Blessed Below And Above
Matthew 5:1-12
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
St. Matthew 5:12 “Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven.”
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord, dear fellow saints of God… The Festival of All Saints is a good time to review some key teachings of Scripture. For instance, what is a saint? A saint is, very simply, a holy person. How does a person become a saint? Well, it certainly is not by leading a holy life; if that were the case, then there would be no saints at all. And it is certainly not by doing miracles, or answering prayers after one dies, or being declared a saint by the pope. We leave those false doctrines to Rome.
No, sinners become saints when they are brought to repentance and faith in Christ Jesus and when they are sanctified by Holy Baptism, the washing with water by the Word. So then, the saints are all the baptized believers in Christ, both in heaven and on earth. The one holy Christian – catholic – and Apostolic Church consists of all saints.
And when we speak of that one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church, we speak of two sides of that one Church – the side that is now in heaven, and the side that is still here on earth. We speak of the saints above who, as we sang, “from their labors rest.” They are “the blessed;” they are in the Church Triumphant. They are the ones who, as we heard in our reading from Revelation 7 have “come out of the great tribulation, and [have] washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore, they are before the throne of God and serve Him day and night in His temple.”
They are the ones who have been taken out of this sinful world, the Church Militant. They have reached their goal. Their fight is over. Their suffering is finished. Their blessedness is sealed forever and cannot be changed.
And yes, we speak of the saints below as being in the Church Militant. These are the Christians – you and I included – Christians who are still in the midst of the fight, Christians who are still running the race, Christians who still suffer here below and are still surrounded by the deadly enemies of the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh. These are the saints who “feebly struggle,” while those who have gone before us are those who “in glory shine.”
It is to us here below that Jesus speaks the words of today’s Gospel in Matthew 5. It is the saints here below whom Jesus calls “blessed” as He points us in the Gospel to a blessedness that is ours even while here below; and it is ours precisely because of the blessedness that surely awaits us there in heaven above. And notice how Jesus says it: not “blessed will they be,” but “blessed are they.” The blessing is here, the blessing is now, even while we are still in our sinful flesh, even while we await that “yet more glorious day.”
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Poor in spirit. The poor in spirit may or may not be poor in possessions. The poor in spirit are described by God in this way in Is. 66:2: “But on this one will I look: on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word.”
To be sure, to be a saint here on earth doesn’t mean “to be perfect;” it means to come before God not with your head held high, but with your head hanging low. You, dear saints, come with nothing but your depravity; you come with your guilty conscience and your hands stretched out like a beggar. You come as a beggar who knows you can only survive because of the mercy and generosity of Him who is rich in mercy, only for the sake of Jesus Christ. Blessed are they – blessed are you – who are privileged recipients of God’s divine favor. Yours is the kingdom of heaven right now. When you have Jesus for a Savior, you have a gracious Father in heaven, and you have the kingdom of heaven. You have eternal life because Jesus is eternal life.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” Not all people who mourn are blessed. There are two kinds of mourning that God acknowledges as blessed. First, God calls all impenitent sinners to mourn over their sins. This is the mourning of repentance, the mourning of admitting your sins against God in thought, word, and deed, and truly sorrowing over them. Blessed are they, for they shall be comforted with a comfort that doesn’t wait till you get to heaven, but with the ready comfort of Holy Absolution, the comfort of God, through His ordained minister, releasing you from your sins, declaring you to be forgiven. With words of peace, God comforts all who mourn over their sins with the good news of Christ crucified and delivered over to death for our sins, bringing them to trust in Christ’s holy, precious blood for the forgiveness of sins. Blessed are they who mourn in this way.
And, blessed are they who mourn over all the suffering and loss that Christians must face in this life, for they too shall be comforted. They shall be comforted as soon as they leave this vale of tears, as poor Lazarus was in Jesus’ parable. You will recall that when Lazarus died, his soul was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom where, Jesus says, “he was comforted” (Lk 16:25). So, too, all believers in Christ who have suffered loss in this world will be comforted in death as they come out of this great tribulation. They are “before the throne of God…and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” To be meek is to be kind, humble, lowly, not aggressive or pushy or in-your-face. To be meek is to be like Jesus, who said, “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls”(Mt 18:29).
