A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on November 7, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Matthew 5:1-12. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the Gospel according to St. Matthew, the fifth chapter:
Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
This list of beatitudes that we have in front of us has often been said that it is the attitude that Christians need to be, right? The attitude that you need to have? And I don't think that that's good. I don't think it's good. Jesus points all of these wonderful things, the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, the hungry and thirsty for righteousness, the merciful, the pure at heart, the peacemakers, the persecuted, and he doesn’t say say that you are blessed if you work at being these. He says that those who are these things are blessed. There’s a stative quality in what Jesus is saying, that this is what people are.
Now, you might read through them and think, Well, that’s not me. I’m not poor in spirit or meek. I’m pretty full of myself. I’m not merciful or a peacemaker. I thrive on chaos. Or maybe you think, I’m not mourning, for I know the hope I have. I’m not hungry or thirsty for righteousness. I know how to get it. Or maybe it’s, I’m not pure in heart. I know my sins. I know I’m bad. I’m not persecuted. I often think I am when people make life difficult, but I’m not really persecuted yet. Me, Lewis, I’m not these things, and neither are you.
Except… except for the fact that Jesus, in his death upon the cross, has declared you to be righteous. We talked about this last week for Reformation Day. This righteousness of God is not some fake righteousness. It's not something where God and you will look at each other with a wink, wink, nudge, nudge. It's a real righteousness. When Jesus says you are righteous, He really means it. He's given to you not your own righteousness, but his righteousness. And it changes you.
You might say, Well, that sounds good, pastor. Wouldn't that be lovely? I'm still a sinner. And I know I don't match up to these things. After all pastor, you just said that you didn't match up to these things. What hope is there for me? Well, while it's true that, in this life, we do struggle against our sinful flesh until the day that we die, the fact is that God sees you as one of his righteous children; he says you're righteous. And thus you are. And that righteousness that he's given to you from the cross, it does these things to you. It bespeaks these things of you and that's good.
And so you may not think that you are poor in spirit or that you are one of the mourners or that you are one of the meek or that you hunger or thirst for righteousness or that you're merciful or that you're pure at heart or that you're a peacemaker, but God says you are. That stative quality that's here in these beatitudes is true of you right now.
Now you may not be able to figure out all the ways that you can do these things, but if you have been converted by Christ, if you have been strengthened in the faith, if you've been given all of the gifts of God in this church or any other church that you've been a part of, then you have these things because you are of that Christian faith and that faith that God has given to you is perfect. It will not let you down. That faith is in you. And it is continually constantly converting you, turning you away from your sinful heart and turning you towards the Lord Jesus Christ. And as we fix our eyes more and more and more upon him, we begin to see more and more and more of these things in ourselves because we look more and more like him, the one who these beatitudes truly describe. Jesus is the fulfillment of all these things. He gives them to you. And so you are all of them.
Let’s consider each one. Poor in spirit. I've had some people, and I won't say where or who, but who tell me they don't like it when we confess the words, I a poor, miserable sinner…They don't like those words, poor and miserable, because they go, well, I'm happy. God's given me joy. I say, yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about, but I've seen you. I know that you are a poor, miserable sinner. I know how your life really is. In truth, it is only those who confess, only those who have come to the knowledge that they are poor and miserable sinners, that can be saved. You have to be broken by the law to see that this is true, and then, in faith, you repent. And when you do, you see that you are poor in spirit, and, if that's true, then yours is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn. This is appropriate on All Saints’ Day, that we think of our mourning. You know, this is the second All Saints’ Day now that I've been without my father, and all through this week as this day has drawn closer, I miss my dad more and more and more. It's funny how grief works. I think many of you have experienced this yourselves, where that grief doesn't just go away over time, it ebbs and flows and some days are better than others. And this week for me has not been a good one, at least not in my mourning, but that's good because if I had no love in my heart, I would not mourn. The love I have for him makes me miss him, and still I do not mourn as one without hope. The mourning and loss is real, but we know it’s only for a time. The day of comfort is coming when Christ will come and take away that grief and that sorrow and that pain from you in the day of the resurrection.
Blessed are the meek. I don't know why, but whenever I hear the word meek, I think of like a little mouse peeking out of its little hidey hole in the baseboard, looking out to see if the cat’s around that he might come out and finally steal something. And I think that's actually not a bad picture of what's happening. I don't know where that image came from, but I think it's a good one, that we kind of look around cautiously and we see, is there anything, just a crumb that God has provided to us that we might live yet another day? And as we look, we find that God provides for us all of our needs. And that's a wonderful picture. Out of his provision, he will give you not just what you need to survive, but the entire earth will bend to our wills, giving us what we want and command. We will never go hungry, but instead we will feast at the table of the Lord for eternity. We will inherit the earth and all of her bounty. Even as we're looking forward to Thanksgiving, where they're saying this Thanksgiving is going to be the most expensive holiday in memory, and that some of our Thanksgiving dinners might be a little bit more meager than they have been in past years.Yet still we can see how our Lord provides and, in this, give thanks to him gor bringing forth the fruit of the earth that he might take care of us.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Now it's easy to get this confused with the world's pursuit of justice, because often what the world wants to do is get vengeance. That's what it's looking for. Just consider cancel culture. It's a big thing today. Someone has said or has done the wrong thing. And that person has tried to try to cancel that person out of existence, like they don't even exist. That's the justice of this world. But here, this righteousness that we are to hunger and thirst for is the righteousness of God, the thing that he demands of us. And what does the righteousness of God look like but to obey the 10 commandments. We seek to live according to them and we know that it would be better if everyone in the world did, too. We want this, because that’s what the heart of faith inspires in us. That desire, the righteousness of God even, has been given to you. And we continue to mirror that in our lives. After all, if we hunger and thirst for righteousness, we will be satisfied. It is enough for you to go to bed at the end of the day and say, I have done all that I can according to your law, forgive me for when I have fallen. And even if you go to bed hungry, you can go to bed satisfied because our Lord says, this is what I desire of you.
