February 1 2009
Reading: Matthew 1.1-12
Happy
are those who know they are spiritually poor,
the Kingdom of heaven
belongs to them............ Matthew 5.3(GNB)
There are great depths in the Sermon on the Mount, they have inspired saints, and artists and poets
through the ages.
And in the past, some great minds in the
Church have been struck by the way in which so many of the words of the Sermon
on the Mount
are seen in perfect
reality in Jesus Himself !
Blessed
are the meek, says Jesus, for they shall inherit the earth.............
Meekness, and lowliness. At the beginning of his ministry Jesus rejected Satan’s
offer of all the kingdoms of the world. He rejected the world’s ways of power and might,
and chose instead lowliness and meekness. That is, Jesus will leave everything
in his Father’s hands, His cause, His rights, His
future.
And then we see, how in
Jesus perfect humble, lowly trust in the living God becomes the most powerful
thing on earth, overcoming all things in the purpose of God. And it is Jesus, the Gospel declares who
inherits the earth - the earth is His for He has inherited it from His Father
in heaven.
Blessed
are the meek, says Jesus, for they shall inherit the earth.............
we see that in Jesus Himself
Happy are the pure in heart, says Jesus, they will see God
When we read the Gospels we see Jesus, standing on
the road leading up to
Happy are the pure in heart, says Jesus, they will see God
we see that in Jesus Himself
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, says Jesus, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven
Reading this, our minds turn to Jesus before
Pilate, standing before King Herod,
beaten, mocked by the soldiers, the One, as the prophet had foretold
despised and rejected. Arrested, condemned, by earthly powers
and crucified on a Cross between two thieves.............
To Him, the living God has given the kingdom of
heaven...........
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, says Jesus, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven
we see that in Jesus Himself
The Sermon on the
Mount, these blessings these beatitudes seen in perfect reality in Jesus
Christ.
So what Jesus Christ
speaks of - He
already in Himself is ! These words of Jesus, about blessedness, words which
speak of the happiness and joy, the blessedness of a deep and loving unbroken
communion with the Father in heaven,
following the Father’s will in
all things…. come from the soul, the deepest depths of the soul of Jesus, they
spring from the fullness of Jesus Himself !
But the first words of the Sermon on the Mount are different:
these words are different: Happy are
those who know they are spiritually poor,
the Kingdom of heaven
belongs to them............v.3
Happy
are those who know they are spiritually poor,
the Kingdom of heaven
belongs to them............v.3
Who or what is Jesus speaking of here ? In truth, Jesus cannot be speaking of Himself here,
for He is One who lives in all the fullness of God. So
who or what is Jesus speaking of here ?
Well, here Jesus is speaking of the emptiness
of human life. Speaking about those those who are empty, who know their
own emptiness, their own inward poverty of spirit. He says that they are
blessed, or happy. Why - because they in their emptiness will be filled. Not from something they
manage to do themselves,
those who know their own
emptiness, and here the invitation of the living God in Jesus to come, will be
filled.
emptiness that is
filled......... that is one of the great themes of the Bible......
Come,
all you who are thirsty, Come buy and eat without money without cost
listen to me
and eat what is good, your soul will delight in the richest of fare.... says the prophet
Isaiah........
Emptiness...........
As a matter of fact, a sense of emptiness
marks the lives of many people, today...............
In
his biography, Boris Becker tells how he was at the very top of the tennis
world -- He says, "I had won
Borise
Becker is not the only one to feel that sense of emptiness. Jack Higgens, the
successful author of a whole string of novels, The Eagle Has Landed, among them, was once asked what he would
like to have known when he was younger, just starting out. He said, I would have liked to have known "That when you get
to the top, there's nothing there."
Emptiness.............
is one of the great themes of the Bible............
but only because the Gospel declares that for our
emptiness there is fullness.............
Jesus
says Happy are those who know they are spiritually
poor,
the Kingdom of heaven
belongs to them............v.3
Martin Luther, the great Reformer of the
Church puts it like this
It is
the nature of God that he makes something out of nothing. Thus God accepts no
one except the abandoned, makes no one healthy except the sick, gives no one
sight except the blind, brings no one to life except the dead, makes no one
pious except sinners, makes no one wise except the foolish, and in short, has
mercy upon no one except the wretched, and gives no one grace except those who
have not grace.
He might have added He makes no-one full
except the empty
There’s a famous story in the second book of
Kings chapter 7, that exactly illustrates this. There
was a siege of the city of
Or left - to the
Syrian camp.
The worst they can do is kill us, say the beggars. But you never know, we might find some bread. Empty handed, they decide - the
Syrian camp it will be, and so they turn off to the left. Half an hour later
they come into the camp, and no-one is there, Not one single person -
everything is abandoned. The Lord has terrified the Syrian army during the
night and so the camp is empty. The beggars eat and drink everything they can
find in the first tent, fill up sacks with silver and gold......... and then,
only then, they tell the city the wonderful news.
And the city people pour out to share the good
things with the four beggars.
The empty filled in the goodness of God.
Those who are empty, who know their own
emptiness, their own poverty of spirit, happy, says Jesus. Why - because they
will be filled. Jesus declares that He has not come to call the righteous, but sinners, or to put it in the words of
the text this morning, He has not come to call the full, but those who know
they are empty.........
And the gospel goes on to declare that those
who are empty are filled from the fullness of Jesus Christ.
Look at the Cross,
As Paul proclaims that it was while we were
yet sinners – empty, with nothing to bring, unable to do anything for
ourselves, while we were yet sinners, Christ,
Christ died for us ! the empty
ones,
And at the Cross, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who
takes away the sin of the world took our sin upon Himself, that we might enter
into all the fullness of a new and living way to God,
And now, from on high, the risen Jesus Christ, pours out upon us, His fullness.
As that great passage in Romans 8 declares,
God has poured out His love into our hearts, by the Holy Spirit whom He has
given us. Filling our emptiness to overflowing, so that we are led,
guided, controlled, not from the
emptiness of our old empty nature, not by our old life, the old way of doing
things – but by fullness of the Spirit.
May Jesus Christ work in our lives, through His
Spirit, filling, always filling our emptiness with His fullness
For, as the apostle John proclaims,
From the
fullness of His grace we have all received one blessing after another
AMEN.