Shout For Joy

This is to let you know of a temporary shift in focus in “Shout For Joy.” For the past 18 months I have been writing on the insights of six different biblical authors. Much of that is now available in four recent paperback books.* Mentored by Jesus turns our attention to what Jesus did (rather than taught in his soliloquies), The Galilean Fisherman takes you through Peter’s two epistles, Sheer Joy contains my reflections on Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi, and The Good News Dictionary is an alphabetical organization on distinctive qualities in the person and teaching of our Lord.
     The next series of posts will be on the Sermon on the Mount. Occasionally there will be a break for a metric psalm or one of Solomon’s proverbs. The other pages will remain available but the landing page will be devoted to this next project
 
*Available on Kindle or Createspace.com

“How blessed are those who don’t promote themselves, for to them life yields its rewards,” Matt. 5:5

Standard translations vary slightly in their wording of the third Beatitude (“Blessed are the meek,” Matt. 5:5) but the above translation brings out the intended meaning more clearly. It is from my Jesus, In His Own Words, p. 32. 

    I ask, “In what way was Jesus meek?” To most contemporary ears, the word “meek” fails to carry the nuance intended by the Greek. When we say that Jesus was meek we don’t intend to convey the idea that he was not quite up to the challenge of life and that he protected himself by assuming a quiet fireside approach that would elicit smiles of approval. The meekness of Jesus was seen in the humble way he gave himself to a life of sacrificial service to God and his fellow human beings. His true strength lay in his ability to resist the temptation of taking over on the center stage of life, but rather to humbly give himself for the needs of others. A. W. Tozer wrote that, “The meek man cares not at all who is greater than he, for he decided long ago that the esteem of the world is not worth the effort.”

    Meekness describes the manner in which Jesus set aside what was due him in order to pay the price for the sins that were due others. Meekness is the true strength of a Christ–like person. It washes the feet of others, not because custom calls for it, but because dirty feet need to be washed. The meek do not “promote themselves” because they can use that time more effectively in discovering the needs of others. The self-denying are pleased to live with the welfare of others in view because that way they can use their time for the common good of others.

    The life of Jesus displays a refreshing self-forgetfulness. Not once in the gospels do we see him neglect another in order to satisfy a valid personal need.  His quiet demeanor was a tower of strength. During the last days of a rewarding 60 year marriage I caught on that total attention to the needs of a failing partner can be life’s greatest joy. As the text says, “to them life yields its rewards.” God has so arranged our affairs so that complete commitment to the needs of another provides the richest kind of personal life. It is by giving that we receive, by dying that we live, and by letting go of personal desire we receive the greatest blessing.

    The Beatitudes are the game plan for life. They prepare us for battle, strengthen us when we need it the most, and protect us from our own selves.  

​“How blessed are those who understand the sorrow of this world, for God himself will comfort and encourage them” (Matt. 5:4)
 
The second Beatitude deals with the ever too present sorrow that is always lurking in the shadows of life. “Blessed are those who mourn” is the standard translation followed by “for they will be comforted.” “Those who mourn” are normally understood to be those who are going through difficult times, and that is understandable. But, as the designation is used here by Jesus, it describes those who understand that all the suffering in the world stems from the sinful and self-destructive human tendency to act as though God did not exist. In Jesus, In His Own Words I describe them as “those who understand the sorrow of this world.” Phillips has “those who know what sorrow means.” It is less that they are experiencing sorrow than it is that they understand how it came to be, If one does not understand the source of all sorrow and grief there exists for that person no clear perspective on why life has its downside. If you assume that the lack of sorrow is the normal state of things you will never be able to deal with it in any definitive way. The Christian believer understands that, given the curse of sin, sorrow is a standard ingredient in life. What should (and will) be is the absence of sorrow, but that awaits the triumphant return of Christ and the end of the human experience.
         Way back at the beginning the primal pair failed the crucial test and were put out of the garden. But that was not all. To Adam, God declared, “Cursed is the ground because of you” (Gen. 3:17). With sin came a sorrow that extended from separation from God all the way to the cursing of the earth. Paul writes that “the creation was subjected to frustration” and that it will be “liberated from its bondage to decay” at the future moment God’s glory will be finally and completely displayed (Rom. 8:18-21).
         So Jesus reminds us that it is those who “understand the sorrow of this world” that are blessed. We alone know God’s broad plans for sin’s ultimate destruction and removal. God himself “comforts and encourages” those who know that what currently is, along with all its sorrow, will be done away with and God will rule both heaven and earth with perfect justice. And that is why those who understand are, even in the difficulties of life, blessed.”
         The short-range view cannot understand the why of sorrow. This, in turn, prevents an optimistic view of the future. There is no certainty that all will be well. In fact, how does one know that everything will not get progressively worse so that in time the forces of evil will prevail? Followers of Jesus understand not only the nature and the cause of sorrow, but its ultimate demise as well. Blessed are those who understand sorrow!