It must have been quite a scene in the hills of northern Palestine, around AD 30. Huge crowds - hobbling, wobbling, bandaged and desperate crowds. All gathered round to touch and be touched, to hear and be heard by a preacher from Nazareth.
        Desperate people, they were, according to the bible;
        Desperate people who came walking from as far away as Syria. He was their last hope.
        And He didn’t let them down. He healed them all.
        Matthew 4 says so.

A large gathering of diseased, pained, possessed, seized, and paralyzed:
        A motley crew.
                Rabble.
                        Losers.
                                Jesus gives blessings to their desperate lives.

He walks among them - a word here, a touch there. Again and again power flows out from him and into them. They are restored. They can live again!
        They are blessed.
        And happy. Downright giddy, some of them. Speechless with joy, others. A few of them not quite sure that it really happened - in a daze.

Then Jesus moves out from the crowd.
Goes up on a bit of a hill. We call the words he speaks there "the sermon on the mount." But "mount" is more than the Greek indicates. More of a good sized hill, the sort of thing that overlooks Mooney’s Bay park.
        Gives Jesus a better view of the crowd.
        His disciples gather close around.
        He sweeps his hand around - pointing to the ones with whom he’s been mingling; those whose lives he’s been transforming – impoverished people, mourning folk, bottom of the heap types.
                "Blessed...." says Jesus.
                He proceeds to give a sermon that is a divine "show and tell."
                        - [D.Willard]

This summer we’re going to celebrate joint worship services with our sister congregations in Barrhaven and Kanata. We’ll spend time at these services reflecting on those words; words acknowledged all around the world as masterpieces of religious thought...... though often regarded that way for wrong reasons.

Join me as we read the beginnings of that famous sermon -

        The headings in your bibles above this passage says, "The Beatitudes." That’s a latin word for "blessed." The Greek equivalent meaning something along the lines of "happy, in a good space, fortunate."

        And so some look at these words, and think about the fact that they’re said up on a hill - and their minds go back to the old testament and the 10 commandments given from Mt.Sinai. They look back to these statements about blessed, these "blessing sayings", and figure that they must be a series of new testament commandments. They’re God’s standards of behaviour. Here’s how to please Him. Live with this as the drumbeat for your life. They see the Blessing sayings of Jesus as a sort of New Law - a set of strange, upside down conditions that people have to aim for; a set of conditions that, once met, will open the doors of heaven and admit them into the presence and care of their Heavenly Father.

        And they forget all about the setting in which these words are uttered.
        They forget all about who uttered them.
        No – these blessing sayings are not telling us what to do or become in order to receive the blessing of God. They’re not telling anyone how to think, behave or structure their lives through the gates of heaven.

The Blessing sayings simply put into words what Jesus was preaching earlier by way of example; these words are the explanation of Jesus’ earlier illustration, the living sermon given through his healing ministry -
        that there is a gracious, no-cost, non-earned gift of blessing, hope and restoration for those that society tends to write off.

The Blessing sayings are explanations and illustrations, drawn from the immediate setting, of the present availability of the Kingdom through personal relationship to Jesus. They single out cases that provide proof that, in Him, the rule of God from the heavens truly is available in life circumstances that are beyond all human hope. [D.Willard Divine Conspiracy p.106]

Paul Simon once wrote a song in which he said, "Blessed are the sat upon, spat upon, ratted on."
        Matthew would add - "When Jesus gets hold of them."

You got to understand that the religious system of Jesus’ day left the crowds out. It was restricted to the religious "in", who could look right, talk right, and make a right kind of contribution.
        Jesus stands that all on its head. He welcomes anyone.
        He still welcomes anyone who comes to him. "Whoever comes to me I will never drive away." [John 6:37]
        That is the gospel. That’s Jesus central message.

The spiritually poor - bankrupt or deprived.
Weeping ones - rejected, grieving, depressed, worn-out.
Meek ones - Shy, intimidated, unassertive, wall flowers.
Those burning to see things set right - the victims of injustice or abuse, the ones who lay awake at night replaying horrors of the evening news.
Merciful ones - taken advantage of time and again, too good for their own good, socially naive,
Pure ones - pefectionists, hard on others and even harder on themselves,
Peacemakers - always giving themselves, risking, getting in the middle to set things right
The ones hassled for hanging around Jesus.

Blessed are the humanly hopeless as they experience the hand of God reaching into their messed up situation.

