A man decided to try to take apart a rocket propelled grenade, with a sledgehammer. A woman saw a bus start rolling down a hill and thought, “I can stand in front of that and stop it.” A man tried to murder a woman by pushing her into an icy river. But she came up and started swimming so he jumped in to try to hold her under the water—except she could swim, and he could not.
These are all people listed by the Darwin Awards. The Darwin Awards have been around since 1994, when they used to put out books of these kinds of stories. They’re not really awards, of course, unless you count ridicule as a kind of award. People’s foolishness can be funny. They’re also stories that are kind of shocking and sad. These are real people who died doing something dumb. Those poor people. They didn’t need to die like that. It didn’t have to be this way.
The history of the Christian church includes a lot of people dying in sad and shocking ways. Christians have been fed to lions. They’ve been shot full of arrows. They’ve had their heads chopped off. They’ve been burned at the stake.
The world might look at this with a similar kind of bewilderment and pity. Why would they do that? Why would they refuse to offer incense to Caesar? Why wouldn’t they just renounce their faith? Isn’t it worth it to go on living? Those poor people. They didn’t need to die like that. It didn’t have to be this way.
But by God’s grace you and I know that they couldn’t be any more different. It wasn’t because of foolishness that they died, but because of faith. And the world may ridicule them, but they do have a great reward. Though these are not the people the world considers great and successful, our Lord Jesus declares that they are blessed. He says, “Great is your reward in heaven.”
Our sermon text for today comes from Matthew 5, which is the beginning of Jesus’ great sermon on the mount. The title of it gives you the setting. Jesus was on a mountain and found a good spot there to sit down and teach his disciples. His sermon began with what we call the Beatitudes, a series of sayings that declare God’s blessings. Here’s what he said:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
because theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
because they will be comforted.
Blessed are the gentle,
because they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
because they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
because they will receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
because they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
because they will be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
because theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven. In fact, that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
The people that Jesus calls blessed are not the sorts of people the world around us would usually look at as blessed. Poor, mourning, gentle, merciful, peacemakers. The world considers success to be made up of riches and strength and power, being able to exert your will over others.
But not Jesus. That’s not what he praises. It’s not what he blesses. But notice that the things Jesus blesses here are not exactly the opposite of the world’s vision of success either. It is not that the world praises the rich and powerful and mighty and Jesus blesses anyone who is poor and downtrodden, or that the world praises wisdom and Jesus blesses the Darwin award winners.
Instead, the things that Jesus blesses are qualities that Christians have, as fruits of their faith. Poor in spirit- that’s not your bank account. It’s your attitude, an attitude that considers all the wealth of this world to be nothing at all. Those who mourn are mourning over sin and all its terrible toll. The gentle may have strength, but they don’t exert it to dominate others. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst, not for food, but for righteousness.
The merciful are those who are not quick to seek vengeance but are patient like their Father in heaven, whose mercy endures forever. The pure in heart are those who hold no secrets before God or man. The peacemakers are those who bring peace to other people.
And finally, blessed are those who are persecuted. You see those Christian martyrs? The ones who were torn apart by lions, who were nailed to crosses, who were burned to death, who were beheaded, or who suffered a thousand other tortures and awful deaths? Should we look at them with pity and say, “Those poor people. It didn’t have to be this way?” No, instead we should say, “How blessed they are, these men and women, these saints of God!”
In fact, Christians have always held up such people as great examples. The Old Testament is full of people like this. Jesus points us to the prophets and how they were treated. The people grumbled against Moses. They tried to kill Elijah. They threw Jeremiah down a cistern. Do we today look at these men with disdain and ridicule? No, if anything we look at them with awe. And there are even more examples that we know from the New Testament and from the history of the church after the time of the apostles. The world might not understand it one bit, but what a bold faith it takes to say, “I would rather die than deny my Lord Jesus!”
I have to say though that when I look at these beautiful beatitudes of Jesus, and I look at these mighty saints of God who died proclaiming the name of Jesus, well, I think I might be more suited for the Darwin Awards than for the great reward in heaven. And I don’t just mean that I’m more likely to die trying to take apart a rocket propelled grenade than being fed to lions for preaching Christ, though that might be true. What I mean is that Jesus’ beatitudes may describe many great saints and martyrs, but they don’t describe me.
Jesus said “Blessed are the poor in spirit” and I’d be better off if he just said, “Blessed are the poor” because then I could at least compare myself to people richer than me instead of looking inward and realizing just greedy and idolatrous this heart of mine is. Does sin cause me to mourn, or am I quick to sweep it under a rug and put on a self-rightous smile? Am I gentle when I don’t get my way? I’m always quick to feed my hunger and thirst, but not so much with righteousness.
Do I call it mercy when what I’m really doing is being lazy about my responsibilities to teach and to discipline? With a heart as impure as mine how could I ever see God? Am I a peacemaker when I’m afraid of conflict? If this is the person Jesus blesses, then is there any blessing at all for me?
The truth is that a Darwin Award is something I could earn, but the kingdom of heaven is something I could never earn. But that’s not why Jesus says these things. These blessings that Jesus pronounces are his gifts, the rewards of his righteousness, which we receive by faith. Do you think the prophets and Apostles are any different from you? Do you think they were so holy and earned God’s blessings while you are so far from God’s favor? No, they were sinful too. Peter denied Jesus three times. Paul calls himself the worst of sinners. Martin Luther’s dying words were, “We are all beggars, this is true.”
The only person these beatitudes truly describe is Jesus himself. Here was the perfect Son of God who did all of these things without fail, but he did them for you. That perfect and righteous life that he lived is yours. The blessings that God pronounces on that perfect and righteous life are yours. He is the one who makes you these things: poor in spirit, and mourning, and gentle, and hungering for righteousness, and merciful, and pure in heart, and a peacemaker, so that he can bless you with his rewards, so that you will have the kingdom of heaven, and be comforted, and inherit the earth, and be filled, and receive mercy, and see God, and be called God’s son.
You are a saint in the blood of Jesus. God has declared it. By Jesus’ perfect life and by his death and resurrection. By your baptism. By his Word and by his Supper. He says your sins are forgiven. You are holy, a saint to God.
None of us knows how we’re going to die. It may be from our own foolishness. It may be from natural causes. God will receive us in his mercy. It may be under persecution from confessing our faith. May God keep us firm in that faith to the end. We don’t know how we will die but we do know that when we die the reward that is in store for us is the reward of heaven, the great reward that our Lord and Savior Jesus has won.
And when we stand around his throne Moses and Elijah and Peter and Paul will not say, “What are you doing here?” No, they’ll rejoice with us and with all the saints to be invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb, who lives and reigns now and forever. Amen.
— Pastor Seth Georgson