Jesus On Who is Well Off
Part 2 in series Hearing Jesus Again
Wildwind Community Church
David Flowers
May 10, 2008
One of the things people wonder most about in our society is who is well off. Do you doubt that? What does it mean to say we are well off, or that another person is well off? It means, basically, that we –or that other person – have found the good life – that things are well and good for us. That we are safe, at peace, content, happy, comfortable, or whatever else you might want to include. Our Constitution grants us the inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of what? Happiness –the condition of being well-off! We don’t use that term very often, and usually when we do we are talking about money. So let’s talk about money. When you say someone is financially well-off, what do you mean? You mean they have abundant financial resources, that their needs are met, that they are financially “safe” perhaps and not at risk of bankruptcy or the other catastrophes that we paycheck-to-paycheck riff raff and commoners sometimes face.
But this isn’t what it means to be truly well-off, is it? I know I don’t need to preach a sermon about how money isn’t everything. Almost everybody knows that. So what does it mean to be truly well-off, and who are the people who are in that category?
We’re in week 2 today of a 13 week series based on the Sermon on the Mount and at the very beginning of this sermon, Jesus tackles the question, “Who is well off? Who is able to live a God-blessed life, a contented life, a peaceful and happy life?” And to show us the answer to this, Jesus gives us some examples of those who are able to live a God-blessed life, a list we have come to call The Beatitudes. Let’s begin my making clear what the Beatitudes are NOT saying, because this series is entitled Hearing Jesus Again. That title assumes that perhaps we have heard him before but not accurately understood what he was saying. If we are to hear Jesus again, only this time clearly and accurately, we need to dispel the inaccuracies surrounding his teaching.
Have you ever been talking to somebody and had a huge misunderstanding and realized after a while that you were talking about two different things entirely? Like you were talking about what time you’d be leaving to go to your mom’s house to celebrate Mother’s Day, and your friend thought you were talking about what time you wanted him to be over to watch the game? As long as you are saying one thing and he is saying another, there can be no communication. In order for the two of you to clear this up, you have to first make clear to each other what you THOUGHT the other person was saying. After you have done that, you can then each make clear what you are actually saying and then communication can happen.
In order for us to “hear Jesus again,” we have to talk about how we have commonly misunderstood him. So let’s read the Beatitudes as we dig into our study on the Sermon on the Mount, and let’s address the most common misinterpretation of this passage.
Matthew 5:1-12 (NIV)
1 Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him,
2 and he began to teach them, saying:
3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 "Blessed are you when people insult you, 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, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Most commonly people read these verses and say, “The mournful are blessed, so I need to find something to mourn about. The meek are blessed, so I have to be meek. Insulted people are blessed, so I need to live in such a way as to be insulted. The poor in spirit are blessed, so I have to find a way to be poor in spirit, whatever that means.” In other words, people read this as a list of commandments, almost like the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20.
The problem is that they way they are stated almost makes one look like the reward of the other. Think of this.
Matthew 5:3 (NIV)
3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Okay, so if I can become poor in spirit, I will go to heaven. Heaven will be my reward for being poor in spirit.
Matthew 5:5 (NIV)
5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Okay, so if I can become meek (which means humble-minded), I will inherit the earth. This will be my reward for being humble-minded.
Matthew 5:10 (NIV)
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Okay, so if I can be persecuted, the kingdom of heaven will be mine. I must work to be poor in spirit, to be meek, to be persecuted, so that I can attain all these rewards.
When we think of it this way, then we see how the Beatitudes simply become a new list of commandments. Be poor in spirit. Be mourners. Be humble-minded (meek). Be persecuted. Being all these things is the way to heaven. That’s what Jesus said, isn’t it?
Actually, not at all. That’s the common misunderstanding of what Jesus said. And what’s wrong with this understanding? What’s wrong with it is that it bypasses Jesus! Being poor in spirit, for example, means understanding that you are a spiritual zero – that you bring nothing to the table spiritually – realizing you are desperately godless and lost in your spirit. Now if I can simply realize this and the Kingdom of heaven will be mine, then there must be something inherently good about this condition. The person who recognizes they are a spiritual zero – wow, that person must really be virtuous – it must be a good thing to be that way. If it’s a good thing, then I should work to be that way. Once I have achieved that, it becomes a badge of honor – look how much I realize my need for God – look how poor in spirit I am. And God blesses me just because I am in this condition – it’s a reward for my poverty of spirit.
