Vol. 11 — No. 27 July 5, 1970
Matthew 5:1-6
And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inheirt the earth.
In Christ Jesus, the King of an amazing Kingdom, Fellow Redeemed:
The King speaks in our text. He speaks of His Kingdom. But what foolishness and nonsense He speaks! Surely—the world lauds and praises the Sermon on the Mount—from which our text is taken. The world recognizes the nobility of thought, the beauty of expression. But the true content and meaning of these words escapes the man of this world. When brought face to face with the meaning of these beautiful words, the man of the world cannot but throw up his hands in disgust and cry; “Nonsense, foolishness!” Why is that? The wisdom of God is and ever remains foolishness in the eyes of the world. We have before us the first four of the Beatitudes, the Blessings with which Jesus began the Sermon on the Mount. These words are and ever shall remain the rankest foolishness in the sight of man—just as they ever shall remain a part of the highest wisdom of God.
The King speaks. He speaks of His Kingdom. But the King has said, “My kingdom is not of this world.” And it isn’t! Therefore we can expect a different set of values and a different way of doing things in His Kingdom. In the kingdoms of this world earthly kings and rulers expect their citizens to work and to produce, to support the King or government with taxes, to serve with their lives if necessary. And for great and noble service there are rewards in the form of prestige and honor, wealth and position. But in the Kingdom of God the King has worked and has died for His people. He gives His people—a hungry, thirsty, unclothed, meek and humble, mourning, poor in spirit rabble the greatest of blessings. The King gives; the citizens receive. The citizens are most undeserving; yet they receive the greatest and most glorious gifts. What an amazing Kingdom! The few verses that we have read speak of people who are poor and beggarly in spirit, mourning, meek and lowly, hungry and thirsty. What a picture of misery and woe! And yet for these people the King has prepared the most glorious blessing; the very Kingdom of heaven, comfort and consolation, the earth as an inheritance, the wonderful experience of being filled and satisfied after being hungry and thirsty. Let us take a closer look at this Kingdom—
Let us look at the individual beatitudes. First
“Blessed are the poor in spirit”—the beggarly, those cringing in the dust before their God, the bankrupt, those who come before their God singing in utter humilty, “Nothing in my hand I bring.” Such people are despised in the eyes of this world, for the world shuns away from the cringing beggar in the gutter, from the man who has no spirit in him to lift up his head before his God, from the person who has nothing to give but only an empty hand to extend. But just such people—with head bowed to the dust in humility—the Lord loves to see. The Lord says through his prophet, Isaiah, “To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word” (66:2). David confesses in the 51st Psalm, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” Our Lord Jesus told the parable of the publican going up in the temple to pray. He is described in this way: “And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast saying, God be merciful to me a sinner” (Luke 16;13). Paul proclaims and confesses in his first letter to Timothy (1:15), “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” Here are pictures from different parts of Scriptures—all of them different shots of the same picture—of the poor, the beggarly in spirit, of the man who dares not lift up his head before his God.
Such a man is called and pronounced “blessed.” He is made a member of the Kingdom of God. Yea, more he is given the Kingdom of God as his possession. The King of kings comes to him, showers him with all the blessings He has earned, makes him a member of that Kingdom which alone shall survive the end of all things, makes this lowly person a son of God—think of it—and an heir of heaven. The beggar becomes a son of God! The lowly becomes an heir of heaven. Strange, isn't it. Wonderfully and powerfully strange, foolish, silly, unreal, unnatural!? Yea, all of that and more, but still the TRUTH, for “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Thus says the King, and thus it is in His Kingdom!
What an amazing Kingdom! Such glorious bless ings for such lowly citizens! Behold also—
“Blessed are they that mourn—that weep, that wail—for they shall be comforted.” But there are those who mourn, who weep, who wail, but who shall never be comforted. St. Matthew (27) tells us that the morning after Judas betrayed Jesus, “when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders.” What a horrible night Judas must have spent! As a caged animal, imprisoned in the consequences of his own sin he spent the night—perhaps in tears, perhaps cursing himself and his greed and ambition. He had betrayed an innocent man. The consequences of his sin were driving him mad. How often hasn’t that sad night of Judas been repeated—man mourning, weeping, wailing, suffering for the consequences of his sin. But yet NO COMFORT, NO CONSOLATION, for the mourning is only for the consequences of the sin, NOT FOR THE SIN ITSELF. And so Judas went out and hanged himself, as millions do, if not actually, then spiritually when they mourn the consequences of their sin, rather than the SIN ITSELF.
