What Jesus Thought [Matthew 5:1-12]

Matthew 5-7. Read it. Chew on it. Live it.

Want to know what  Jesus thought about issues? Read Matthew 5-7.

Commonly referred to as The Beatitudes, the first 12 verses of Matthew 5 are indeed a complex yet simple “Constitution of the Kingdom” – Jesus lays out the basic principles of what it means to live Kingdom life.

When I refer to the Kingdom I’m talking about both the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven. Some view those as two separate concepts, I view them as two manifestations of the same thing. The Kingdom of God is what Jesus established here on earth. It’s the Kingdom of Heaven being superimposed onto earth. It doesn’t manifest like an earthly kingdom, no castles or borders to speak of. It’s a spiritual kingdom. It’s Heaven on earth, per se.

The Kingdom of Heaven is just that. It’s the future. It’s heaven, but it is also now. Jesus brought it to earth with him when he stepped out of eternity into humanity.

Anyways, Jesus lays all the cards on the table and basically says this: If you want to live Kingdom life, then here’s what it looks like.

The 8 principles Jesus lists in the Beatitudes are this:

1. Poor in Spirit.
2. Those who mourn.
3. Meek.
4. Hunger and thirst for righteousness.
5. Merciful.
6. Pure in heart.
7. Peacemakers.
8. Persecuted for righteousness’ sake.

I wanted to take a little time today to briefly chew on each of these 8 principles. I won’t write a novel about each, but this is a great passage to chew on.

Before I dive in, it’s important to know that these principles aren’t a check list to complete in the hopes of earning some material, earthly blessings. Jesus says, “Blessed are…” before each of these values to indicate a spiritual state not necessarily an earthly blessing (though God does bless us here on earth).

1. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The visual here is someone who is bankrupt. It doesn’t mean someone who is down on their luck or throwing a pity party. It means that people who look at their own spiritual condition apart from God and recognize that they are spiritually bankrupt (no life). Looking to Jesus to “enrich” them, they will inherit true riches (eternal life – the kingdom of heaven).
2. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Again this isn’t talking about those times when we lose someone or something we hold near and dear to our hearts. Jesus is specifically referring to something spiritual. When we “mourn” our own spiritual condition, we are looking at our separation from God and truly grieving. We are in essence mourning our own existence (which apart from Jesus is a living death, so to speak). Our own mourning involves repentance. Jesus will comfort us with true life.
3. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Meek doesn’t mean to be walked over. It doesn’t mean that we are wimps. Meekness is a strong, willful submission. Jesus was meek when He went to the cross. We are meek when we willfully submit to God’s ways and leave our own behind.
4. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Jesus IS our righteousness. Apart from Him there is no true righteousness. All of our efforts, all of our good deeds, all of what we think is righteous, without Jesus is like a filthy rag to God. So to hunger and thirst for righteousness means to hunger and thirst for Jesus. As a human how often are you hungry and thirsty for food and drink? Me? Every day. Jesus uses this picture of hunger and thirst to paint two levels of this value. We should be hungry and thirsty for Jesus daily, but we should also know that ultimately, Jesus, fills our hunger and thirst spiritually, etermally.
5. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. I don’t believe this Jesus is speaking to the judgment of our sins or our own judging of others in a sin/righteousness sense. I believe Jesus is teaching the value of caring for others here. When society judges a people group or even an individual as not valuable, unlovable, or not worth time or resources, Jesus says we should have mercy on them. We should cast the “judgment” aside and show mercy. Jesus showed mercy to Lepers when society had judged them untouchable. Mother Theresa is a great example of this in action. Mercy breeds mercy.
6. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Again, Jesus moves the focus off of self and onto others. Jesus is talking about our deeds here. Obviously He’s talking about the condition of our hearts. But here’s the deal: to be pure of heart, it’s not about YOU, it’s about others. For us to be pure of heart we have to put the needs and interests of others above our own. Think about that! We will see God when we care for others. We will see God when we look outside of ourselves.
7. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. I honestly don’t believe Jesus is an anti-war protester with this phrase. I’m not saying he’s pro-war either, but the point is that this value has more to do with putting others first, than it does about being violent or non-violent.
8. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Persecution usually comes from whatever is established at the moment. It may come from secular OR religious establishments. But the point here is that Jesus values future. It’s important to him. When we are firm in our stand for the values that Jesus had, we are not tied up in the here and now. We’re not accumulating comfortable stuff and goods. We’re looking forward to heavenly living.

All in all, Jesus values can be summed up in 3 areas:

1. Past (moving from the past by repentence, salvation, entering the kingdom)
2. Present (living for others not ourselves right here and now)
3. Future (looking to heaven as our motivation, not storing up material treasures, but looking forward to our heavenly kingdom)

When you read through these beatitudes only looking at them as a checklist of tings to do, you miss the point. You see, these are VALUES that Jesus holds near and dear to his heart. He goes on to expound on them throughout chapters 5-7. These are things that we ARE. We “BE” the beatitudes, not “do” them.

As you read through Matthew 5-7, know that Jesus is coming to turn the establishment upside down. He takes the self-righteous Pharisees (who appear on the outside to be the pinnacle of righteousness) and basically takes the to task. He calls them out. Blasts them. Why? Because they were DO-ers. They weren’t BE-ers. They had the checklist mentality down pat.

Jesus didn’t come to bring a long list of rules and regulations. But he did come to say that the rules and regulations that had originally been laid out by God were all about your HEART. If you loved God with all of you, you would keep the laws.

The beatitudes are like the new “Commandments” – they don’t replace the 10 Commandments, they reinforce them.