Matthew
Matthew 5.3-11 ‘Blessed are the poor… who mourn… meek… merciful… pure in heart… peacemakers… persecuted…’
Timeless Truth = God’s way… his kingdom… is entirely different than man’s. “I see things upside down”
I just finished a conversation with a friend and we were speaking of how God’s kingdom… Jesus’ kingdom of righteousness… is diametrically opposed to that which man desires. This reality is extraordinarily apparent to me as I read through the Beatitudes… as I see Jesus teaching about forgiveness… about humility like a child… about loving enemies… about abandoning one’s life for the sake of gaining the real thing. This truth is hitting me as I go through this text. Even in lecture… I see very clearly that all that Jesus brought was a fulfillment of the shadow that God made before his coming. The world in which I live is a shadow of the glory to come… just as the Law and Prophets were but a shadow of how Jesus would come to bring complete restoration and redemption to fallen man by ushering forth a kingdom of sins forgiven. He offers eternal life to those who would be doers of his word… and his word is different than that which man desires to live by. I have in my mind a picture of what justice looks like. I have in my mind a picture of what freedom looks like. I have in my mind a picture of what should be righteous or good… and God comes in an says that he has something entirely different but altogether superior and good and free and just and beautiful. I want what he wants… I want to walk humbly that I might partake of the glorious gift that he offers by his grace. I trust in what he has… I don’t know what it’s going to be but I want it. This truth blows me away… and I want to walk in it. I have been trying to walk this out for the sake of finding his glory. As I read these beatitudes I am challenged to check whether I am walking these out or whether I am trying to find life and peace and rest and joy in their opposites.
I want to be blessed… I want the genuine article… so yeah, I want to be found as these. I want to be poor and contrite in heart before my Maker. I want to mourn with those who mourn and rejoice when it is time to rejoice. I want to be meek before not only the one true sovereign living God, my God… but also to be meek before man in comparing myself. I want to be merciful… to dare to trust that God can bring redemption and restoration through forgiveness and not through revenge. I want to be pure in my heart… I am desperately hungry and thirsty for righteousness because I am a fallen man with no hope in my own righteousness. I want to be a peacemaker… for I long to see the day when those I love find peace and rest and joy… I long for the day when those I don’t know, those I don’t love, find peace and rest and joy. I have a hard time saying that I want to be persecuted for righteousness’ sake… but really… yes, I do… if it means that people will see the life that Jesus has offered… for eternity hangs in the balance. So yeah, Jesus, continue to wreck my face on this one. I want to spend some time in God’s word this summer going back over all that I have learned in SBS and developing good quiet time and study habits. I have taken some strides to discipline myself this year but for my practical studies I want to go through the Beatitudes again this summer. This is my application of this reality. I want to be rooted in these words… perhaps even try to memorize these things… chapters 5,6, & 7 of Matthew. Jesus, change me to see how you do… for I see things upside down.
My favorite musician Derek Webb has a song called “What is not love” that addresses how we see things upside down.
What looks like failure is success
And what looks like poverty is riches
When what is true looks more like a knife
It looks like you're killing me
But you're saving my life
But I give myself to what looks like love
And I sell myself for what feels like love
And I pay to get what is not love
And all just because I see things upside down
What looks like weakness can do anything
And what looks like foolishness is understanding
When what is powerful has not come to fight
It looks like you're going to war
But you lay down your life
What looks like torture is a time to rejoice
What sounds like thunder is a comforting voice
When what is beautiful looks broken and crushed
And I say I don't know you
But you say it's finished
When what is beautiful looks broken and crushed
And I say I don't know you
But you say it's finished
And what looks like poverty is riches
When what is true looks more like a knife
It looks like you're killing me
But you're saving my life
But I give myself to what looks like love
And I sell myself for what feels like love
And I pay to get what is not love
And all just because I see things upside down
What looks like weakness can do anything
And what looks like foolishness is understanding
When what is powerful has not come to fight
It looks like you're going to war
But you lay down your life
What looks like torture is a time to rejoice
What sounds like thunder is a comforting voice
When what is beautiful looks broken and crushed
And I say I don't know you
But you say it's finished
When what is beautiful looks broken and crushed
And I say I don't know you
But you say it's finished
