Archives for June 2016

We have been pondering the Beatitudes and exploring how we can understand them in the same way the original audience most likely understood them. What we have discovered so far is that they are not a set of expectations that we need to live up to in order for God to be pleased and bless us, rather they are statements of grace to broken, hurting, and victimized people. People like us.

So – how about this one: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy” (Mt 5:7). Did they receive mercy because they extended mercy…because of what they did? I don’t think so. They received mercy not because of what they did, but what was done to them!

People with the gift of mercy are attracted to the helpless, the hopeless, the disenfranchised…to those who desperately need help and can’t help themselves. The heart of the merciful moves them to give and then give again. And again. It can seem as if they are always pouring out and it is easy for them to become depleted and discouraged. The desire of their heart to help will always exceed their capacity.

But this wonderful gift of giving and helping and serving usually leads to something more serious than having an emotional, physical and spiritual tank that reads close to empty. Something sinister happens – and that is what happens to the merciful. There are people, when they discover someone with the gift of mercy, begin to take unfair advantage of them. They suck them dry like parasites. They ask and ask and ask. Finding a merciful person allows them to live in their irresponsibility.

And so merciful people are often taken advantage of, treated unfairly and become prey to the needy. And to those who have been taken unfair advantage of because of their desire to give and to help and to bring healing, God says “I have your back, I am here for you.”

In this beatitude God is speaking to those of us who have been burned in our giving and serving and are flat on our back. He is not telling us to get up and show more mercy so He can bless us. He is telling us as we lay stomped on and flat on our back that He is going to show mercy to us. Just as we are. He is going to serve, give and heal…and we don’t have to perform for it. That is grace.

ACTION: You have friends that need to hear that God’s grace will meet them just as they are, where they are. Ask God to bring their names to your mind and forward this good news to them. Suggest they go back to the beginning of this series and ponder these beatitudes in the context of grace instead of performance. They will find they desperately need the grace of God…and it is available to them in the Kingdom of God just as they are.

The Beatitudes (Mt 5:2-11) are one of the most beautiful passages in the Scriptures. But the key question is how do we live in response to them? Are they the standard we must live by in order to be blessed? Is our goal to “be like that”? Although many Christians think so, they are absolutely wrong. And in their wrongness all they find is discouragement, shame and pain.

I like how Dallas Willard describes what Jesus was doing as He taught this passage – he was having a “show and tell” time. In the crowd Jesus was teaching were those who had just experienced the beatitudes. They had been the diseased, forgotten, and taken advantage of. They were mourning the loss of their health, families, and careers. Any hope they might have clung to had long disappeared. If these teachings were a new set of standards that they had to live up to in order to be blessed, then the message of the Kingdom that Jesus was preaching was cruel. It meant the kingdom of God and the blessing of God was an impossibility.

YET – they had all just experienced it! Just as they were. Poor in spirit. Mourning. Taken advantage of. Victims of injustice. Filled with unfulfilled expectations. And so the beatitudes are not teachings on how to be blessed. They are not commands we must obey. They are not instructions on how to please God. They are statements that shout the grace of God! Jesus is teaching that in the Kingdom of God His love is not earned. The blessings of the Kingdom of God are available to me right now, just as I am, because of my relationship with Jesus.

When we change the beatitudes from statements of grace into the New Testament Ten Commandments we have poisoned our walk with God. He has become a master we can never please. We will never be good enough to be blessed. Why try?

Let me ask you a question. What are the beatitudes to you? Are they a list of ways to buck up in order to please God? If they are you are pretty exhausted or you have already given up. Or are they the greatest good news you have ever heard…and experienced! Let me suggest you take some time to ponder how God has blessed you when you have least deserved it…and then give Him some genuine thanks for how He loves you just as you are.