Blog•
on October 18th, 2010•
The motif that is implied in the beatitudes now becomes an explicit theme: the believer is a witness of the Kingdom of God. It is impossible to follow the norms of the Kingdom in a private way: the righteousness of the life you live will definitively attract attention, most of the time in form of opposition. The above norms of the Kingdom, practiced in a sinful world, are a major aspect of Christian witness, a witness that usually prompts persecution. Jesus introduces two metaphors to illustrate how His disciples must live their lives in such a manner that they would put a mark on the world that stands against the Kingdom of God. The action of salt is silent, pervasive, hidden, unseen; the action of light is open, seeable, and perceivable. The influence of the Christian character is to be two-fold: a silent hidden and pervasive thing reaching into the very fiber of our inner thought-life and attitudes, and it is to be open, lighting our outer life and affairs.
Salt: “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.” Matthew 5:13
In the ancient times salt was used primarily as a preservative for all the perishable foods, including meats. Salt also helps preserve the flavor and taste of such foods. Jesus likens His disciples to salt, implying that without their presence is His
in this world, it would turn even more rotten. In other words, Christians are a good influence having the effect of delaying moral disintegration and slowing down spiritual putrefaction of this world.
What happens when “the salt loses its saltiness”? “Saltiness” is the existential essence of salt. Some have interpreted this saying that salt cannot really lose its saltiness and implicitly, being Christian means possessing an inner and compelling necessity to witness. In other words, “A true Christian must be a Christianizing force.” However, to balance this first interpretation, it must be observed that even though salt cannot lose its saltiness, it can be adulterated, for example by being mixed let’s say with sand. When salt is being corrupted, then it cannot be used as a preservative and loses its ability to fend off corruption.
Light: “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.” Matthew 5:14-15
The second metaphor used by Jesus to describe the witness of His followers is light: the Christians are the light of the world, a world that is surrounded by thick darkness. Jesus brings in the picture two sources of light: the light from a city set on a hill and a light generated from a lamp set on a lamp-stand. Many of us have spent time camping outside and far away from the busy-ness of a city. Being far away from such a city, and being a cloudy night, you experienced perhaps the thick darkness of nature, to the point that you cannot see your own hand! However, when camping close by a city, the darkness is relived as the light from the city is reflected off the clouds, and the night is no longer quite so dark. Christians who let their light shine before men cannot be hidden, and the positive light they shed around attenuates the blackness which would otherwise be total darkness.
The second source of light is the one generated by the flickering flame of an oil lamp. When the flickering light is covered by a bowl, that light is smothered and extinguishes away. When a Christian is in a constant effort to cover-up his Christianity, the light that was lit-up in his life will eventually die away. Other translations render “bowl” as “basket” (ESV) or “bushel” (KJV). “Bushel” is the symbol of trade, of business, and the suggestion is that our affairs can easily destroy and snuff-out the light of our Christian witness when they are conducted in the spirit of this world!
The Norms of the Kingdom, worked out in the lives of those belonging to the Kingdom of God, would constitute, without exception, the witness of the Kingdom. Such Christians refuse to rob their employers by being lazy on the job or, driven by greed, to exploit their employees; they are first to offer help to their colleagues, and last in returning a mean reply; they honestly desire the advancements of the other’s interests and don’t succumb to the pressures of their environment, because they borrow their light from the true Light of the world, Jesus Christ (John 8;12).
“In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven” (5:16) – The witness- both in word and deeds – of the Christian furthers and expands the borders of the Kingdom of God, attracting non-believers to the “Father in heaven.”
Blog•
on September 10th, 2010•
The Norms of the Kingdom – Matthew 5:3-12
We must make some general observation about Beatitudes before examining them individually. The word “beatitude” is a transliteration from the Latin beatus. The Romanian is fericiri, original Greek is makarios , and all of these words mean “blessed.” To translate as “happiness” is a poor choice, as blessedness cannot be reduced to happiness. To be “blessed” by God fundamentally means to be “approved” by God, and there is no higher blessing in this Universe than to be approved by God!
We also ought to note that two of the beatitudes – 5:3 (the first) and 5:10 (the last) – promise the same reward, “… for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” To begin and to end with the same expression is a literal stylistic method called “inclusion,” meaning that everything that is bracketed between the two can really be included together.
First Beatitude: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (5:3)
What is poverty of spirit? It is absolutely NOT material poverty, and it is not poverty of spiritual awareness. It also doesn’t denote poverty of the Holy Spirit nor poor-spirited. Proverbs 16:19 sheds light on our understanding of the meaning of the first beatitude and states, “Better to be lowly in spirit and among the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud.” Also, Isaiah 57:15, “For this is what the high and lofty One says— he who lives forever, whose name is holy: ‘I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite’,” and 66:2, “This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at My word.”
