The All Access Pass

Matthew 5:8 NRSVue

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

Movement 1: The Maximum Security Heart

I want to tell you about one of the most unsettling experiences I've ever had.

A few years ago, I visited a maximum security prison in the UK. I was there to meet with an inmate, and nothing quite prepares you for walking into a place like that.

Clang. That's the sound of the first door closing behind you.

Heavy.

Metal.

Sounds. Final.

You stand in this small corridor with a security guard. And you wait. Then... Buzz. The next door opens. You step through. Clang. It closes behind you.

Door after door after door. Each one shutting before the next opens. Always between locks. Always monitored. Always controlled.

I wasn't the prisoner, but I felt trapped.

I walked out that day thinking, Thank God I'm free.

But on the drive home, a question started gnawing at me: What if I'm not as free as I think?

What if I've built my own maximum security prison? Not one made of concrete and steel, but one made of compartments. Of locked doors. Of carefully managed access.

What if the most heavily fortified prison I've ever encountered is in here? (Point to heart)

Because here's what I've realised about myself - maybe you can relate:

I treat Jesus like a visitor to my maximum security heart. I let Him in. But only so far.

Sabbath morning? Sure, come on in.

My entertainment choices? That door's locked.

My financial decisions? Supervised visits only.

My ambitions? My real thoughts? Off limits. Maximum security.

We've mastered the art of selective surrender - giving Jesus access to some areas while keeping others locked tight.

But here's what I'm realising: it's not just individual hearts that build maximum security prisons. We do it collectively too.

We build systems with locked doors - doors that keep "those people" out, that protect "our way of life" while terrorising our neighbours, that open the gates to white supremacy as long as it's cloaked in Scripture.

Right now - right now here is the US - families are being torn apart. Civil rights are being dismantled. Fear is being weaponised. All in the name of "Christian values."

And sometimes we are tempted to compartmentalised this away.

Somtimes we make it a "political issue" instead of a kingdom issue.

Selective surrender isn't just personal - it's systemic.

And Living this divided life is exhausting.

Personal division leads to collective complicity. When we separate 'spiritual matters' from human suffering, we don't stay neutral - we become apathetic accomplices.

Today we've reached the 6th Beatitude:

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

When most of us read this text a mental switch can take place.

We read "pure" but what we actually hear is perfect."

Blessed are the “Perfect”

And when we hear perfect, we think, "That's not me." So we keep the doors locked.

But today I want to reclaim the purity of this beatitude.

What did it mean for the crowd that Jesus spoke to?

And why does it matter for this moment we're living in, right now?

Movement 2: The Beatitude's Promise - Undivided Access (Pure Hearts See God)

So. Pure in heart.

In Jesus' world, the word ”purity" was a weapon.

In first-century Judaism, purity wasn't about morality - it was about access.

Who could approach God? Who could enter the temple? Who was "in" and who was "out"?

The religious establishment built an entire system around purity laws: wash your hands right, avoid unclean foods, don't touch the wrong people, stay away from foreigners and sinners.

And if you couldn't keep all the rules? You were locked out. No access to God.

But here's what happened: purity became a tool of control.

The religious leaders used it to keep foreigners out, marginalise the vulnerable, consolidate power, justify oppression.

They could worship in the temple while ignoring widows and orphans. Quote Torah while crushing the poor. Maintain ritual cleanliness while their hearts were divided, duplicitous, corrupt.

They had compartmentalised hearts - ritually pure outside, systemically unjust inside.

Sound familiar?

Then Jesus shows up and starts dismantling the whole thing.

He touches lepers. Eats with “sinners”. Defends the Samaritan woman. Welcomes the "wrong people."

He's obliterating the purity system that keeps people locked out.

He says:

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

Not the ritually pure. Not the “ethnically pure”. Not those with the right documentation.

The pure in heart.

Jesus can’t mean what the religious institution meant if he was out there Meeting and greeting with “sinners”.

καθαρός (katharos)

Core Meanings:

- free from dirt, washedPhysically clean

- acceptable for worship/templeRitually pure

- without alloy (wine without water, gold without impurities, grain without chaff)Unmixed/unadulterated

- sincere, without duplicityMorally pure

- transparent, evidentClear

Like gold without impurities. Like wine without water. Like a heart without compartments—or a prison without doors.

Biblically, a pure heart isn't a perfect heart. It's an undivided heart.

It's ironic that we have the Divided Kingdom and the Divided States of America in chaos right now. Maybe our national divisions reflect our heart divisions. We've made division normal.

Biblical purity is about wholeness, not sinlessness. Integrity, not perfection. Loyal devotion, not selective surrender.

no mixture, no competing loyalties, no hidden rooms.

Jesus relocates purity from external performance to internal integrity.

You can have ritually washed hands and a divided heart.

But Jesus wants your heart. All of it.