It looks as if the powerful and the ruthless, the violent and the ungodly are going to take over the earth. But it’s just the opposite according to Jesus. The earth will be inhabited by and inherited by the meek… but not this earth. This earth will be destroyed by fire, and no one will inherit it. But the new heavens and the new earth that God will create when Christ returns – that will be the inheritance of the meek. Blessed are they.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” Sinners who acknowledge their own sinfulness long for someone’s righteousness to hold up to God, because they know they have none of their own. So, they hunger and thirst for the righteousness of Christ, and they are blessed, for they shall be filled, even here below, as Paul also said to the Romans: “The righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe.” (Rom 3:21-22)
As Christians, we also hunger and thirst for righteousness and justice to be done in the midst of so much depravity in this world where wickedness is exalted and godliness is condemned, where the wicked prosper and the godly suffer. But the Day of the Lord will come, and in that Day, in the resurrection, all the ungodly and unjust will be destroyed, and the new creation will be, in the words of St. Peter, “where righteousness dwells” (Pet 3:13), and the saints shall be filled forever.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” These words of Jesus admonish us Christians to set aside all bitterness and rage and apathy and indifference to your neighbor. You are encouraged to have a compassionate heart, to show mercy and compassion to those around you, especially to those who don’t deserve it. That is the kind of mercy God has shown to you in giving you His Son into death for your sins. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” A pure heart is not something you can create within yourself. Your heart is, by nature, sinful and unclean. But as God’s Law calls you to repentance and as His Gospel shows you Christ and His loving sacrifice for you on the cross, through that Word God’s Holy Spirit takes unclean hearts and purifies them by faith. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. But those who trust in Christ Jesus are blessed, for they shall see God, as John said in the Epistle: “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”
But then, what does John go on to say? “And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” A heart that has been purified by faith will not willingly go on living in impurity and sin but will daily struggle against sin and strive to keep God’s commandments. This life is, after all, our time of preparation to see God. Why would we go on living as those who are preparing to dance with the devil?
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” Peacemakers, godly pacifists, are not those who refuse to go to war or who condemn all war as evil. Godly peacemakers are those who, like Christ, are ready to sacrifice themselves for the good of their neighbor and give up all things rather than cause war and bloodshed and discord and anger and bitterness. Blessed are those who are willing to be wronged rather than do wrong to their neighbor. They shall be called sons of God, because they are just like the Son of God, in whose mouth was found no deceit, who did not call down fire and brimstone on His enemies, but allowed Himself to be crucified for us, and so made peace between God and man.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
This is a timely beatitude as we see Christians being persecuted more and more around the world and here in our own country. Our first impulse is to be afraid, or to be troubled by the injustice of it all, or even to grow angry and lash out at those who mistreat God’s people, whether it’s at your school, or in society, or in the church. But we mustn’t forget Jesus’ words: “Blessed are those who are persecuted, blessed are you when they revile you, when they falsely say all kinds of evil against you for My sake.” Rejoice and be glad! Why? Because you are getting a prophet’s treatment, which also means that you will receive a prophet’s reward.
And so Jesus describes the blessed life here below: a life of poverty of spirit, a life of mourning and meekness, hunger and thirst, a life of mercy and purity of heart, a life of making peace in the midst of conflict, a life of persecution and suffering for the name of Jesus that was branded upon us in our Baptism and that we Christians carry around with us every day. Only by faith can we call such a life “blessed.”
But that’s exactly the purpose of Jesus’ Words: to strengthen our faith, to spur us on to love and good works, and to fix our eyes on Him and on the prize He has promised to those who love Him. The saints above in the Church Triumphant have finished their race in faith, and now they await the saints here below in the Church Militant to finish our race, too, still trusting in Christ Jesus, still confessing His name, ever faithful, ever courageous, and ever blessed.
You are a saint, and you are a holy person if you have faith in Christ. Your sins have been paid for by Christ, and when by faith you believe that, you have forgiveness for your sins. You have been baptized; therefore you have Christ’s gift of forgiveness of sins, rescue from death and the devil and eternal life. You have Holy Absolution wherein Christ delivers His forgiveness to you. And you have Christ’s real and true body and blood in Holy Communion for even MORE forgiveness.
And here at the altar rail is where the saints above – those in the Church Triumphant – and the saints below – the Church Militant – meet, for here is where we join with the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven. Here is heaven on earth, for here is Jesus for you.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Hoy Spirit.
