast authority and power. It means that our poverty of spirit, our weakness, is a reservoir of power and authority. Our weakness is the occasion for His power, our inadequacy for His adequacy, our poverty for His riches, our inarticulation for His articulation, our tentativeness for His confidence [see 2 Corinthians 12:9, 10; Colossians 2:9, 10]. As kings and queens, we are also free. Pride makes slaves out of all whom it possesses; not so with poverty of spirit. We are free to be full of God, free to be all that He would have us to be; free to be ourselves. We reign now and for all eternity. The kingdom is ours -- our alone! I can hardly fathom all that He has promised ... it seems too glorious to imagine or to comprehend. But His Word is truth so we are left to ponder these eternal realities and to eagerly anticipate their ultimate consummation.
Nevertheless, the supreme lesson of this Beatitude is that without poverty of spirit no one will enter the kingdom of Heaven. Its prominent position -- as the opening sentence in the greatest sermon ever preached -- declares for all time that no one is saved who believes there is something within him or her that will make God prefer or accept him or her. Self-righteousness, moral pride, vain presumption will damn the soul! Jesus made this crystal clear when He contrasted the tax collector and the Pharisee who both went up to the Temple to pray in Luke 18:10-14. Only the one who would not even look up to heaven, beat his breast and cried out "God, have mercy on me, a sinner!" was saved. He who has ears to ear, let him hear!
Each of the nine Beatitudes opens with the word "blessed." So it is essential that we understand what this word means and just as importantly what it does not mean. Contrary to popular opinion, blessed does not mean "happy," even though some translations have rendered it this way. Happiness is a subjective state, a feeling. But Jesus is not declaring how people feel; rather, He is making an objective statement about what God thinks of them. Blessed is a positive judgment by God on an individual that means "to be approved" or "to find approval." So when God blesses us, he approves us. Of course, blessing likely bring happiness and it is also certainly true that blessed people are generally happy. But we should remember that the root idea of blessed is an awareness of approval by God. Blessedness is not simply a nice wish from God; it is a pronouncement of what we actually are -- approved! Blessedness indicates the smile of God or as Max Lucado entitled a book he wrote on the subject, The Applause of Heaven.
The key to studying the Beatitudes is coming to a place in our souls where God's blessing/approval means more to us than anything else -- even the approval of our friends, business acquaintances, and colleagues -- it is at this place that the Beatitudes will penetrate our hearts and speak to us in the deepest of ways. The question is, do we really want His approval more than anything else? Not, do we want to be happy [as proper as that desire may be] but, do we truly want God's approval above all else? If so, we must heed every word of the first Beatitude, for it gives us the condition of blessing in just three words: "poor in spirit." "Blessed/approved are the poor in spirit."
First, like we did with blessed, we should understand what poverty of spirit is not. It is not the conviction that one is of no value whatsoever. It does not mean the absence of self-worth or theologically, "ontological insignificance." It does not require us to believe ourselves to be zeros. Such an attitude is simply not scriptural, for Christ's death on our behalf teaches us that we are of great value [1 Corinthians 6:20, 7:23]. Neither does "poor in spirit" mean shyness. Many people who are naturally shy and introverted are extremely proud. Nor does "poor in spirit" mean lacking in vitality, spiritual anemia, or gutlessness. And most certainly, "poor in spirit" does not refer to a showy humility like that of Uriah Heep in Charles Dickens' David Copperfield, who kept reminding everyone that he was a "very umble person."
So if "poor in spirit" means none of these things, then what does it mean? The history of the Greek word for "poor," ptochos, provides us some insight. R. Kent Hughes relates that it is derived from a verbal root that means "to cower and cringe like a beggar." And thus in the classical Greek ptochos came to mean "someone who crouches about, wretchedly begging." In the New Testament it bears something of this idea because it denotes a poverty so deep that the person must obtain his living by begging. He is fully dependent on the giving of others. He cannot survive without help from the outside. Thus an excellent translation would be "beggarly poor." So if we take this meaning and combine it with the following words, "in spirit," we have the idea, "Blessed are the beggarly poor in spirit." "Poverty of spirit," then, is the personal acknowledgment of spiritual bankruptcy. It is the awareness of and admission that we are utterly sinful and without the moral virtues adequate to commend us to God. It is the recognition of our personal moral unworthiness. The "poor in spirit" see themselves as spiritually needy. My favorite rendering of this verse would be: Blessed are those who realize that they have nothing within themselves to commend them to God, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.
Poverty of spirit is the antithesis of the proud selfishness and self-sufficiency of today's world. The world has its own ideas of blessedness. "Blessed is the man who is smart." "Blessed is the man who is strong." "Blessed is the man who rules." "Blessed is the man who is rich." "Blessed is the man who popular." "Blessed is the man who is satisfied with himself [self-actualized]." Today's men and women think that the answer to life is found within themselves.
Actress Shirley MacLaine was not alone in her journey into self, and perhaps this modern voyage was first championed by Karl Jung. But many in the Church have traveled this path where Christian narcissism is promoted as biblical self-love. However, this subterranean god of self will come to be their Inferno. Someday, if history is allowed to continue, a perceptive artist may sculpt a statue of 21st century man with his arms wrapped around himself in loving embrace, kissing his image in a mirror. To this Jesus answers, "Blessed [approved of God] are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God."
We must understand and embrace a true poverty of spirit, for that is the only way we can ever know God's smile. David became Israel's greatest king and the key to his rise to greatness was his poverty of spirit. Listen to his words when it all began: "Who am I, and what is my family or my father's clan in Israel, that I should become the king's son-in-law?" [1 Samuel 18:18]. Later in life, before his fall, he said, "Who am I, O Sovereign Lord, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?" [2 Samuel 7:18]. Similarly, Gideon, whom we remember for his amazing deliverance of Israel with just 300 men, began with these words: "But Lord ... how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family" [Judges 6:15].
It is also significant that when Jesus began His public ministry, He opened the scroll to Isaiah 61:1 and began with the opening line: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed Me to preach the good news to the poor" [Luke 4:18]. In Isaiah's context, the poor were the exiled people of Israel who had not compromised and who looked to God alone to save them and establish His kingdom. These are always the people to whom He comes. The incarnate Son of God was born to a woman who sang, "My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of His servant" [Luke 1:46, 47]. When Christ was born, the angels announced it to humble shepherds, not to the Establishment [Luke 2:8-15]. And when Jesus was presented in the Temple, aged Simeon and Anna, representatives of the poor in Isaiah's prophecy, exalted God because of Him [Luke 2:25-38]. These are the people to whom Christ is born, and in whom He is born. Lay this to heart, "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit" [Psalm 34:18]. This is the way it has always been and the way it will always be.
Poverty of spirit is also an indispensable sign of grace. No one can truly know Christ without it. There are most likely scores of people in your own community or church, prominent "Christians" if you will, who do not know Christ. They are tares amidst the wheat who perhaps do not even know it [Matthew 13:24-30]. They have never come to a blessed emptiness, to the very end of themselves. They have never confessed, "There is nothing in me to commend me to God," and thus they are lost. The changeless truth is, no one can come to Christ without poverty of spirit. This is not to say that one must have a perfect sense of one's spiritual insufficiency to be saved. Very few, if any, ever come to this. Rather, it means that the spiritually proud and self-sufficient, those who actually think there is something within them that will make God accept them -- these people are lost. Salvation is by faith alone, sola fide, but poverty of spirit is the posture of faith. God pours out His grace to the spiritually bankrupt, for only they are open to believe and receive His grace and salvation.
We never outgrow the first Beatitude, even though it is the basis by which we ascend to the others. In fact, if we outgrow it, we have outgrown our Christianity -- we are post-Christian. This is what was happening in the Laodicean church. And Christ rebuked that failing church with these stern words: "You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see" [Revelation 3:17-18]. Just as no one can come to Christ without poverty of spirit, no one can continue to grow apart from an ongoing poverty of spirit.
Poverty of spirit is foundational because a continual sense of spiritual need is the basis for ongoing spiritual blessing. A perceptual awareness of our spiritual insufficiency opens us to continually receiving spiritual riches. Poverty of spirit is something we never outgrow. In fact, the more spiritually mature we become, the more profound our sense of poverty.
