Blessed are the Pure in heart for they shall see God - Matthew 5:8; Psalm 24:4

Intro:

Under the Surface

In 2009, a book by the name of Start with Why was published by organizational leadership guru Simon Sinek. In the book he argues that succesful teams, companies and organizations, essentially any group of people who are looking to accomplish a task together, rely on knowing ‘why’ they are doing something not just ‘what’ needs to get done. This book was a hit! ILeaders all over the world wanted to get into the importance of the ‘why’ behind the ‘what.’ And I think one of the main reasons that this idea hit home for those who lead, is that it tapped into an age old question “why do we do what we do.” The struggle with this question is not unique to leaders. In the HBO series Band of Brothers, which chronicles the journey of soldiers in Easy Company in the 101st Airborne during the Second World War, there is an episode entitled “Why We Fight.” And it recounts the final days of WW2 and highlights the horrific aftermath of the war, the lives lost, families destroyed, towns decimated. As the episode follows the soldiers you watch them struggle with this deeply troubling question “why do we fight?” Why do we do what we do, what is motivating us? . We all know that why people do things, or what motivates us for a particular action or path is really important. This is especially true when it comes to trying to accomplish good things, working towards an honourable goal. We may not be able to quantify it exactly but there is a difference between a “good thing” done out of a “wrong” motivation and a good thing done with pure motivations. The process of trying to understand this and discern our own motivations nevermind the motivations of others can be a source of deep tension and inner conflict.

This morning, we are looking into the fifth Beattitude “Blessed are the Pure in Heart for they shall see God.” And I would like to work through that with an eye towards this question of the internal motivations. The why behind the what. Because, I believe that this is actually an important piece of what Jesus says here. A few points of clarification to set the table.

What does Jesus mean when he says ‘Heart’?

The term heart, in the vocabulary of Jesus day meant far more, like it does for us today, than the organ at the center of our chest that pumps our blood. While there was a literal understanding of the heart, there were also many ways of speaking about the the heart that referred to it as a center of emotion or ideas. In fact, the first century idea of heart shares many qualities with our modern understanding of the heart. It was the center of desires, and the emotions. We have terms like “my hearts desire” or “heartfelt” or “from the heart” when something has a particularly deep meaning or emotional connection. And this is shared with the ancient concept of the heart. However, a few key differences exist. In the ancient world the heart was the center of the intellect, and the will! Whereas today we think about the will and the intellect residing in the mind, in the first century they used the word heart to describe the center of all of the inner workings of the human person. Why is this so important to understand? Well even if we think about the heart in a non-physical 21st century way when we read “Pure in Heart” we might think about emotions or desires in a modern sense, but we typically wouldn’t think about our thought life or our motivations. Essentially what this boils down to, is that the Heart in the teaching of Jesus is the center of the person, their entire inner life thoughts, will, desire, emotions, all of it comes from the heart.

Not only do our non-physical attributes stem from the heart, but Biblically all of our actions begin in the heart as well. Jesus says in Luke 6:45 “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” and furthermore in Mark 7:21 “For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery.” The heart is not only the root of all our inner workings, but the source of our actions. The heart governs the rest of the

Purity of heart - Jesus teaches us a deeper purity

Pure Heart

The teaching of Jesus regarding the purity of the heart or the heart in general is not isolated to this one passage, and in fact the heart is a main theme throughout the entirety of the Bible. It shows up consistently throughout the Old Testament as that which God is after. He desires the hearts of his people to be turned toward him, to desire him. But, we also see it as the source for much chaos and evil. In fact in Genesis 9 when God sends the flood, he sees that the thoughts of the hearts of people were only evil. In other words, their inmost being was so corrupted that all the wanted all they thought about and all they desired was evil! And so the actions follow. The heart is the standard, or is the basis of our relationship with God! The direction of our hearts is the direction of our lives, if it is not towards God it will be towards something else.

What does it mean then to have a pure heart?

The Danish philosopher Soren Kierkkegaard wrote a book called Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing. What he means by “willing one thing” is that our hearts are so laser focused on one object, we have one desire, one motivation, one direction that we are not conflicted within ourselves. We see this idea come out in the writing of James James 4:8 “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” He contrasts purity of heart with double-mindedness, meaning a lack of focus or commitment to one thing.

David also points us in this direction in the second text we read this morning Psalm 24:4“He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully.” David explains what he means in the first line by following it up in the second line. The pure in heart do not have false Gods, they do not give their attention and devotion to idols. They do not engage in deceit and is committed to truthfulness and honesty. There is no wavering in devotion and no deceit in their mouths. The pure in heart are singularly devoted and committed to God. To be pure in heart is then to be single-minded to be completely committed to God.

Clean hands

For the teachers and leaders of Jesus day, religion had become more about following a set pattern of actions. It had become more about external evidences of faith. We can see this in Jesus own teaching on the hypocrisy of the pharisees (need verse) or the example Jesus gives on the topic of adultery for example. The religious teachers had convicned people that as long as your actions matched up with the law, as long as your visible obedience was in place i.e. not committing a physical act of adultery, then you were good to go. This was not just a problem with the pharisees. It had been going on through the entire history of Israel. The prophet Isaiah, speaking on behalf of God, says Isaiah 29:13 “this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me.” Consider the story of King Saul, who, despite his outward appearances and efforts to obey God, ultimately failed because his heart was not in the right place (1 Samuel 15:10-23). His external actions were prolific, but God looked at the heart and found disobedience. He turned his back on God and became more about himself. Perhaps one of the most poignant examples of this is when Saul is preparing for battle and instead of waiting for Samuel, the prophet, to arrive and perform the sacrifice propery Saul wants to do it quickly so that he will win the battle and he offers it improperly. He believed that the external obedience superseded the internal motivation. The hands took precedence over the heart.

