Sunday, April 21, 2013

Cost of Discipleship Pt 41 Blessed are the poor, blessed are those who mourn


Chapter 6 - The Beatitudes

Bonhoeffer-'The aim of this beatitude is to bring all who hear it to decision and salvation.'
'The disciples are called 'Blessed' because they have obeyed the call of Jesus, and the people as a whole because they are heirs of the promise. But will they now claim their heritage by believing in Jesus Christ and his word? Or will they fall into apostasy by refusing to accept him? That is the question which still remains to be answered.'

My thoughts- This is truth for us, a question for us. Will we hear? Will be believe? Or will we refuse?

Mat_5:3  Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Bonhoeffer- 'Privation is the lot of the disciples in every sphere of their lives. They are the "poor"  tout court

Luk 6:20  And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God.

They have no security, no possessions to call their own, not even a foot of earth to call their home, no earthly society to claim their absolute allegiance. Nay more, they have no spiritual power, experience or knowledge to afford them consolation or security. For his sake they have lost it all. In following him they lost even their own selves, and everything that could make them rich.'

My thoughts- This is truth. They have no POSSESSIONS, can you even imagine having NO possessions?  Look around you wherever you are right now and take stock of the possessions you see just where you sit. Can you imagine having none of them? 

Mat_5:4  Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

'With each beatitude the gulf is widened between the disciples and the people, their call to come forth from the people becomes increasingly manifest. By "mourning" Jesus, of course, means doing without what the world calls peace and prosperity: He means refusing to be in tune with the world or to accommodate oneself to its standards. Such men mourn for the world, for its guilt, its fate and its fortune. While the world keeps holiday they stand aside, and while the world sings, "Gather ye rose-buds while ye may," they mourn. They see that for all the jollity on board, the ship is beginning to sink. The world dreams of progress, of power and of the future, but the disciples mediate on the end, the last judgment, and the coming of the kingdom. To such heights the world cannot rise. And so the disciples are strangers in the world, unwelcome guests and disturbers of the peace. No wonder the world rejects them!

Nobody loves his fellow-men better than a disciple, nobody understands his fellowmen better than the Christian fellowship, and that very love impels them to stand aside and mourn.

They simply bear the suffering which comes their way as they try to follow Jesus Christ, and bear it for his sake. Sorrow cannot tire them or wear them down, it cannot embitter them or cause them to break down under the strain; far from it, for they bear their sorrow in the strength of him who bears them up, who bore the whole suffering of the world upon the cross. They stand as the bearers of sorrow in the fellowship of the Crucified; they stand as strangers in the world in the power of him who was such a stranger to the world that it crucified him. This is their comfort, or better still, this Man is their comfort, the Comforter. The community of strangers find their comfort in the cross, they are comforted by being cast upon the place where the Comforter of Israel awaits them. Thus do they find their true home with their crucified Lord, both here and in eternity.'

My thoughts-

'...that very love impels them to stand aside and mourn.'

Mourning.

Have you ever mourned for someone?  Most of us have.  Yet how often do we mourn for those we don't know, those who aren't close to us? To mourn for the world, this sort of mourning is something that cannot be borne without Christ. This sort of suffering can crush us if we didn't have Christ to bear us up.

This world we live in is incredibly evil.  Pick up a newspaper, go to a news website, spend just a half hour reading the world news and the reasons for mourning are numerous.

We have to find comfort in the cross, it's the only place we can from comfort. The cross promises us salvation, it gives us HOPE outside of the existence we have in this world! If it weren't for the cross, if it weren't for our SAVIOR, we truly would have no reason for living at all whatsoever, not recognizing the evil in the world and the pain of existence.

Satan wants us to despair and will do ALL he can to bring us to despairing.

As we mourn we must trust, we must find our hope in Christ.

How can we NOT mourn when we witness the evil running rampant everywhere? 

We can harden our hearts- it is a choice we have available to us. By the grace of God we will NOT harden our hearts! Through HIS mercy and love we will NOT grow hardened to the evil, but mourn for all those who choose to live in evil over Christ and His love!

Please LORD, help us to understand the blessing in mourning, knowing the pain of mourning reveals the evil that in turns reveals the blessing of SALVATION in Christ our Savior who died so we do not have to despair of the evil all around us, consuming so many. Please Lord, help us who are poor and are mourning, help us to understand Your TRUTH in the blessings.

By Your GRACE, Your LOVE!

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