The Good Life: A series through the Sermon on the Mount Good news for the bankrupt Matthew 5:1-3 (ESV) 5h Century philosopher, Socrates: Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued. Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness Recognition My grandpa come over on a boat from Illocus Sur, Philippines to SF in search of the Good Life. But how do you know if you find it? The opinions are mixed. Some say the good life is Huey Lewis: I got a very good life. I sold plenty of records, I get recognized plenty, I can always have somebody call up and get me a fine table at a restaurant. What do you really need, ultimately? Success Michael Landon: I've had a good life. Enough happiness, enough success. Love and knowledge Bertrand Russell: The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge. The journey Carl Rogers : The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction not a destination. Education Tom Brokaw: You are educated. Your certification is in your degree. You may think of it as the ticket to the good life. But who really is happy? Who has the good life? The SOTM continually answers this question by pronouncing certain people groups, blessed. The Pronouncement Blessed (a funny, and unhelpful term) English translations vary: blessed, fortunate, or happy. Happiness doesn t really work for blessed. 1 Our modern connotation of happy makes us think of psychological happiness. Not the robust view that the Bible has in mind. There are two Greek words for blessed Eulogeo - A prayer request 2 AP Makarios - An existing state 3 Blessed (in Matt 5) means realities of heaven have moved into the present 4 Illustration: When I tell Abby we re going to the zoo, she is blessed But here s the twist 1 John R.W. Stott thinks it s misleading to render makarios as being happy. He explains, Happiness is a subjective state, whereas Jesus is making an objective judgment about these people. He is declaring not what they may feel like ( happy ), but what God thinks of them and what on that account they are: they are blessed. The Message of the Sermon on the Mount. (Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity, 1978) p.33 2 Kenneth E. Bailey. Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels. (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2008) p.67 3 4 Ibid, 68 D.A. Carson. Matthew: Chapters 1 Through 12. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1995) p.131
The Twist Jesus gives an example of the type of person that is blessed (it s a surprise) > Poor in spirit () 1. Luke: Economically poor You can t read the Bible too long and not see God s heart for the poor. Isaiah 41:17 (ESV) AP When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue is parched with thirst, I the Lord will answer them; I the God of Israel will not forsake them. Psalm 140:12 (NKJV) I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and justice for the poor. James 2:5 (ESV) Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? Point: You can t pay your bills? Creditors won t listen to you? God listens 5 But neither does the Biblical view of poor stop at economics. It speaks to the whole person 2. Matthew: Spiritually poor Hebrew word combines both 6 Isaiah 66:27 All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. Being economically poor and desperate often go hand in hand in Scripture. 5 In the Bible, the poor rely more on God The poor as a whole do have less pride that gets in the way and really do trust more in God. Ibid. 6 D.A. Carson points out the suspicion some have that the additive Matthean phrase, "in spirit" spiritualizes the economic poverty that Luke is attempting to illuminate in his own depiction of the Beatitudes. But Carson rightly explains that it is not so simple as to draw a line between the economically poor and the spiritually poor, because the Old Testament uses these concepts together, as though they are inseparable. Not to say that the economically poor cannot know God--on the contrary, they are the ones, Jesus states, that you should expect to find in the Kingdom. But it is precisely because they are poor--they have learned over hard times that there is nothing sufficient in themselves, and it tends to be easier for them to seek Christ than the affluent and powerful who have less incentive to do so. See Carson. Matthew: Chapters 1 Through 12. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1995) p.131 7 "The Hebrew word combines both meanings--economically poor and spiritually humble" Glen H. Stassen & David P. Gushee. Kingdom Ethics: Following Jesus in Contemporary Context. (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2003) p.38
IOW, people who can t help themselves. They re dependent on others for support (financially, spiritually, emotionally, or socially). These are the outcasts, the ignored, the passed-over. People who are at the end of their rope who have nothing left to give. Nothing to add or contribute. Not looked to. The ones who can t repay you when you help them the ones who can t return the favor. They have no spiritual captial. They are the spiritual zeros (Willard). THESE are the ones who are blessed, who have the Good Life. At this point, it seems insulting. You may be at the bottom of society right now, saying, I don t feel blessed at all. The Reason Why is their life good? It looks anything but good. The answer lies in the for of verse 3 for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Kingdom of Heaven: 8 The realm of God s rule and reign The least likely have been granted entrance into God s presence The kingdom of God turns our view of power on its head This is such a difficult truth, that the rest of us scramble to make sense of it Well, it can t mean what it means Our desire to earn the gospel comes out in this Beatitude. We struggle to find in this text something meritorious (i.e., poor in spirit means humility), so that we can turn the Beatitude into something we earn or deserve. 9 We even treat poor in spirit like a virtue as if God wants his people to be spiritually bankrupt. The reward lie: Blessed are those who do X because they will receive Y for their efforts The truth: Blessed are those who are X for Y has been made available them despite X Jesus is just announcing that the undeserving will enjoy God s kingdom This was foretold by the prophets Isaiah 61:1-2a (ESV) The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God. 8 On the semantic distinction between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven, Robert A. Guelich comments, heaven is another symbol for God in his sovereign activity Kingdom of Heaven is a double reference to the sovereign rule or reign of God. (author s italics) The Sermon on the Mount: Foundations for Understanding. (Waco, Texas: Word Books, 1982) p.77 In light of this, I have chosen to use the phases synonymously throughout the series. 9 Dallas Willard. The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God. (New York, NY: HarperOne, 1997) p.102
Jesus would later do something unbelievable with this sacred text Luke 4:16-21 (ESV) And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. Jesus claims to BE the good news the blessing to the least of these. Is it any wonder why Matthew calls this biography, a Gospel Dallas Willard (The Divine Conspiracy) 10 Those poor in spirit are called blessed by Jesus, not because they are in a meritorious condition, but because, precisely in spite of and in the midst of their ever so deplorable condition, the rule of the heavens has moved redemptively upon and through them by the grace of Christ. The blessing of the Kingdom is known by all who believe in Christ, and follow Him. If you want to know in more detail about what it means for Jesus disciples to be blessed, just look at the collective effect of being blessed by God: 11 - accepted (3) - comforted (4) - satisfied (6) - forgiven (7) - adopted (9) Just like when I tell my daughter, We re going to the zoo esp, when she s sad. So Jesus tells these, Even though the world has passed you by, even though you have nothing to show for your life, even though you re not where you thought you would be at this point in your life I ve come to tell you: You re going to be comforted, you re going to be satisfied, you are accepted, forgiven, and adopted 10 11 Ibid, 106 Stott. p.33
Some of you feel worthless, unaccepted, devalued, overlooked. Good news: the Kingdom has been made available to you in Christ 12 Stop trying to make yourself worthy. Confess your inadequacy, your emptiness, your spiritual bankruptcy. And turn to Christ, not only as Savior, but as Lord follow Him. But I m a millionaire/rs major. Is there any good news for me? Revelation 3:17-18 (ESV) For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. But it s only good news to those who are running out of gas. You get me? That s the thrust. The Beatitude turns our idea of success on its head. May we find our sufficiency in Him. (2 Cor 3:5-6) Alfred Edersheim: The so-called Beatitudes must not be regarded as the reward of the spiritual state with 12 which they are respectively connected, nor yet as their result. It is not because a man is poor in spirit that his is the Kingdom of Heaven, in the sense that the one state will grow into the other, or be its result; still less is the one the reward of the other. The connecting link so to speak is in each case Christ Himself: because has opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers. The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah. (Hendricksons, 1993) p.365