Blessed are the merciful. Mercy is a wonderful word. I often say, grace is the getting of things that you don't deserve, but mercy is not getting the things that you do deserve. So in the mercy of God, we do not earn his wrath. We do not earn his hell. We do not earn anything evil from God's hand, because he has had mercy upon you. You will not be forsaken, because of his mercy. And so it is for us that as we look to God as our example, we also are merciful. That means that when another sins against us, when they do the wrong thing, we say, I shall have mercy. I shall forgive. As I have been forgiven, I will not hold this sin against you that it might be a testimony against you to send you to hell, but I will forgive what you have done. What a blessed thing. This sounds like the Lord’s prayer. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. This means that we are asking God to forgive us in the very way that we forgive others. What a scary thought that is, that we would hold something against someone. God wouldn’t do that to you, withholding his mercy, why should we to others? Thus, when we forgive we know that we are forgiven, and receive his mercy all the more.
Blessed are the pure in heart. Now, this is an interesting one, of course, because again, we try and we look at ourselves with honest eyes and we say, no, I'm a sinner. I know that I'm not pure in heart. The desires of my heart are evil. And yet still Christ has declared you to be clean. He has washed you in the blood of the lamb. And if that's the case, it is as if the angel has flown to you and taken your entire body and pressed it against that burning coal that he pressed against Isaiah's lips to make his lips clean. So also has he made you your body, your soul, your being clean, thus also then your heart is pure, spotless. You are just like the lambs that were offered up in the temple, just like the Lamb that was offered up on the cross. To be made now clean, just like Christ, you have been counted as a child off God.
Blessed are the peacemakers. Now you look around and you go, well, I'm not always good at that. I know when I get that juicy tidbit of gossip, I love that. I revel when the world is coming against other people, I love seeing people get their just desserts. In fact, I love to even be a part of it. But if we are to be after the will of God, we make peace with our brothers, our sisters, just as the Lord has made peace with God for us. Have you seen this image? It's not often a very good image. It's used inappropriately most of the time, where God is on one cliff and man is on another cliff and the only way to bridge that divide is the cross. It comes down and rests between them and then the man runs over to God. And that’s not good. Instead, the cross comes between God and man and Jesus runs over to the man, picks him up, and drags him over to the God side of the divide. That’s what we should have in mind, and that’s what it is to make peace, leaving everything you are and have behind to bring the righteousness of God, the mercy of God to anyone who needs it.
Blessed are the persecuted. I like this. It's not enough that we're facing bad stuff. It's when we are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, meaning that we take the stand on Jesus's account, right? Because theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Notice this is the same as the poor in spirit; you get the same thing. This is the same result because, when you are poor in spirit, you will be persecuted for the sake of Christ. When you are poor in spirit, the world will come at you. Now, granted, here in America, we've lived in relative comfort and stability. Most people have been accepting of Christians. I think the tide is turning in this a little bit. And yet still the world comes after you. Maybe not through all the work of the people around you, but certainly by the world's devices. And it chases you. And it tries to make you follow in its ways. But when you are poor in spirit, when you were persecuted by the world, you know that the kingdom of heaven is yours, for even persecution leads to death. And there you walk through the doors of death and into everlasting life.
Now notice, too, then Jesus flips the script. Blessed are those, blessed are those, blessed are those, blessed are those, blessed are you. He says in verse 11, blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. He is not only just repeating verse 10, but now he's making it very personal that you would know that all of these beatitudes are about you. Whether you think you match up to these unattainable goals or not, Jesus says, this is about you. You know this is about you. And in this, in all of this, as you are poor, as you are mourning, as you are meek, as you are hungry, as you are merciful and pure in heart, as you're a peacemaker, as you are persecuted, rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven. After all, everybody who's come before you, all the prophets who brought forth the word of God, they all were killed. We should expect nothing less.
Now this text is wonderful for All Saints’ Day, because it reminds us that we are saints in Jesus Christ. He has made us holy by the blood of the Lamb. That's what the word saint means, holy; you are one of the saints of Christ. You are one of those coming out of the great tribulation. Your holiness is from Christ and it is all of these things. You are one of the saints of Christ. You and all those that we remember in our hearts, all of those who have died in the faith, you and they are saints in Christ. You are a sinner. You struggle against that sinful flesh day in and day out, but you've come to this place. You've come to hear of the forgiveness of Jesus Christ. You've come to receive the strengthening of faith. You've come to have your eyes turned to Jesus in everything that you see and think and say, and so you are one of his saints. And so this day, even as we celebrate All Saints’ Day, we celebrate you, too.
We certainly are going to remember those faithful departed, but we're celebrating you, too. I'm not saying that you're going to die this year. You might; I don't know. I'm no prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet. But this is a day where we celebrate what Christ has done in you, that he has made you all of these things. You do not need to work to attain them, but they have been attained for you through the perfect obedience of Christ and delivered to you by his blood. So take confidence, my friends, these are not attitudes that you need to seek after. They are yours. They have already been given to you. All that is left now is to see that our Lord is blessing you through each of them. You are blessed, dear saints, and your reward is great in heaven. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment