Sermon Tone Analysis

Blessed are the gentle

For what does the citizen of the kingdom of heaven mourn?

Mourn - to experience sadness as the result of some condition or circumstance, be sad, grieve, mourn (BDAG)

ntr., to experience sadness as the result of some condition or circumstance, be sad, grieve, mourn

ntr., to experience sadness as the result of some condition or circumstance, be sad, grieve, mourn

ntr., to experience sadness as the result of some condition or circumstance, be sad, grieve, mourn

The second beatitude presents an apparent contradiction - happy are the sad

to experience sadness as the result of some condition or circumstance, be sad, grieve, mourn

This use of language is intended to bring out the counter-cultural way the kingdom citizen views the world around him.

This is understood when we take the second beatitude as a companion to the first.

The one who is poor in spirit cannot help but be overcome as they realize what their sin has done.

Where the world seeks to rejoice in sinfulness and vain religion seeks to excuse one in their sin the kingdom citizen is fully aware of the heavy price of sin and grieves over this desperate reality.

With this in mind we understand that the sorrow of the passage is not the sorrow over earthly things, but sorrow over the loss of self-respect, righteousness and innocence that accompanies sin.

- Jesus wept over the wickedness of men and the consequences of their sins

- The Psalmist “shed streams of tears because men do not keep thy law”

- The prophet speaks fo those who “sigh and groan over all the abominations which are being committed in its midst”

This is the second stage of spiritual blessing.

It is one thing to be spiritually poor and acknowledge it; it is another to grieve and to mourn over it.

Or, in more theological language, confession is one thing, contrition is another.

These shall be comforted.

This simple statement is filled with meaning and hope.

In the kingdom that Christ would establish, there is comfort for those who mourn over sinfulness.

First, it is within this kingdom that redemption can be found.

(Eph.

1:22-26)

makes this clear.

Our sin has brought us death, but through His Son and in His body/kingdom we can experience the grace of God that makes us alive again.

We must take care not to allow this blessing to lessen the severity of sin in our eyes, instead we should see just what is needful to redeem us from this death.

Second, sin has no place within this kingdom.

Consider a man like Ezra who was found “praying and making confession, weeping and prostrating himself before the house of God” because of the wicked state of God’s covenant people.

The people themselves “wept bitterly” because they had “been unfaithful to our God and have married foreign women fro the peoples of the land.”

Those in the kingdom are to “be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

- Here we see the character of those that enter the body/kingdom of Christ

The citizen is “holy and blameless,” “adopted,” “redeemed” and “forgiven.”

- One cannot simultaneously abide in Him and commit lawlessness.

Blessed are the gentle

Gentle - not being overly impressed by a sense of one’s self-importance, gentle, humble, considerate, meek (BDAG)

pert.

to not being overly impressed by a sense of one’s self-importance, gentle, humble, considerate, meek in the older favorable sense

As a human attribute, Aristotle defines it as the mean between stubborn anger and that.

negativeness of character which is incapable of even righteous indignation: according to which it is tantamount to equanimity.

Plato opposes it to fierceness or cruelty, and uses it of humanity to the condemned; but also of the conciliatory demeanor of a demagogue seeking popularity and power.

Pindar applies it to a king, mild or kind to the citizens, and Herodotus uses it as opposed to anger.

These pre-Christian meanings of the word exhibit two general characteristics.

1.

They express outward conduct merely.

2. They contemplate relations to men only.

The Christian word, on the contrary, describes an inward quality, and that as related primarily to God.

The equanimity, mildness, kindness, represented by the classical word, are founded in self-control or in natural disposition.

The Christian meekness is based on humility, which is not a natural quality but an outgrowth of a renewed nature.

To the pagan the word often implied condescension, to the Christian it implies submission.

The Christian quality in its manifestation, reveals all that was best in the heathen virtue—mildness, gentleness, equanimity—but these manifestations toward men are emphasized as outgrowths of a spiritual relation to God.

‘Meekness is essentially a true view of oneself, expressing itself in attitude and conduct with respect to others … The man who is truly meek is the one who is truly amazed that God and man can think of him as well as they do and treat him as well as they do.’