The second half of this beatitude describes our reward: "for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." "Theirs" is emphatic. It means theirs in the sense of theirs alone, barring all others who approach God with a different spirit than that of beggarliness. Again, none but those who are "poor in spirit" will enter the kingdom of Heaven.
Moreover, this reward of the kingdom is both now and future. It is present because all who have life are in the kingdom now. We are seated with Christ in the heavenly places now [Ephesians 2:6]. We are subjects of Christ now. We are overcomers now. We are a kingdom of priests now. This means, literally, that we are kings and queens, and that we reign in life and exercise vast authority and power. It means that our poverty of spirit, our weakness, is a reservoir of power and authority. Our weakness is the occasion for His power, our inadequacy for His adequacy, our poverty for His riches, our inarticulation for His articulation, our tentativeness for His confidence [see 2 Corinthians 12:9, 10; Colossians 2:9, 10]. As kings and queens, we are also free. Pride makes slaves out of all whom it possesses; not so with poverty of spirit. We are free to be full of God, free to be all that He would have us to be; free to be ourselves. We reign now and for all eternity. The kingdom is ours -- our alone! I can hardly fathom all that He has promised ... it seems too glorious to imagine or to comprehend. But His Word is truth so we are left to ponder these eternal realities and to eagerly anticipate their ultimate consummation.
Nevertheless, the supreme lesson of this Beatitude is that without poverty of spirit no one will enter the kingdom of Heaven. Its prominent position -- as the opening sentence in the greatest sermon ever preached -- declares for all time that no one is saved who believes there is something within him or her that will make God prefer or accept him or her. Self-righteousness, moral pride, vain presumption will damn the soul! Jesus made this crystal clear when He contrasted the tax collector and the Pharisee who both went up to the Temple to pray in Luke 18:10-14. Only the one who would not even look up to heaven, beat his breast and cried out "God, have mercy on me, a sinner!" was saved. He who has ears to ear, let him hear!
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Grace Flows Down
"Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by ceremonial foods, which are of no value to those who eat them. We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat ... And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased." Hebrews 13:7-10, 15-16
Each of us have precious saints who have preceded us and guided us spiritually and we are commanded to both remember them and to imitate their ways of life. For me it would be my elementary Sunday School teacher, Mrs. Dorothy Strozier, my seventh grade Social Studies teacher, Mr. Jim Goss, my childhood pastor, Rev. William Mason, my senior year Honors English teacher, Mrs. Murrel McDougal [with whom I still keep in contact at least annually], my pastor during my medical school years, Rev. Joel Budd, and my current pastor, Rev. Erik Braun as well as my friends, Tom Argersinger and John Stewart whose passion for God I consider both challenging and exemplary. Why does the Holy Spirit make such a strange demand? Because considering the lives of such people and their outcomes and then humbly attempting to imitate them will encourage me to straighten up and sail right! Their conscious commitments to point their ships into the winds of culture puts steel in my walk. Their sailing styles, the trim of their sails, the tilt of their vessels are all elevating to my soul.
Significantly, this is beautifully consistent with the purpose of Hebrews 13, which is to strengthen the little Hebrew church so that it may ride out the coming storms of persecution. A church that adequately recalls its godly leaders and considers the outcomes of their ways of life and attempts to imitate that way of life will sail well. But above this we should consider the example that Jesus Christ Himself set before us, for only He lived a perfect life. And even better, He is always available to us, for as the writer add in what is perhaps the most famous verse in Hebrews, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever" [v. 8].
What a contrast with changeableness of us people and life here on earth. The cycle from birth to death is a testament to our human mutability. The supple, sweet flesh of a newborn prospers like a flower and then fades and wrinkles and is finally cast off in death. Human personality never ceases changing. Some freshen with time, others sour, most do a little of both. Relationships wax and wane. To meet someone twenty years from now may be to meet another person. Forests may rise and stand for a millennium -- and then fade into deserts. Rivers cut canyons and then disappear. Newtonian physics, with its straight lines and right angles, is replaced by Einstein's elegant curves of relativity. The only thing sure is change! We as people appear for a little while to laugh and cry and work and play, and then we are gone. This is a melancholy thought at best and our souls long for something solid and immutable.
