The Facts of Blessedness
Matthew 5:1-12
November 1, 2020 anno Domini
To those called to be Saints. That’s how Paul addressed the congregations to whom he wrote in Rome, Corinth, Ephesus, Philippi, and Colossae. Saint means a “holy person,” but what does that mean? What does it mean to be holy? Does it mean to be without sin, pure, undefiled? Were those infant churches of the New Testament filled with sinless people? Hardly! Paul wrote his letters because the saints were sinning against God in their worship and teaching and against each other in their conduct. Holy does not mean sinless, although the final result of being holy is that you will be sinless.
Holy means “set apart for God.” Today is the Lord’s Day. According to the commandment we are to keep it holy. What does that mean? We are to keep this day set apart for the Lord, to hear the Lord, to rejoice in Jesus’ resurrection, and to receive the Lord’s gifts. At the beginning of this service you heard the Holy Absolution. That is not my forgiveness. Bruce Timm cannot take away your sins. Forgiveness belongs to Jesus. In His mercy He gives it to you. Your life with God began in Holy Baptism. That wasn’t ordinary tap water in your baptism it was water conscripted by God, taken by the Holy Spirit so that He could drown you in Christ’s death and resurrect you in Christ’s resurrection. This building we call Redeemer is Holy. That does not mean the building is perfect. It means this building is set aside for God’s work.
That’s the starting point for All Saints Day. You are a Saint, not because you are without sin, or your marriage is perfect, or because you think you’re above average. You are a Saint because God has set you aside and apart from the world for Himself.
God elected you. He voted for you. He said, “I choose you.” This should be your great comfort come Tuesday night or Wednesday morning or next year Thursday when we learn who won the presidential election, the Senate and the House. Your guy might not win. Your party might lose power. Half the nation is going to be in mourning. Half our country will believe that America is lost. Vote, but do not worry. God has elected you to be His child. God chose to send His Son to die for your sins. Jesus of Nazareth, true man and true God, paid the price to redeem you – to buy you out of slavery to sin, and deliver you from the domination of the devil. You don’t choose God (and that’s good because you’re fickle – today you’ll choose this and tomorrow you’ll choose that.) God chose you. You belong to Him. The price of your election is God’s blood. The ransom is paid in full. Death, the Devil, and your own sinful self are the losers in this election. It may not look like it, but it is so. “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared.”
You are Holy because you belong to God in Christ. You need to know that before you hear the words of Matthew 5, commonly called the Beatitudes. The word “blessed” is like “holy.” God says it about you in Christ and because He says it and Christ did it you are blessed as you are holy.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. In order to understand this declaration of Jesus you need to go back to English class somewhere around 5th or 6th grade. If you are older than me it was Grammar. If you go to school today (and I mean that in the virtual sense) it is called language arts.
This sentence is not a conditional sentence. It does not contain a dependent clause. A conditional sentence goes like this, “Bruce will be happy if he shoots a monster buck next weekend.” The main clause about Bruce’s happiness is dependent upon the condition – his success at deer hunting. Jesus does not say, “Blessed are you if you are poor in spirit.” Nor does He say, “If you are poor in spirit the Kingdom of heaven will be yours.” This is an indicative statement. Jesus is stating the facts. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.”
Jesus is telling His disciples how it is in the Kingdom of heaven. You are blessed because God has chosen you to be His child. Because you are blessed you are poor in spirit. You know that you are a beggar before God. You don’t have a nugget of goodness or a cent of worth to bribe the border guards of God’s Kingdom. You do not go through life finding comfort in your good deeds or your fickle righteousness, but in the Jesus. You’re poor in spirit because all your riches have been given to you. The Kingdom is yours because Jesus opened the door of the Kingdom when He rose from the dead and declared your sins forgiven.
Blessed are those who mourn. You mourn because you are blessed. As God’s child you now know your sin and the damage you have done to yourself and others. You weep because you too often take God for granted and His gifts as your own. Yet, because you are blessed you are comforted. God wipes away your tears and sorrow with the forgiveness won by Christ.
Blessed are the meek. You are meek because you are blessed. Everything you have is a gift. You have no right to boast of yourself or belittle your neighbor. If he has less than you that isn’t because he is worse. If he has more than you, you don’t need to bring him down. You have more than you deserve because the Father has blessed you in Christ and you’re going to get more. You’ll inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. If you weren’t blessed you’d hunger and thirst for happiness, riches, pleasure, whatever appetite you have today. But because you are a blessed child of God you know the one thing needful – Jesus. Only forgiveness can undo the problems in the world. Only the righteousness of Christ can lead us to treat each other rightly. Tuesday’s elections may or may not satisfy you, but you will be satisfied on that day when God finally rids your body of sin and raises it incorruptible to live in His glorious Kingdom forever.
The beatitudes are facts about the blessedness of God’s saints. If God has blessed you then this will be your life – poor in spirit, meek, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, and all the rest. You will be persecuted, you will be reviled, and evil will be spoken against you for this singular reason – you are a saint, God’s elected subject, His chosen child. God has elected you out of the Devil’s dominion and into His Kingdom and that will set you at odds with the world’s riches, pride, boasting, and anger. You won’t look blessed to the world. You won’t feel blessed, but you are and it is a fact. Therefore rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven. That also is a fact in the name of Jesus. Amen.