All Saints Day (observed) 5 November 2017 Jesus Preaches the Blessedness of the Saints Matthew 5:1-12 by Rev. Michael G. Lilienthal Hymn: Behold a Host Arrayed in White, ELH #553 Let us pray: From all Thy saints in warfare, For all Thy saints at rest, To Thee, O blessed Jesus, All praises be addressed. Thou, Lord, didst win the battle That they might conqu rors be; Their crowns of living glory Are lit with rays from Thee. Amen. Dear blessed saints of our Lord, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Or should I say, Blessed are you. Amen. Pay close attention in our Gospel text to how St. Matthew prepares us to hear Jesus words, taking time to set the stage. Our Lord is placed before us as the perfect depiction of the Sower of his later parable, scattering the Seed of his Word: and among those who hear, some will truly be counted among the Blessed. From the Gospel of St. Matthew, the 5 th chapter, beginning at the 1 st verse: When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up onto a mountain. When he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 He opened his mouth and began to teach them. He said these things: 3 Blessed are the poor in spirit, because theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are those who mourn, because they will be comforted. 5 Blessed are the gentle, because they will inherit the earth. Matthew 5:1-12 6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, because they will be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful, because they will receive mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart, because they will see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers, because they will be called sons of God. 10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
2 Matthew 5:1-12 because theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven. In fact, that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you. These are your words, heavenly Father. Sanctify us in the truth. Your Word is truth. Amen. These verses are called The Beatitudes, from the Latin word for Blessed. The Beatitudes serve as the doorway into the rest of the Sermon on the Mount. His teachings in these verses are not a blueprint for how to build a more just society, 1 but a wider description of the people of God. Jesus is not here telling people how to be. He is describing how the people of God are. This is how they serve as the doorway. Blessed are these people, Jesus says, and he shows us those who pass through the doorway into the kingdom of heaven. He declares the blessedness of the saints, so that we can see them, and so that we can be comforted that we, too, are to be counted among their number? How? How do these saints get this blessedness? And When do they get it? I. How Do They Get It? Nine times Jesus explains what this blessedness is. Many people have tried to explain these, and some have done well, while others have not. For example, there are many, even today, who will try to explain all nine Beatitudes as though each one is a virtue or a proper attitude or action that Christians should display, thereby proving that 1 Jeffrey A. Gibbs, Matthew 1:1-11:1 (St. Louis: CPH, 2006), 231, fn. 17.
Jesus Preaches the Blessedness of the Saints 3 they have the blessedness of which Jesus speaks. But this perspective is immediately overturned by the very first one. Jesus says: Blessed are the poor in spirit, because theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Unequivocally, this is not a virtue. Christians ought to be rich in spirit, oughtn t they? After all, we have the one true faith we know the way of Life, Jesus Christ! How can one who is poor in spirit be blessed? St. Paul describes this spiritual poverty in his letter to the Romans: We do not know what we should pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that are not expressed in words (Rom. 8:26). Likewise to the Corinthians: And he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, because my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will be glad to boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may shelter me. That is why I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties, for the sake of Christ. For whenever I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Cor. 12:9-10) The irony of this blessedness is unveiled when we see it in these contexts. In both of those passages from St. Paul s letters, the people of God are spiritually poor, unable to accomplish anything spiritually ourselves, unable even to pray as we ought. Nevertheless, we spiritually poor are blessed how? the Spirit helps us in our weakness (Rom. 8:26), or, as Paul says, the power of Christ shelters us (2 Cor. 12:9). We can take examples from the Gospels, as well, the woman forgiven of her adultery who washed Jesus feet, the tax collector Zacchaeus, the thief on the cross how rich was any of them, spiritually? None of them had anything substantial to offer our Lord. None of them could declare their own worthiness to be saved. All of them
4 Matthew 5:1-12 were granted the kingdom of heaven only by the mercy, grace, and power of Christ Jesus. The same is true of us what do we have that we can offer our Lord? We are only sinners, that is our nature, and so to be spiritually poor, then, is equivalent to being spiritually destitute, without resource, without what one needs in the spiritual realm. Those who are poor in spirit must have their spiritual needs provided by Another. 2 This is what this Beatitude means: Blessed are the poor in spirit, because we cannot offer anything ourselves. Blessed are we to recognize our spiritual poverty because then we see where we may truly be made spiritually rich it comes from outside of us. Those saints in glory whom St. John saw, the host arrayed in white, they didn t get there on their own merits even a little bit. Instead, They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb (Rev. 7:14). The first thing the saints of God are taught is that we cannot do anything in the realm of our salvation. Everything everything! Is done by Christ for us. St. Paul lists what God has done for the saints: those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called. Those he called, he also justified. And those he justified, he also glorified (Rom. 8:29-30). From our election in eternity, to our calling in time, to our justification by faith alone, to our final entrance into glory, God has done it all. 2 Ibid. 240.
