Matthew 5:3-9

Analysis (5:3-9).

a “Blessed ones, the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingly Rule of Heaven” (Matthew 5:3).

b “Blessed ones, those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:4).

c “Blessed ones, the lowly, for they will inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5).

d “Blessed ones, those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matthew 5:6).

c “Blessed ones, the merciful, for they will obtain mercy” (Matthew 5:7).

b “Blessed ones, the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8).

a “Blessed ones, the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:9).

Note that in ‘a’ the ‘blessed ones’ (by God) are the lowly and gentle who recognise their own spiritual inadequacy without God, and it is to them that the Kingly Rule of Heaven belongs, both in the present and in the future, while in the parallel the ‘blessed ones’ are the peacemakers who will be called ‘sons of God’, because they will be made like Him and will share their Father’s presence (2 Corinthians 6:18; 1 John 3:1-2; Romans 8:15; Revelation 22:3-5). In ‘b’ are described those who mourn over sin and over the needs of God’s people, and in the parallel those who are pure in heart, because they have mourned over sin. Repentance has enabled God to make them pure. On the one hand therefore they will be strengthened and encouraged, and on the other they will see God. In ‘c’ those who bow under the forces that come against them and have thus learned compassion are paralleled with the merciful. They have learned mercy through their experiences as watered by the Holy Spirit. They will therefore enjoy God’s present provision on earth and finally inherit the new earth, for they are those who will obtain mercy. And central are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. They are conscious of their lack of righteousness, and the lack of righteousness in the world, and they long for all to be put right through God acting powerfully in ‘righteousness’ and deliverance (compare Luke 18:6-7; Isaiah 46:13; Isaiah 51:5). Through Jesus they can be assured that God’s righteousness will triumph, and that they themselves will be filled with righteousness in both this world and the next.

We note next that there are seven beatitudes given here, seven indicating a picture of ‘divine perfection’ (for what some see as an eighth see on Matthew 5:10-12). They can be compared with the ninefold fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22 (a threefold three). But we must stress again that the point of Jesus’ words here is not of general attitudes regardless of context. He is not speaking here in vague generalities. These are not just proverbial sayings applying to the world in general. This is not ‘Wisdom teaching’ as such. Jesus is not sitting in front of people in general and providing them with interesting proverbs to mull over. He is speaking to a dedicated group of disciples of whom special things are expected, and describing what God has worked in them. This is a call to action, a call to live in a certain way as a result of God’s inner activity and blessing, as His following words make clear (it is very similar in some ways to the exhortations in Deuteronomy 20:5-8, where the purpose was to encourage the hearts of the warriors, not to encourage desertion). It is a call to live out what God has worked in them. Then having described those whom God has blessed, and how He has blessed them, He will go on to describe what He now requires of them. But He does want them to recognise that they are not like this because of their own efforts. Their ‘salvation’ has been all God’s work (and from one point of view will continue to be so, for He will continue to work in them to will and to do of His good pleasure - Philippians 2:13). It is because God has ‘blessed’ them. But the consequence is that they must now work it out with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12).

So although often taken to be so, we must repeat that these are not generalisations about people as a whole, as though He were simply saying, ‘it is better in general to be poor than rich, it is better in general to be merciful rather than unmerciful, it is better in general to be pure in heart than not to be so, whether you believe in God or not’, and so on. Nor is He saying that people who come under these general descriptions, such as ‘the poor’ and ‘the mournful’ and ‘the merciful’ will be blessed under any and all circumstances (although it may in general be true in some cases). Indeed it would have been the height of foolishness to say that those are blessed, or necessarily will be blessed, who are living in unremitting abject poverty, or in constant mourning through bereavement, or are permanently submitting to being downtrodden with no hope of release, or who are spiritually hungry but never finding satisfaction. It would be self-evidently wrong. That was not what Jesus coming was about at all. He was not encouraging the downtrodden among society to put up with their misery by somehow convincing themselves that they were somehow blessed. For the truth is that none were less blessed than they are, unless through it they come to know God (except perhaps the very rich, who are often miserable in their riches).

Nor would it be in accordance with Scripture to say that all such will automatically enjoy the Kingly Rule of God, or that all such would experience comforting, encouragement and strengthening, or would ‘inherit the earth’ by enjoying the blessings of this life (Psalms 73:1), or would be filled with the satisfaction of true righteousness, or would obtain mercy, or would see God. Experience testifies otherwise, and that in fact many such people simply die in their misery without hope of anything beyond, and many more live in despair. We must thus not see Jesus as a purveyor of benevolent platitudes, even wise platitudes, as indeed His subsequent teaching makes clear. Nor, we repeat, must we see Him simply as a great Wisdom teacher, even though He could be seen as greater than the greatest of them all (Matthew 12:42). The way He preaches proves that He was rather an Active Mover of men. He wanted people’s active response to His words, and was not satisfied unless He had it (Matthew 7:13-27).

So what Jesus is declaring here is to be seen as directed to specific people of a particular kind, initially in the context of Galilee. That is, to those who had heard through His voice and the voice of John, the voice of God. (Subsequently they are directed to all who have heard His initial word and have responded). It is they who have been blessed by God. They have repented and come under the Kingly Rule of Heaven. They have been transformed by the working of the Spirit in their inner man. They have become what is described here, men and women who are ready and eager to hear His word. And now they are to learn what is required of them.

