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| Share Agape for the week of July 7, 2003 |
| Walking The Walk Matthew 5:3-11 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." I must admit that throughout most of my Christian years, I read what Matthew calls the "Beatitudes" not really allowing them to sink in very far. I just couldn't seem to come to grips with them. I still wouldn't say that I understand the Beatitudes completely (I doubt any of us do), but I recently found myself reading Philip Yancey's book The Jesus I Never Knew, which forced me to at least try to decide what Jesus was talking about in the Beatitudes. The first thing I ever noticed about the Beatitudes was this: In them, Jesus boldly claims all that's "blessed" in God's eyes is exactly the opposite of what the world claims is blessed. The world tells us we should seek to be financially "well-off," happy (even to the point of being self-centered), bold, self-secure. Those of us who've grown up with the Beatitudes probably can't appreciate just how shocking this speech of Jesus' is. Imagine being a persecuted Jew, standing around listening to Jesus speak these words. Shock would just be the beginning of it! I imagine you'd probably be filled with anger, too. I mean, really, do you feel blessed when you can't keep up with your bills? Do you really feel fortunate when your life is full of difficulties? From the point of view of wordly wisdom, the idea that hardships are actually blessings seems ridiculous. To top it off, Yancey points out that the English translation "blessed" really isn't up to snuff. The original Greek would have been more like: "Oh, you lucky person, you!" It sounds crazy, doesn't it? In fact, I imagine a lot of people read the Beatitudes and think them just plain stupid. After all, they can see with their own eyes that the meek don't inherit the earth�right? When the brilliant C.S. Lewis wrote about the topic, he made an excellent point. "We are half-hearted creatures," he wrote, "fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday by the sea." In other words, we humans often get so caught up in the here and now that we can't even begin to imagine what an amazing offer God is giving us, if we'll just set our "mud pies" aside. Some folks wonder why God doesn't offer "the good stuff" right now. Why make us wait and hope and suffer? Can you even count the number of times your parents did something that you as a child didn't understand? Something that seemed ungenerous--even cruel? But now, looking back as an adult, you can understand that they did those things for your own good? That's how I see the after-life: When we get there, we'll have graduated into "adulthood" and will begin to understand why the Father did those "ungenerous and cruel" things. MORE ~~~> |
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