The word katharos - pure - is where we get 'cathartic.' That feeling when you finally release what you've been holding? When you stop managing and just open the doors? That's what Jesus is offering - not perfection, but purification. This is catharsis.

Here's where this gets uncomfortable:

A pure heart cannot be selectively surrendered.

Here’s what it looks like personally: You can't worship on Sabbath and ignore Jesus the other six days. You can't say "Jesus is Lord" while keeping Him locked out of your entertainment, finances, ambitions, your friendships or vocations.

Here’s what it looks like Systemically: We can't claim devotion to Jesus while supporting systems that crush the vulnerable. You can't quote Scripture while ignoring families being torn apart. You can't worship the God who says "welcome the stranger" while building walls to keep strangers out.

A pure heart - an undivided heart - sees what God sees.

And what does God see?

The God we are told about in the bible sees every person bearing His image - regardless of documentation, skin colour, or country of origin.

An undivided heart perceives God's presence in real time - in Scripture, circumstances, neighbours, suffering, "the least of these."

But when you selectively surrender your heart, you compartmentalise your vision of God.

A divided heart = locked doors = partial vision.

This is why you can be divinely wise in one aspect of your life and mortally stupid in another. Because you have divine direction where you let Jesus in, but you’re flying blind because you’ve closed the door to him.

Hear the cognitive dissonance:

Being biblically sound in theology but relationally destructive.

Having deep prayer life but terrible financial ethics

Leading worship while harbouring racist views

Preaching justice while exploiting people.

A pure heart = open access = clear vision.

We think selective surrender protects us. We think managing Jesus keeps us safe. We think separating our faith from justice stops us from being "too political" or too radical.

But really? We're just building prisons.

Prisons where Jesus only has visiting rights.

Personal prisons of exhaustion. Systemic prisons of complicity.

All because we’re trying to manage this institution (points to heart) all by ourselves.

So this beatitude is a divine attack on our suburban, self-righteous, fearfully protective, christian confessing life.

So where’s the good news?

Jesus is saying: I didn't come to visit your prison. I came to break you out.

Movement 3: The All Access Pass - Liberation

Let me tell you another prison story.

For years, I volunteered as a chaplain at a Juvenile Detention Centre in WA State.

At first, the security procedures were long and laborious. Pat-downs, metal detectors, ID checks. Every visit, the same routine.

I was a stranger. An outsider. Potentially a threat.

But over time, something changed.

The staff got to know me. "That's the chaplain who comes for the kids."

Security didn't disappear, but it transformed.

I was given more latitude. More access.

Eventually, I could navigate the centre without being chaperoned.

I had earned the equivalent of an all-access pass.

And that access changed everything.

I could minister to the kids with minimal restrictions.

They could connect with me without walls between us.

The relationships deepened faster.

I brought these kids a kingdom worldview that challenged their dysfunctional ones - a different way of seeing themselves, their futures, their worth.

Loving them with minimum restriction enabled transformation.

Here's the question: What if we gave Jesus an all-access pass to our lives, to our hearts to our church?

What would happen if we let Jesus love us without any restriction?

If we’re honest with ourselves. That sounds terrifying. What will He find? What will He demand? What will He take away?

But here's what we miss: Jesus doesn't want the all-access pass to condemn us. He wants it to liberate us.

Jesus isn't the warden. He's the prison breaker.

He's not coming to add more security to your maximum security heart.

He's coming to dismantle the prison entirely.

To topple the establishment you've lived in, all your life.

To break you free from the compartments, the locked doors, the exhausting management.

Oh once you grant permission for the divine demolition to take place, Once you declare this institution under new management.

This king is committed to build something new in our hearts in our church and in this world. The king wants to build the kingdom of God on your territory.

And kingdom can only thrive on pure hearts - not perfect hearts, but undivided hearts.

Hearts that aren't selectively surrendered.

Hearts that are pro-Jesus as King - personally and systemically.

At the cross, Jesus bore the weight of our divided hearts, our duplicity, our selective surrender.

In His resurrection, He offers us new hearts - whole hearts, cathartic liberation.

He doesn't just clean up the rooms we show Him.

Jesus isn't asking for supervised visits anymore.

He's asking for the all access pass. Permission to demolish and rebuild. To restore your heart to what it was created for—from a maximum security prison to a dwelling place for the King.

Not because He's controlling, but because He's healing.

When you give Him full access, you get an audience with the divine creator and you get the full vision of what God has in store for you.

The prison doors open. The compartments dissolve. The exhaustion lifts.

So what doors are you keeping locked?

Your calendar? Your finances? Your entertainment? Your politics? Your prejudices?

Jesus isn't asking you to clean up first. He's asking for the all access pass.

Not to condemn you. To liberate you.

Will you give Him the all-access pass?

Matthew 5:8 NRSVue

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