All Saints' Day (Observed)

All Saints’ Day (Observed)

November 3, 2024

Text: Matt. 5:1-12

            “And I heard a voice from heaven saying, ‘Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’  ‘Blessed indeed,’ says the Spirit, ‘that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!’” (Rev. 14:13; ESV).

            Our Lord calls “Blessed” what we, at least according to our fallen human nature, would consider a curse.  The beatitudes of the Bible are often counter-intuitive.  We would say, “Blessed are those who are rich!”  Not only in spirit, but in money, in things.  In beautiful homes, and with well-funded retirements.  And, yes, rich in spirit, which is to say, rich in works, rich in personal righteousness.   The poor in spirit are blessed?  Those who have nothing in themselves, who bring nothing to the table before God, before the Church?  Yes, those very ones, says Jesus.

            We would say, “Blessed are those who have nothing to mourn over; those who have power, and know how to use it; those who are filled, and fulfilled.”  But those who mourn, the meek, those hungering and thirsting after righteousness?  They are blessed?  Yes, says Jesus.  Those very ones. 

            And we get that the merciful, the pure in heart, and the peacemakers should be blessed.  Those sound like very blessed character traits.  But it so often seems so futile.  You can be merciful toward others, but where does it get you?  Your mercy is taken for granted.  Your forgiving those who sin against you, who aren’t even sorry.  Your generosity toward those who aren’t even thankful, and who misuse your gifts.  Then, meekness?  What is that, anyway?  The best definition I’ve read is that someone who is meek, is someone who has the power to do something, and doesn’t.  The Josephs of Holy Scripture are the picture of meekness.  Joseph in the Old Testament had the power to punish his brothers for selling him down the river, but ultimately, he didn’t.  He forgave them and provided for them.  Jospeh in the New Testament, the adoptive father of our Lord, had the power, not only to divorce Mary when she was found to be pregnant, but to stone her to death.  But he didn’t.  He protected her, and provided for her, and for her Son.  Meekness.  Admirable.  Blessed.  But who can do it?  And when you do, it can sure heap an awful lot of misery on oneself.  And peacemaking?  The fruit of mercy and meekness.  But good luck.  It’s a lot of work, a lot of frustration, and who is to say, in the end, whether it will be successful? 

            And, last but not least, we would say, “Blessed are those who do not suffer pain and rejection, much less beatings, imprisonments, the loss of all earthly goods… death.”  Quite the contrary, says our Lord.  Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.  Blessed are you when you are reviled, persecuted, and slandered for Jesus’ sake.  It’s strange, to say the least.  The Beatitudes have confounded Christians for centuries.  (Beatitude, by the way, simply means blessed.)  But we count them precious, because we sense their profundity, and we know our Lord’s Words, here, are doing something, making things happen, acting upon us as we hear them.  Our Lord opens His mouth to speak His creative Word, the Word that brings forth out of nothing (ex nihilo) all that is, visible and invisible.  And so, upon us, His Word is an act of re-creation.  New creation.  It puts to death our old conception of what it means to be blessed.  And it conceives within us the true blessedness.

            But it isn’t easy for us to comprehend.  The Beatitudes are not platitudes.  They are not simple.  And so there are some misconceptions to untangle.  Particularly when it comes to why the poor in spirit, those who mourn, those hungering and thirsting, etc., are blessed.  The first misconception to get over is this idea that poverty… specifically financial poverty… is a virtue in itself.  Our society loves that one, but it isn’t what the text says, nor does it say it anywhere in the Bible.  As it happens, though in Luke Jesus pronounces the poor blessed (Luke 6:20, and that is important for those who are financially poor to hear… they are not something less in the eyes of God than those who have been blessed with material wealth), here in Matthew, Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (Matt. 5:3; emphasis added).  And that is to say, those who make no claims to merit or worthiness before God.

            Now, the rest of the Beatitudes are really an unpacking of that first one.  One who mourns his own sin, and that of others, the state of the world under sin’s curse, injustice, death and its attendant suffering… that one is poor in spirit.  One who is meek, who does not use his power to oppress, that one is poor in spirit.  And so on.  You get the picture. 