Now it is essential that we really understand what Jesus says and what we believe based on the entirety of Scripture. Our actions matter, we have to live in a way that honours God. We talked about this last week! Our actions ought to honour God and be in obedience to what he has called us to, however, they must be anchored in a pure heart!

When I was in Calgary I worked for a tile setting company. Initially I began by mixing sand and concrete mixtures to help level out the floors. But finally, one day on a job that was a pretty high profile one I got the chance to set some stone pieces. We were working in an elevator lobby of a new apartment building in the downtown core, we were putting slabs of marble up on the walls. I put up a relatively small piece of about 2 feet by three feet and the process of hanging marble is somewhat strange. You take wire and attach it to the stone and then you attach that wire to eyelets that are installed in the wall so it sort of hooks into them. You then cover the whole thing in plaster so it hardens and holds it in place. Well… you’re supposed to bend the wire after you put it through the eyelets. A step that I forgot. So after mixing the plaster and putting the piece up thinking it was all good I heard a crash and saw my coworker doubled over in pain. The piece had fallen off the wall and onto his back. Luckily it was thin and it broke and he was not injured. But I got a good talkign to about the “proper’ way to do things.

In some way our outward actions are deeply connected to the inward purity of our hearts. In fact, going back to Psalm 24:4 “He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully.” David emphasizes that it is both “clean hands” a reference to external action and a pure heart that are necessary. Both of these things are true.

But, it begins in our hearts. It begins with a singular focus. Building a life of faith around outward actions that are untethered, disconnected or without a pure heart is like trying to hang a piece of marble with straight wires! It’ll come crashing down. It is out of a pure heart that comes the outward life of obedience.

Seeing God - What’s at stake?

Seeking an audience with the King

“Seeing God” is the result of purity of heart. Seeing God, should be thought of within the framework of a kingdom. This means that what Jesus is saying here is not simply that the King is seen literally, or with our eyes. But, instead, that an audience with the king is granted. It is like saying I need to see the doctor, I don’t just mean that I would like to look at my doctor, that I would like to just observe him with my eyes, but it means that I need to go and talk with him, receive his care and medical advice. This is what this phrase means. Jesus is saying then that those who have pure motivations, whose hearts are of singular focus and have one object of their affections will be admitted into the presence of the King of all things. This is reinforced in our Psalm as David bases his call to purity on the motivation of being able to Psalm 24:3 “ascend the hill of the Lord?” And to “stand in his holy place?” These terms are short-hand for speaking about God’s presence in the Old testament. The Hill of the Lord refers to the temple mount in Jerusalem, the center of the Jewish religion. The city of Jerusalem was called the city of God, or the holy city because it was where the temple was. And in that Temple the presence of God dwelled in a particular way. David narrows the vision further by making reference to the Holy Place. The place where the utmost purity of heart was required. The image this would bring to mind for David’s readers is the intimate communion with God. Being in his presence to converse, to soak in his beauty, to marvel at his power to behold the majesty. To have deep and profound fellowship with the creator God, David says requires purity of heart. This is our singular focus, our singular desire: God and his Kingdom! This is why Jesus says in Matthew 6:33 “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” This is the upside down nature of following him, that the Kingdom of God is our main, our singular and primary focus! To hold this as the central motivation of our lives is what it means to be pure in heart. David represents this in Psalm 27:4 “One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.” He reflects a singular desire, this singular focus to have fellowship with God! To be in his presence always!

The purifier of our hearts

Christ as purifier

But so often our own hearts do not reflect this desire, isn’t that true? How often do we wake up and desire this? How often when we day dream, or imagine the future, or reflect on the past can we say that our hearts only desire is God, to be in his presence, and to Gaze upon his beauty? Our hearts, when we take stock, are impure. They are confused, distracted, scattered, they want many things, they will for many things. So what hope do we have? We know that we ought to strive for single hearted devotion Matthew 6:33 “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” We know that we should strive to be pure, but we also know that it is impossible to do on our own. The author of Proverbs says somewhat hopelessly Proverbs 20:9 “Who can say, “I have made my heart pure; I am clean from my sin”?” So what are we to do?

Jesus’ answer to this comes in Matthew 19:26 “But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”” The reality of this situation is that we can’t do it! But God can and has done in Jesus Christ who being pure and holy Titus 2:14 “gave himself for us ... to purify for himself a people for his own possession.” God has made us pure because of the purity of Jesus Christ, because of this our hearts are transformed to love, desire, and will the one good thing which is God! Through faith in Christ, in his work and his purity we are made pure, not because of what we have done but because of what Christ has done. And one of the miraculous things of our faith is that God continues to work in us to make us more like Jesus day by day so that we may Matthew 6:33 “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.”

Let this be our why, let this be our reason behind our actions.