Matthew 5
When the kingdom of heaven breaks into
people’s lives it turns their lives upside down. The Sermon on the Mount
(Matthew 5-7) is a study on that truth. Every step of the way Jesus is
confronting the kingdom of this world with the heavenly reality of God’s values,
and they are nowhere near the same! He is saying that what matters in the
kingdom of heaven is not our power or sufficiency, but our brokenness and
dependence – because these are precisely where God’s goodness and salvation are
revealed.
Jesus begins the sermon with statements
that have come be known as “The Beatitudes.” Sadly, through the years these
verses have often been used like a rod to flog believers. They have been called
the “Be Attitudes” and we are urged to “be” like this: poor in spirit,
mourning, etc. – as if Jesus were setting goals for our lives or making ethical
demands of His followers. Instead, He is saying that we are “blessed,” “happy,”
or that “it is good for us” when we experience these things because they are
signs of our disconnection from the kingdom of this world and our connection to
the kingdom of heaven.
All throughout the sermon Jesus
contrasts kingdom-of-heaven-living with kingdom-of-the-world-living. You are
salt, the world is tasteless. You are light, the world is dark. Do you think
your “kingdom of the world” righteousness is good enough? Jesus shows that the kingdom
of heaven’s standards are beyond our reach, so we cannot rely on our own works.
Instead, we are going to live by God’s mercy and grace, a very different
righteousness, which will lead us to be different.
It is good for us to recognize that this
world is not our home and that we are strangers and aliens here; pilgrims who
are residents of a different kingdom. We represent that kingdom and seek to
draw others into it as we share the hope we have in Jesus who was crucified and
raised for us. We feel the tension of our human frailty and God’s salvation at
work in our lives. That is a good thing because it helps us to look forward to
when the kingdom of the world ends, and the kingdom of heaven is seen in its
full and tangible reality. Happy and blessed are you when you long for that
kingdom because you will not be disappointed for God is faithful and He will do
it.
Lord, set my heart on Your kingdom and help
me share Your forgiveness with people so they may receive better than this
world can give. Amen.
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