Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany

Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany (A)

January 29, 2023

Text: Matt. 5:1-12

            The Epiphany in our text is that we live at this moment in the paradox of the “Now but Not Yet” (the “Already/Not Yet” as Luther called it).  This is to say that things, even Now, are not as they appear.  What we experience Now, in this life, as Christians, does not always look like blessing, or feel like blessing.  There is much to mourn Now.  A loved one perishes, perhaps unexpectedly, or perhaps not, and we shed bitter tears.  There is hostility from those who should be on our side, at work, in our family and home, or in our Christian family, the Church.  And it seems so futile to live in this world in meekness, in humility toward others; hungering and thirsting for righteousness, but finding none in the people and institutions we counted on, and worst of all, if we’re honest, finding none within our own heart.  So futile showing mercy on those who waste it on more sin and self-destruction, and who themselves are not merciful.  Pure in heart?  What purity?  I no sooner cross myself at the Absolution than I find the lust and covetousness, and the old bitterness and enmity toward my neighbor bubbling up in my heart.  Peace?  Where do you even start?  Making peace in this world of hellish conflict at every level, is as daunting as patching the hole in the Titanic with a wad of chewing gum.  That is the Now.  That is the description of the Christian life Now.  Meek, yearning for righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, peacemaking, and what do you get for your efforts?  Mourning.  And persecution!  Yes, you should expect persecution.  Rejection.  Even real suffering.  People uttering all kinds of evil against you falsely.  Perhaps plundering you.  Possibly arresting you.  Maybe even beating you.  And the real crown of it all: Martyrdom.  Yes, they may even kill you.  As they do, Now, in so many parts of the world.  As they have, historically, in so many places.  And anyway, what does it matter?  Either way, you die.  Your body tells you that with every sickness and pain, with every passing year, month, and day you check off the calendar.  And this is the Gospel of the Lord?

            Yes.  Because the Christian must not believe his eyes, but his ears.  This is the Gospel of the Lord… This is what the Lord Jesus says of it all: “Blessed!”  And the Lord Jesus cannot lie.  He looks upon our reality Now, and transforms it, creates it anew with His divine declaration.  It is blessed, because He says so.  This that you see, all the fallenness and brokenness, is simply the evidence that you are, in fact, “poor in spirit,” like Jesus says (Matt. 5:3; ESV).  That is, for all your efforts to live the Christian life faithfully Now, you still have nothing of your own to bring to the table before God… except for your sin and death.  You have nothing to merit His approval, no worthiness to use as a bargaining chip.  You’re impoverished.  Destitute.  You’ve got nothin’!  And it is just this that the Lord Jesus declares “Blessed!”  “Blessed are the poor in spirit!”

            Well… not because they are poor.  There is a false teaching fashionable in our society, and even in many churches, in which your justification corresponds to your level of economic hardship, or some form of victimization, or marginalization.  According to this teaching, the more disadvantaged you are, the greater your righteousness on account of your disadvantages.  And if you are not a part of any marginalized group, there is no justification for you.  You cannot be saved.  This is sham righteousness, beloved.  Don’t fall for it.  It is not just the bleeding hearts.  Even you Republicans fall for it.  And it would be easy for any Christian to fall for it, because we are promised persecution, marginalization, in this life.  But never for a moment think that that is the basis of your righteousness.  We can start to get into this godless competition, like we are the real victims, and all those snowflakes out there are just fakers, and perpetrators.  But when we do this, we’re buying into the very same sham justification.  Repent of that.  Don’t do it.

            “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” why then?... “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  Theirs is the Kingdom of heaven because of Jesus, and because Jesus says so.  He wins for them the Kingdom, and He gives it to them freely, by His Word.  But mark this: He only gives it to the poor in spirit.  Those who know they are poor, and say so, confess it.  Because those who think they are rich in spirit, that they’re basically good people who, perhaps, have made a few mistakes and have a few weaknesses, but overall deserve to go to heaven… they have no room for Jesus’ justification, for His righteousness, because they’re too full of themselves.  It’s a temptation.  We all want to think well of ourselves.  We never want to admit the truth of the situation in our hearts.  Repent of that.  There is a reason pride is such a deadly sin.  It refuses Jesus, squeezes out Jesus, to make room for its own inflated an delusional ego. 

            “Theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” because that is what Jesus won for them, for you, by His innocent suffering and death on the cross.  By His being persecuted.  By their uttering all kinds of evil against Him falsely.  By their arresting Him, beating Him, plundering Him (gambling over His seamless tunic), and persecuting Him all the way to death.