But we should further note that He does not then give them a list of instructions and rules, or a manual of discipline. Instead he indicates the attitudes that they already enjoy as a result of God having been at work in them, and explains that these are the attitudes that they must now take up and expand on. For as we shall see, the whole of chapters 5-7 will deal mainly with the outworking of these attitudes of heart. As a result of having experienced the working of God within them (His blessing) they will be, and must be, humble in spirit, mournful over sin, accepting of the vicissitudes of life, hungry after righteousness, merciful, pure in heart and concerned to bring men to a state of being at peace with God, for that is the kind of people that God has now made them to be. For they are a new creation in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17).

He is declaring that it is those who are like this, as a result of having responded to His words, who are therefore proved to have been truly blessed by God, which is the reason why they are now as they are; and that they are still truly blessed because God is still active in blessing them; and that they will continue to be so because God will continue to bless them both in this life and in the life to come. His point is that it is because they have been made like this as a result of the goodness and blessing of God that they are now there listening to Him as His disciples, and that it is something to which they must respond wholeheartedly. They are thus to be unique in the world so that through them the world may see God. This is what Jesus’ ‘baptising them in Holy Spirit’ (Matthew 3:11) and shining His light on them (Matthew 4:16) has accomplished.

And as we have already seen, the direct connection of these spiritual benefits as being indicators of their position before God is further evidenced by His reliance for these ideas on the Scriptures, where they have already been seen as applying in the past to those who have known the blessing of God. It is the connection of what He is saying with the Scriptures that itself indicates that His words are to be seen as applying only to the truly godly. For every one of the blessings that He describes were also used to describe the godly in the Old Testament. It is the poor in spirit and humble (Matthew 5:3; compare Psalms 70:5), and the sin-convicted (Matthew 5:4, compare Psalms 34:18; Psalms 51:17; Isaiah 57:1; Isaiah 66:2), and the lowly in heart (Matthew 5:5 compare Psalms 138:6; Proverbs 3:34), and those who hunger and thirst after righteousness (Matthew 5:6 compare Psalms 42:2; Psalms 63:1; Isaiah 41:17-20; Isaiah 55:1-2), and the merciful (Matthew 5:7; compare Psalms 18:25; Proverbs 11:17), and the pure in heart (Matthew 5:8, compare Psalms 24:4), and the ones who make peace (Matthew 5:9, see Psalms 34:14; Psalms 37:37; Isaiah 32:17 and contrast Isaiah 59:8; Jeremiah 6:14; Jeremiah 8:11), about whom He is speaking, and they are like this precisely because God has worked on them (in other words because Jesus has drenched them with the Spirit - Matthew 3:11; Psalms 143:10). They have repented and received His forgiveness, and have done so because God has stepped in and blessed them.

They are therefore now truly blessed as they gather to hear His words, for they can have complete confidence in their futures, and in God’s sovereign work within them. The Kingly Rule of Heaven is theirs (Matthew 5:3); and they can be sure that they will be encouraged and strengthened (‘comforted’) in the future (Matthew 5:4, Isaiah 40:1; Isaiah 49:13; Isaiah 51:3; Isaiah 51:12-13 etc.); they will inherit all that is best on the earth, and in the end will inherit (and therefore as a gift for inheritance is a ‘gift’ word) the new earth which is for ever (Matthew 5:5, Psalms 37:9; Psalms 37:11; Psalms 37:18; Psalms 37:22; Psalms 37:24; Psalms 37:29); they will find spiritual fullness both in the present and in the future (Matthew 5:6, compare Isaiah 35:7; Isaiah 41:17-19; Isaiah 44:3; Isaiah 49:10; Isaiah 55:1); they will obtain mercy, both day by day and in that Day (Psalms 100:5; Psalms 103:17; Isaiah 54:8); they will ‘see God’ now and will see Him even more really in the hereafter (Revelation 22:4; Psalms 17:15; Psalms 42:2); and they will be called sons of God (Hosea 1:10). In Christ they have all, and He will confirm it in them to the end in order that they might be found unreproveable in the Day of Jesus Christ, and all due to the faithfulness of God (1 Corinthians 1:8-9).

So when Jesus says ‘Blessed ones, they --’ He does not simply mean ‘how fortunate they are’. He means that they have been actively and positively blessed by God. They are in God’s hands. Their lives are hid with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3). God is at work in them to will and do of His good pleasure (Philippians 2:13). They have been singularly favoured by God. And He now therefore has for them the purpose that they be the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

It should also be noted that the first three beatitudes contain within them the essence of what the Spirit-filled Anointed Prophet of Isaiah 61:1-3 has brought. They are like this because He is at work among them. He would ‘bring good tidings to the poor’, He would ‘comfort all who mourn’, He would ‘bind up the broken hearted’, He would ‘deliver the oppressed’. Thus in these beatitudes are pictured those who have been and are being successfully ministered to by the Anointed Prophet. They have received the good tidings from Jesus. They have been ‘comforted’ by Jesus. Their hearts have been healed by Jesus. They have been delivered from oppression by Jesus. They have received from Him the oil of joy, and the robe of praise, being planted in righteousness. For as we have already seen, (see introduction), in this particular section of Matthew the ‘filling to the full’ of Isaiah’s promises is what is being emphasised (Matthew 3:3; Matthew 4:14-16; Matthew 8:17; Matthew 12:17). So He wants them to recognise that the King and Servant of the Lord of Isaiah’s prophecies is here among them and that in their case they are already blessed because they have responded to Him (see Matthew 3:3; Matthew 4:15-16; Matthew 8:17; Matthew 12:14-16; Matthew 20:28).