Amazing Words! – February 4, 2024

Micah 6:1-8, Matthew 5:1-12
February 4:2024

These are some of the first recorded words of Jesus, at least in Matthew’s Gospel.  So far, we’ve heard him talking to John at his baptism, and quoting scripture to the devil in the wilderness.  And we know he’s been preaching and teaching in synagogues all over Galilee, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

But here in Matthew’s Gospel, we have the first recorded words of the actual teaching he did.  And these are “Amazing words!”  And I believe Matthew meant them to be!  Remember, he was directing his Gospel to a Jewish audience, attempting to prove to them that Jesus was the Messiah prophesied in their scriptures.  And these are the words of Jesus that he wanted to hit them with first!

I love that Matthew records so much of this sermon!  Luke does, too, but Matthew’s is the most complete.  And it makes me wonder, was he there?  Was he sitting there in the crowd writing furiously, like a good accountant/tax collector – a good “detail person” – would do?  We can only speculate.  But he gives us Jesus’ words, and I’m glad he did!  Because these are some of Jesus’ greatest words.  And as I’ve said before, this is one of the greatest speeches of all time.  But it’s even more than that.  I believe this is indicative of not only of Jesus’ message, but it also tells us about his heart.  These are the things that Jesus was all about!

Again, these were amazing words.  At the end of this sermon, Matthew tells us, “When Jesus finished saying these things, the crowds were astonished at his teaching! For he taught as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.”  Imagine reading that if you were one of his Jewish readers!  I think that was intentional on Matthew’s part!

So these are “Amazing words,” and the very first word here is the word “Blessed.”  I’ll never forget when the “Good News Bible” came out.  Do you remember?  It came out in 1966, but I saw it first when I was in Jr High.  It came out in paperback, and it was only the New Testament.  And, as one article said, “It featured a nostalgic cover design and memorable line drawings.”  Do you remember that?  I remember the drawings!  I also remember that it was my first exposure to a Bible that was easier to read.

However, as much as I liked it, the one thing I didn’t like was its rendering of these Beatitudes.  It started out, “Happy are those who are spiritually poor…”  And I’m sorry, but “Happy” never did it for me.  And not just because I was raised on the RSV – and I’m nostalgic about it.  Later on I learned that it’s the job of Biblical translators, not just to render each word in the original language to the word in the new language.  It was their job, as Bruce Metzger taught us, “to capture the meaning of the text.”  Dr. Metzger was one of my seminary professors, and he was also one of the main editors of the RSV bible.  (First published in 1952!)

Well, as much as I liked the readability of the Good News, or the “Good Noise,” as we called it, I’ve always thought those editors missed the mark on that one!  “Happy” is not the equivalent of the word we’re more familiar with here, the word, “Blessed.”  And it certainly doesn’t “capture the meaning” of the Greek word “Makarioi!”

I grabbed a quick definition of the word off of Google this week, and it said that “Blessed” means “Held in reverence.” And “Venerated,” which means “Respected, adored, and honored.”  I would also add “instilled with spiritual value.”  It’s a verb.  Blessing is something someone does.  God blesses us.  So it’s an action.  It’s also a description.  We say, “We are blessed.”  Or we say, “That person is blessed.”  It’s also a noun.  We are given a “blessing.”  We are given a blessing of something – strength, or wisdom, or even worldly abilities.

I think of the action of “Blessing” in three ways.  First, we are blessed by God.  God blesses us with his presence, with his spirit, and even with the material things we have in this life.  They are blessings.  God blesses us by making us his people.  He blesses us with his “steadfast love and faithfulness,” as it says in the Old Testament many times!  Hopefully we feel him blessing us when we gather here in his name!  As we leave this place I hope we do so feeling “Blessed.”

Second – and this is the one we don’t think of as much – We bless God.  We give God praise and honor.  We say that with words.  We say it reading scriptures of blessing.  We sing it, too.  “Bless the Lord, O My Soul.  And all that is within me bless his holy name!”  We sing of his blessedness.  “Blessed be your name.”  That’s a song we sing here.

