Life Project Blog

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 5:17-20

Lest anyone should have the wrong idea about Jesus, He takes the opportunity at this point to clarify His relationship with the Law of Moses, pointing out very clearly that He had no intention of abolishing it. As we read this, we might wonder why He stuck this paragraph at this point in His remarks; the answer is an interesting one. As He has gone out proclaiming the Kingdom of Heaven, healing the sick and chasing out demons, Jesus created quite a stir to say the least. He has given us the character traits of the new follower of God, He has shown us a new mission for God’s people in the last section, but even though there are new elements He is introducing into Israel, He is not doing away with any part of the old Law; no, He has something quite different in mind.

He is going to fulfill both the Law and the Prophets!

Notice that in this passage, Jesus is still mentioning the Kingdom; in the Kingdom, people won’t be approaching the Law in the same way that they have been used to handling it, and it may well be that the people have never really handled it correctly, or as God intended. The reason for this is simply that the Israelites had the idea that they could become righteous by keeping the Law by their own force of will, and as we know, they were never successful for long and often fell into total rebelliousness when they failed. In this implication throughout the rest of this sermon, Matthew once again is linking the story of Jesus with the history of Israel.

Entry into the Kingdom will require a great deal more than the Law as presented by the Pharisees and teachers of the law, for they taught obedience to Law through legalistic minutia, a teaching that God did not bring to them. As the larger story unfolds, we will see time and again their legalistic approach colliding with Jesus’ kingdom approach, for they simply could not fathom His teaching. Jesus’ approach was to rely in faith upon God for righteousness, rather than on earning it by their own efforts;  frankly, this conflict is still with us today.

Beginning with 5:21, Jesus will teach His listeners how the Law should be applied towards one’s neighbors, which as we will see, runs a great deal deeper than anything the Pharisees had in mind. Their legalism by minutia was only effective in making a person look impressive to other people, while Jesus’ approach was allowing God to work in the lives of the people, to His glory.

Blessed are the peacemakers,
    for they will be called children of God.

Matthew 5:9

We have already seen that as Jesus went forth proclaiming the Kingdom, that healing, and restoration of wholeness followed in His wake, for the restoration of wholeness, including the restoration of relationships torn by the hostility of this world is something within the very character of God. A peacemaker is someone who places a high priority on restoring relationships, even with those considered to be enemies; this is what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.

On the other hand, many, maybe even most people of this world are not peacemakers. Look around you, this world is not a peaceful place, for people vie with each other for riches, for position and advantage. Such people are not making peace and restoring relationships, except for personal gain; this is not the behavior of a disciple, and thus the blessing of a restored relationship with God is not present in the here and now, and it is not likely to be found in the hereafter.

For the disciple, blessing in great supply is to be found in restoring wholeness and relationships; it is its own reward, and as a disciple the eternal future is both assured and very bright, for there will be blessing beyond imagination in store.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 5:10

As a rule, do you expect to see a righteous person persecuting another person because the persecuted person is righteous? My guess is probably not. If this is true, then what sort of person persecutes another because they are righteous? Again, my guess is that it would have to be an unrighteous person; it stands to reason, right?

God does not bless unrighteousness.

Righteousness happens when a person lives in accordance with the will of God, and when a person lives this way, he or she is considered by God to be “righteous”, and relationship between that person and God is in place; thus, in this life such a person is blessed. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven; they are blessed for all eternity and with this, we are back to where we started in 5:3.

Blessed are you when people insult you, 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, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Matthew 5:11-12

In verse 10, Jesus said that those who are persecuted for righteousness are blessed; here He gets personal, for now He isn’t referring to someone else, or some group of individuals, now it is about “you”. People may speak all sorts of evil against us as followers of Jesus; what should our reaction be ― should we pop them right in the mouth?

It wouldn’t seem so; Jesus says we should “rejoice and be glad”, of all things.

Really? We should rejoice and be glad when people are speaking against us because of our faith in Christ?

Yes we should, for great is our reward in heaven.

