Jesu Juva
“The Beatitude Life”
Text: Matthew 5:1-12; 1 Corinthians 1:18-31; Micah 6:1-8
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
Sometimes it’s good to start at the end.
That’s what Jesus does today. We heard today the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes. Jesus is just getting started on His public ministry and His teaching. But He speaks of the end. Of rewards. Of blessings. Of the kingdom of heaven. He didn’t have to. But sometimes it’s good to start at the end. To know where you’re going. To know the outcome. To know how life with Him and in Him is going to end up.
Because honestly, while we’re on the way, it may not seem like everything is blessed. You know that. Life is hard. Sometimes doing the right thing gets you hurt, gets you laughed at, gets you taken advantage of. Like when you’re meek, when you’re merciful, when you’re a peacemaker, when you try to be pure in heart - it doesn’t always work out, does it? It can even seem that those things leave us worse off, not better. So it’s easy to quit. It’s easy to give up or give in. It’s easy to question God and His Word and His ways. They don’t work.
So Jesus starts at the end. The blessings He’s talking about, that we heard today, may not manifest themselves in this life. Because we live in a sinful world. A world that is far from how He designed it to be. But rather than give in, or leave us wondering or in doubt, He tells us where we’re going. What is the outcome. That there is for His disciples, blessing. We ARE blessed, even if, for now, we don’t feel like we are.
And it’s good that Jesus starts at the end, for what His disciples are going to see for the next three years will make them wonder. Oh, they’re going to see wonders. They’re going to see Jesus bless many with healing and with His teaching. They’re going to see His power over nature and even over death. But they’re also going to see Him opposed, and vilified, and rejected. And ultimately hung on the cross and dead. That’s what a sinful world did to Jesus, and what a sinful world will do to those who live like Him. Who live - or try to live - a Beatitude life.
Because the Beatitudes describe the life of Jesus. They are first and foremost not about us, but about Him. They are what we aspire to as Christians, but what He is. He is all those things are then some. And all the blessings of which they speak are His and from Him. So when Jesus came into the world, He showed us what the world is not. What we think is normal, really isn’t. What we think is good, maybe not so much. What we think is truth may be a lie of the devil. Think about all that we’re being told today is normal and good and truth - or what the world wants you to think is normal and good and truth - and you can see how far we really are from those things. In a world that really doesn’t know where it’s going, or how things are going to end up. So there is much fear and uncertainty.
But then in steps Jesus. Who knows who He is, where He is going, and how this is all going to end up. And He lives that way. He lives not in fear and uncertainty, but in confidence and faith. And the Beatitudes are what that looks like, what it looks like to live by faith. The Beatitude life isn’t about being served, but serving. The Beatitude life isn’t about climbing the ladder, but coming down to those in need. The Beatitude life isn’t about getting the things of this world, but in receiving the things of God. And that just doesn’t fit with the way the world is, the way the world thinks, the way the world works. And it is hard for us who have been raised and catechized and marinated in the ways of the world, to be different, to think different. But that is the way of faith and blessing, Jesus says.
So yeah, the world is going to take advantage of the meek, the merciful, the peacemakers, the poor in spirit - that’s what they do. For that’s what you do when all you have is here and now. But the Beatitude life is different. For Jesus promises grace and every blessing - not because we are and do these things, but to enable us to be and do these things. He blesses us to live a blessed life, a Beatitude life. And to die a blessed death.
Which He did. Yes, He became a curse for us when He hung on the cross. And yes, He endured the wrath of God against all the sin of the world, all our false belief, perverted thinking, and wicked ways. But still He died a blessed death. Even on the cross He forgave, He promised, and He entrusted Himself into His Father’s hands. He was a man of faith and lived that faith to the end. For He knew death would not be the end or have the final word. Life would, and did, when He rose from the dead.
And because He did, death will not be the end or have the final word for us either. And with that confidence and faith - the confidence and faith of the resurrection - we can live a blessed life and die a blessed death. We know who we are - baptized children of God. Who know where we’re going - to be with our Father and brother in heaven. And we know the outcome - a new creation; a new heavens and a new earth, and a life that is everlasting. So knowing that, why wouldn’t our life be different?
This is what Paul was getting at in the Epistle we heard from First Corinthians, when He said the message of the cross is folly to the world, to those who are perishing, to those who look at the cross and see defeat and death. But to us who look at the cross and see blessing - the blessing of the Son of God laying down His life to save ours - we see the wisdom and power of God. We see the love and mercy of God. We see the path of life.
So, Paul said, that’s what we preach! Christ crucified. Because that makes all the difference in the world. Christ crucified gives us a Beatitude life when we are baptized into the death and resurrection of Christ, and enables us to live a Beatitude life. A life of faith in who we are, where we are going, and how it is all going to turn out. So that we can be meek and merciful, we can be peacemakers, we can be poor in spirit and mourn and be persecuted and reviled and all the rest - because we have Christ and He has us. Because with Him, whether we feel blessed or not, we ARE blessed. Now and forever.
So starting at the end enables us to see the beginning and the present in a new way, through the eyes of faith. Knowing where we’re going so we can live where we are. And not be fearful or anxious because . . . well, the resurrection. That is the proof of our life now and our life forever.
The prophet Micah put it this way:
He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the LORD require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
Which is to say: to live a life of faith; a Beatitude life. A life that knows who you are, where you are going, and what is the outcome. That that’s all been given to you and taken care of by Jesus. So we can live that way. A life not without sin, but forgiven our sins. A life not with our own strength, but with His strength. A life not with our own wisdom, but with His wisdom. A life fed not by the things of this world, but by Jesus’ Body and Blood. That walking to God humbly here - the God who comes humbly to us - we can walk humbly with Him out there. In faith and love. In meekness and mercy. In mourning and peacemaking. In being reviled and persecuted. Because you are blessed. And you will be blessed. For He who blesses you will not stop.
So it’s good to start at the end. With, as we sang, the Son of God, Eternal Savior, source of life and truth and grace (LSB #842). And know that where He has gone, we will go, and where He is, we will be. And that joined to Him, all that’s His is ours. His life and blessing, His sonship and kingdom. And having all that, even now, blessed even now, we live a Beatitude life. Which is a Jesus life. Which is an eternal life.
In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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