            Now, it is not the poverty itself that is the blessedness.  It is not the hungering and thirsting after righteousness, or the persecution, that is the blessedness.  It is rather what God, by grace, gives to the one in that state.  The Kingdom of heaven.  Comfort.  The very earth (think, here, New Creation).  Satisfaction, mercy, the beatific vision of God, divine sonship.  This is why you can rejoice and be glad in your poverty of spirit, even under intense persecution, because that kind of suffering simply means your reward is coming.  Jesus is coming to deliver you and to give you all that He here promises.  Yes, rejoice.  Because you are blessed, indeed. 

            And understand, these aren’t rewards that you earn.  That would be the opposite of poor in spirit, wouldn’t it?  These are rewards given by and on account of Christ to those who are baptized into Him.  Who have suffered for and with Him.  Who have died to themselves, and so received their life in Him, and who will receive the resurrection of their body in Him.

            And that leads us to the beatitude I quoted at the beginning of this sermon from Revelation 14, and it really is the focus of our mediation on this All Saints’ Day.  As counter-intuitive as it may be… as much as we think of death as the ultimate evil (well, it is… St. Paul calls it “the last enemy to be destroyed” [1 Cor. 15:26]… Death is never a friend, and we were not created to die.  We were created for life eternal with God!)… Nevertheless, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord!”  Yes, blessed!  Why?  Because they rest from their labors, their poverty of spirit, all the things described in the Beatitudes.  And their deeds do follow them.  No, this isn’t works righteousness.  In Christ, all their sins are forgiven, so their wicked deeds, their sins, don’t follow them.  But all of Christ’s perfect fulfillment of the Law in their place, as well as the good deeds the Spirit has wrought through them, cleansed of all impurity, bright and shining as stars, the works prepared by God beforehand that the saints should walk in them (Eph. 2:10)… these do follow them…  Their poverty of spirit.  Their meekness and mercy and peacemaking.  Their sufferings.  These do follow them, and receive their consolation.  So as you think about your loved ones who have died and are now in heaven with Jesus, think of that.  They are blessed.  They are comforted.  They are satisfied with Christ’s own righteousness.  They see God.  Think of that, beloved, and be comforted.

            But there is yet one more key to understanding the Beatitudes in our text, and really, all beatitudes in Holy Scripture.  And it is THE point.  The Beatitudes are not, first or foremost, descriptions of us suffering the cross in this world for Christ.  They are, above all, descriptions of Christ suffering the cross for this world, and for us.  Christ, true God, the eternal Son of the Father, did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but gave it all up (Phil. 2:6-7) to become poor in spirit (and literally poor!) for us, and for our salvation.  He mourned our lost estate, wept over Jerusalem, at some point (though it is not recorded in Scripture) grieved over the death of His dad, Jospeh, and wept at the tomb of His dear friend, Lazarus.  He is meek… He has the power to send us all to hell, body and soul, for all eternity, but instead, He comes to save us.  Hungering and thirsting for our righteousness, He gives us His own, and credits it to our account.  Not only merciful… He is Mercy Incarnate, shedding His precious blood, dying on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins, and to give us eternal riches, eternal life.  He is the Pure in Heart… sinless, righteous, holy.  He is the Peacemaker… reconciling us with God, reconciling us with one another (Christians, dear redeemed of God, we have no business being at enmity with each other.  If you have an issue with any person in this assembly, go and be reconciled right now, in the Name of Jesus Christ).  He is THE Persecuted One.  All the way to Calvary.  All the way to the cross.

            And so He dies.  And He rests from His labor.  Rests in the tomb.  Sabbath.  And His deeds do follow Him.  And so, on the Third Day, He rises.  And so, He is Blessed.  And we are blessed, and we will rise, in Him.

            Jesus is our Beatitude.  Our Beatitude is always and only in Jesus.  And that is why those we commemorated this afternoon, and all the blessed dead, really are not dead.  They live.  And they gather with us around the Altar, with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven.  Behold, a Host arrayed in white.  God wipes away their tears.  They have come out of the great tribulation.  We feebly struggle yet for a little while, but they in glory shine.  And all of us are blessed.  Because we are in Jesus.  One holy Christian and apostolic Church, gathered around the throne of God, and of the Lamb.

            The Beatitudes are counter-intuitive, but so is the very Gospel.  Jesus died, and behold, He lives.  We die in Jesus, and so we live in Him.  Blessed are you who believe this.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.