Clothesline 323 "The Upside-Down Kingdom"

We have many teaching moments from Jesus. He walked the earth for three years, back and forth throughout Israel, sharing his message of peace and love. But make no mistake: just about everything Jesus taught was also counter cultural. Following Jesus didn’t mean the world would always approve, and over the next two weeks, we will look at Jesus’s greatest sermon: The Sermon on the Mount.

The Sermon on the Mount is the longest recorded sermon, and it’s found in three entire chapters of Matthew’s gospel. And the beginning of this well-known sermon gives us The Beatitudes.

Matt. 5, Vs. 3:“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” When you think of being poor you probably think of having no money or no home, but “poor” in the Old Testament was understood to mean one who is unable to save himself…a kind of spiritual poverty. Remember the Crucifixion scene—the one thief says to Jesus: “If you are the Son of God, save yourself, and save us too!” And the good thief says, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus didn’t save him from his earthly death, but he saved him into the kingdom of heaven. I wonder what the good thief would have done with his new-found relationship with Jesus…had his human life been saved… Blessed are the poor in spirit.

Matt. 5, Vs. 4: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” Jesus wants to bless those who have chosen a righteous way of life. The greatest of all comfort is the absolution pronounced upon the contrite heart of a sinner who repents. Remember when Mary and Joseph brought the child Jesus to the temple and Simeon recognized Jesus as the Messiah? Scripture says that he had been looking and longing for “the consolation of Israel,” and he saw it… in the child in the arms of Mary. And of this Jesus was spoken hundreds of years before by the prophet Isaiah (Is. 61:2): “He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to proclaim release to the captives. He has sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.” Jesus came to replace your pain and your hurts with a promise of hope!

Matt. 5, Vs. 5: “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” Jesus is saying, “If you are humble, if you have a gentle spirit, if you are considerate and courteous, you will inherit the earth.” But make no mistake: possessing the land and living in peace and prosperity comes with responsibility. The world says that it is the strong, the overbearing, who succeed in the struggle for existence. But Paul tells us in his letter to the Corinthians: “Our inheritance in Christ is not might but meekness, for, as we have already seen, everything is ours if we are in Christ.” (1 Cor. 3:22)

And that’s just the beginning of this amazing teaching from Jesus Himself. Think on these things, and may they stir your heart into new areas of growth along with a deeper relationship with Jesus.