Seeing the Beatitudes as a new list of commandments is the most common misunderstanding of them. Jesus is not saying, “Being this certain way will rub God’s lamp and cause him to bless you in that certain way.” This misunderstanding becomes great indeed when we apply it to persecution. “Boy, if Jesus said the kingdom of heaven belongs to those who are persecuted, then I better get my share of that pie – I’d better find me some persecution somewhere.” And of course Christians have specialized for centuries in finding ways to irritate people enough to persecute them. Then, when we DO get persecuted, we get to say, “This is exactly what God wants – exactly what he expects – and exactly how I will gain entrance into the Kingdom!”
There is not one single place in scripture where Jesus (or Paul, or anyone else) says we should SEEK to be persecuted. Did you know that? In fact we will see that in the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus taught us that we should pray to God that bad things DO NOT happen to us. The Beatitudes are not a formula for how we can call down God’s blessing on our lives. Nor do they give us a list of people who have special favor with God. If both of these things are true, then how do we think of the Beatitudes? Why did Jesus give them to us?
Let’s look at context. Immediately before Jesus begins the Sermon on the Mount with the Beatitudes, here’s what is going on:
Matthew 4:23-25 (NIV)
23 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.
24 News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed them.
25 Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.
Jesus is doing what? Preaching the good news of the Kingdom. And what is that good news? I taught you this last week. The good news is that the kingdom of the heavens, the kingdom of God, the society where God is Master and Ruler, is now available to every human being. The kingdom, as he said, “is at hand,” it is within reach – as close as the air around you. It is open for you to enter it, to learn to live in it and be at home in it.” That was the good news Jesus proclaimed. And for Jesus the natural thing to do as he preached this kingdom was to forgive sins and heal diseases because he was preaching of a kingdom where there is no sickness and no disease. There is only health and wholeness. So Jesus went around, proclaiming the availability of the Kingdom of the heavens to every person who would listen.
Matthew 4:25 (NIV)
25 Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.
Because he was travelling and teaching, and especially healing, huge crowds of people were following him around. And it is in this context that chapter 5 begins.
Matthew 5:1-3 (NIV)
1 Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him,
2 and he began to teach them, saying:
3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven….
See? Jesus was preaching a message of the availability of God’s kingdom to every single person. And he was teaching this message in a society that believed God favored only the rich and powerful, only the morally righteous, only the victorious in battle, only those in the right social class. If you encountered misfortune in your life, that was seen as punishment from God.
John 9:1-3 (MSG)
1 Walking down the street, Jesus saw a man blind from birth.
2 His disciples asked, "Rabbi, who sinned: this man or his parents, causing him to be born blind?"
3 Jesus said, "You’re asking the wrong question. You’re looking for someone to blame. There is no such cause-effect here. Look instead for what God can do.
So into this society with these skewed understandings about God comes Jesus – God in the flesh. And so Jesus begins his sermon by telling people that their conceptions of God were not correct – that the kingdom of God – God’s peace and contentment and happiness and fulfillment – indeed God’s FAVOR – were available to EVERYBODY no matter who they were or what condition they were in. To show this, Jesus chose examples of some of those considered beyond the reach of God.
Matthew 5:3-12 (NIV)
3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
It is not religious elites and upper-crust know-it-alls who can know God and enter his kingdom. It is everyday people – those of you who feel you are not good enough, those who fear they’ve been too bad for God to forgive them, those who can’t quite hold it all together, who lack the discipline to live a perfect life. The kingdom is available to them. God loves them and wants them to enter!
4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
God does not turn his face from those who are hurting and desperate. When you are weak, God’s strength will sustain you and encourage you and lift you up and you will find him there when you most need it.
5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
These are the shy ones, the ones without confidence, the often quiet, unassuming, and unassertive ones who do not insist on their rights. The truth is that God is not biased toward those who brim with confidence, who are positive of their good standing with God, who brashly insist on their rights. The kingdom is open to the meek.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
These are those who cannot deal with the injustice we often see in this world, who burn to see justice done and wrongs made right, who live in frustration that the world is not fair. There is a place where they will find peace and contentment.
7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
In the kingdom of this world, mercy is seen as weakness, and the merciful are often taken advantage of. But in the Kingdom of God this will not happen. In the Kingdom, the merciful are shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
The pure in heart are the perfectionists – the ones who are never satisfied. Nothing is ever good enough for them and every mistake is obvious to them. Their standards are impossible to meet – even they cannot meet their own standards. But in the Kingdom of God, they will find God himself – who is perfect, and who is the standard of perfection. Jesus promises these people they will one day see what is perfect.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
Peacemakers are those who find themselves caught in the middle (domestic disputes), and not appreciated by either side. Not a glorious job, but God’s favor rests on them. Peacemaking is God’s work and is kingdom work.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
These are the people who are attacked in this world because of their stand for what is right. They may be persecuted or even killed, but they can live in God’s favor.
