Quick reminder to start off with about our methodology this Advent season. Rather than lengthy translations of traditional Advent readings, I am dwelling on the rather non-seasonal lines from the Sermon on the Mount called The Beatitudes. Feel free to search the Pastor Greenbean Blog for previous Advent translations that fit this season or other Advent posts. There are over fifteen years of them.
Another note, remember, I am rendering the word ‘blessed’ as ‘happy’. I explained why two blog posts ago, so click here for a field trip.
Matthew 5:7
Happy are those who show mercy, for they will be shown mercy.
In my understanding, this is the only one of the eight which give exactly what is given. Notice how those who hunger are not given more hunger but are instead fed. Those who are mourning are comforted. The persecuted get the kingdom. But the merciful get the exact same thing they gave out: mercy. You get what yo give.
In church life we often use mercy and grace as synonyms of one another to speak about the kindness and compassion and forgiveness of God. However, these are not exactly the same thing. Grace is when I get what I do not deserve. Imagine an employee who is horrible at his work but nevertheless still gets a really nice Christmas bonus. That is a grace. He did not deserve it, but he got it anyway.
Mercy, on the other hand, is not getting exactly what you do deserve. Take that same employee who is not good at his job. He is so lousy that he should be at the least demoted and have a cut in pay, or perhaps it is even justified that he be terminated for his lousy performance and poor attitude. But, he is not. Instead he is retained for another year. That is mercy; he deserved to be fired yet was not.
The two concepts are often woven together with beauty and creative power in the Hebrew Bible. Take, for example, one of my favorite Psalms, 103, ‘The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always accuse, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities’ (Psalm 103:8-10).
Jesus is telling us that people who show mercy like the Lord does will be treated with mercy, because we all need it. This particular Beatitude comes closest to affirming the doctrine of universal sinfulness because embedded within it is the assumption that every human being is in desperate need of mercy because every human being deserves punishment for what he or she has done.
Show mercy, get mercy. Don’t show mercy, don’t get mercy.
The question of mercy, though is always by whom is it shown? Does our Lord mean the merciful will get mercy from God, or does he mean other people? I can see an argument for both ways. Jesus is, I think, most obviously speaking of our relationship to The Lord, therefore merciful people get mercy from God. But I also see the second meaning as applicable in that the kind of people who show mercy to others will, when in need of it, be more likely to get it from others. Contrast that with the person who is always shouting about punishing other people who then is caught red-handed. That person will justly be labeled a hypocrite and prosecuted to the fullest extent.
Mercy is not very popular, at least it doesn’t seem that way to me. What is popular right now are words like accountability, retribution, and payback. I personally have seen the word accountability used as a bludgeon to keep people beat down in shame so that others may feel superior. It’s an ugly transaction to behold.
Showing mercy requires empathy. It also requires giving people the benefit of the doubt. Oh, and it most definitely means that we must not assume everyone is out to get us or that every action is a conspiracy. Mercy is about giving people a break, knowing that not everything requires the full measure of response.
Maybe we can render this one then, in a practical motif:
Happy are the people who give other people a break, because they themselves will be given a break when it matters most.
Matthew 5:8
Happy are those with clean hearts, for they will see God
There are two body parts mentioned in this beatitude: the heart and eyes. These two organs have a direct connection. If the heart is clean, then the eyes will see. Without a clean heart, spiritual vision is impossible. Christ-follower see with their heart, not their eyes.
The word for clean is one of those Greek New Testament words that is also an English word: catharsis (katharoi). When I preached on this a couple of weeks ago, with a different emphasis than here, I emphasized that cognate aspect of what catharsis means in our world in terms of purge or therapeutic healing. A cathartic cry after a long period of time holding in our feelings comes to mind, right?
Katharsis means clean or pure, but I think that clean is a better and a more theologically sound translation of this beatitude because pure in heart sounds like disposition or temperament. Perhaps too much of my East Texas background infects here, but when I hear pure in heart it sounds a lot like ‘sweet heart’ or ‘tender heart’. It would be easy to dismiss the idea of ‘pure in heart’ as something you are either born with or not born with. As if people with sweet dispositions and tender hearts do not lust, experience greed, or have racists tendencies. Indeed, if I may dwell there a moment, one of the reasons we tolerate racism in many people is because we excuse it with, ‘but she really has a sweet heart.’ I put before you that it doesn’t matter how sweet Granny might be in her Sunday school class or to all her grandchildren, if Granny is a racist her heart is not clean and she is not pure in heart.
Clean in heart has a completely different emphasis in that it lays upon each individual to keep their heart clean through the continuing actions of repentance, worship, devotion, and service. I know that I am a sinner, and my daily and constant action of repentance keeps the garbage out of my heart.
To keep my heart clean, I have to regularly take out the trash.
A clean heart doesn’t happen by accident. It is the product of diligence and of standing guard over it. A clean heart sieves through the lies of this world that would pollute it — lies like trust your heart, follow your heart, and listen to your heart. When left to its own the devices, the human heart is destructive, polluting the ecosystem of life. If you don’t believe me, listen to Jeremiah the prophet as he tells us what God says: ‘The heat is devious above all else; it is perverse — who can understand it. I the Lord test the mind and search the heart, to give according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings’ (Jeremiah 17:9-10).
Only a transformed mind (Romans 12:1-2) empowered by the Holy Spirit can guard a heart and mold it into cleanliness before God. That is hard work. But the payoff is worth it. For the payoff, Jesus says, is that the clean hearted people of this world see God.
Now, exactly what does it mean to see God? I suppose there are three options, really. The first is that this is literal and Jesus is promising theophanies in this lifetime. A heart that is clean frees up the eyes to see God in some kind of physical manifestation in the here and now. The second option is Christ our Lord references the future when we are dwelling in the New Jerusalem and God is himself our Temple. Third, the point of seeing God is the ability to perceive the movement of God, see God at work, in the world right now. Not necessarily a physical manifestation but rather the Holy Spirit moving.
I dismiss the first option as being outside the bounds of normative experience. True, some people seem to have had an actual Theophany (biblically, Moses comes to mind but there seem to be non-biblical experiences as well) or a Christophany. But that is not normative and it certainly is not connected to the teachings about a clean heart.
I am then left with the second two, which I think are both true. I think we will see God, per the longing of Job:
For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me! — Job 19:25-27
I am certain, though, that a clean heart allows us to see where God is moving and working, present and active in the world today. A polluted heart filled with violence and hatred cannot see the movement of the Holy Spirit transforming people’s lives, changing the way people interact, and raising up another generation who will proclaim and serve. Yet, a clean heart does, because the eye is clear; removed of the film or the scales (Acts 9:18) that were upon them. A clean heart reveals godly motives, ambitions, hopes, and dreams.
A clean heart also sees where God is moving against the sin and treachery of this world. I think that is perhaps the keenest insight into the prophetic ministry of the Hebrew preachers of old. Jeremiah, Micah, and Amos could see wickedness around them and therefore they could see the displeasure of God and the coming hand of judgment. Seeing God is not always rainbows and lollipops, blessings and sweets; sometimes it is floods and kale, punishment and bitterness.
Maybe one more crack at an applicable rendering of the sixth beatitude would be a little wordier but perhaps clearer.
Fortunate are clean hearted people, because they will see the spiritual realities of God’s activity in this world and they will see his glory in the next.