Saints All

 The scriptures referred to are 1 John 3:1-3 and Matthew 5:1-12.

I had an aunt who put plastic covers on her sofa. The cushions were enclosed in plastic rectangular zippered covers to keep the white sofa clean. This was before Scotchgard. But even so we kids were not allowed to sit on the couch. Nor were we allowed in the living room unless it was time to watch “Bonanza.” She had a lot of rules which did not make sense to us but I now realize were just to keep her things looking nice. When she babysat us, which was frequently, we had to observe her peculiar rules. Mind you, we loved Aunt Bee and she loved us. But she never had kids of her own and were you to visit her home, you would never realize kids were ever inside her house.

A lot of people look at God that way. He has peculiar rules that are just to keep things clean and neat but which are not human-friendly. They think the rules are more about him than about his creatures, whom he loves. And, yeah, you can pick out some odd rules in the Old Testament that don't make sense to us. Why weren't the Israelites allowed to make fabrics that mixed cotton and wool? Why couldn't they eat certain things? There are whole books discussing the possible reasons. The Talmud is basically a commentary on a commentary on the Torah, the core of the Jewish Law.

Yet even rabbis recognize that there is a hierarchy of values. Some rules are much more important than others. Most rabbis agree that, in order to save a life, a Jew is allowed to break any rule in the Torah except murder or idolatry. In Jesus' day, teachers asked him what was the most important commandment. He gave them two: to love God with all they are and all they had and to love their neighbor as they did themselves. All the other commandments were derived from these two and no other commandments were more important. (Mark 12:28-31; Matthew 22:34-40) And if you look at the Ten Commandments, they break down into these two categories. The first 4 are about how we show love for God (not making idols, not worshiping other gods, not misusing his name, observing the Sabbath) and the last 6 are about how we show love to other people (honoring our parents, not murdering, not cheating on our spouse, not stealing, not lying about people, not wanting what belongs to our neighbor). They make good ethical sense and if people observed them the world would be a lot more peaceful.

The problem is that not only do people not obey the most important commandments, they forget that they are about love. And some people, including some so-called Christians, try to game the system. How close can they get to violating the commandments without actually breaking them? Similarly, industries don't set out to kill their employees but they will cut corners on safety features to the point that their employees frequently get injured or breathe in noxious fumes or get exposed to toxic chemicals. A married person may not physically commit adultery but indulges in cybersex. Companies don't literally take money out of their employees' bank accounts; they just don't pay them for the overtime they worked. They accomplish the same things but maintain their plausible deniability.

Some people think the only way to get people to obey rules is to enforce them in a draconian fashion, the way a cult or an authoritarian government does. In one of the documentaries on NXIVM Catherine Oxenberg said she noticed that a friend was sleeping on the floor rather than in bed with her husband. The wife explained that it was a penance suggested by their leader. Oxenberg rightly suspected that something was wrong and it was her first clue that this self-help group might be a cult.

Singapore is notably clean. You won't find chewing gum stuck under tables or chairs. Because it is a banned substance and if you have too much on you or dispose of it improperly you can get fined up to $1000. Not flushing a toilet is also breaking the law. And any form of vandalism is punishable by not only fines, but jail and being caned, whipped with a bamboo cane from 3 to 8 times per count. Also Singapore police can do random drug tests on anyone, including tourists, and do not care if the drugs detected were not taken while in the country. Homosexuality gets you imprisoned. As does not maintaining social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fun place.

In comparison God is not that picky. And while he has given us laws and laws can accomplish a lot, they cannot make people obey them. Otherwise laws against, say, speeding would stop all speeding. Laws can present standards to follow but people have to accept them. And most people accept most rules...until they become inconvenient or stop them from doing what they want. Most healthy people will not park in a handicapped spot. Unless there are no other parking places and they are late. Or they're just going to buy one item. Or they notice there are other open handicapped spots so who's it going to hurt? People's compliance with the law is conditional. They will obey laws on the condition they don't get in the way of what they want.

Laws cannot change people. Only God's Spirit can. And that is why Paul contrasts the law that operates in our sinful nature with the law of the Spirit. (Romans 8:2) And God changes us not into mindless robots but into people free to follow the Spirit in directions not already mapped out. (John 20:22-23; Matthew 16:19) The world changes. We no longer need to regulate buggy whips but we are behind on regulating what people can do on the internet. And by the same token people are facing ethical issues that did not exist 100 years ago. There were precious few decisions to be made regarding care at the end of life because, unlike today, doctors could not keep the body going indefinitely if things like the heart or the lungs or the brain were failing. That is a moral dilemma unique to our time.

That's why Jesus' commands to love are more general than the 613 rather specific laws set down in the Torah to act as the law code of the nation of Israel. Love's intent stays the same even if its expression changes to suit the circumstances. A loving parent disciplines a child who hit his sibling and is unrepentant but comforts one who is genuinely upset over what he did wrong. A loving parent teaches restraint to a child who is reckless but encourages the child who is full of self-doubt to be bolder. Love means wanting the best for the beloved and encouraging them to be their best self. And that is what the Holy Spirit does in us.

We call those who best display the spiritual and moral qualities God desires saints. They tend to embody the traits Jesus commends in the beatitudes. Let's look at them.

Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.” This translation is traditional but inadequate. The Greek word given as “poor” really means “destitute” or “helpless as a beggar.” In fact it literally means to “cower or crouch” like a beggar. So it refers to those who are so spiritually impoverished that they have no illusions about it. Why does Jesus consider them blessed? Because they have hit bottom spiritually and, like a beggar, have nowhere else to turn except to God. And God will hear their cry. They are like the tax collector in the parable, who, unlike the Pharisee, could not even look up to heaven but beat his breast and said, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” And Jesus said the tax collector, not the Pharisee who bragged about himself, left the temple justified. (Luke 18:9-14) The self-satisfied do not seek God.

Jesus said, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” A more accurate translation would be “those grieving.” It means those so distraught over a loss that they can't hide it. It can also mean feeling guilty, as we often do even if we could have done nothing to prevent the loss. Again why would Jesus call them blessed? Because he who is the resurrection and the life will comfort us. In the new creation, we are told, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will not exist any more—or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the former things have ceased to exist.” (Revelation 21:4)

Jesus said, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” The Greek word for “meek” doesn't imply weakness but gentleness. The strong can afford to be gentle. Indeed it is often the weak person, seeking to show he is not weak, who is harsh. Gentleness is one of the fruit of the Spirit. So Jesus is saying that not only are those who require gentleness, the spiritual beggars and the grieving, blessed but so are those who show gentleness to others.

Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” A better translation is “Blessed are those who are hungering and thirsting for justice, for they will be satisfied.” The verbs are active and ongoing. The word translated “righteousness” means a judicial verdict. The state of the world leaves them starving and parched for things to be made right by God. Why does Jesus call them blessed? Because he, the Son of God, will judge the world justly and give the right verdict in every case so that they will be satisfied.

Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.” Again in a world of harsh people, the ones who show compassion for those who are spiritually at rock bottom, those who grieve, and those who ache for justice, will in turn be shown compassion. Those who are pitiless will turn out to be pitiful. In his parable of the last judgment those who show compassion on the poor, the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the sick, the imprisoned and the foreigner will hear Jesus say, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.” (Matthew 25:34) Those who did not show mercy to the unfortunate will not receive mercy. (Matthew 25:45-46) Bullies and the neglectful have no place in God's kingdom.

Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” Before the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, nothing stopped manufacturers from putting borax or formaldehyde or anything else in the food Americans bought. And indeed they did put such chemicals in there to disguise spoilage or even add things like sawdust to stretch the appearance of how much food you were getting. This law means you know what is in the food and medicine you buy and are assured it isn't adulterated with things that are harmful. Spiritual purity is God's truth in labeling. It means you are clean from sin. Of course none of us are naturally. The only way to be purified is to go to God. If you realize your spiritual poverty, you will do that. That's why Jesus says the pure in heart are blessed. To be that way, they had to have been aware of their impurity and gone to God to be cleansed from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:8-9)

Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” This is a unique word, appearing only once in the Bible. Peace itself appears 429 times in the Bible. We read of kings making peace with each other and priests making peace offerings for people, but here Jesus is telling his followers to be peacemakers as well. We can do this by telling people about how Jesus has already made peace with God for us and by making peace with other people through acting gently and being merciful. Paul writes to a group of Jewish and Gentile Christians, “For he is our peace, the one who made both groups into one, and who destroyed the middle wall of partition, the hostility, when he nullified in his flesh the law of commandments in decrees. He did this to create in himself one new man out of two, thus making peace, and to reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by which the hostility has been killed.” (Ephesians 2:14-16) Not only did Jesus make peace with God on the cross, he provides peace between people. All hostility was to end at the cross. And we are to preach the gospel of peace. (Ephesians 6:15) And peace or shalom means not merely absence of conflict but total well-being. We are to work to make people better.

Jesus said, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.” Sometimes the reason why people demur from doing good is that they will get all kinds of flack about it. Doing the right thing shows up those who don't do it. Or it reveals the gap between people's words and their deeds. And they may retaliate, if not physically then by spreading lies about you. That's a good way to deflect from their flaws. But the truly good do the right thing anyway, despite persecution. They are called blessed by Jesus because they are brave and they persevere.

In our passage from 1 John, it says, “Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.” This echoes two of the Beatitudes: peacemakers are called children of God and the pure in heart will see God. Because our hope is not that we will get better at following the rules but that through the work of the Holy Spirit within us, we won't need to follow rules. We will become Christlike and the qualities Jesus says are blessings will be second nature to us.

In the New Testament all followers of Jesus are referred to as saints. Because nobody can make themselves holy. God sanctifies us and makes us holy. The length of time it takes each of us is different. Our journey and the gifts that are given each of us are different. But just as a fruit tree first puts forth buds and then flowers and then the immature fruit which generally gets less green and sweeter and softer as it ripens, we should see the nascent fruit of the Spirit developing in us if we let him work in us. Jesus said that you can recognize people by their fruits, by what their life produces. (Matthew 7:20) He said, “My Father is honored by this, that you bear much fruit and show you are my disciples.” (John 15:8) And he said we can only bear fruit if we, like branches on a vine, stay connected to Jesus. (John 15:4)

Today we honor those we recognize as saints, people in whom it is easy to see Christlike qualities and the fruit of the Spirit. But we also need to realize we are part of the company of saints. And if we stay connected to Jesus, we should also realize our spiritual poverty and our utter reliance on him, that we shall be comforted in our grieving, that we are becoming not weak but gentle, that our hunger and thirst for justice will be satisfied, that we are becoming merciful and compassionate, that our hearts are being purified by him, that we are to act as peacemakers and restore total wellbeing, and that opposition should not dissuade us from doing good.

And we need to realize that though it may at times be hard to believe, if we continue to follow and love Jesus, when we at last see him, we will be like him. That is our hope and our joy.