The third way I think of this is that we bless others.  We give to others those blessings of respect, adoration, and honor.  Our good words and actions are a blessing to them.  And we bless others with our presence!  That’s another reason we gather here.  So think about that!  Are you a blessing to others!

As we think about that, we might remember the words of Paul to the Romans, words which echoed Jesus here in Matthew.  In Romans 12 he wrote, “Bless those who persecute you.  Bless and do not curse them.”  That’s reminiscent of what Jesus would say later in this sermon.  He soon would say, “Love your enemies.  And pray for those who persecute you!”

That’s important!  Because that’s where this takes us back to what I started out saying, I said that these amazing words – the words of this sermon – show us the heart of Jesus.  So, as we think of who Jesus proclaimed as “blessed,” know that these are not who those people who were there that day would think were “blessed.”  But these are the kinds of people Jesus blessed!  With his words and with his presence, Jesus blessed the unloved, the outcast, and the downtrodden.

That’s what we have here in these Beatitudes.  Jesus is telling us about the people he sees as being “blessed.”  These, he said, are “spiritually honored,” or “Spiritually esteemed.”  They are those he deemed to be of spiritual worth.  And as I said, these would have been unexpected, maybe even shocking, to those people there that day at the mountain.  And they have been unexpected to many over the years!

For example, the first thing he said – the very first words of this sermon, in fact – was “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” The best explanation I’ve heard about that said, “To be poor in spirit, means to have a humble and contrite heart, acknowledging one’s spiritual poverty and dependance on God.”  And to be “contrite” is to be utterly sorrowful for one’s sins.  That definition ends by saying, “It is the opposite of arrogance, pride, and self-sufficiency.”

Jesus blesses the poor in spirit.  Do you?  Do you give them spiritual honor?  Do you give them your respect and adoration?  Do you attempt to lift them up?  And perhaps more importantly, are you poor in spirit?  Are you contrite?  And do you humbly acknowledge your dependance on God?

That’s the first one.  And I’m not going down the whole list today.  I want you to read and think about each of these on your own.  (It’s on the back of bulletin.  So put it up on your refrigerator where you can see it throughout the week!)  These are the people for whom Jesus had an affinity.  The poor in spirit, those who mourn, those who are meek, those who are merciful, those who are pure in heart, those who are peacemakers, and yes, those who are persecuted.

I do want to emphasize this final one.  Because here he changed the “person” of the sentence.  Perhaps you remember “person” from your English class.  He was speaking in the third person.  “Blessed are they, the peacemakers, the poor in spirit,” etc..  Now he’s directed this Beatitude to the people who were listening – in the “second person.”  He said, “Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you on my account, for great is your reward in heaven.  For so men persecuted the prophets who were before you!”

That doesn’t sound like a blessing, does it?  It doesn’t sound like we’re receiving a spiritual gift from God.  But it does fit the earlier description.  Even in those kinds of difficulties, we are respected, adored, and honored by God.  And “Great is your reward in heaven,” as Jesus says.

So, we’re going to be taking a closer look at several different parts of this sermon.  We’re going to be looking to these “Amazing words,” and thinking about the heart of Jesus.  And I encourage you to think about what it was like to be there, to hear him speak, to watch him reach out to and bless the outcast and the downtrodden, to see him reveal to the world the very heart of God!  That is a blessing in and of itself!

In the meantime, think about these Beatitudes.  Think about who Jesus saw as “Blessed”  Think about how his view of such people might be different from the world’s view.  And think about how it’s our job as his followers to see things as he saw them.

Prayer

Eternal God, we thank you for the great example of your love that we see in Jesus.  We thank you for the way he showed us your heart.  We thank you that, through your great love, you sent him to us.  And we thank you for your Amazing Grace, through which we are so amazingly blessed.  For we pray in his name, Amen.