This makes him gentle, humble, sensitive, patient in all his dealings with others

We might notice that this injunction to meekness is found between mourning over sin and seeking righteousness.

If I keep my own tendency toward short-comings ever before my mind, how much more likely am I to pursue righteousness?

Likewise, if I have a deep concern for maintaining my fellowship with God, how much more likely am I to respond to others with humility?

If my concerns are focussed on the spiritual realities, I can accept “momentary light affliction” ().

Consider as the Psalmist calls for this very mindset when it seems the wicked are prospering and the righteous are suffering.

Rather than desiring their demise, the Psalmist directs us to “delight yourself in the Lord and he will give your the desires of your heart.”

1.

What does gentle mean, what should we focus on to maintain this disposition?

They will inherit the earth

The counter-cultural aspect of this beatitude is seen as the gentle, not the warlike or the bully inherits the earth.

That there is a figurative element to this is obvious, the earth and everything in it will be burned up.

However, if we allow to be our guide we can see that what is promised to the meek is the very desire of kingdom citizen’s heart - the blessings of God.

The term translated “earth” here is translated “land” some 188 times in the New Testament.

γῆ [ge /ghay/] n f.

Contracted from a root word; TDNT 1:677; TDNTA 116; GK 1178; 252 occurrences; AV translates as “earth” 188 times, “land” 42 times, “ground” 18 times, “country” twice, “world” once, and “earthly + 1537 + 3588” once. 1 arable land. 2 the ground, the earth as a standing place.

3 the main land as opposed to the sea or water.

4 the earth as a whole.

4A the earth as opposed to the heavens.

4B the inhabited earth, the abode of men and animals.

5 a country, land enclosed within fixed boundaries, a tract of land, territory, region.

- It is this very attitude that Paul expresses when he speaks of “having nothing yet possessing all things.”

‘Self-renunciation is the way to world-dominion.

As Rudolf Stier put it, ‘Self-renunciation is the way to world-dominion.’5

2. What does it mean that the meek shall inherit the earth?

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness

Hunger - to feel the pangs of lack of food…to desire something strongly - BDAG

to feel the pangs of lack of food, hunger, be hungry

Thirst - to suffer thirst…those who are said to thirst who painfully feel their want of and eagerly long for, those things by which the soul is refreshed, support, strengthened

to suffer thirst, suffer from thirst.

1A figuratively, those who are said to thirst who painfully feel their want of, and eagerly long for, those things by which the soul is refreshed, supported, strengthened

Biblically righteousness can be described in three senses.

1) legal righteousness, 2) moral righteousness, 3) social righteousness

Legal righteousness describes the justified state in which a man stands forgiven before God.

Certainly the citizen of God’s kingdom should consider this a precious as food and drink and long for it whenever it is absent.

Moral righteousness describes conduct and character which pleases God, i.e. right doing.

Again, it is only logical that one who desires to be a citizen in the kingdom of heaven would take pains to observe the laws and conditions of citizenship.

Social righteousness describes seeking the liberation of others from the burden of sin.

It was this aspect that seemed particularly lacking in Jesus’s day.

The Scribes and Pharisees were quick to label one a sinner and slow to offer any sort of aid or hope of redemption.

Luther spoke to this by saying:

‘The command to you is not to crawl into a corner or into the desert, but to run out, if that is where you have been, and to offer your hands and your feet and your whole body, and to wager everything you have and can do.’

What is required, he goes on, is ‘a hunger and thirst for righteousness that can never be curbed or stopped or sated, one that looks for nothing and cares for nothing except the accomplishment and maintenance of the right, despising everything that hinders this end.

If you cannot make the world completely pious, then do what you can.’

‘The command to you is not to crawl into a corner or into the desert, but to run out, if that is where you have been, and to offer your hands and your feet and your whole body, and to wager everything you have and can do.’

What is required, he goes on, is ‘a hunger and thirst for righteousness that can never be curbed or stopped or sated, one that looks for nothing and cares for nothing except the accomplishment and maintenance of the right, despising everything that hinders this end.

If you cannot make the world completely pious, then do what you can.’

3. What is the figure “hunger and thirst” intended to convey?

They will be filled

Again the blessing is a powerful statement that goes against the grain of what so many seem to think