Jesus Preaches the Blessedness of the Saints 5 Recognizing the status of neediness, and our utter inability to save ourselves, all that is left is to see God s mercy, and this is in fact the overarching theme of the Beatitudes. Jesus pronounces, Blessed are those who mourn, because they will be comforted. Seeing our own inability, we mourn over it. Seeing the loss we face in this life, we mourn over it. Seeing the sin that clings to us, the death that hounds and surrounds us, the difficulty that is ever in our homes and in our lives, what can we do but mourn? But the comfort comes in Jesus, who did what we could not, gave us more than we ever lost, overturned sin, death, and difficulty, and clothed us with his righteousness and immortality. Blessed are the gentle, because they will inherit the earth. The gentle or lowly or meek are the powerless. This is not a gentleness like kindness or any other virtue. This is a gentleness that makes a person unimpressive, trod on by the world, taken advantage of. This is a gentleness that gets robbed, crushed, and destroyed therefore it is ironic that such gentleness will inherit the earth. This is not their own victory, but as St. John writes: This is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith (1 John 5:4). The saints of God the Christian soldiers cannot win victories themselves. No, Christ has won the victory for us, and even that was by his own gentleness he won the victory by dying on a cross. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, because they will be filled.
6 Matthew 5:1-12 The need is expressed one more time. We have no righteousness of our own. It had to be given to us by Jesus. We hunger and thirst for it because we lack it, but we are filled when Christ gives us his righteousness through Baptism, through his Supper, through the Word. These beatitudes are not virtues, not actions, not attitudes all are simply our status of need. Jesus continues into a set of beatitudes that do seem to express a virtue of some kind: Blessed are the merciful, because they will receive mercy. This blessing is to be understood along the same lines as the petition in the Lord s Prayer, Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Because one is a saint of God, he has been clothed with Christ s righteousness, and empowered by the Holy Spirit to do the works God has prepared for him to do. Blessed are the pure in heart, because they will see God. To be pure in heart is to stand before God as a forgiven sinner. Who may go up to the mountain of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? asks the Psalm (Ps. 24:3). He who has a clean hands and a pure heart, whose soul is not set on what is false, who does not swear deceitfully (24:4). One who has a pure heart, therefore, is one who does not set his soul on something false, that is, on a false God, and does not swear deceitfully, that is, speak in vain rather he is a person who has learned there is only one God, worshiping only him, receiving blessing from him. Blessed are the peacemakers, because they will be called sons of God.