Poverty of spirit is the personal acknowledgement of spiritual bankruptcy; it is the conscious confession of unworthy before God. In other words, to be “poor in the spirit” represents the deepest form of repentance, it is one’s confession that he/she is sinful and rebellious and without any merit to deserve God’s approval. Poverty of spirit is the only framework that allows one to become the recipient of God’s grace because poverty of the spirit becomes a confession of man’s need for God. There is no greater and deadlier pride than that which finds its roots in great learning or external righteousness. Right from the get-go of the Sermon of the Mount we learn that we don’t have the resources to put any of the Sermon’s percepts into practice. We must come to Him and acknowledge our spiritual poverty, emptying ourselves of our self-righteousness and moral self-esteem. Emptied of all self-pretensions we are ready for the Lord to fill us!
Second Beatitude: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” (5:4)
The second follows naturally the first, as mournfulness can be understood as the emotional counterpart to poverty of the spirit. However, this doesn’t mean that Christians are called to walk around perpetually morose and weepy, like that poking joke, “This horse must be a Christian: it’s got such a long face!”
At the individual level, this mourning is a personal grief over personal sin; is the recognition of the blackness of one’s sin as he/she is more exposed to the purity of God. The best Biblical illustration is in the reaction of Isaiah (6:1-6) when he faced the holiness of God. It is also the realization of a man that pursues holiness in his own strength and discovers that he cannot achieve it and cries, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (Rom. 7:24).
The follower of Christ must be a realist: he reasons that death is a reality and must be faced; God is there and will be known by all either as Savior or as Judge. Hideous sin is there affecting all and interfering with God’s purity and holiness; eternity is there and every human is rushing toward it. God’s revelation in Christ is there and able to pardon all who accepts it and the reality of rejecting it is painful and everlasting! Christians mourn for the sin of their people… But they will be comforted! (Revel. 21:4).
Third Beatitude: “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” (5:5)
Meekness is NOT a weakness, as some might infer. A meek person is not wishy-washy, nor indecisive or timid. Some people are just naturally nice and easy-going, but meekness goes much deeper. Meekness is an acute desire to see other’s interests advance ahead of one’s own. A great example is Abraham’s deference to Lot, his nephew. Also, Numbers 12:3 declares that Moses was the meekest man who ever lived, and his meekness was displayed by his refusal to defend himself. However, we find meekness supremely demonstrated in the life of Jesus. He was truly entitled to say, “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 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 (Matt.11:28).
Too often we are too concerned to justify ourselves rather than edifying our brother. To the extent that we would start practicing meekness, a materialistic world will oppose it. Materialism argues, “Grab it! Take what you can!” Individually, each person tends to assume that he is at the center of the universe. But the meek person sees himself and all others under God. Because he is poor in the spirit, he does not think more highly of himself than he ought to. That’s why he is able to relate well to others.
And the meek shall inherit the earth! This blessing is true because only the genuinely meek person will be content: his ego is not inflated to the point that he thinks he must always have more. Moreover, in Christ he already sees himself “possessing everything” (2 Cor. 6:10). The meek Christian knows that one day he will come into the fullness of his inheritance, when the literal understanding of this blessing will be fulfilled.
Fourth Beatitude: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” (5:6)
Erroneously, righteousness is mislabeled as Victorian prudishness or narrow-minded legalism. Even among professing Christians, righteousness is often time misunderstood and not pursued. The man marked by poverty of spirit, who grieves over his sin personal and social, and approaches God and man with meekness, must also be characterized as hungry and thirsty for righteousness. He doesn’t want just a little bit of it: he hungers and thirsts for it – it is as important to him as food and drink!
The “righteousness” Jesus speaks about is not the same with the Pauline term that refers to the righteousness of Christ that God reckons/imputes to the believer’s account; Jesus speaks of the life that is patterned in conformity to God’s will. The person who hungers and thirsts for righteousness, then, hungers and thirsts for conformity to God’s will. His delight is the Word of God, where he finds clearly spelled out God’s will, to which he hungers to be conformed. Most of us have never experienced hunger and thirst, but these absolute needs for our physical existence are the ones that Christ brings as an analogy for the desire of the one who seeks God’s kingdom. This person “will be filled” as the Lord gives this famished individual the desire of his heart. This desire is clearly illustrated in Paul’s life, to the point that he declares, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death” (Phil.3:10). The more a person pursues conformity to God’s will, the more he wants more of it and the greater advances he makes.
