Year A 4th Sunday after the Epiphany

Text Matthew 5:1-12 – Hidden blessings

There has been a lot of publicity in the news this year about something that is called “A King Hit”.

A king hit is when a person throws a punch at someone without them expecting it.

Recently a young man walking the street in Sydney had his life support turned off after one punch knocked him to the ground.

People have asked for it to be called a Coward’s Punch – naming it for what it is rather than glorifying it with the name “King” in the title.

Many believe that society is becoming out of control with much of the violence on the streets blamed on the growing abuse of alcohol and drugs.

In the town of Mildura it is reported that the use of the drug “ICE” is ruining lives with threats from bikies that “we’re going to destroy this town”.

Alcohol and drugs is where a growing part of society believe their happiness comes from.

We’ve even termed many of these drugs as “recreational drugs”.

People want to be happy but unfortunately happiness is a moving object.

You think you’ve found it but then you need something else because it starts to fade.

That’s how drugs work.

Eventually they no longer provide the high and happiness and there is the need for stronger drugs which can lead to overdosing.

We want to be happy.

We believe it is a fundamental right to be happy.

We are often shocked to find out that what we want does not make us happy.

As I’ve mentioned in the past, marketing of goods is based on you continually not being happy so you buy their latest product.

The term used to describe this is “planned obsolescence”.

As Christians we know that God is the only source of true happiness and contentment.

A 4th Century Monk by the name of Augustine described it beautifully when he wrote the prayer:

You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.

Jesus teaches about “blessedness,” a word that sometimes gets translated in modern bible translations as “happy”.

The “blessed” are not the “happy” in the sense used in our culture to describe physical pleasure.

When Jesus describes those who are “blessed,” it’s hard to see “happiness” written on any of these lives.

Jesus begins this teaching, not with promises of happiness, but with promises of blessedness.

But many of these promises are entrenched in difficult human experiences of mourning, meekness, peacemaking, persecution, and poverty of spirit.

Jesus’ promise of “blessedness” only makes sense when our lives are centred on God, as Augustine highlights in his prayer:

You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.

Jesus’ teaching begins and ends with the kingdom of Heaven.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (V3)

Blessed are those who are persecuted … for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (V10)

In Jesus’ teaching “blessedness” does not depend on wealth or health or status, the usual things that make people happy.

Nor is it a feeling in the same way that happiness is.

It is a feeling but it’s a sense of wholeness rather than enjoyment, assured of our home in the Kingdom of Heaven.

So one can still feel blessed while not necessarily feeling a sense of enjoyment.

Compare images of the rich in western developed country and the poor in underprivileged countries and communities.

The rich don’t always seem happy.

Compare them with developing and underprivileged countries and communities where the Word of God has been revealed and see the joy rather than enjoyment.

Blessedness is God’s gift.

It does not promise an abundance of possessions but it promises abundant life.

I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10)

Even mourning, poverty of spirit, and meekness can reveal this inbreaking of God’s abundant life.

But it begins with our lives first being centred on God.

You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.

Paul, like Jesus, reverses the way God blesses.

The foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

Where the world sees weakness, God creates strength.

This is foolishness to the world who sees strength in physical terms.

That’s why there is outcry over calling a Coward’s Punch a King Hit.

It would make a lot more sense if Jesus taught the ways of the world:

Happy are those who have lots of money and can go anywhere, do anything, have anything they want.

Happy are those who are successful.

Happy are those who are healthy, or those who have good marriages, or who have perfect children.

I know it’s hard to count blessings when we are going through difficult times

When we are poor in spirit.

When we are mourning.

When we hunger and thirst,

When we are persecuted.

We don’t feel blessed at all.

But Paul and Jesus urge us not to find blessings in overcoming them, but to find blessings that come from them.

To see God at work in them as Paul did:

I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. (2 Cor 12:9)

As we progress through the Season of Epiphany, we remember that the word Epiphany means to reveal.

Jesus is revealing what wholeness of life really means – not what modern society says it means.

It is not wholeness that comes from filling our lives but from emptying them.

Adam and Eve tried to fill their life with worldly gain.

But the more they filled their lives, the more empty they become.

Their eyes were opened to become like God, but through it they lost God.

The kingdom of God is a way of putting your life together.

It is letting God be the ruler of your life.

But not “ruler” in a dominating way but in a protecting, caring and providing way.

Joy doesn’t come from enjoyment.

Enjoyment of life comes from the Joy of being in a relationship with God, as the angels declared at Jesus’ birth:

I bring you good news of great joy for all the people.

Likewise feeling blessed doesn’t come from being happy in life from material blessings.

Blessedness is not a feeling but a state of reality.

You are blessed – you don’t feel blessed.

But when you know you are blessed you feel blessed because your life feels in order with God.

This is not about deliberately taking on the above qualities that Jesus spoke of.

No one willingly wants to be poor, meek, mournful, persecuted.

No, it is about living in God’s kingdom.

It is not about achieving blessedness but being blessed by being in a relationship with God.

Jesus does not tell us that God will be good to us.

Jesus tells us that God is already good to us.

Jesus does not suggest that the kingdom will come someday.

Jesus proclaims that the kingdom of God is already here.

From what Jesus says we understand that God wants us to be happy.

That's God's intent for our lives.

What Jesus teaches here in what is known as The Beatitudes is how to truly live a blessed life.

Some of the teachings are difficult – some of them are challenging.

But they are the foundation of a truly blessed life.

Jesus will conclude his teachings with that well known parable of 2 people building a house. (Matthew 7:24-27)

The foolish person builds his house on sand – wealth, possessions, success.

In difficult times these are the first to go.

But the wise man builds his house on rock which Jesus will later explain is the church – On this Rock I will build my church and not even the gates of Hell will overcome it (Matthew 16:18).

Life won’t always be easy but it will always be blessed when it is built on the rock of Christ.

On Christ the solid rock I stand – all other ground is sinking sand.