Read
Jesus Chooses His Twelve Apostles
(Matthew 10.1-4; Mark 3.13-19)
12About that time Jesus went off to a mountain to pray, and he spent the whole night there. 13The next morning he called his disciples together and chose twelve of them to be his apostles. 14One was Simon, and Jesus named him Peter. Another was Andrew, Peter's brother. There were also James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, 15Matthew, Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus. The rest of the apostles were Simon, known as the Eager One, 16Jude, who was the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who later betrayed Jesus.
Jesus Teaches, Preaches,
(Matthew 4.23-25)
17Jesus and his apostles went down from the mountain and came to some flat, level ground. Many other disciples were there to meet him. Large crowds of people from all over Judea, Jerusalem, and the coastal towns of Tyre and Sidon were there too. 18These people had come to listen to Jesus and to be healed of their diseases. All who were troubled by evil spirits were also healed. 19Everyone was trying to touch Jesus, because power was going out from him and healing them all.
Blessings and Troubles
(Matthew 5.1-12)
20Jesus looked at his disciples and said:
God will bless you people
who are poor.
His kingdom belongs to you!
21God will bless
you hungry people.
You will have plenty
to eat!
God will bless you people
who are now crying.
You will laugh!
22 God will bless you when others hate you and won't have anything to do with you. God will bless you when people insult you and say cruel things about you, all because you are a follower of the Son of Man. 23 Long ago your own people did these same things to the prophets. So when this happens to you, be happy and jump for joy! You will have a great reward in heaven.
24But you rich people
are in for trouble.
You have already had
an easy life!
25You well-fed people
are in for trouble.
You will go hungry!
You people
who are laughing now
are in for trouble.
You are going to cry
and weep!
26You are in for trouble when everyone says good things about you. That is what your own people said about those prophets who told lies.
Reflect
They say that “timing is everything.” “Here today and gone tomorrow,” the benefits we enjoy today may not endure forever.
The people coming to Jesus were looking for healing. They wanted a better life – a healthier, happier existence. Who doesn’t?
Of course, Jesus does heal them, though his words deny somewhat his actions. “Blessed are the poor,” he says. Blessed are the hungry, the hurting, and the disempowered. Blessed are the ones, he says, who are not healed.
It is not that health and prosperity is not valued. These blessed ones will prosper – their stomachs will be filled. They will be satisfied and honoured – they will know joy, just not right now. They will receive all that they are looking for – rewarded one day in heaven, though perhaps not now on earth. Those who receive their reward here on earth are the ones to be pitied – “woe to them,” Jesus says.
Eternity, we learn, is everything.
You can have your rewards now or you can have them later. The rewards we realize today are temporal and fleeting. The rewards we reap in heaven are eternal. The whole of Jesus’ mountainside sermon will continue this refrain – that there are ways of being that are focused on the present and ways of being that are attuned to the eternal. Given that eternity is eternal, it doesn’t seem a difficult choice.
To be “blessed” is to be fully and finally satisfied. It seems oxymoronic to say that a hungry person could be sated or that a poor person might in actual fact be rich. It is hard to feel contentment when one is lacking the essentials. But all of this might simply be perspective. In Christ, it is all just a matter of timing. Eternity is everything.
Respond
Dear Lord, It is difficult to trust you when I feel the lack of things that seem essential. Help me to see my life from an eternal perspective. Help me to sense the blessing that will one day be mine in full, in Christ. Help me to be patient today. Amen.
Kenton Anderson
Kent is President of Northwest Baptist Seminary and Professor of Homiletics at ACTS Seminaries of Trinity Western University. His most recent book is Integrative Preaching (Baker 2017). He is also a columnist with Preaching magazine. Kent and his wife Karen, a chaplain, have three adult children and three grandchildren, and live in Vancouver, BC.