Fifth Beatitude: “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” (5:7)
How does mercy differ from grace? They are frequently interchanged, but there is a distinction between the two: while “grace” is a loving response when love is not deserved, mercy is a loving response to the misery and helplessness of others. In other words, grace answers to the undeserving; mercy answers to the miserable. Jesus calls us to be compassionate and gentle toward the miserable and helpless, otherwise we will not be shown mercy.
The one who is not merciful is inevitably so unaware of his own state that he thinks he needs no mercy. He is like the Pharisee in the Temple who was unmerciful toward the wretched tax-collector in the corner (Luke 18:10ff.).
By contrast, the person whose experience reflects these beatitudes is conscious of his spiritual bankruptcy (5:3), grieves over it (5:4) and hungers for righteousness (5:6). He is merciful toward the wretched because he recognized himself to be wretched, and in being merciful he is also shown mercy. The Christian is to forgive others because in the past Christ has already forgiven him (Ephes. 4:32).
This beatitude forces us to ask ourselves some hard questions: Am I merciful or condescending to the wretched? Am I gentle or hard-nosed toward the less fortunate? Am I helpful or callous toward the backslidden? Am I compassionate or impatient with the fallen?
We must realize that for the Spirit of God to bring a fresh period of spiritual renewal and revival the most important condition that must be met is our personal admission of spiritual bankruptcy that looks up to God for enrichment and goes on to be richly merciful toward others.
Sixth Beatitude: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (5:8). In biblical imagery, the heart is the center of the whole personality. Jesus’ assessment of the human heart is not a positive one, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander” (Matt 15:19). In spite of this spiritual diagnosis, in this beatitude Jesus insists that purity of heart is an absolute prerequisite to commune with God. Hebrews 12:14 declares, “Make every effort to … be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.”
Our expectation is for the Day when Jesus Christ Himself will re-appear on this Earth. On that day, we shall be like Him (1 John 3:2). But until then, “Everyone who has hope in Him, purifies himself, just as He is pure” (1 John 3:3). Christ’s disciples are concerned with purity of their hearts because they acknowledge that their King is pure, and the perfect Kingdom they are pursuing will admit only purity! What are our perceptions of God? Do we see Him as a pure and holy God? If Yes, then we will strive to cleanse our hearts and purify them daily so we are enabled to fellowship with Him.
Seventh Beatitude: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God” (5:9). This beatitude is not promised to the peaceful not to those who yearn for peace; it belongs to the peacemakers. Jesus is the greatest peacemaker, the One who made peace between the holy God and the wretched, sinful man, and bringing them back in communing with each other. Jesus’ greeting to His disciple after the resurrection was, “Peace be with you” (Luke 24:36), as He wanted that His followers would be carriers and dispenser of peace. It was God that searched for the lost man, and Christ’s disciple is a “son of God,” in the sense of “partaker of God’s nature,” just as a son reflects the nature and the character of the father. But being a peacemaker does not refer only to the sharing the Gospel’s message of peace; it also refers to being an agent of calmness, of lessoning tensions among others, and seeking solutions that lead to peace. What a wonderful promise this beatitude offers: to be called a son or a daughter of the Almighty God!
Eight Beatitude: “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (5:10). We must observe in this beatitude that the source of persecution is not Christian’s objection to the evils of this world, nor the fanaticism of those who pursue religious or political reforms; the blessing is guaranteed to those who suffer because of their righteousness, because of their desire to live as Jesus lived! This Christian may have overheard her colleagues saying behind her back, “Well, she’s a Christian, you know, one of those ‘Jesus freaks’ that won’t even smile to a good joke! I offered her the other day a beautiful and sturdy company binder that I knew she needed for her schoolwork, but she refused it saying that that would be stealing! Can you imagine what a loser she is!”
The reward for being persecuted because of righteousness is the kingdom of heaven. This beatitude really is the one binding up the rest and becomes the test for the previous ones! Think about this: If Christ’s disciple never experiences any persecution, a fair question would be, “Is there any righteousness displayed in his or her life?” The Christian lives in a sinful world and his righteousness is rejected by many. Apostle Paul declared, “For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for Him”(Phil. 1:29), and “everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted”(2 Tim 3:12).
Jesus expands and explains in the next two verses that persecution can take the form of insults and evil description of the Christian’s character, and all of these “because of Me” (5:11). This remark points to the fact that true righteousness has to do with the imitation of Jesus’ character. Jesus commands His disciples to “rejoice and be glad” when suffering for righteousness, just as the apostles rejoiced “because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name” (Acts 5:41). Peter saw trials as a means to prove the genuineness of their faith and to increase their purity (1 Pet.1:6-7).
Far from being something depressive, the disciples’ suffering and being persecuted because of their righteousness, becomes the greatest assurance that the Kingdom of God belongs to them!
