The Road
Dr. Larry Thorson
Being blessed is knowing that you’re on
the road you’re supposed to be on
Matthew 5:1-12
1 Now when
Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples
came to him, 2 and he began to teach them.
3
"Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and
thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed 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. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Today’s New International Version Copyright © 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society
Imagine this scene. You
have an appointment in thirty minutes and you know you should have left earlier. You kind of remember how to get there but not
exactly. You think it may take 20
minutes but you’re not certain.
Everything starts out fine until you come to a crossroads. Did I turn left, turn right or keep on going
straight ahead the last time I was here?
One wrong decision at this point could cause you to miss your appointment
altogether.
But
then you see it…it’s the road on which your appointment is located. That means at least you’re not going to lose
time. I call that joy. Actually if you were leading a caravan of
five cars to this appointment that can’t turn around very easily, it’s more
than joy!
Being
alive is about traveling on a lot of roads and making a lot of decisions about
which roads will get you where you want to go.
Regardless of which one you get on, you’re always on some road. Sometimes you think you’re on the wrong road. Other times you may temporarily break down on
the side and have to watch everyone else go their merry way. Sometimes the road is blurred because of
storms. Sometimes you get taken down a
wrong road where you don’t want to go. Sometimes
you go off road to explore trails that lead you to new horizons but always you try
and return when you are able to the road that takes you where you think you’ll
be happiest.
That’s
where Jesus was one day on
That’s where Jesus began to speak the most profound sermon
ever preached. It’s called the “Sermon
on the Mount”. Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma
Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. just to name a few claimed to have shaped
their teachings and writings on this sermon.
Augustine was said to have described the Sermon on the Mount as a
perfect standard of the Christian life. Dietrich Bonhoeffer based his classic
book The Cost of Discipleship on an exposition of the Sermon on the
Mount. The most famous prayer of all time,
the Lord’s Prayer, was first taught in this sermon.
For
the next two months we’re going to go verse by verse through this famous
sermon. We won’t spend long studying the
Lord’s Prayer because we studied that last year. Our purpose is going to be to read the sermon
as a road map to the next place we’re going.
We’re
in the midst of a huge cultural change in our country. There’s a whole generation of people who were
not raised in church who are now young adults raising their own children apart
from the Lord. Our own valley is quickly
transitioning from a quiet semi rural retirement community to a busy community
of commuters with a whole different set of needs. Our church is in the process of making major
changes to adjust and perhaps try to get ahead of the cultural changes. Those changes may sometimes feel like we’re
getting on a different road. In my years
here I want to make sure that we stay on the road God has mapped out for us and
not lead us on tangent roads that would lead us from the goal of making
disciples for Jesus Christ into the next generation. The Sermon on the Mount will be that road
map.
It’s
interesting that Jesus began this sermon talking about what it means to be
blessed. The first eleven verses have
come to be known as “Beatitudes” from the Latin word meaning happiness. Nine
times at the beginning of this sermon Jesus used the Hebrew word “ashr” which
is translated “blessed” or sometimes “happy”.
Think about what makes you happy? My daughter’s graduation dinner in May at
Lucille’s southern barbeque restaurant in
The word happy conveys more of a temporary emotion. “I feel happy because it’s cooler
today.” Whereas “ashr” or “blessed” is closer
in meaning to contentment. Contentment
is partially defined as the absence of anxiety.
It means to enjoy living in the present moment without being anxious
about getting more. Contentment
is knowing that you’re in the place where you’re supposed to be even if at the
moment you’re not happy.
Again,
it’s interesting that Jesus began this sermon talking about what it means to be
content. The people who were following
Jesus on that day were doing so because they had either seen or heard of his
miracles. They couldn’t afford medical
care. Not many of them were
educated. The road they were on seemed a
dead end and they thought he might help them.
