ON THE BEATITUDES
On the Beatitudes: Matthew 5:12-37
In the previous passage Jesus calls the Christians the ‘light of the world.’ Christians are the light of the church! Their light is radiant and shines forth from the presence of Christ within our hearts. And our lives are evident to the world!
Last week Pastor compared the Christians to one of the zesty spices, which spices up or gives good taste to our foods along with the salt that Jesus calls us. Some pastors compare the Christians, to cinnamon spice. Pastor encouraged us as Christians to be salt and peppers of the earth. When we eat or even smell pepper it wakes us up! Christians are to spice up the earth!
In the Gospel passage today, Jesus continues His sermon on the mount as he taught his disciples the full meaning of the law.
In the passage Jesus uses the illustration of four laws: murder, adultery, divorce and swearing falsely, as prime examples of why merely observing the law might prevent a person from entering the kingdom of heaven, the reign of God, the shalom of God. (The reign of God is to let God control, rule or influence one’s life in daily living). (The reign of God in daily living brings shalom which means the piece of God in Christ).
In verse 20 Jesus expresses to his disciples, that unless their righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, they will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Wow!
This is one of the most shocking statements Jesus made in His whole Sermon on the Mount. In this statement Jesus put forth the profound nature or character of the Law.
For example, Jesus explains to his disciples that even though they may not express outward angry towards a person and yet in their heart they harbor anger towards that person they are subject to the same judgment as if they actually broke the law. Jesus made it very clear to them that it is not about ‘works of righteousness and it is not about keeping the law perfectly. But it is about the condition of the heart.
Jesus wanted his disciples to understand that if they have a pure heart, a pure motive; it would lead them to right actions.
In Jesus’ day people took pride in keeping the law. For many of the religious leaders, practicing works of righteousness made them feel superior to those they thought of as law breaking sinners. Jesus, while he made it clear that He did not come to abolish the law; but to fulfill it, peels away at the façade, and exposes the condition of the hearts of those who practiced the law religiously.
Again and again Jesus refuted what the religious leaders laid down as the law in order to set free those who were oppressed and condemned by the law. For example, the law forbade healing on the Sabbath day, and Jesus went about healing the sick on the Sabbath day.
You see, what the law could not do, God did, by sending Jesus Christ to fulfill the requirement of the law, to show us what it really means to love and to worship God, to give God reverence and to be a recipient of the marvelous grace of God.
It is not rules and regulations that draw us to God. Instead it is ‘GRACE’. It is the grace of God that draws us to God, and consequently leads us to repentance. Obeying a host of rules and regulations does not lead to right actions; it is having a pure heart enabled by ‘GRACE’ through faith in Jesus that leads to right actions.
Many of you may remember growing up with what we had considered to be a barrage of rules and regulations given by our parents.
In my home there were a lot of rules. That’s how it was back home for plenty of Jamaicans. I love my father. He was very gracious as a person and as a pastor. I think somewhere in my father’s lifetime he was probably a Lutheran. This might account for my love for Luther’s theology of Justification by grace. Growing up in Jamaica when we wanted to do something adventurous as kids my father would say ‘go for it! And my mother would say, ‘Let it go!
My mother was a Salvation Army officer when she met my father. This might explain why she never waited for our father to come home to reprimand us kids for breaking a rule.
I love my mother. To me she is what the Bible calls a prudent (wise) woman.
In our home, it seemed as though the Ten Commandments were not enough for us kids.
So my mother would make up additional rules to spruce up the Ten Commandments for us kids to obey. She probably thought that she could make us follow the commandments perfectly by making up additional rules.
I remember this one particular rule:
“Thou shalt not fight at school and if one of your peers should hit you, thou shalt turn the other cheek.”
After my sisters and I received many beatings at school from our peers, mother finally gave us permission to use “the eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth rule.” Well, you can imagine how relieved we were, since we were tired of taking beatings and turning the other cheek.
My sister Nora and I were one of a kind growing up. In some ways we still share elements of twin-ship to this day although we are not twins. We both did not think very highly of those rules, but our sister Judy would obey the rules to the letter. In our parents absence, whenever Nora and I decide to break a rule, my sister Judy would remind us to honor our father and mother so that our days may be long upon the land which the Lord our God gives us. But Nora and I would simply ask her whether this meant she will not be joining us on our adventure.
As I grew older, I realized that the reason for the rules in our home was to keep us safe. It was so that we would have Reverence for God, respect for our parents, respect for our life and for the lives of others, respect for property, and respect for the truth. So that wrong desires may not be our master.
Rules and regulations are usually well intended. But they do not teach the Grace of God which brings freedom in Christ Jesus. Jesus wanted to minister to the hearts of his disciples and he wants to minister to our hearts too. He wanted his disciples as well Christians to understand that it is a ‘heart thing.’ He wants us to understand that it is not a matter of keeping rules and regulations, it’s not a matter of working hard to be perfect, and it is not about works of righteousness. But it is about the condition of the heart.
What the law could not do, God did, by sending His son Jesus Christ into the world to offer up himself as a sacrifice for our sin. Yes, he went to the cross for us. And on that cross Jesus declares, “It is finished.” Our hard works of righteousness is finished, our endless attempts to be perfect by obeying the law is finished. We are saved by Grace through Faith in Jesus. Christ is our righteousness. And we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. We are the redeemed of the Lord. Through Christ’s death, His finished work on the cross and His resurrection, we are guaranteed life eternal.
Every day I am reminded that you and I are God’s royal priests. And in our baptism, you and I are marked with the cross of Christ and sealed by the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.