Remember last week when I talked about TV Guide? Did you ever read the description of an upcoming show and realize the sentence, however short, gives away too much of the show. Maybe it’s a mystery and the description tells you who did it.

Then, sometimes, there are descriptions that make you think the show is about one thing, but once you start watching it, it seems like it’s about something else. Or, it seems that way for the first half of the show, then things turn around, and you realize the description was pretty accurate after all.

I say that because I want you to recall the key verse we looked at last week.

Matthew 4:17
From that time on Jesus began to preach, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." (NIV)

If that was the teaser you read in the paper, what sort of sermon would you expect? In spite of the last 80% of that verse, my mind still focuses on the “repent” part. So I would probably have been expecting a “fire and brimstone” type of sermon. One where the preacher lays into us from the very beginning.

How did Jesus start?

Matthew 5:1-12
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a hill and sat down. His followers came to him, and he began to teach them, saying:
They are blessed who realize their spiritual poverty, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to them.
They are blessed who grieve, for God will comfort them.
They are blessed who are humble, for the whole earth will be theirs.
They are blessed who hunger and thirst after justice, for they will be satisfied.
They are blessed who show mercy to others, for God will show mercy to them.
They are blessed whose thoughts are pure, for they will see God.
They are blessed who work for peace, for they will be called God's children.
They are blessed who are persecuted for doing good, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to them. People will insult you and hurt you. They will lie and say all kinds of evil things about you because you follow me. But when they do, you will be blessed. Rejoice and be glad, because you have a great reward waiting for you in heaven. People did the same evil things to the prophets who lived before you. (NCV)

When we were going through our study “The Jesus I Never Knew” (by Philip Yancey), we spent a lesson on the Sermon on the Mount. Yancey referred to the Beatitudes as the “Lucky are the Unlucky” sermon.

Look back at what we just read. Who do we call lucky in this world? The guy who wins the lottery. The woman who is born to wealth.

Who do we call blessed? The wealthy. The athletic. The talented. The attractive.

Look at the person Jesus calls blessed: the person who realizes his spiritual poverty. When you get a financial windfall or something good happens, that probably is a blessing.

But the truly blessed person is the one who realizes how bad they have it spiritually. Paul wrote that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Jesus says the person who realizes that is blessed.

How could that be?

When John Adams was an ambassador to France and England, he had a reputation as a very downcast and depressing person because he always walked around with his eyes to the ground, rarely making eye contact with other people. The reality is that Adams was a very friendly person, he was just (are you ready for this) fascinated with bugs.

Some Christians have read this first beatitude, and combined it with what Paul said, and started thinking that it was virtuous to be downcast. That it showed their piety if they walked around with their eyes on the ground and even moaning audibly about their sinful state.

Let me read to you what the Psalms might say to such a person.

Psalm 121:1-2
I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. (ESV)
There were some Pharisees in Jesus’s day that were so known for their piety that they were known as the bruised and bleeding Pharisees. Out of humility—and to keep themselves from seeing a woman and lusting—they walked with their heads bowed. They got their nickname because (I’m not kidding) they were always running into stuff.

The point is not that our sins lead us to perpetually say, “Woe is me!” To keep us with bowed heads.

The spiritually poor person is blessed because he has hit bottom and realizes he cannot climb out of the hole he is in and he looks up!!! Like the Psalmist, the spiritually poor person is blessed because, after trying to fight the world’s battles on his own, he finally realizes he must seek salvation from God. No one else can help him.

For years, when I read the Beatitudes I thought they were about a bunch of different people. Some people fall into the poor in spirit group, then there’s another group over here we’ll call the merciful, and then over here we find the peacemakers …

I think, though, that Jesus starts this—his first “big” sermon—by outlining what being one of his followers will be like. And he tells them what path their progression will follow.

He’s saying, “When you realize you can’t do it on your own and you turn it all over to God, that’s when you’re blessed. When you are faced with your own sins and your own mortality to the point that you grieve over your state, that’s when you’re finally open enough for God to step in and comfort you. When you realize you can’t do anything of value on your own, that’s when I’ll step in and show you that you can do and have everything of value. When your hunger is focused not just on your own stomach but on an ache for the people of this world, that’s when I can use you to affect some real, positive change. When your own sins have led you to realize you have nothing to boast about, and you start to treat other people as your heavenly father treats you, that’s when the full measure of his mercy is revealed to you and you practically drown in it! When your thoughts have shifted from the base things of this world to the great things of my Father’s world, that’s when you’ll really be in tune with him. And when you are so overcome with his love that you are a beacon of his love in this war faring world, that’s when you’ll know the peace of an eternally secure family home.”

What do I DO with this?
Don’t be afraid to hit bottom. And when you do, look up.

Comments? Email me at npccsam@windstream.net