So
each of the nine examples Jesus gives in these beatitudes addresses a specific
need they had and we have. Each one of
those needs if left unmet can lead people off God’s path and onto to a rabbit
trail. Let me explain using just the
first two beatitudes.
The
very first beatitude is “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven.” To be
poor in spirit means to know that you don’t have enough riches to buy your way
to heaven. The first step in making sure
that you’re going in the right direction is to admit that you’re lost and ask
for directions. Jesus was saying “better
off are those people who know they’re sinners and in need of saving than those
who don’t know they’re lost”.
As
a church I want us to be accepting of everyone regardless of what they
believe. But some people are going down
a road that says “Hey, I’m a pretty good person and I think if there is a heaven,
God will let me in because, well, why wouldn’t God want me there?”
I
remember a pastor who was retiring when I was in seminary say how in his last
year he felt led to publicly confess to his congregation the road he had led them
on. In his drive to attract wealthy
fundraisers for his church projects he had gone down a bad road. He put people in leadership who didn’t see
themselves as poor in spirit but of deserving heaven because of their works and
their wealth. People didn’t hear that
they were sinners in his church. That’s
not a road I want us to go down.
You
may not agree with the Scriptures that we’re all sinners messing up, deserving
of death but according to Jesus in his sermon you’ll be much better off if you
daily admit that you are in need of Jesus saving you. You don’t have to believe that to attend this
church but that’s the road we’re going down.
The
second beatitude is “blessed are those
who mourn for they shall be comforted”.
There’s nothing happy about mourning.
Many of those who had come to see Jesus were there because of loved ones
who needed healing or who had died recently.
This
past Thursday my wife and I did a memorial service together and I did the
graveside service for Bertha Carter whose husband Lloyd was a regular in our
early service. After I finished my words
at the cemetery the pall bearers placed their roses one by one on her coffin
along with their white gloves. The last
one to place his rose on her coffin was her husband and best friend. For what seemed like a long time Lloyd held
onto that rose while leaning it against the coffin as if when he let go he
would let go of the last tangible connection with his beloved wife. He displayed such deep, deep emotional love
for his wife.
What
Jesus was saying is that if you’re mourning it means you care enough about
someone or something to express emotion.
If you can’t grieve or mourn it means you can’t feel. If you can’t feel you can never know
joy. You can never be comforted. You’re numb and that’s not healthy.
I used to wish I didn’t have such a wimpy sensitivity
to pain. But the alternative to feeling
pain is CIPA or Congenital Insensitivity to Pain. Patients with this disorder injure themselves
in ways that would normally be prevented by feeling pain.
God
designed our bodies with nerve cells responsible for transmitting signals of
pain, heat, and cold to the brain. We’re designed to feel sensations and
emotions. We’re designed to feel, and to
smell and to touch the beautiful world around us. Think of the majestic mountains and cool
lakes your eyes may have feasted on this summer. Think about the cooler mornings we have felt
last week after our recent heat wave.
Feeling is what being alive means.
But with that comes the great pain of mourning and sorrow.
So
Jesus is saying better off is one who can mourn and feel than one who can’t
because at least the one who can mourn knows he will one day be able to feel
joy again. The alternative road to
mourning is to ignore that we feel any pain at all. That’s stoicism that shows no emotion. Presbyterians have been called the “frozen
chosen”. Any sign of emotion like crying
in a worship service has been discouraged.
That’s not a road that I want this church to go on because it’s not
healthy.
I’ll
be honest with you, I’m feeling a lot of pain over the loss last week of Dave
Demeaux. He and I spent a lot of time
together. We were a good team on the
projects we worked together on. Being
stoic is not the way to go when you lose someone you love. But better off are those who can mourn for
they will experience comfort.
Read
the next seven beatitudes and look at them as an onramp to a new road. Imagine where that road will take you if you
get on there. Then look at the road that
you’re presently traveling on. Will that
road get you where you want to go? Being
blessed is knowing that you’re on the road you’re supposed to be on.