But the great truth is, God does not change, and neither does the Holy Spirit or His Son, Jesus Christ. In fact, the very same Old Testament Scriptures and wording that describe God the Father's immutableness are applied directly to Christ [Psalm 102:27, Hebrews 1:12, Isaiah 48:12 and Revelation 1:17]. This means that though the Savior has ascended into Heaven and dwells in the splendor, he has not changed. He is the same in His wrath and His love and mercy and compassion and tenderness as He was here one earth. Yesterday Jesus "offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the One who could save Him from death" [Hebrews 5:7]. Today He is a high priest before the Father who is able to sympathize with our weakness because He "has been tempted in every way, just as we are -- yet was without sin" [Hebrews 4:15]. And forever this same Jesus "always lives to intercede for us" [Hebrews 7:25]. Our priest is eternally the same and eternally contemporary. We need not fear any changes of opinion or swings in mood with Jesus.
The little Jewish church was not only harried by the imminent threat of persecution, but was also assailed within by a strange teaching that combined esoteric eating practices with their Christian faith [does this not still happen today?!?] that caused at least some within the congregation to be led astray. No one knows exactly what those practices were, though we do know that some in the church believed their sacred menu would make them better Christians. To such the writer warns, "Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by ceremonial foods, which are of no value to those who eat them. We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat" [v. 9, 10]. Those who imagined that spiritual growth came through a special diet had not only become ignorant of the necessity of grace for growth but actually interfered with their reception of that strengthening grace by their proud little rules.
Grace, like earth's water system, operates on gravity -- the spiritual gravity of grace. Just as the waters of Niagara roll on over the falls and plunge down to make a river below, and just as that river flows ever down to the even lower ranges of its course as it heads north toward Lake Ontario, and then glides to still lower lying ground where it brings still more life and growth, so it is with God's grace. The gravity of grace carries it to the lowly in heart, where it brings life and blessing. Grace goes to the humble. This is the spiritual law behind Proverbs 3:34, which James 4:6 quotes: "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." The unbowed soul standing proudly before God receives no benefit from God's falling grace. It may flow over him, but it does not penetrate, and drips away like like rain from a statue. But the soul lying prostrate before God is immersed -- and even swims -- in a sea of grace. So while there is always more grace, it is reserved for the lowly and the humble. Legalisms, even "little" ones, such as dietary restrictions, impede grace. Humility, however, invites the elevating weight of grace!
Actually, the grace we imbibe comes directly from the cross of Christ, for in v. 10 the writer adds, "We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat," referring to the cross because in a Christian context the sacrifice must be on the cross -- the sacrificial altar of our faith. Our spiritual food is nothing less than the life of Christ. The force of these thoughts is phenomenal. Jesus Christ is eternally the same and eternally contemporary. Therefore, do not get mixed up with strange teachings such as that leading to spiritual diets. Our nourishment comes from grace, which comes directly from the altar -- the very cross of Christ. And this meal goes only to the humble.
There is one final thing that will sustain us, and that is how we live -- our lifestyle -- specifically, our worship and our work; or to be Mary in the house of God and Martha in our own. We must make worship the first priority of living: "Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise -- the fruit of lips that confess His Name" [v. 15]. We all need to be like Mary -- at Jesus' feet looking up so that He fills our entire horizon. She worshipped Him "in spirit" [John 4:23, 24] because her whole being was passionately engaged in giving Him worth. In fact, in a sublime moment she gave her very best for Him as she broke the alabaster flask and poured her fortune onto Jesus. Jesus then said, "She has done a beautiful thing to me" [Mark 14:6]. Here our text is very specific about what He wants. It is a sacrifice -- "a sacrifice of praise -- the fruit of our lips that confess His Name." He wants us to say it. He wants to hear us verbally praise Him. Yet, Mary must be balanced by Martha in our souls: "And do not forget to do good and share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased" [v. 16]. True worship always involves giving ourselves in the service of Christ and others [see Romans 12:1; James 1:27; 1 John 3:17, 18]. We can vigorously participate in worship services as we did at Four Oaks last night to cap off our week of prayer to kick-off 2011, but if we do not do good to others and share what we have, none of it gives pleasure to God. But worship coupled with work -- this brings God's pleasure and the winds of the Holy Spirit to our sails so we can ride the most daunting waves as we weather the storms of life.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Dare We Trust in Riches?
"Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, 'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.'" Hebrews 13:5
The writer of Hebrews knew that those who loved the world would never be able to stand firm in the face of a storm -- that those with the greatest affection for wealth would be the first to turn aside when they understood that both losses and crosses would come from walking with Christ.
Covetousness is plainly forbidden in these words and elsewhere in the Scriptures. The Bible is replete with warnings that a desire for wealth presents grave danger for the soul. At the end of Jesus' encounter with the rich young ruler [Luke 18:18-30 and Mark 10:17-27] He "looked at him and said, 'How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to through the eye of a needle than for the rich to enter the kingdom of God.' Those who heard this asked, 'Who then can be saved?' Jesus replied, 'What is impossible with man is possible with God.'"
Jesus' point was that it is impossible for a man who trusts in riches to get into Heaven, because basically a rich man trusts in himself. He does not see his lack. The sinful heart is incredibly prone to accept counterfeit things as being valuable and to consider eternal things as lacking. Jesus offered this man everything yet he could not let go of the false thing; Jesus offered him the eternal for the temporal but his idol was materialism and he could not risk losing it. Yet God will always call us to give up the false thing in order to be given the real thing.
There is no question that wealth has great disadvantages [and, of course, there are many potential advantages for the person whose heart has been transformed by His grace]. It is difficult to have money and not trust in it. Wealth numbs our hearts to what truly satisfies as it provides such a deceitful satisfaction. The poor are typically well aware of their lack. The rich, not so much. Plus material possessions tend to focus our thoughts and interests on the things of this world and thus enslave us ... in many ways, we can become possessed by our possessions, comforts and recreations. It was Jesus who said, "The deceitfulness of wealth and the desire for other things come in and choke the Word" [Mark 4:19]. He also said, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" [Matthew 6:19-21].
It is difficult not to love what you have spent your life collecting! Paul warned Timothy, "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs" [1 Timothy 6:10]. Miserly hoarding casts a metallic, lifeless heart. Jesus concluded his topic of money in His Sermon on the Mount by saying, "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money" [Matthew 6:24].
As my pastor Erik Braun preached to our body last Sunday, it is with this truth that Jesus confronted the rich, young ruler and his sin showing him the idolatry of his heart ... despite the fact that this young man was quite satisfied with his own righteousness. His image of God was too small; he did not appreciate his own sin nor the incredible holiness of God. Yet, Jesus truly loved this man enough to share the gospel with him ... that is to share the truth with him. And the young man went away sad "because he was very wealthy." We, unlike Jesus, don't want people to walk away sad. But the truth is that it is WORSE to let people walk away BLIND to the idolatry of their hearts than it is to let them walk away sad.
Lastly, we must learn to be content. The covetous, those who love money, will never be content. Solomon, the writer of Ecclesiastes, tell us "Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income" [5:10]. We as believers must come to understand that the only real contentment in this life comes from trusting in God's care for us. We must embrace the fact that we have God ... and in Him we ultimately have everything that is ever worth having! The Apostle Paul was content despite being destitute of worldly possessions, Paul spoke of himself as "having nothing, and yet possessing everything" [2 Corinthians 6:10]. "I know what it is to be in need," he told the Philippians, "and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned to the secret of being content in any and every situation" [Philippians 4:12]. And then to Timothy, he gave this jewel: "But Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that" [1 Timothy 6:6-8].
This is such a very subtle thing yet incredibly important. Whatever we treasure more than God will become an idol to us. An our hearts are so prone to wander regarding our desires. It requires a constant vigilance on our part and much grace from the Holy Spirit on God's part to continually show us our hearts. The subtly here is that sin is fundamentally making good things into ultimate things ... career, marriage, children, wealth, prestige, power, relationships, homes, etc. Whatever we build our lives on will drive us and then one day, which too often comes sooner than we might think or care for, we will be face to face with the ultimate thing, the God of the universe, and He will demand an account of our lives. What will we be able to say then? Fortunately, God's grace will be sufficient for His children as He has already established that day in eternity and His Spirit is constantly working to prepare us for it. The good news is it really depends much less on us than we think and a lot more on God than we realize, and we can trust Jesus promise "that what is impossible with man, is possible with God."
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