Jesus Preaches the Blessedness of the Saints 7 To make peace is to bring the peace of the Gospel not a worldly peace, and not even necessarily a sense of purpose or contentment. Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth, Jesus said. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law (Matt. 10:34-35). This is not worldly peace, but eternal peace, the peace of God which passes understanding the peace of the Gospel that is preached. All three of those beatitudes merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers are a result of the unity of the saints to Christ. He has empowered the new life, so that these people of God show the mercy of forgiveness they have received, the mercy of the Gospel, seek only the true God, not help from any other god, provide the peace of the Gospel to all who need it, as they have received it. The last two beatitudes are similar in concept: Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, because theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The mercy and peace provided by the blessed saints of God will not always be received. Frequently, in fact, it will be rejected. More than that, the people who are pure in heart and bring this mercy and peace will themselves be hurt, hated, injured, even killed. Persecution awaits all the people of God on this earth, and we should not be surprised when we see it, nor should we despair. In fact, the opposite is the case. Jesus says:
8 Matthew 5:1-12 Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven. In fact, that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you. In present, the kingdom of God is hidden. The royal people of that kingdom are poor in spirit, mourning, gentle, hungry and thirsty for righteousness, hardly the people you would expect to overcome the world. But how do they get their blessedness? It is given by Christ. It is all his righteousness provided through things that surprise us themselves simple water, the plainest meal of bread and wine, each connected to the words of a book: the Word of God these plain and simple things hold the kingdom of God and its blessedness to provide to us. But when is this ours? Do we have it yet? II. When Do They Get It? You ll notice of these beatitudes that the first eight all say, Blessed are someone else, Blessed are those, Blessed are they. Then the ninth beatitude says, Blessed are you. Jesus did that deliberately. This is the doorway to the rest of his sermon, remember? He begins by holding the door open so that those to whom he preaches can see, These are they who are blessed, who have been given entry into the kingdom of God. See the rewards he lists: theirs is the kingdom of heaven, they will be comforted, they will inherit the earth, they will be filled. When does all that happen? Those whom St. John saw in eternal glory were
Jesus Preaches the Blessedness of the Saints 9 the ones who are coming out of the great tribulation. [T]hey are in front of the throne of God, and they serve him day and night in his temple. He who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. They will never be hungry or thirsty ever again. The sun will never beat upon them, nor will any scorching heat, for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd. He will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. (Rev. 7:14-17) The perfect fullness of the blessings promised by Jesus in the Beatitudes are given to All Saints in glory, who receive it in heavenly joy before God. This glorious picture of these saints is certainly something we look forward to. Those who have had faith and gone before us, they have that perfection in glory as they await the day when we join them. But what do we have now? We have the means of grace. The very Word, Baptism, and Supper which clothe us with Christ s righteousness gives us these rewards now. The mercy that was shown us, the pure heart that was created within us, the peace that guards us, these come by the Gospel of Jesus Christ and what he has done for us. We are perfect in God s eyes. What s the practical takeaway? How do we apply this to our lives? Depending on our station in life, whether husband, wife, parent, child, employer, employee, friend, we can fulfill our vocations in Christlike fashion. We are clothed with Christ. We present Christ to the world. We are saved by Christ, and therefore we share Christ with others so that he may save them. Jesus would go on in his sermon to say, You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world (Matt. 5:13, 14). Our duty is to share what we have received, even if it means we are persecuted, because even in our persecution we see how we are joined to the saints who have gone before, because that is how they
10 Matthew 5:1-12 persecuted the prophets who were before you. So we are able to live in that joy and blessedness already now. Jesus preaches this blessedness from a mountaintop. On a similar mountaintop, God declared that he would make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of wellaged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces (Is. 25:6-8, ESV). This feast he gives to us every week when we eat our Lord s body and drink his blood, the richest feast in this world and that is a foretaste of the eternal feast that the triumphant saints are blessed to eat with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and our Lord himself in glory. Death was swallowed up by Jesus resurrection from the dead, so that we who are baptized in his name have the same resurrection promised and for the saints triumphant, the swallowing of death has been perfectly accomplished, because they passed through death s portal into the eternal place where they make their song myriad voices strong: Eternally shall praise to Thee, God, and the Lamb belong. 3 We here already have the blessedness Christ speaks of, but not yet in fullness. Therefore we sing now together, we take part in the Sacrament of God s grace, we rejoice in our salvation; at our deaths and at the end of the world, we will have all that in greater, inexpressible joy, as we join those mighty, glorious legions, that host arrayed in white. Amen. 1996), #553:3. 3 H. A. Brorson, Den store hvide Flok vi se, trans. The Lutheran Hymnary (Mankato, MN: ELS,