Blessed If…

There he stood, by the buffet line, dressed in his best suit, covered in salad dressing. You could see the anger on his face and you could almost hear the blood boiling with in him as he demanded to speak to the manager.

It was shortly after 12:30 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon when a waitress at the buffet style restaurant paused for a moment after coming out of the kitchen door to let a man pass by. It was during that pause that another worker burst out of the kitchen door hurling the young waitress and her bucket of salad dressing into the man she was politely letting pass by.

There in front of her manager this sharply dressed ban screamed about incompetence, stupidity and demanded that she be fired immediately. He also demanded that the restaurant buy him a new $500.00 suite.

Trying to be a peace maker the manager tried to explain that accidents do happen an offered to pay for the dry-cleaning of the man’s suite. The man wouldn’t hear of it and stuck to his original demands.

Here is the problem with this story. Where do you think a sharply dressed man is coming from on an early Sunday afternoon? Most likely he had been to a church that morning and heard about God’s love, grace and forgiveness. Then he went out and lived just the opposite.

Christians have to understand that God’s way usually contradicts the world’s. God’s desire is that we be very different from those who do not confess Him as Lord. In fact, if you as a Christian are no different than your friends and neighbors who are not believers, then what’s the point?

In Matthew 5:1-11 Jesus gives us in detail how we are to respond and how we are to live with the promise of a blessing with each one.

1Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2and he began to teach them saying:
3"Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
5Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
6Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
7Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
8Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
9Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.
10Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
Here is what Jesus is saying. Notice the contradictions.

To become royalty we have to become poor (vs.3). He is not speaking of monetary poverty rather spiritual poverty, being poor in the sight of God, understanding that we have nothing spiritually without Him. When we reach the point where we fully recognize that we are dependent on God and God alone to grow spiritually then we are blessed by entering into God’s heavenly family, thus, becoming royalty.

To be comforted we have to mourn (vs.4). This refers to being broken-hearted because of the sin we have committed towards God. Often sin does not affect us because we just take advantage of God’s grace. Instead, sin should break our hearts because we are hurting God and taking advantage of Jesus’ death on the cross. When we reach a point where we are broken hearted over our sin then we are blessed with the comfort of God.

To inherit we have to be meek (vs. 5). Meekness is not weakness! Meekness is understanding who and what you are in relation to other people. Knowing that you were created equal by God and stand on even ground with the rest of humanity before Him. We are blessed with inheriting God’s creation when we become meek.

To be filled we have to hunger (vs.6). Do you hunger for God the same way you do food? Do you desire to do the right thing the same as you desire to eat? God blesses us by filling us with His presence when we truly hunger for Him.

To receive mercy we have to show mercy (vs. 7). There is a general misconception of what mercy is. We think that mercy is simply feeling sorry for someone. Mercy is a sense of pity (feeling sorry for someone) plus a desire to relive the suffering. When we show true mercy we are blessed by God’s mercy.

To see God we have to be pure (vs. 8). A pure heart is a heart without defilement or contamination. We achieve this by trusting in God for mercy and forgiveness and we maintain this by looking for God’s direction in life and making choices based on what He desire for us instead of what we desire for ourselves. We are blessed by seeing God active in our lives when we commit to purity.

To be a child of God we have to make peace (vs. 9). A peacemaker is a person we pursues peace at all cost. Sometimes conflict is the result of the pursuit of peace. In World War II hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives in the pursuit of peace. The question we have to ask ourselves is, are we pursuers of peace or ignorers of conflict? There is a huge difference and we are blessed with becoming a child of God when we choose to pursue peace.

To take possession of the kingdom we have to be persecuted (vs. 10). To take possession of something means to have ownership of it. If we desire to have ownership of the kingdom of God then we have to own up to Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. That means even in the face of persecution we confess Him as our Lord. When things don’t go right for you is He still Lord? When people question you, make fun of you, reject and doubt you because of your beliefs is He still Lord? We are blessed with the Kingdom of Heaven when we confess Jesus Christ as Lord even in the face of persecution.