The Beatitudes (2)

a. Blessed are the merciful (5:7)

b. Blessed are the pure in heart (5:8)

c. Blessed are the peacemakers (5:9)

Matthew 5:7-9

1. INTRODUCTION

a. The biggest point about the Sermon on the Mount is to understand that this is not primarily about salvation. The Sermon on the Mount is primarily telling us as Christians, how we are to live. We understand that from 5:1 where it says His disciples came to Him. All those who followed Him were taught to live this way. This therefore extends to all believers in Christ. Jesus was teaching His followers how they were to live in light of their relationship with Him. If they were truly followers of Jesus, this is how they would become salt and light in the world. At the same time, the Sermon on the Mount tells us of our bankruptcy, and that even if we were to live this way, our actions is not what saves us, but rather, as 5:1 says, us being His disciples. We recognize that in Chapter 4, us being His disciples is not us choosing to be His followers, but rather, His calling of us.

b. We can understand that by 5:1, all those who were healed, there were many who came to Jesus because they heard of the rumor of His healing ministries that came to receive what they wanted and left. This is so common in the church today where people come to Jesus to fulfill their greed and desires that eventually leave the faith after they either experienced their filling and then faded. But what we understand from 5:1 is, that those who truly followed Him, His disciples, were taught this sermon. We can understand that His disciples were present, but we can also conclude that this included many who were healed as well.

2. BODY

a. Blessed are the merciful (5:7)

i. Jesus starts with verse 7 speaking about mercy. Interestingly, there was much mercy that existed in the OT and Jewish customs. Let’s deal with the topic of slavery. There are three places in the OT that deal with this topic. The three are Exodus 21:2, Deuteronomy 15:12-18 and Leviticus 25:39-55. The Old Testament specifically Deuteronomy 15:12-18 speaks about slavery. It says here in Deuteronomy 15 that if this man who is your kinsman, means he is a fellow Jew, if he is sold to you, you shall let him serve you for 6 years and let him free.

ii. What this shows us is a sign of mercy in the law. Leviticus 25:39-55 goes even further. In Leviticus 25:39-55, the law tells us again, if your countryman, meaning a fellow Jew is so poor that he sells himself to you, meaning that he becomes a slave, you shall not take him as your slave.

iii. So what are the differences here? Exodus 21:2 makes it clear here that if you purchase a slave, he may serve you for 6 years and on the 7th, you must let him go. This is clear. Similarly, in Deuteronomy 15:12, it makes the same statement. But it is a bit different. It says if your kinsman who is a Jew is sold to you, an acquisition of a criminal that is sold by the court to pay the demanded fees that he owes (such as 500% of what he stole who cannot pay up). Similarly, this kinsman will serve you for 6 years and he is to be set free on the 7th year.

iv. But in Leviticus 25:39-55, if this fellow kinsman, again a Jew is so poor that he sells himself to you, not because of a crime but rather because he is so poor that he’d rather live under someone than starve to death, this person is to be hired as a hired man, this person shall serve you for 49 years and on the 50th year, he shall be set free.

v. We understand the time frame here from Leviticus 25:8 that this is how 50 years of service is to be understood. Now we could say why are the years of service different? Because the type of service is different. The issue here is that this is not considered slavery in the way we understand American slavery because after years of service, men are released. But Leviticus 25:39-55 is different clearly in that if a man is so poor that he sells himself to you, you are to keep him for 50 years and let him go. The interesting part here is, in Levicitus 25:24-28, if this man is so poor that he has to sell you his land, when he leaves after Jubilee, the land must be returned to him.

vi. Now I’ve gone over parts of the Law, but the point I am trying to make here is that mercy is imbedded into the Law. Although this is Law, there is much in the law. The Jews were called to adhere to the Law, but clearly, we see that mercy is written into the Law.

vii. So when we think about what Jesus is speaking of here, Jesus is making it clear that He is addressing the ones who taught the Law. If you take into count what Jesus has been teaching in regards to the Sermon on the Mount so far, He is dealing with the people of His day. Jesus is calling into question our hearts as well as the hearts of those during that time.

viii. The hint comes to us in Matthew 5:20 where Jesus says that our righteousness must surpass the righteousness of the Pharisees. You see, when Jesus says this, He is rebuking the Pharisees because of their understanding of the Law and there strict interpretation of the Law. What we went over in Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy is that the Law is the Law, but God was merciful.

ix. Afterall, we understand that the Laws we went over were to show that no Jew should ever be treated as a slave again because He had freed them from Egypt from their slavery. That was the whole purpose of redemption, but also a wonderful picture of how all those in Christ have also been redeemed from the bondage of sin.

