Poernomo speaks: "The Beatitudes"

Poernomo, a PHD student in chemical engineering from NTU, is a delightful person who inspires all of us with his awe and amazement for God's creations.

I'd like to share something from my quiet time.

Currently I'm reading the book of Matthew and this time I really want to dig more, so I also do some little research on the internet, and I;m excited about it. Though I only read one passage a day (not a chapter), I find out that actually alot of things need to dig up, and insights are just overflow. Ok, today I;d like to share about the Beatitudes.

As we know, the beatitudes is Jesus' first sermon. The word "beatitude" comes from Latin word "beatitudo", means happiness, that is later translated into English as "blessed of happy", and this word actually has the original Greek word "macarios", that literally would mean having an inward contentedness and joy that is not affected by physical circumstances.

I believe Jesus delivered this message as His first sermon to wake the people up from the bankruptcy of the world values that are in contrast with the ones of the Kingdom of Heaven's. And I also imagine of what kind of reaction people would have at that time. It must have been something shocking that make them realize the worldly values they had been believing were actually wrong, and to change one's values it is not easy. How about us today? Is it still a fresh message from God to remind us about how a Kingdom focused person/church should always be? Sometimes I do feel that the power of "The beatitudes" are diminishing, as not only I hear it more and more, but also it has become common and nice things to say.

After reading The Beatitudes for several time, I see that it is the core and the main principles of Christian life. Following this beatitudes, Jesus himself teaches and gives more details about it during His ministry, like what we can find in the four gospels. Let us see go through it one by one.

1. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The "poor in spirit" as we know refering to the people who are always humbly and faithfully come before God, knowing how insignificant they are without God and it is only God that can suffice and help them. There are many other passages that teach more about this, such as Matt 6:25-33 about do not worry, Matt 7:7-13 about asking and knocking the door, Matt 8:5-13 about the faith of a humble centurion, and Matt 9:18-31 about the humble bleeding woman, a ruler whose daughter was dead, and the mute and the blind that were healed by Jesus.

2. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

The word "mourn" here I believer refers to those who are oppresed. Who are they? It's all of us who are living here on earth, just as Paul said that our spirits groan and mourn as this world is so sinful and alot of worldly temptations and challenges that we have to go through. We're supposed to mourn and weep for our sins and wordliness, not enjoying them and getting caught up in it. We are like mourners who are waiting for the liberation day, the day we go to heaven. And for us, God has given us the salvation to comfort and gurantee a ever after happy ending. Some passages related to it are Matt 6:19-24 about treasure in heaven, Matt9:36-38 about Jesus' compassion for the sheep without shepherd, and Matt11:28-30 about rest for the weary.

3. Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth.

I looked up in the dictionary what meek is. It is an adjective of being gentle and obedient without having own opinion (total obedience). It is the only thing that God requires us to have despite having our own free-will. If we can conquer ourselves and always strive to obey God without reasoning, we will always be safe, secure, and filled. We do not need to worry about anything as He himsef will provide. No wonder Jesus says that these people will inherit the earth because He is the one who will take care of His people. And the entire bible itself testifies about how true it is. We have great heroes of faith and obedience like Moses, David, the Prophets, and Jesus' disciples. Jesus emphasizes this thing in Matt6:25-33 and Matt 10.

4. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled.

I just remember Wee Keong's lesson on Midweek service yesterday 18 Jul, about insisting on righteousness. Always doing the right thing no matter what circustances, being honest, and keeping our integrity is what God wants, for these actions will show how we desires righteousness in our daily lives. And we do it out of gratitude of our salvation. And God says that we will be filled with joy, freedom of guilt, and our life will be meaningful. In Matt 15:1-20 and Matt 23 Jesus deals seriously with issue of unrighteousness as He rebuked the Pharisees for being hypocrite.

5. Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy.

Being gracious, merciful and forgiving others are very important to God for He is alone is love. We can only show true love to someone else if we forgive others when we are badly hurt. In the gospels alone there are many passages speak seriously about it, like Matt5:43-48 about loving our enemies, Matt 7:1-6 about judgjing others, and Matt 18:21-35 about unmerciful servant.

6. Blessed are the pure in God for they will see God.

1Ptr1;16 says "Be holy as I am holy". Because God is holy, so the only way to relate to Him is to be holy and pure. Matt 19:13-15 and Luke 18:15-17 talks about how Jesus expects us to be like little children, genuine and pure, clean of manipulative heart. And anyone who doesn't receive the Kingdom of God like little child will not enter it.

Err... I think I should stop here first as it's already quite late and I still need to do other thing. Hope to write again soon.

Love you all