Matthew 1:23
God With Us
23"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"—which means, "God with us."
Matthew 5:1-12
The Beatitudes
1 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them.
He said:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Luke 6:17-26
Blessings and Woes
17 He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coast of Tyre and Sidon, 18 who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by evil spirits were cured, 19 and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.
20 Looking at his disciples, he said:
"Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
21 Blessed are you who hunger now,
for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.
22 Blessed are you when men hate you,
when they exclude you and insult you
and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.
23 "Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets.
24 "But woe to you who are rich,
for you have already received your comfort.
25 Woe to you who are well fed now,
for you will go hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now,
for you will mourn and weep.
26 Woe to you when all men speak well of you,
for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.
Hebrews 13:5
God Will Never Leave Us
5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,
“Never will I leave you;
never will I forsake you.”
The Sermon on the Mount and the Sermon on the Plain are two of Jesus' Great Sermons...When I first read them, it was hard for me to relate to these two sermons...I later after reading them got a birthday card and a verse or two from one of these sermons was on the card...But the author of the card had replaced the word blessed with the word happy...So I looked up blessed in the time of Jesus, and their is a connection with blessedness to a kind of happiness...I went back and read again these sermons and I still could not find the happiness or blessedness that Jesus was trying to teach me...You see, I thought that life was mostly about feeling good and wanting to feel good -a sort of search for happiness...I also thought that I needed and wanted to feel good about myself, before I could feel happy...I mean I had read several self-help books on self esteem and being okay with yourself...I had never read in any of these books, where you were happy or blessed when you were mourning or when you are meek or when you are poor...So I still struggled with these two sermons...
Today when I read them I see something a little bit different...I used to think that a good God would, in fact, bless us and want us happy...I always wanted to find God in the beauty of things, the beauty of nature, and in the beauty of the lilies growing around us, and do not worry about things -as He teaches...Wouldn't He put feeling good and one's happiness at the top of a believer's life?...
Now, I do not think that is the case or it is certainly not always the case...If one believes that God is always near us and is with us, I suspect He would be with us in our pains, our troubles, our struggles, our anxieties, and our sufferings in life...But wouldn't He get us out of these things quickly if He is the God of LOVE...After all, why should I or anyone have to suffer...Why shouldn't we get to feel good and be happy, by our definition and not by what we read in the sermons above...And now, it has struck me that there have been many believers, who have suffered throughout history...Job and Paul's thorn come quickly to mind...There are many struggles of pain throughout the Bible...God's own people struggled throughout the desert on the road to the Promised Land...David struggled in his life and writes about struggles in many of his Psalms...Sampson struggled and gets blinded...And maybe our most significant struggle and suffering in our history, is about Jesus' arrest, His torture, His passion for us, and His pain and death on the cross...
As we have these pains and sufferings (our initial thoughts and reaction) we expect and want God to get us out of them -and quickly...However, some struggles takes many years for us to get over...But I and many, would like His intervention and His help as we define it...Right when the problem arises (so we can brush the troubles away and quickly)...But, as one would have guessed that hasn't happened as often as we would like it too...Does God hide when we need Him the most, or does He ignore us until He sees fit?...Job asks these same type questions...Why does a comforting God leave us, in these times of troubled-anxiousness?...There is this great mystery surrounding Him, and a lot of it is how we feel and our attitude about how we feel and much of it is time related...We want things fixed quickly...We often do not like an enduring sacrifice that takes years to reach a closure...
As I thought about and think about these verses several things come to mind...One is that our Father wants us to realize that we will be faced with struggles in life...We will mourn in life, we will weep, we will be insulted...We just cannot seem to get around every trouble...When we reflect on the trouble, we should have Him always in mind...Remember others have struggled, and life is a struggle...Their is much importance He has put on and surrounding the cross...Our struggles can change us, and for the better, when we believe God is in control and oversees the universe...There is a role for daily pray in our lives...We are likely to feel He has left us in one of our struggles, but we must try to remember, He is near and He is with us...
As I think about these two sermons and the problem of pain and suffering...The answer must lie on the cross...Jesus taking on my sins on the cross is the very important event...It seems to trump my want for my own personal happiness as I read the sermons...God's character and attributes are not defined by how I feel, anymore than my brother or wife's character or personality changing on me wanting to feel good...Being blessed is maybe not about feeling good, but more about doing and being good...Jesus two sermons has this written throughout His Words...It is much more about His will being done than my will being done...Quick happiness and instant gratification lasts only a very short while...True blessings, faith, hope, and love last a lifetime...True blessings stand through our troubles and build our inner character...Jesus whole life was based on God and this Inner Character of His and how He felt about His Father made Him strong and a Great Human...To be truly blessed, as we read His sermons we see we must face life's ups and downs, its troubles, and persevere in these times -and all the while trusting Him...My being blessed and happy is less about my feeling good and my personal circumstances...And maybe, just maybe this true blessedness takes time for us it to develop...And when we have it -it will never leave us and neither will He leave us...