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12th May 2024
SundayReflection
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Tim Wiebe says
Look at Jesus
How do we embody the Beatitudes?
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"Beatitudes" (think of them as ways to be blessed) can be abstract, and many of them sound foreign to our 21st century Western ears.
In the men's group, we spent the bulk of our time discussing what these Beatitudes look like as they're actually lived out.
What does it look like to be "poor in spirit"?
How about "meek," or "pure in heart"?
How do we embody the Beatitudes?
A key part of the answer that was suggested is that we look at the life of Jesus.
As the perfect, sinless, and sent "God-man" (fully God and fully man), how did Jesus live out these values?
The example I think of here is simply the reality of Jesus "making himself nothing" and "taking the nature of a servant, being made in human likeness".
Rather than clinging to his status and entitlements, he "did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage."
This lack of attention to our "rights" and "entitlements," this focus on others at the expense of our comfort, is a powerful picture of being poor in spirit.
What made Jesus cry?
Two examples come to mind: when Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus and when Jesus wept over Jerusalem.
In both of these cases, Jesus wept over sin.
In the case of Lazarus, he wept over the consequences of sin taking shape in human death and grief.
In the case of Jerusalem, he wept over the hardness of heart and blindness to God's activity that characterized the city.
Do we weep over these same sorts of things?
John 13 begins by telling us that Jesus KNEW all things were "under his power," that "he had come from God" and "was returning to God."
Rather than using this as an excuse to "coast" through to the end or exert his privileges as Son of God, the next phrases we read show that Jesus got up and washed his disciples' feet.
This is humility. And gentleness.
In other words, it's meekness.
In John 4, Jesus says that "my food is to do the will of him who sent me and finish his work."
Jesus' greatest hunger wasn't for food, and his greatest thirst wasn't for water.
His greatest hunger and thirst was knowing and furthering God's will and work for him on this earth.
What are we hungry for?
There are lots of examples of Jesus' mercy.
Examples could surely be considered as Jesus surely "bit his tongue" rather than correcting wrong thinking of either his disciples or the crowds, or the times he went out of his way to minister to someone who would today be considered an "extra grace required" person.
Jesus' purity in heart means he chose to respond to temptation by depending on God and his Word.
He was devoted to his Father without any idolatries "polluting" this commitment.
We pursue this same purity of heart today by responding to temptation as Jesus did, and genuinely mimicking his whole-hearted devotion to God.
The ultimate example of Jesus as our peacemaker is how he accomplished peace with God for his followers, by his death on the cross.
Jesus' work of peace making was costly, asking of him the greatest sacrifice.
And Jesus' peace making was generous, offering reconciliation to any who would follow him.
May our own peace-making efforts be in line with Jesus' example!
As the Lamb of God that was led to the slaughter.
In 1 Peter 3 we read that we should not be frightened if we suffer for doing what is right.
Rather, Jesus is our example of patient - and victorious! - suffering in the face of undeserved persecution.
This doesn't mean we go out of our way looking for persecution!
Rather, it means that if (when?) we encounter persecution and suffering, as we faithfully follow Jesus, we should look to his example and reward for strength and perseverance.
And if we're never persecuted - even in the smallest of ways - for following Christ, perhaps we should ask how visibly we're living for him?
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This is an edited version.
The full article and Bible references are avaiable on request
My name is Dr.Tim Wiebe,
and I oversee this online presence of the Brookside Institute.
I have served as a pastor in a team ministry environment at Brookside Church since 2006.
My current role there is Pastor of Spiritual Formation.
I am an ordained minister in the Evangelical Free Church of America and a member of the Evangelical Theological Society.
Additionally, I received a Doctor of Ministry in Applied Theology from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 2022.
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