The Beatitudes, Luke 6

I dislike "checking the box" with regard to the Bible these days; instead, I'd rather wade through the commentaries and gather fragments that inspire me to think more deeply about Jesus and his words.

Here are some bits of commentary on Luke 6 and the Beatitudes:

"Blessedness, rather than happiness, the want of man 

It is not merely happiness, whatever our shallow moralists may say, that is “the aim and end of our being.

” Happiness implies merely the undisturbed enjoyment of the man. It may belong to the child, or to the selfish votary of the world. It may be spoken of the miser’s gold, or of the successful prizes of ambition, or o! the gilded baubles of social folly. There is no moral meaning in it. But it is blessedness that alone can satisfy the mind and heart, which are living for another end than self; blessedness, which has no hap in it, no chance, no merely outward success." -E. A. Washburn, D. D.

Worthwhile---I do think it's different to be blessed than to be happy.  I like Washburn's definition of happy, "the undisturbed enjoyment of the man," and I see this selfish desire in myself. In my mind, "undisturbed enjoyment" sounds blissful, even though I know it's a mirage.

"In relation to the context of Jesus, I am always surprised when the possibility is not more often entertained that Jesus taught on a subject more than once, and that he might have adapted his teaching and varied it depending on the situation and the audience. This is a possibility worth considering simply based on the amount of material that we have in the gospels (which, after all, only takes a few hours to read) compared with the length of Jesus’ ministry."-Psephizo, Ian Paul

The Temple

I'm reading through 1 Kings 6 and 7 this morning---the description of the temple Solomon built, and his home, the pillars, the Sea, and so on. In the back of my mind, I had David's piano song from yesterday, Steward Townsend's "How Deep the Father's Love for Us." What work and resources were contributed to create those structures--stones 15 feet wide, two cherubim that were fifteen feet high, guilded in gold... I tried to imagine the 11,000 gallons of water of the Sea, ten carts with 220 gallons each of water, moving those around.  The blood of the sacrifices on the huge pit. And a tribe of men completely devoted to all aspects of the care of this---easy to see why they needed it.  All of this part of the Jewish culture, central to it.

To think of Christ replacing it---to think of Him as the substitute sacrifice---brings it all back down to today for me.  My sin.  The need...the enormous need when looking at this broken world...to somehow make amends, to do what humanity cannot do--to heal and bind instead of breaking and tearing continually.  

It's been a beautiful and fearful thing to think about...Christ usurping all of the temple stuff---in the end, just stuff.

This was interesting:

1Ki 6:7  The stones used in the construction of the Temple were finished at the quarry, so there was no sound of hammer, ax, or any other iron tool at the building site. 

My commentaries suggest this was because Solomon did not view all the noise of construction fitting for such a project.  To think of all these men assembling this structure silently.  I wonder to what degree, to what extent?  Intriguing image.

Things

Things that make me sad:

Plants that I don't have room for.

Thinking about the ugly too small green dining room at 51 West Chapel that became the main living room for the widow who lived there after us.  Too small bedrooms. Weird bathroom configurations. 

Thinking about this home being my parents' dream home and just like their life, not working as they hoped.

Thinking about my father dying before Grace was born.

Thinking about my mother's childhood.

Thinking about our son's lack of a graduation and our daughter's lack of closure at UNC.

My father's last moments.

Plants that die before producing fruit or flowers after I grow them from seed.

Selfish people.

The church.

The Church.

John Prine's death to Covid.

"Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ." Ephesians 3:7-8

The word "unsearchable" is anexichniaston, from exichniazō. "to trace out," and Alpha privative which negates the word, making it mean, "that which cannot be traced out." 

"To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God."  Ephesians 3:10

 "Manifold" is polupoikilos, "much - variegated, marked with a great variety of colors." -Wuest's

Translation: In order that there might be made known now to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, through the intermediate agency of the Church, the much variegated wisdom of God.

 

"In whom we have boldness and access with confidence..." Eph 3:12

On Knowledge of His Power

"...that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might.  Ephesians 1:17-18

" I know not whence a man is to draw bright hopes, or what is to deliver him from pessimism as his last word about himself and his fellows, except the ‘working of the strength of the might which He wrought in Christ.’ ‘We see not yet all things put under Him’-be it so, ‘but we see Jesus,’ and, looking to Him, hope is possible, reasonable, and imperative.

The same knowledge is our refuge from our own consciousness of weakness. Yes! I am all full of sin and corruption. Yes! I am ashamed of myself every day. Yes! I am too heavy to climb, and have no wings to fly, and am bound here by chains manifold. Yes! But we know the exceeding greatness of the power, and we triumph in Him....

That knowledge should shame us into contrition, when we think of such force at our disposal, and such poor results. That knowledge should widen our conceptions, enlarge our desires, breathe a brave confidence into our hopes, should teach us to expect great things of God, and to be intolerant of present attainments whilst anything remains unattained. And it should stimulate our vigorous effort, for no man will long seek to be better, if he is convinced that the effort is hopeless.

Learn to realise the exceeding greatness of the power that will clothe your weakness."

-Andrew MacLaren

Knowledge not of facts, but of His power is critical.

What is the nature of the brokenness in me that I can't take hold of this power consistently?  My emotions and events pull me off.  People discourage me.  The church discourages me. 

Even close friends have significant and seeming insurmountable differences that block me from fully relating to them, fully loving them.

Do we have to agree with someone on "the big" things to deeply, authentically love them? Be close friends with them? Let them deeply into our world? Invest in them? Inside the church? Outside?

Honestly, those outside the church are easier for me to love much of the time.  Or the misfits within. 

This entry was inspired by the apostle Paul and Andrew MacLaren's definition of "knowledge," but in the end, my question is more about authentic love.  Love comes from God, right?