Matthew 5:8

Today we are looking at the sixth Beatitude, found in Matthew 5:8, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God,” which should be understood as saying, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for only they will see God.” Only those who have a pure heart will see God.

There is a little bit of an irony for us here. Most of the other Beatitudes we have looked at so far, did not seem to be qualities we really wanted for ourselves. The other Beatitudes so far have to do with being broken and destitute and meek and broken hearted. None of those things, at least at first glance, seemed to be character qualities we really wanted for ourselves, but they are qualities Jesus says we must have if we are citizens in His Kingdom. Now, comes this quality of being pure in heart –and this is a good quality. Who wouldn’t like to be thought of as having a pure heart? This is a quality I want. I want a pure heart –but, this is a quality that at first seems unattainable. I mean, I want a pure heart –but if by pure heart, Jesus means a clean and perfect and holy heart –I don’t have one.

I think that most of us relate to the text found in Proverbs 20:9, “Who can say, ‘I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin?” And in 1 John 1:8 we read, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” We know ourselves too well to go around pretending that we have pure hearts, don’t we? I’m quite sure that Jesus is not asking us to pretend or be phony –so, He’s not asking us to be self-righteous. And yet, this Beatitude is telling us that only those with pure hearts will see God.

So, this text creates something of a dilemma for us. Is Jesus asking us to do something which is impossible? Has He called us to a purity that is unachievable? Is it even possible for a man or woman to have this pure heart that Jesus is talking about, a heart that will one day enable us to stand before God and see His face? Since we know that Jesus is not cruel and Jesus is not deceitful, we must assume that what Jesus is telling us is possible. So, let’s look at this a little closer and see if we can make some sense of it.

First, let’s back up for just a moment and look at the culture that Jesus was talking to when He spoke these words. When Jesus began His ministry, Israel was under several forms of oppression. There was, of course, political oppression. As you know, Rome ruled the known world. The Romans ruled the Jewish people without respect or regard for their religious beliefs, without regard for basic human dignity or rights, without mercy. Israel was simply one of dozens of small countries that Rome had conquered and from which Rome demanded tribute. As a consequence of the political oppression, Israel was also oppressed financially. Since Israel was a deeply religious nation and since its religion was separatist in nature, they did not assimilate into mainstream Roman culture, so they didn’t really enjoy the benefit of Roman prosperity. Many Jewish people lived in poverty.

But greatest form of oppression that the Jewish people lived under came from within. They were oppressed by their own religious leaders. Jesus expressed it like this in Matthew 23:4, “They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.”

What were these heavy loads? What were the burdens, the weights that the religious rulers were putting on the backs of the people? They were religious rules and regulations. They were religious laws. Jesus said that there really was only one law. I’m sure you can all quote it with me. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” Jesus said all of God’s laws can be boiled down to that one sentence. But either because they were hard-hearted and unrepentant, or because they were lazy, or because they were somehow unable to love God with all of their hearts, men came up with an alternative. Men made a list of rules to keep. Keeping the rules made it seem as if they were God honoring religious people. But in reality, inflexible obedience to the law became a cover-up for their lack of intimacy with God Himself. The law, you see, became a substitute for the relationship. In Isaiah 29:13, God said, “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is made up only of rules taught by men.”

Unfortunately, that still is how most people view the church today, isn’t it? Most people do not view us a haven of grace and mercy, they don’t see us as a place where they can be forgiven. Most people view the church as a place of bondage, a place where we become smothered, bound by rules. I think people view us this way because many churches operate this way. And churches operate this way because it is still easier to keep a list of rules than it is to actually enter into a relationship. It is still easier live with this whole list of things we do and things we don’t do. We don’t smoke or drink or cuss or dance or gamble or commit adultery, we don’t have abortions, we don’t steal or cheat, ...I could go on, but its a very long list, this list of things that Christians don’t do.

And, of course, we also a have an equally long list of things we do. We go to church, we go to Bible study, we go to prayer meeting, we have personal devotions, we sing hymns, we sing choruses, we lift our hands in praise, we tithe, we help our neighbors, we pay our taxes, and most White, middle class Christians vote Republican. But God says, if you’ll allow me to paraphrase Isaiah 29:13 which I read a moment ago, “I am not impressed with lists of man-made rules -I want your hearts. I wish you would just give Me back your hearts. I don’t even want to hear your songs if I can’t have your hearts. I don’t want to listen to your prayers, I don’t even want your tithe, if I can’t have your hearts. The thing I care most about is I want you to love Me with all of your hearts.”

And this brings us back to where we started today with Jesus telling us, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for only they shall see God.” If this pure-heartedness is not about the list of things Believers do and don’t do, what is it actually about?

We get a clue from the word Jesus used here fore “pure.” The Greek word used here is the word, “katharidzo,” and what it literally means is “undivided, unmixed, with no foreign substances added.” It is the same word that might be used to describe refined silver or gold from which all other trace elements have been removed. It also is a word which describes loyalty in a relationship. In a spiritual sense, then, when used to describe a pure heart it means a heart that is passionately in love God with undivided loyalty. Owners of pure hearts are people who honestly say, “Jesus, I belong to you. I have no other God. I have no other righteousness. I have no other hope.”

This isn’t about people who are perfect, who never do anything wrong. This isn’t even about what we believe, exactly. This isn’t a test of correct theology –this pure-heartedness. This is just a test of who do you love? Jesus wants you to fall passionately in love with Him. Jesus wants your heart. Jesus knows that when He has our hearts, He has us.

If we love Jesus with all of our hearts, souls, minds, and strength, the law will take care of itself. Will this make us perfect people? Not necessarily. Redeemed people with pure hearts don’t always do everything right. But the desire of their hearts is to do what is right. We may not always succeed in obeying God perfectly, but we cannot get away from the fact that our hearts belong to God.

Here is a shocking truth. Jesus favors those who passionately love Him, no matter what their backgrounds and no matter what their struggles. Jesus favors people who still have a long ways to go but have truly given Him their undivided hearts over those of us who think we’ve arrived but have not given God our whole hearts. That’s kind of shocking isn’t it? Think about it. Jesus favors drug dealers and murderers and sex-offenders who know that they are spiritually bankrupt and have to turned Christ for mercy and forgiveness and who have learned to love Jesus with a passion over apathetic church goers who have never done much of anything really wrong but who only love Him on Sundays.

This is what Jesus wants for us and from us. Jesus wants our hearts. Jesus wants our pure, unmixed, undivided, unadulterated hearts to be passionately in love with Him. And if Jesus has our undivided hearts, the promise He has given to us is that we will see Him. We will see Him!

Blessed are those who have unreservedly given Jesus their whole, undivided hearts, holding nothing back, for only they shall see God.