Another disciples also spent a miserable night that same night. It was Peter. He had denied his Lord. He too mourned, for “he went out, and wept bitterly.” But he mourned his sin, even as David was mourning his sin when he writes in the sixth Psalm, “I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears. Mine eye is consumed be cause of grief; it waxeth old because of all mine enemies.” That is the mourning which is blessed, for it is mourning under the burden of sin. It is mourning because the sinner has offended his God. Such mourning is comforted. The Lord looked upon Peter and then appeared to him personally on Easter morn to comfort, to console him with the assurance of forgiveness. David was comforted with the words of the Lord through Nathan the prophet, “The Lord hath put away thy sin. Thou Shalt not die.” What an amazing and wonderful Kingdom! For those who mourn for their sins, for those who recognize their misfortunes as justly connected with their sins and are driven through their misfortunes to true sorrow over their sins—for them there is comfort and consolation without end, the comfort and consolation of the King’s own forgiveness. Yea, “Blessed are they that mourn—over their sins—for they shall be comforted.”
What an amazing Kingdom! Such glorious blessings for such lowly citizens. Yea more—
“Blessed are the meeks for they shall inherit the earth.” If there is a statement that seems foolishness, contrary to fact and all experience, it is this one. We picture the meek as humble people who will not assert themselves, will not push themselves forward, whose hearts are governed by the Word of the Lord, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” But those are just the kind of people who seem to get nowhere. It is the bold, confident, self-assertive people with drive, energy, force of personality, ruthlessness that get somewhere in this world. Think of the area of politics, even in our country where murder and assassination are not as common as elsewhere. Think of the ruthlessness in organized labor and in big business. The way to the top is by persistency of purpose, by means that may be ruthless, immoral. So it is! All experience and all history cry out against this statement of the Lord, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall Inherit the earth.”
Since the beginning of time believers have been confronted with this contradiction that the unbelievers seem to thrive, are the wealthiest, have the most power and enjoyment in life, are the most successful, while the humble and meek children of God seem to get no place. This problem David takes up in the 37th Psalm. David begins, “Fret not thy self because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity.” Why not? Why shouldn’t the meek believer envy the successful wicked person? David says, “For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.” So frequently that happens in this life already. Think of a Hitler, a Mussolini, the debunking of Stalin, the powerful labor leaders that end their careers in prison for income tax evasion, the financial leaders that blow their brains out when the stock market falls. Rather than envy for the successful wicked, David says, “Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” And he gives us the practical advice, “A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked,” And still it remains true that the meek shall inherit the earth! Sometimes that is true already in this life. Think of David, of Solomon, of the powerful German princes during the Reformation, of King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. And for all believers this shall become true in the moment of death, for then shall all begin to share Christ’s rule, even as He has promised, “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne.” Truly the meek shall inherit the earth!
What an amazing Kingdom! Such glorious blessings for such lowly citizens.
“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” What a blessing is not being filled! When a person is really and truly hungry, almost starving, the greatest blessing he can think of is being filled, satisfied with good food. Think of the money that is spent eating out in order to be filled, to have one’s hunger and craving for some special food satisfied. Think of a person thirsty on a hot day. What a blessing is not a cool, refreshing drink. That is the picture that Jesus uses in this text to show the blessings of His Kingdom. But what do so many people hunger and thirst for? One thing is success. And what effort is not put forth to reach success. And then when success is reached, what worry and care to hold and maintain that success. What a hunger and thirst people have for money, for material prosperity. What lying, cheating, conniving, crooked business isn’t done to get more and more money, more and more of the things of this world. But that is not the insatiable hunger and thirst of which the Lord speaks. Think of the hunger and thirst for respectability, for social prominence. Think of the false front, the hypocrisy, the lying and deceiving to get on top of the pile and stay there. But again that isn’t the hunger and thirst Jesus speaks of.
He calls those blessed who hunger and thirsts after righteousness. But who hungers and thirst for that? Most people imagine that they have enough righteousness of their own. When young people are being taught today that God has nothing to say about the way they live their lives, that each one should do “his own thing,” that there is no hell, that any kind of a “god” and any king of worship is acceptable with God, that on the basis of one’s own honor one can be morally right, reverent, and so acceptable to God—how can such young people hunger and thirst for righteousness? When adults are constantly taught that they can keep the commandments, that the good deeds that they do compensate for their faults and frailties, how can such people hunger and thirst for righteousness?
“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.” Only a person who knows and realizes his own righteousness is as a filthy rag can know the hunger and thirst for the perfect righteousness which is alone in Christ. People who so hunger and thirst after righteousness shall indeed be filled with the righteousness of Christ. And what a blessed satisfying of hunger and thirst that is!
Are you then beggarly in spirit? Blessed are your for the Kingdom is yours! Are you one that grieves and mourns because of your sins? Blessed are you, for you are being consoled by the Gospel of forgiveness. Are you among the meek? Blessed indeed are you, for you shall inherit the earth! Do you hunger and thirst for perfection, for righteousness? Blessed are you, for you shall be filled with the holy righteousness of God's own Son. What an amazing Kingdom! Such glorious blessings for such lowly creatures! Amen.
Ministry by Mail is a weekly publication of the Church of the Lutheran Confession. Sermon archives, and subscription and staff information may be found online at www.clclutheran.org/ministrybymail. Audio Sermons are available at: podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ministrybymail
All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the King James Version.