Cross Road

Cross Road (Wales) by David Byrne

The familiar Sermon on the Mount:

Blessed are those that….

You are the salt and the light of the world….

Pray your kingdom come…..

And Jesus’s kingdom comes through the cross.

Jesus, the light of the world, covered by darkness for all to see on the cross.

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” they cried on Palm Sunday—he came to a cross.
The kingdom comes through the cross.

The beatitudes are the blessed cross road. A cross road--daily decisions of choosing a labor of love. 

Cross road--the kingdom come. 

Cross road--a journey, active, not just a stoic biding.

The beatitudes, perhaps, are more than just waiting an ultimate fulfillment—the final consummation of the kingdom to the poor in spirit, the final mercy to the merciful, the final seeing of God face to face to the pure in heart. Perhaps, the beatitudes are ways that the kingdom comes. Perhaps the train of thoughts in the Sermon on the Mount are not so divorced—being poor in spirit, being merciful, is part of how God is bringing in the kingdom. They are ways of being salt and light, of preserving the world from decay and of chasing out the darkness. Far from meek and mild and reclusive holy saints, those the beatitudes describe are a bold punch through the fabric of darkness that drapes in death shroud to the glorious heaven light above. They are a bold shouting flame that will not be silent till his kingdom comes in its fullness. Meek and mild?

In some ways, this perspective makes the beatitudes more difficult. No mere static or stoic acceptance, no mere putting up until, until, until, biding until the glory. The beatitudes are the cross we embrace as a means to the glory. A labor, albeit a labor of love empowered by the Cross-Bearing God himself, the Patient-Yet-Already-Crowned-King who still does not force, does not compel, but waits, invites, labors in love.

“And he [Jesus] opened his mouth and taught them, saying: ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mat. 5:2-3).

How often do we just pass over our poverty and wait to be filled! Yet, perhaps kingdom comes through (not by, to clarify) those who are in poor in spirit, not just an eventual gift to those who put up with poverty. Their very poverty as a channel. Jesus, who did nothing apart from the Father, recognizing his poverty as a human apart from the Father. Jesus, who passed on all earthly powers, prestige, and pleasure (what Satan offered him in his wilderness temptation, Matthew 4) for the kingdom.

We too.

Poor in spirit—we recognize our poverty of power, independent authority. We see our need, others’ needs. Dependence, desperate, we know we need the kingdom (Jn. 15:5). We know it is not by our might but by the Spirit (Zech. 4:6). In our very poverty, the power of God comes. We empty, he fills by his Spirit. We powerless, he gives us his authority (Mat. 28:18). We, jars of clay, but with the very treasure and power of the almighty earth-shaking, glory-bringing God (2 Cor. 4:7; Eph. 1:18).

So we seek it, pray for God to bring it. We seek first his kingdom, selling all we have to store up treasures in heaven (Mat. 6:19, 33). We know what we sell to find Jesus, the pearl of great price (Mat. 13), is absolute rubbish (Phil. 3:9-10).

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Mat. 5:4).

The mourning is the crucifixion that precedes the resurrection. Not just a season that will get surpassed as we trudge through with a staunch lip, but a means that is transformed into morning glory as resurrection-dawn breaks in. We weep with Jesus over Jerusalem, over our sins, over our rebellion, over the death-pall of drugs and divorce and division that hangs over our neighborhoods. Yet our tears turn into a transfixion to Jesus. They are the very rain showers that bring the flowers.

“For Zion’s [that is, God’s presence and glory’s] sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s [his people’s] sake I will not be quiet, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a burning torch” (Isaiah 62:1).

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Mat. 5:5).

In our meekness, power is destroyed. Others may be won without words (1 Pet. 3:7). Meekness adorns the faith (Tit. 2:9). God’s character made manifest in our meekness, turning the other cheek. Not without cost, but such is the kingdom of the pearl.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Mat. 5:6).

Our hunger unites us to take of the Lord’s body, to taste and see that the Lord is good (Jn. 6; Ps. 34:8). We hunger for his righteousness so we seek it first; are willing to cut off arms and gouge out eyes for it (Mat. 5:29). And where we submit ourselves to God’s reign and his righteousness, his kingdom, his dynamic rule, is made manifest. Our hunger for him, our willingness to gouge out eyes, shows him to be of supreme value and invites others to taste and see that the Lord is good as well. Those who hunger for his righteousness become like him, and become an outpost of the kingdom advancing. Indeed, hunger is more than a future-will-be-fulfilled but a foretaste that brings in the full banquet.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy” (Mat. 5:7).

Mercy triumphs over judgment (Jas. 2:13). By giving mercy, we bear the cross-weight of the consequences of other’s sin (not atonement), shouldering the cost of what they deserve. Yet in doing so, mercy gives space for God’s grace to pour out. Gives an unexpected taste of the character of our God to those who are used to only judgment and shame. A means the kingdom comes.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Mat. 5:8).

The pure in heart, the ones with the single-love eye for Jesus. Others look to see where the gaze is transfixed. Kingdom come.

Pure in heart, not only bear the cross-weight of other’s sin, but war against their own sin. War. Gouge out an eye of sin for the single-love eye to Triune God. Unmixed devotion and loyalty to the King, under his sway. Kingdom come.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Mat. 5:9).

To make peace is dangerous. Kingdom comes by running into Satan’s kingdom so others make peace with God. Kingdom comes by going into the storms, like Jesus sending the disciples, going into chaos to bring the shalom, “Peace, be still.”  Peacemakers, God’s channel of shalom for the kingdom come.

Cost.

Labor of love.

Channels.

Kingdom come. 

Each attitude, each act, each mourning, peace-making, giving of mercy as meaningful in the present, not just for the future. Hard when the husbands keep slamming, the storms keep coming, the pain keeps rolling, the bills keep piling, the grief keeps washing over. But our Cross-Bearing King is laboring with us, forming his own heart within us. 

Cross road of daily decisions for the glory to come through the cross.