            The cross of Jesus Christ is the key that unlocks this paradox of the “Now but Not Yet” for us.  The cross is the great Epiphany, the revelation of what is hidden.  It is the ultimate evil, the murder of God.  But in the light of Easter morn, it is revealed to be the ultimate good for us.  By His blood and death on the cross, Jesus redeems our Now, and guarantees that the Not Yet will be our reality soon.  The cross is the ultimate beatitude, the ultimate blessing.  The cross is our blessedness.  It is God’s mercy for us poor sinners.  It effects our peace.  It purifies our hearts.  Mourning over our sin and separation from God, hungering and thirsting for our righteousness, the Meek One, Jesus Christ, takes up our cross and dies our death.  To provide for us all that we lack in our poverty: Righteousness, Life, Peace, Wholeness.  He takes our situation as it is Now, and He changes it, turns it, from “Cursed,” to “Blessed.”  This morning, He pronounces it so.  He gives to us poor His very Kingdom.  Now.  Hidden, but Now.  The Kingdom is breaking into the Now.  “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  Now. 

            That is a present tense.  Beloved, the Kingdom of Heaven is yours Now.  In case you miss it, Jesus repeats the present tense declaration in the beatitude of those persecuted for righteousness’ sake (v. 10): “theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  All the other beatitudes give future promises.  Those who mourn shall be comforted.  They aren’t yet.  Not fully.  But they shall be.  The meek shall inherit the earth.  You don’t see any of the righteousness for which you hunger and thirst Now, in this life, but you shall see it, and be satisfied, when you see Jesus.  The merciful shall receive mercy.  The pure in heart shall see God.  The peacemakers shall be called sons of God.  And even those persecuted shall receive a future great reward in heaven.  We will honor and revere the martyrs, and they will shine brightly then for all that they suffered here, and great will be their consolation.  All of that is to come.  But see, that is why none of your apparently futile labor in the Lord is, in fact, futile.  None of it.  The fruit just hasn’t been revealed yet.  Not Yet. 

            But the blessedness is always present tense, in every case, because yours is the Kingdom of Heaven on account of Christ.  And because yours is the Kingdom of Heaven, all the other promises will follow in their time, on that great Day.  In the meantime, as you look around at the mess and devastation that surrounds you, you simply have to cling in faith to the Word you hear from Jesus’ own mouth, His declaration about your condition: “Blessed.”  That’s what He says.  You either believe Him, or call Him a liar.  But He has staked His blood on that truth. 

            Now His cross shapes our lives.  He bore His cross for our redemption, but He lays crosses upon each one of us to preserve us in the state of blessedness.  If we didn’t suffer in this life, we would forget that we’re poor in spirit.  We would no longer mourn over sin and fallenness.  We would think that we have a right to see the Kingdom manifest Now, and we would look for no future reward.  That is always the temptation, isn’t it?  To seek our consolation Now, in things earthly and temporal.  To look for satisfaction Now, in the things that never really satisfy.  To build the Kingdom Now (always a poor imitation), and not to take up our cross and follow Jesus. 

            God cannot leave us in that idolatrous illusion, and so He lays upon us the blessed and holy cross.  Now, we all have our crosses to bear, and they are all different, designed by God Himself specifically for each person, for their good, according to their need.  And so, we should not compare our crosses in such a way that we envy what we consider the lesser cross of another; or take pride in the acute suffering we ourselves bear, as though that is the basis of our righteousness, our justification.  But what should we do?  We should look upon our fellow cross-bearers in mercy, and encourage one another to keep following Jesus in the Now, as we anticipate the Not Yet.  We should help one another to bear the burden.  We should relieve one another where we can.  And where we can’t, we should suffer with and for each other.  Weep with those who weep.  Be present.  Pray.  And hold our Crucified Brother before one another’s eyes, and speak Him into each other’s ears.  The Christian Church on earth is a suffering Church.  That is the Now.  And we are suffering people.  For we follow a suffering Lord.  Through suffering.  To resurrection.  Life.  Glory.  That is the Not Yet.  But it shall be. 

            Now is the time of faith.  Sight is in the future.  It is coming, but it is Not Yet.  The pains and sorrows of this life will come to an end.  But not the blessing.  Not the Lord’s beatitude.  That has no end.  You will see it soon, beloved.  For now, you trust what the Lord has spoken.  Blessed are you.  Yours is the Kingdom of Heaven.  And now it is time for a forestate of that, as the Kingdom breaks through in the Supper.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.