Articles
Beatitudes: A Gospel for Losers
“We become forgetful,” writes Malcolm Muggeridge, “that Jesus is the prophet of the losers’, not the victors’ camp, the one who proclaims that the first will be last, that the weak are the strong and the fools are the wise” (The End of Christendom, p. 56). Nowhere is this fact more evident than in the beatitudes. As we have already noted in our preceding study, emptiness, not fullness, is the key to happiness.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” (Matthew 5:6). The word “hunger” in this beatitude is the same as that used by Matthew in the preceding chapter (Matthew 4:2) when speaking of Jesus’ 40-day fast in the wilderness. Since such desperate hunger is largely foreign to our experience, much in this metaphor may be lost on us. It speaks of profound spiritual starvation which is leading to death. But the parallel is not absolute. There is a fundamental difference between being stomach-hungry and heart-hungry. Even the most insensitive people are moved by the hunger of the body, yet there seem to be few who recognize the hunger of the spirit and the void that sin produces. Spiritually speaking, men resemble the half-dead corpses of Dachau and Belsen, but they stubbornly refuse to acknowledge the haunting meaninglessness of life without God. Not all those in the “far country” have the sanity to confess, like the prodigal, that they “perish with hunger” (Luke 15:17)! Such individuals continue to search mindlessly for some better "husk" to fill the emptiness. Those who “hunger and thirst for righteousness” have chosen to face their desperate need for what it is, and to seek the food that answers to it.
The “righteousness” these displaced and sin-burdened souls seek is first of all the righteousness of a right relationship with God through forgiveness and justification (Romans 5:1-2; 2 Corinthians 5:20-21), and, second, the concrete righteousness of a transformed life (Romans 6:8; 8:29). They not only want to feel right but to do right. Both these ideas of righteousness are present in the sermon (Matthew 5:7 and 5:10,20-48; 6:1). God is determined not only to forgive us but to change us, to make us partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). And he has assured us that we are going to be like Him (Matthew 5:48). What a wonderful hope!
There is in every human being a built-in and inescapable need for God. This God-hunger is movingly expressed by David while a fugitive from Saul: “My soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You in a dry and weary land where there is no water” (Psalm 63:1). Sin has put in every man a God-shaped emptiness. Characteristically, we try to ease our pain by pouring in all kinds of unbelievable trash. But we had as well try to pour Niagara Falls into a teacup as to seek to satisfy our God-akin spirits with mere "things" and carnal thrills. Unable to meet our fundamental need, money and pleasure and even worldly wisdom become the basis for an insatiable appetite that leaves us empty, unfulfilled and burnt out (Ecclesiastes 5:10-11). We will never be able to have enough, feel enough, or know enough, to find contentment without God. What we need is righteousness and, as Jesus says, those that long for it are destined to know a transcendent satisfaction and peace—"they shall be filled" (Matthew 5:6).
There is in this beatitude a call for a change of priorities. For many of us a right relationship with God is seen as an important part of “the good life” which every well-rounded individual should address, but it is certainly not the whole of things. Jesus says that it must be more than a vital interest—it must become the reigning passion of our existence. All that truly hungry people can think of is food.
“Blessed are the pure in heart” (Matthew 5:8). J. B. Phillips translates this phrase, "Blessed are the utterly sincere," and this would appear to reflect the true meaning of our Lord’s words. The purity in this beatitude certainly does not refer to perfect righteousness of life, and given the fact that attitudes (things we must have as opposed to what God does) dominate this part of the sermon, it is unlikely that it refers principally to the purity of a forgiven heart. It is far more probable that it speaks of the purity of a single-minded devotion (Matthew 6:22-24; 2 Corinthians 11:2), an attitude which is possible even for sinners (Luke 8:15). James makes this use of purity when he urges: “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded” (James 4:8). The true vision of God will not be granted to the shrewd and calculating who play dishonest games, or to the double-minded who can never quite put both feet in the kingdom (James 1:7-8), but to those who are absolutely honest and single of heart toward God. They will see God (Matthew 5:8), not as the Jews at Sinai, but in the full understanding of an intimate relationship with Him (John 3:3-5; 14:7-9). It is an old question with an old answer. “Who,” says David, “may ascend into the hill of the LORD ...or...stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart” (Psalm 24:3-4). If you want to see God with your whole heart, you will. People like that don’t let anything stand in their way.
