Sermonette: August 12, 2024

Peace and Grace to you from our Heavenly Father.

Early in Jesus' ministry he gave one of the most profound sermons of all time. It has come to be known as the Sermon on the Mount. It is found in Chapters 5-7 of the gospel according to Matthew. Of course, all of Jesus' speeches and sermons deserve our close attention but the Sermon on the Mount usually gets the most attention. It is here that we find the Beatitudes and the Golden Rule. I've talked to some people who were surprised to find out that the Golden Rule is actually bible-based. They thought it was just a nice saying to go by. But this week we will be discussing the Beatitudes. They are well known as a group of sayings Jesus made to the crowd. But they are quite often misunderstood. The misconception that so many of us have about the Beatitudes is that they describe a type of behavior that will lead us to be Christians. Nor is it a list of things we need to do or to accomplish for God to grant us salvation. We cannot earn salvation by performing a list duties to please him. The salvation given to us from God is a free gift. We are given His Grace through faith. What Jesus is saying in these first few verses in Chapter 5 of Matthew is that this is what a true Christian looks like. Also, what many of us might not know is that these statements of Jesus were not presented haphazardly. There is a definite order to them. If we are not in accordance with the first one, no way could we be ready for the next one and so forth. It is a progression. For example, if we are not poor in spirit (the first) we would not hunger and thirst for righteousness (the third). There are eight Beatitudes all together, some will include verse 11 as the ninth, and volumes have been written about these. However, limited by time and space, my plan is to give a very brief overview of a few each week, beginning with this column and the next two weeks to follow.

Let's get started. The first one, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." This one sets the stage for all the rest. The key here is the word poor. When we think of the word poor, most commonly we think of the opposite of rich; a lack of money. So why would being poor in spirit be a sign of being a Christian? In this instance, Jesus is referring to those who acknowledge that we lack what it takes to be one with God. We can be a farmer, a star athlete, a rich business man, a world-renowned scientist, a school teacher, whatever. No matter who we are, we need to acknowledge before God that we lack what it takes to received his salvation. We need to be humble. The more important we are, the wealthier we are, the more difficult it is to admit that when it comes to God's spirit, we are poor. The Pharisees, for example, were not poor in spirit. They were not humble, their pride in self got in the way. The poor in spirit will humbly ask God for forgiveness because they know they need it. Until we humbly admit to God that we are poor in spirit, the rest of the Beatitudes will escape us.

Moving on to the second Beatitude, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” The first response to this might be “what is so special about mourning. Everybody does it. We have all lost family members and mourned at their funerals and for a time after as well. We've mourned the loss of jobs or marriages or the loss of anyone or anything near and dear to us. It is natural for us to do so. But in this second Beatitude Jesus is speaking of a spiritual mourning. It is a sorrow that we feel when we sin against God. It is this spiritual mourning for our sins that leads us to repentance. If we just say, oops! sorry, but don't really mean it and continue on committing those same sins over and over, we aren't spiritually mourning them and we won't repent. But for those who do, Jesus promises us that we will be comforted.

We are beginning to see the natural progression here. We need to be poor in spirit in order for us to mourn our sins before God. Until we do both of these, we will not be ready to face the rest of the Beatitudes, which we will continue next week.