Utumishi Blog

Brian Masinde is an iServe Africa apprentice in his second year working with the Anglican church in Moyale, on the Kenyan/Ethopia border, a semi-arid Muslim-dominated area. Here is part one of his recent reflections on Matthew 5 

————————————————————————

In chapter 5, Jesus goes to the mountain side, the disciples follow Him and he teaches them…

The Membership of the Kingdom

³ Blessed are the poor in spirit: for of them is the kingdom of heaven…

I find every word in the beatitudes a definition of the blessed life of those who believe in Christ. This may look like nothing to those who still don’t believe, but unto us in Christ, His Spirit makes them our lifestyle. I may not go through each of the beatitudes but they can be understood in the least four ways:

1. They are a definition of membership of the Kingdom of heaven
2. They contrast Kingdom values with world values.
3. They implicitly contrast the superficial faith and works religion of the Pharisees with real heart faith and spiritual bankruptcy that Christ welcomes.
4. They show how the Old Testament expectations will be fulfilled in the new Kingdom (e.g. Isa. 66:2; 61:1-3; Ps. 37).

These beatitudes are not a multiple choice —pick what you want leave the rest. They must be taken as a whole. They describe Christ’s followers – the members of His Kingdom.

Blessed, means more than happiness. It implies the fortunate or enviable state of those who are in God’s kingdom. The beatitudes don’t promise laughter, pleasure, or earthly prosperity. Being “blessed”, by God, means the experience of hope and joy, independent of outward circumstances. We find this deepest joy and peace when we put our trust in Jesus no matter what comes our way. Even in our placements, in our families, relationships, jobs and in our ministries, this is blessedness is what keeps us pressing on in the our respective hard times.  Jesus says in John 14 that He has left us with peace, not as the world gives but His own peace. This is the peace that surpasses human understanding that Paul talks about in Philippians 4:6. This same peace makes us peacemakers and enables us to rejoice when persecuted and facing trials for His sake (Matt. 5:9-12). This is because we have unquenchable hope of the reward we have in heaven and know that the persecution is not strange too to the prophets who went before us and eventually Jesus Himself.

From verses 13 to 16, Jesus assures us of how important we are to the world when we remain in Him. We do good to the world, just like salt does to the food it is used in. If the same salt loses its saltiness, then it has no value to be called salt. It is thrown away and wasted. Our life, as long as we remain with our full hope in Christ, we are used by God to do good to others by connecting them to the source of life and goodness. As long as we are in Christ and Christ in us, we live as Christ representatives on earth. We give light to world. We preach God’s Word to make people see who they are and how they are supposed to live in dependence to Christ. We are a city on a hill, obvious to all. If we know these truths, we cannot hide what Christ has given us from the world, but we will allow Christ’s kingdom to be seen everywhere we are, not through superficial deeds but in total reverence to Christ in the smallest acts that are required by Christ. Some small actions may look as foolishness but if we know what we are doing, that’s what Christ will use to bring many others into His light. In John 1, He is the light that darkness could not understand (cf. Matt. 5:10-12) but the same light is life unto men (cf. Matt. 5:14-16).

The King and the Law

Christ continues to assure us that the whole Bible is very important. He says he didn’t come to abolish the Law but He came to us as fulfillment of the Law. Until heaven and earth disappear, not the least stroke of the pen will be removed from the Law. And anyone who does reduce any will be the least in the kingdom but those who practice them will be called great in the kingdom. Jesus tells us that unless our righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and teachers of the Law, we cannot enter the kingdom of God.

I was really flabbergasted by this and was asking myself, “Kwa nini?” Why compare with the Pharisees and teachers of the Law?’ I discover that the Pharisees and teachers of the Law claimed to hold on the Law but they could not believe what the Law says about Christ. They are the major opposition to Christ and His ministry. They could not believe in Jesus yet the whole Law and the Prophet’s point to Jesus, who is the fulfillment of the same. This shows that they always set aside some parts of the Law and taught only what fitted in their own context.

With the outbreak of the many new teachings in the current world, if we are not careful, we may land in the hands of the contemporary ‘Pharisees and teachers of the law’. We may have our minds corrupted to being mere talkers and yet have hearts not willing to accept the reality of the power of God in His word. We may end up ‘lowering the bar’ to standards that can be achieved by legalistic outward obedience.  Most worryingly of all, we may lose our focus on Christ.  These are days when human wisdom (sprinkled with verses from the Bible) takes over from letting the Word speak of Christ and on how to believe in Him.  This is still being like the Pharisees. We ought to know that the word of God, the Law and the Prophets, has always been pointing to Christ, who has been revealed, and we are now living in the revelation of Jesus.