x. Therefore clearly from this picture, we see that mercy is to be given to others even when they don’t meet the letter of the Law. I looked at this teaching of Jesus and understood that the Law was given to us, but it was never meant to make us righteous. We should never expect to receive forgiveness. We should never expect that people should be merciful to us. But what the teaching of Christ here teaches us is that we should be merciful.

xi. What Jesus is teaching us here is that if we are merciful, then we will receive mercy. If we give mercy to others, others will give us mercy when we fail them. That is the greatest understanding of the Gospel because mercy is not receiving the punishment what we deserve. Grace is receiving gifts that we don’t deserve. So when Jesus says, if you are merciful, you will receive mercy, it is the person who understands the Law but also gives mercy through the Law.

b. Blessed are the pure in heart (5:8)

i. Secondly, Jesus deals with the pure in heart. It is important for us to recognize the heart. Biblical tradition is the real true self. The whole person is found in the heart. All our desires, thoughts, desires are all from the heart. Therefore, when Jesus says that we must be pure in heart, all our desires and thoughts must be pure.

ii. The meaning of ‘pure (or: clean) in heart’—which presupposes as its counterpart external, ceremonial purity (cf. 23:25–6)—is given full body by several pericope in the sermon on the mount. 5:27–30 demands that the heart be pure from adulterous thoughts. 6:1–18 portrays a piety which is concerned not with outward show but with the private encounter with God; in other words, what matters is what goes on in the heart. More succinctly: purity of heart is to will one thing, God’s will, with all of one’s being.

iii. Again, this is not to say that if our minds and hearts are pure, that we automatically go to Heaven right? Jesus is not teaching a works righteousness that if we do X, Y and Z, that we go to Heaven. What Jesus is teaching is that if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, if Christ has chosen you, just as He chose His disciples, not our choosing but His choosing of us, then this is how we will live. The Sermon on the Mount is a reminder of how Christians are to live. It is a Law that Christ gives us on how to live in this life.

iv. This is why Jesus summarizes this point by saying how we are called to be salt and light in this world. This is why the Sermon on the Mount is important. This also goes in tandem of what Jesus taught in John 13:34-35 that the world will know we are His disciples, by how? By the way we love each other. When we read the Sermon on the Mount, we can clearly see the manuscript of what it means to love another person. How can we love others? If we are lowly in Spirit, if we are gentle, if we thirst and hunger for the righteousness, to do what is right. If we are merciful, if we are pure in Heart and next, if we are seeking peace.

v. Again, the Sermon on the Mount is a codified Law to help us understand what Christian etiquette is. At the heart of the Sermon on the Mount, we can understand and know the love of God. Which is why Jesus says that those who are pure in heart, they will see God. What we understand is that those who see God, are those that know God. Those that are pure in heart, those are that live this way are people who know God and want to live according to His will.

vi. Therefore, we can know for sure that those who are pure in heart are people who seek to live according to what God desires. Again, pure in heart simply points back to the fact that those who live in this way, with God in mind, are those who are His disciples. Therefore, the Sermon on the Mount points to the truth that all those are disciples of Christ will live to please God.

c. Blessed are the peacemakers (5:9)

i. Lastly, those who are blessed are those who are peacemakers. This does not mean that we are pacifists. It doesn’t mean that we don’t fight. No, rather it means those who seek reconciliation, those who seek peace. Many people think that peacemakers are simply people who don’t fight, but some of the greatest movements in history were because people fought, but they fought peacefully.

ii. What is Jesus speaking about when He says blessed are the peacemakers? In begin a peacemaker, the disciple is imitating His father in Heaven, the God of peace.

iii. Again, the point and force of Jesus’s statement is to help us understand how Christians are to live. We are called to be peacemakers because we are called to reconcile with others. This does not just extend to other believers, but it extends to everyone. Whoever we are dealing with, we are called to peace with them. We are not called to have someone hate us, or us hating others.

iv. Rather it is the opposite. We are called to have peace with everyone. We are called to live as those who seek peace with everyone. This is similar to the teaching by the Apostle Paul in Romans 12:18. Paul teaches us to live in peace with all men, not with just people we want to or even other Christians but our lives are to reflect that we are children of God to all men.

v. Notice that Jesus says that those who live in peace with all men, those shall be called sons of God. They will be sons of God because others will see something different about them. They shall be called sons of God. But this also means that God shall look at them as those who are like Him. Those who exhibit His likeness. Again, it goes back to the point of those who seek to please God and live according to His will.

3. CONCLUSION