11 "Blessed are you when people insult you, 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, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
This may be the position thought to be most removed from God’s blessing. These are the people considered Bible-thumpers, the radical sold-out-to-Jesus types who may be viewed as offensive to God. Heck, if we will them, maybe we’re doing God a favor. Jesus says the kingdom is open to them.
So we have this culture that believed God favors the strong, the spiritually righteous, the powerful, the victorious, the healthy, the proud, the rich, the men, the Jews. And of course very few people could fit into those categories. Most people in Jesus’ culture at that time were like most people in America today. Not all that strong, not all that righteous, not very powerful, not always victorious, not always healthy, not terribly confident of where they might stand before God, certainly not all men, and certainly not all Jewish.
In the Beatitudes, Jesus announced just how wide-open the Kingdom was – that it is open to all – to everyone willing to come in faith. And he did this after having just healed their diseases and put together pieces of their broken lives. In his healing activity Jesus showed God’s mercy – and in the Beatitudes, he described it. Jesus did not give us a list of commands about what we have to be in order to be blessed by God. Jesus did not say we must always mourn. He did not say we must always be persecuted. He did not say we must always experience ourselves as complete spiritual zeroes and people God could never take any interest in. What Jesus said in the Beatitudes is that even when we are mourning, God is near and the kingdom is open to us. Even when we are persecuted and picked on, God is near and his kingdom is available and we can continue to live in God’s blessing and favor. Even when we’re having those moments where we are positive God could NEVER love us, NEVER forgive us, NEVER even care about us, we are wrong! God does love us, does forgive us, and does care about us.
Jesus came proclaiming “the kingdom of God is open to you.” The Beatitudes are his answer to the natural question, “How open is it?”
My first sentence in this message today was, “One of the things people wonder most about in our society is who is well off.” With that one sentence, I clued you in to the fact that this sermon today would be a sermon about Jesus’ take on who is well off – who is able to live in God’s kingdom. People who speak often in front of crowds know the “secret formula” for effective speaking. It goes like this. You tell them what you’re going to tell them. Then you tell them. Then you tell them what you told them. Introduction, body, conclusion. No effective preacher – not even Jesus – has stepped too far outside of this guideline. The Sermon on the Mount was a sermon – it proceeded logically from one point to the next. And at the beginning of his sermon, Jesus did exactly what I would expect an accomplished public speaker to do. His theme was “The Kingdom of heaven is at hand, it is near, it is available to all.” That’s the message he always preached. The purpose of the Sermon on the Mount was to tell us about life in that Kingdom. So Jesus fittingly began his sermon by making sure his audience knew they were included!
When I am talking to people about preaching, I tell them that it’s critical to make sure the audience knows in the first couple of minutes why they should sit for 30 minutes listening to you talk. You have to show them (not convince them, but show them) that what you are saying relates to their lives in some way. If what you are saying does not relate to their lives, you have no business taking up their time. If it DOES relate to their lives but you just can’t show them how, you are not communicating effectively. This is something every effective speaker understands and works hard on doing well. And so in this opening section, Jesus announces to his audience that this kingdom he is preaching about is for THEM – that THEY can be a part of it – that THEY can live in God’s blessing (which means happiness) – that THEY can get in on God’s favor.
Which brings us back to our discussion about who is well off. It was Jesus’ strong message that the person who is well-off is the person who lives in God’s Kingdom. In fact, Jesus’ message was that this is the ONLY person who can truly be well off! So the entire Sermon on the Mount shows what this life in the Kingdom looks like and how it differs from a life outside of the kingdom. Next weeks’ message is called Introduction to the Kingdom Heart because after the Beatitudes where Jesus says, “The Kingdom is available to all,” (in other words, everyone CAN be well off if they so choose) he goes on to point out that it’s not whether you are broken or whole, rich or poor, suffering or content that determines whether you can live in the Kingdom comfortably, but whether or not you are cultivating a kingdom heart. I hope you will think about that phrase this week – are you cultivating a kingdom heart. In the rest of the sermon, Jesus teaches about the cultivation of a kingdom heart – the kind of heart that will be comfortable, safe, happy, and at home in the kingdom of God. Next week I want to talk to you about this idea of a kingdom heart and then we’ll move forward in the sermon where Jesus contrasts the kingdom heart with the non-kingdom heart.
So what are the Beatitudes getting at? Who is well off, who is able to enter God’s kingdom. And what is the answer to that question? The answer is, everybody who chooses to do so. What have you chosen for yourself? Let’s pray.