Jesus didn’t exactly say so here, but our reward here on earth won’t be so bad, since it is a relationship with Him. In the old days, people spoke against the prophets in the same way that they spoke of Jesus’ followers; both were persecuted, sometimes killed in the process, but they seemed to be OK with all that, for they knew that they had a great reward awaiting them, and because they, like Abraham, believed God’s promises.

So now we conclude the Beatitudes, with an implied question dangling: The patriarchs believed God’s promises and endured. The prophets believed God’s promises and endured. The early Christians believed God’s promises and endured. Do we believe God’s promises?

Blessed are the merciful,
    for they will be shown mercy.

Matthew 5:7

In verses 7-10, we see a shift from basic personal and physical circumstances into a set of social principles or values that are the identifying aspect of Jesus’ moral teaching. In this one, we have “mercy” which is the most fundamental aspect of our relationship with God. We only have a relationship with God because of His tremendous mercy, for without it, we are permanently estranged from Him. Thus, Jesus teaches mercy on our parts as a foundational requirement of being His disciple.

We have received His mercy; we are to show mercy to others when the occasion arises. We have received His love; we are to show love to others. How can we show mercy without love, and love without mercy? Yes, this is fundamental.

The person who has received God’s mercy and who shares God’s mercy with others, both through the Gospel and through our own attitudes and actions, will in the end, receive mercy when those who have refused it receive God’s judgment; this is also a fundamental truth.

Now we come to the reversal of this: What kind of person does not show mercy to others?

The ruthless, the cruel, the inhumane, the purely evil…

Will they receive mercy: of course not, they will be judged. Will they be blessed in this life by relationship with God? No, for they live in open rebellion against Him. Will they receive mercy in the end? No, they will receive justice instead.

Blessed are the pure in heart,
    for they will see God.

Matthew 5:8

The expression “pure in heart” refers to a person whose inner most thoughts, motivation and purpose are pure, clean, wholesome and good; this is the one who will see God. To see God is not just to believe in God, they believe God; such a person is blessed indeed.

The person who is not pure in heart will not see God, possibly because he would rather not see Him. The person who is not pure in heart is one whose inner motivations are not wholesome or good, but are more likely centered on self, gain and getting what they want at whatever cost. In short, they are not blessed because there is little room in their lives for a relationship with Him.

Blessed are the meek,
    for they will inherit the earth.

Matthew 5:5

A person who is “meek” is often thought of as being resigned to their circumstances, even weak, but that really isn’t what is being described here. Those who are “meek” are those who understand that they are dependent upon God, and not upon their own strength or even upon the power of armies, for our own strength is a temporary affair, as is the might of an army; all will perish. Yet God’s strength is eternal, and His might never flags or fails. With this in mind, consider who is not meek: the proud, the loud, and the haughty. These are the ones who must always dominate others, who must always have the last word, and who will trample others to get ahead, for they fear losing control: They are not blessed for their own behavior is their curse.

The meek will inherit the earth, just like the descendants of Abraham would inherit the Land. Once again, Matthew has linked an idea relating to Jesus with Israelite history, and this time, he has done so in a way that leads us to an apocalyptic conclusion, for those who place their full faith and trust in God for their provision will not only enjoy relationship with Him now, but will reign with Him upon His return, thus receiving a double blessing of His grace.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
    for they will be filled.

Matthew 5:6

I doubt that I need to discuss what it means to “hunger and thirst for righteousness” so let’s jump directly to what will become of the one who has no such desire. I think we can safely assume that the one who has no such desire will not be blessed, and one who hungers and thirsts for wickedness will not only find what they are looking for, but they will also find God’s curse in His judgment. Such a person will always need to be looking over his shoulder, will be running from the law, and will seldom have a restful night’s sleep; if they are lucky, they’ll live long enough to die from stress related illness, if not they will die by the sword. Anybody want to sign up for that?

As with the other beatitudes, there is an apocalyptic element to this (see Isaiah 61). God’s ultimate gift to Mankind is the gift of righteousness, for when Jesus returns and culminates His Church, all evil will be eliminated and the righteous will abide eternally in His Kingdom without pain, suffering, oppression or death: Blessed indeed!