Matthew 5:1-2 New Living Translation
The Sermon on the Mount
5 One day as he saw the crowds gathering, Jesus went up on the mountainside and sat down. His disciples gathered around him, 2 and he began to teach them.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
One day as He saw the crowds gathering …
As many times as I have read this passage, I realize that somehow I have always read past, glossed over, those very first words … One day as HE SAW the crowds.
Now I have to confess I don’t really appreciate the way I learned the Beatitudes.
I’m in my early 60’s now and I think I’m only starting to observe, understand, what’s really happening in this passage at the beginning of The Sermon on the Mount, courtesy of a recently fantastic sermon and sweet, wonderful context.
I’ve been able to by rote rattle off “Blessed are the poor in spirit… blessed are those who mourn… blessed are the meek” and most of the rest of them for quite a while.
Because I was given that passage to memorize during my early adult studies.
And it sounded deep, and beautiful, but also a little empty and off.
I’d learned that Matthew 5:2-12 was a passage known as The Beatitudes, and that the word “blessed” being repeated some nine times here meant “happy.”
Okay – that is pretty much all I have ever heard preached or taught about it, it is all any Bible teacher or preacher I have ever had ever really focused – “blessed.”
Except now, as I sit here, as I sat there in that Church pew, sitting still, listening and paying attention and recalling a moving wonderfully preached sermon on the Matthew 25 Christian, I am observing things differently about this passage.
I sat down, I sat still, and I paid attention and I listened to the message as if I was being preached to by Jesus Himself – as if Jesus were looking directly at me.
Now, as I read the Beatitudes passage again, the first words I observe are the one’s which communicate – “that one day, Jesus saw the crowds gathering.”
I sit here writing this devotional with that first verse in my mind and I have to wonder to myself – “If Jesus saw the crowds gathering, how many saw Jesus?”
How many in the gathered crowd were observant enough to see Jesus coming?
How many people in the crowd were observing Jesus as He was observing them?
How many in the crowd knew who Jesus was?
How many actually paid attention to His arrival?
How many sat down versus remained standing giving Jesus their full attention?
I see a new teaching coming to this crowd and I wonder about their attitudes?
I see the people that Jesus saw, I begin to wonder about them as if I was there.
I observe that the people listed here at first didn’t sound very happy to me.
More than that, knowing these words came from Jesus, it sounded as if Jesus was commanding his followers to be mourners and peacemakers, merciful and persecuted – they had heard similar messages from more hypocritical mouths.
I can see their eyes rolling, hear them saying one of those examples of upside-down living in the Kingdom of God we know now were part of Christ’s teaching.
But something entirely different happened here – the people sat down, they sat still, they paid attention to the teacher, they listened, they were seen by Jesus.
Think about where this passage appears.
These are the FIRST WORDS of The Sermon on the Mount.
The very beginning.
The first thing Jesus has to say, what and who He observes, what He did, how he did it, after he “saw the crowds” from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan referenced at the end of Matthew Chapter 4.
He’d been teaching and healing and proclaiming the good news, and many are gathering.
And what kind of people are in this crowd?
I think we know.
We know because this is the introduction to the largest uninterrupted session of teaching we have recorded from Jesus.
And in an introduction, it’s common to address your audience directly.
Its common to want to draw the attention of your audience to your message.
It is common for the writer to want future readers to draw their attention to the moment, into the moment, to get them to sit down, sit still, and to observe the whole scene, to listen, pay attention to message. ultimately, to be seen by Jesus.
Jesus we are told, sees the crowds.
He goes to a higher place from which to see them, then sits down and rests among them.
I can imagine a lot of eye contact and a few deep breaths before Jesus, who sees into their souls and knows every cell of their bodies, speaks right to their hearts and directly into the exact issues of their life that have brought them to his feet.
He gestures to a group gathered nearby and says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
An attention grabber par excellence! What a strange way to start a sermon.
Unless it’s actually the most beautiful way to speak to someone there could possibly be.
Who are the “poor in spirit,” after all?
I never really knew, until I heard a sermon about this Sermon during a time I am being treated for my post open heart surgery anxiety and depression .
For the first time in my life, I certainly related to being “poor in spirit.”
And Jesus continues his way around the crowd, next finding those who are mourning.
His heart breaks for them, too.
Maybe sees someone meek shyly lurking near the edge.
He knows some are there because they have a deep longing for truth and righteousness.
He finds some rich in mercy who may be downtrodden or taken advantage of in life.
He sees the pure and the peacemakers, and know the loneliness these types can experience, but tells them they will see God and be called children – part of his family.
And finally, the persecuted, the cast-out, the misfits, who dare to seek him out anyway.
He sees and addresses them all, all these types who are drawn to want to know God.
HE SEES THEM.
HE SEES THEM ALL
He sees you!
He sees me!
Before Jesus has anything else to say, He sees you.
And what’s more, He knows what you’re going through.
He knows whether you are pure in heart or poor in spirit, that very condition has brought you to him in a way thirsting for self or needing nothing could never do.
And He wants you to know: not only do I see you, not only has your character or your current life situation brought you to me, but I have a nugget for each and every one of you, a warm blanket to your chill, a silver lining to your dark cloud.
You, poor in spirit, you feel ill at ease in this world.
Jesus sees you, and wants you to know, yours is the Kingdom of Heaven.
A time is coming when you’ll know peace and a deep, rich purpose.
There is reason to hold fast in faith.
You, mourner, you feel abandoned and lost.
But Jesus sees you and wants you to know: lean into those who will pamper you, cry with you, feed you and comfort you.
That’s got to be a good, good feeling, and one you’ll certainly be able to hang onto and want deeply, authentically, to reciprocate to others in turn.
You, feeling meek, mild, powerless. Jesus sees you.
He knows things aren’t easy, but he wants you to know you have an inheritance!
The meek in the world are given nothing. Jesus says he plans to give them everything.
Talk about a silver lining.
You, the merciful, Jesus sees you.
He knows your forgiving heart, and he knows maybe this causes you to feel walked over at times.
He also knows you will be shown mercy for having treated others as you would want to be treated.
It goes on and on through the list.
Before Jesus teaches anything, he lets you know he sees you there ready to learn from him, that he appreciates how this very thing has brought you to him, and that there is good news on the flip side of your coin.
What a difference!
Be still, sit still, take a rest on this hillside now and go through The Beatitudes again only this time calmly, quietly, with wisdom and insight, considering what it was that first brought you to the feet of Jesus because: He SAW YOU FIRST!
And observe exactly how that very condition has caused you to be called blessed.
Ask others to observe you – communicate exactly how and what and why they see and observe how that condition has caused you to be called, to feel, blessed.
Happy.
Amen.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Psalm 121 The Message
121 1-2 I look up to the mountains;
does my strength come from mountains?
No, my strength comes from God,
who made heaven, and earth, and mountains.
3-4 He won’t let you stumble,
your Guardian God won’t fall asleep.
Not on your life! Israel’s
Guardian will never doze or sleep.
5-6 God’s your Guardian,
right at your side to protect you—
Shielding you from sunstroke,
sheltering you from moonstroke.
7-8 God guards you from every evil,
he guards your very life.
He guards you when you leave and when you return,
he guards you now, he guards you always.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 