The ones who don’t look right, dress right, or smell right.
The drop-outs and burn-outs. Bankrupt and unemployable.
AIDS patient. Lonely. Mentally marginal.
Drug addict. Criminal. Social pygmies.
        Listen up!
        The Kingdom of Heaven has broken onto the earthly stage.
        And its power is ready to break into your life.

Where we may look around and see the poverty, the tears, the meekness and hunger; where we would see hopelessness and a waste of time and effort – Jesus looks and says, "blessed."
        Blessings are found for everyone; blessings from the Heavenly Kingdom as it flows through the power and person of the Preacher on the Hill;
                or as many in his day said about him under their breath - "the fool on the hill."

Let me say it again another way –
        Jesus isn’t saying "what a fine thing to become destitute, a failure, a laughing stock, because then you’ll be worthy of the Kingdom; worthy of Heaven; worthy of the love and attention of God as Father; worthy of my touch."
        These blessing statements are NOT pointing us towards some sort of standard we need to emulate and reach down towards. They are not suggesting some sort of "salvation by attitude" teaching [so D.Willard].
                NO WAY!
        Jesus is saying that in spite of these conditions, losing conditions of life not withstanding, there is grace and hope available.......
                ..... ANYWAY.

Just as Holy God reached out His divine finger into primal chaos and created a beautiful Cosmos;
        so Jesus reaches with His divine finger into the chaos of sin-stained and heart-broken human life and makes new creations (2 Cor 5).

Blessings come not because of the conditions of the ones being blessed, but because of the One speaking the blessing.
        Not because they are so right for a blessing, but because He is so willing to give it.
        Not because they are so deserving, but because He is so gracious.

Not blessings because of.
        No way.
They are blessings in spite of
        In spite of the fact that you’re like one of the groups in this list -
        In spite of the fact that everyone else has written you off -
        In spite of conditions that make you want to quit, that repulse you -
                Jesus has hope, healing, blessings.....
                        ..... for you.
                        .... just because He wants to give it.
                        .... because He can give it.
                        .... because He has earned it to give it.
                        .... because of the cross.

He became poor, mourning, meek, hungry and thirsty.
He was rejected - by humanity and heaven.
He suffered hell.
He took that all in our place.
He became human to reforge the broken link between heaven and earth;
        The link shattered by sin.

Because of Him there was healing for sick people from all over.... even Syria.
Because of Him there are blessings announced, hope..... even for losers.

For me.
For you -
        The gates of heaven, the power of the Kingdom, the hope of glory -
        It’s there for you.

Even if you don’t find your life exactly mirrored in that list. Because, you see, it’s not an exclusive one, but just a list of "for instance’s", of examples. Just like the list of spiritual gifts, fruits and virtues mentioned at various places in the bible.

Later in his ministry Jesus repeats the message that He delivered on that hillside. Different words - same truth:

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find....
....rest....
....for your souls." [Mt 11.28-29]

Oh, it’s not the whole of the sermon on the mount. There’s 2 ½ chapters still to go. But you can’t move to those chapters until you’ve worked through the beatitudes; until you’ve surrendered and accepted for your life what is preached in these words –
        – that your standing before God, His Kingdom blessing, His healing and reordering power in your life does absolutely NOT come from anything you can contribute to the cause. It comes sheerly because of Jesus - what HE has done and what HE wants and loves to give...... to you.

That’s fully and totally it.
Only when you get that, can you begin to live with any sort of effective Kingdom power. Only then can you begin to truly make a difference in this world for God.
As Frederick Bruner says, "The Beatitudes are not merely the preface of the sermon. They are its engine. We will only read the commands that follow in the right spirit if we read them in the power of the Beatitudes."
                [Matthew: A Commentary vol 1 p.164]

Jesus, in gracious freedom, fixes up and frees you up.
In that gracious new beginning, you find the strength to live it up.

Or, in Bruner’s words, you go to the doing of the ethics of Jesus’ teaching only after receiving the being unconditionally loved in the Blessings. As he says:
        We cannot be a blessing until we have been blessed.

"Blessed...are you" says Jesus.
Nothing abstract. He makes it very personal.
Which is what it’s meant to be.
        Personal.
        For you and me, too.

Can you see that?
Can you see yourself somewhere in here?
As someone with chipped and damaged sections, corners out of line, seams not straight, ingredients missing?

There’s an old hymn that says:
        Nothing in my hands I bring.
        Simply to thy cross I cling.

So let me point you there. To the cross. To Jesus.
Join that rabble, that motley crew from Syria that brought their pain and disabilities to Jesus.
        For there – truly there – you WILL find blessing.