Milford Baptist Church    3 February 2002
Get a life!  God’s prescription for happiness.  Matthew 5.1-12

This week the National Party released its first policy statements in the lead up to the general election this year. In effect the National Party was saying, “This is what life will be like under a National Government. It will be better than it is now.” In his Sermon on the Mount, and in the beatitudes or the proverbs at the start of the Sermon, Jesus says, “This is what life is like under God’s government. And if you live according to God’s plan, you will be “blessed” or, as some translations put it, “happy”.

But “blessed” and “happy” are far too sedate a words to capture what Jesus really meant. You may have seen the film, Waking Ned Divine – a cute film about some elderly Irishmen who discover that their friend has won the Irish Sweepstakes – millions of pounds. But they discover their friend, sitting in his lazy boy in front of the television, lottery ticket in hand, a look of shock etched on his face, and he’s stone dead. He’s died from the shock of winning. And so his friends engineer a scheme to get the winnings for themselves. Giddy with joy they think, “Are we lucky!” Jesus says that if you enter God’s kingdom, if you live according to his prescription, you are far more lucky than that. You can have the life that no money can buy. The life that God has always intended for you. Real life. Abundant life. Eternal life.

Do you want to be part of that kingdom? Do you want to enjoy the abundant life that God offers people who trust him and submit to his rule? If so, there are three requirements. They run right across these beatitudes. Let’s look briefly at them.

First, Jesus says, realise that you desperately need God’s help.

If you’ve seen “The Predators” series on TV you’ll probably realise that the animal kingdom lives by the rule: survival of the fittest. It’s no different in the human kingdom. Who’s been watching the cricket tri-series between NZ, Australia and South Africa? Who’s going to win? The strongest team wins. Have you seen the bumper sticker, “The one with the most toys wins”? Do you look at the covers of New Idea and Women’s Weekly? They teach us to say: “Blessed are the beautiful, the talented, the rich.”

But not Jesus. He says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for there is the kingdom of heaven” (3). The word that Matthew uses for “poor” is a strong word. It means poverty-stricken or bankrupt. It comes from the word meaning to “cringe.” It refers to those who for any number of reasons are so struck by their poverty, their helplessness, that they are driven to complete reliance on God. So some translations say, “Blessed are the desperate” or “Blessed are those who are at the end of their rope.” Theirs is the kingdom of God because they are the ones that turn to God and receive his loving care and grace.

“Blessed are those who mourn” (4). Blessed are those who are shattered by the realisation of their need. “For they will be comforted.” They are open to God and the comfort he longs to give them. “Blessed are those who are meek” (5). Those who are so aware of their need, so humbled, that they are open to God to do whatever he likes in their lives. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” (6). Both those who desire to be right with God, to be filled with his Spirit, and those who hunger and thirst for justice in the face of any sort of suffering. (Jesus was speaking to a motley rabble of Jews, people oppressed under the tyranny of occupying forces.)

Blessed are the poor, the mourning, the humble, the hungry. “How lucky are the unlucky.” Because they are likely to throw themselves on God and receive his love and help. The people who are rich and strong and beautiful and talented face the disadvantage. They are less likely to turn to God, either because they think they can drive their own lives, or because they have too much to lose to really surrender the steering wheel to God. But blessed are the desperate, those who know they cannot succeed on their own.

This week I attended the funeral of Sue Powell. What a wonderful celebration. That woman lived life to the full … because she loved people. She poured her life into others. It was inspiring and humbling. I was struck again by my own self-centredness, my own poverty. But Jesus’ word to me has been: “You’re poor? You’re grieving? You need help? Great! Here it is.” Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for there is the kingdom of heaven.

That’s the first requirement for enjoying new life in God’s Kingdom. The second requirement is this: remember that there are eternal rewards at stake.

Unlike medieval kings who threw coins to the masses or modern politicians who make promises to the poor just before an election, Jesus had the ability to offer his audience lasting, even eternal, rewards.

Alone of all people on earth, Jesus came to us from “the other side.” He knew that life in heaven can easily outweigh whatever miseries we encounter in this life. So he says, “Those who mourn will be comforted. The meek will inherit the earth. The hungry will be filled. The pure will see God.”

C.S Lewis once said: “Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seems that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition, when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.”

But what good does it do now to hope for eternal rewards? Isn’t this just pie in the sky? I know a man of advancing years who lives on his own, suffers from ill health. He’s at that point in life when most people might get bitter or despondent and increasingly fearful of death. But he sparkles with peace and joy as he looks forward to being with Jesus, meeting his wife again, receiving a new body again, free from sin and sickness. His hope in the future is transforming his life now. That’s the second requirement for enjoying new life in the kingdom of heaven: remember that there are eternal rewards at stake.

And there’s one more requirement. Jesus says, thirdly, resist the urge to live for yourself.

You’ve probably read stories about successful people. Rich businessmen, strong athletes, glamorous actresses. People we admire and often imitate. They feature on the covers of glossy magazines. But they’re not the fulfilled, happy people you might expect. I remember reading Julia Roberts saying that she was lonely.

Jesus does not say, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for a good time, those who look out for themselves.” He says instead: “Blessed are those who are merciful. Blessed are the pure in heart. Blessed are the peacemakers.” Blessed are those who genuinely give their lives away for the sake of others.

Henri Nouwen was a brilliant scholar who taught at Harvard University. At the height of his academic career he moved from Harvard to a community called Daybreak, near Toronto. He went there to take on the demanding and menial work of caring for Adam, a severely disabled 25 year old. Every morning Nouwen would wake Adam up, give him his medication, carry him into his bath, wash him, shave him, clean his teeth, dress him, feed him, put him in his wheel chair, and take him to the place where he spent most of the day in therapy. People suggested to Nouwen that he was wasting his time and his talent giving up his career to do this menial work that someone else could have done. But for Nouwen, the hours spent with Adam gave him an inner peace so fulfilling, it made his loftier, high-minded and often selfish pursuit of success in the academic world seem empty by contrast.

No wonder Jesus’ most common saying was: “Whoever wants to save their life will lose it. But whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.”

There was a businessman who specialised in gems. One day he finds a pearl, gorgeous enough to make princesses drool with envy. Recognising its value, he liquidates his entire business, and mortgages his house, in order to buy it. The purchase costs everything he owns, but not for a moment does he regret it. He makes the trade with joy, as the crowning event and achievement of his life. That’s how Jesus describes the kingdom of God. To enter the kingdom, to enjoy life in the kingdom, the abundant life that God intends for us is worth more than anything money can buy.

Have you entered the kingdom? Are you experiencing this life? Maybe – like me and most of us – you’re struggling with self-centredness and self-reliance. You’re desperate to change but desperate for help. Maybe you’re struggling with other circumstances in your life. Work or study is not going well. Your marriage, or some other special friendship, is crumbling. Your finances are crumbling. Your health is crumbling.  If you want to enter the kingdom of heaven, if you want to enjoy abundant life in God’s kingdom, then three things. This is Jesus’ prescription: Realise that you desperately need God’s help. And he’ll rescue you. Remember that there are eternal rewards at stake. Let that hope for the future transform your life now. And resist the urge to live for yourself. “Whoever wants to save their life will lose it. But whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.”