The Kingdom Movement

A Literary & Pastoral Study Guide to the Gospel of Matthew

The Inspiration of Matthew,

by Caravaggio

 

On the King's Errand

Devotional Reflections on Matthew's Gospel

 

Influential Ambassadors, Part Four:  Mt.5:9 – 10

 

5:9 Blessed are…

 

In 1991, Erica and Frank’s passion for world missions led them to become founding board members for HOPE (Helping Other People Everywhere) Worldwide.  They partnered with people in ‘Smokey Mountain,’ a Manila garbage dump. 

‘The poverty hit us really hard,’ Erica says of the Manila community.  ‘People lived in refuse dumps, building their homes with garbage.  There was no sanitation.’  But the people to whom they ministered expressed gratitude for the help they received. ‘They’d hug us and thank us for toothbrushes and soap,’ she says. ‘It brings tears to your eyes when you see people like that.’  They declare that God has made peace between Himself and humanity, and between person and person, and for that, they are known as children of a loving God.  Erica and Frank saw many people come to Jesus.  They hoped the people touched by their other ministry projects (supporting underground house churches in Vietnam, the hospital in Cambodia, the rehabilitation center in Thailand for girls leaving the sex trade) would also come to Jesus.

          Sadly, Erica was diagnosed with lupus in the early 1990s, and after a long period of remission the disease reared its ugly head again about a decade later.  By that time she was the mother of three daughters.  The couple moved back to the United States in 2003 and settled in Colorado, where Frank took over his family’s business while remaining vice-chair of HOPE Worldwide’s board.  Erica’s chronic condition, lupus, causes fatigue, loss of appetite, and severe migraine headaches; it forced her to resign from the board.  But a healthy diet and lots of rest help her manage the pain.  And she continues her ministry through writing and frequent trips back to Asia.  Despite her pain, Erica says she wouldn’t trade her journey for anything:  ‘God’s unexpected call on my life has given me the chance to impact many lives for Christ.’  

 

9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

 

          Jesus’ seventh beatitude highlights another facet of spiritual transformation.  After saying, ‘Lord, I need you’ (poor in spirit; 5:3), and, ‘Lord, I’m sorry’ (mourn; 5:4), and yet still longing for a God-nourished life (inherit the garden land; 5:5), hungering and thirsting for Jesus’ righteousness which fulfills both sides of God’s covenant with Israel (5:6).  As we experience Jesus, we become merciful (5:7) and pure in heart (5:8).  Then this life overflows so that others come to Jesus and find peace with God (5:9).  Because God’s divine nature and our human nature are at peace with one another in the person of Jesus, we who are in Jesus also share in Jesus’ mission.  We become ‘peacemakers’ between people and God, and also people with other people.  And because Jesus is the ‘son of God,’ in union with Jesus, we become adopted daughters and sons of God as well.  In Hebrew idiom, to be ‘son of’ something also means that you demonstrate that something (Barnabus means ‘son of encouragement’).  So for us to ‘be called sons of God’ probably also means that we become identified with God’s own character of love, experienced by sinners in reconciliation and peacemaking.

           Unfortunately, sometimes our friends and family might look at the way we live for Jesus, and disagree vehemently.  Jesus warns us:

 

10 Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

 

Notice the eighth beatitude refers back to the fourth:  the righteousness that we hunger and thirst for in 5:6 is now part of our lives in 5:10, enough so that other people persecute us for it!  This reinforces the sense that Jesus is describing a process of spiritual transformation in his eight beatitudes, as opposed to eight different attitudes, or eight different kinds of people.  In his mind, this is one person, going deeper every time through a process.  And the ‘kingdom of heaven’ which was offered to the ‘poor in spirit’ at the start (5:3) is being expressed personally and dynamically by the end (5:10).  Not that we’re done though on this side of eternity; I think we keep deepening in our experience of this transformation.

 

 

(Erica Shinya Kim’s story was distilled from an article in Christianity Today by Claudia Cangilla McAdam, http://www.christianitytoday.com/tc/2007/002/10.24.html)