Jesus’ emphasis on the upside-down
values of the Kingdom continues with his words about the ‘pure of heart’ and
how they will be blessed by seeing God. In Old Testament Hebrew thought ‘seeing
God’ had a cultic element to it since it was by going to the Temple, to be
involved in its cultic practices, that one would see God. Closely attached to
this act of Temple worship was being clear of sin – or
having ‘clean hands’ as Psalm 24 has it. As is clear from the words of Jesus
and many OT passages the emphasis was not on acting pure but on being
pure – on having a pure heart.
Thus Jesus brings the focus on the
heart – the internal state – in great contrast to what he saw around him. That Rome placed a great deal of emphasis on
the outward – the many statues of the emperor being just one example – was clear.
The Empire declared that peace would be gained through its decrees and rule and
yet was quick to draw the sword against any dissent; the façade may have been
about peace, but the heart contained terror and plans for suppression. Of
course, one would expect very little else from the world but Jesus is also
contrasting the Kingdom with the Jewish religious leaders of his day. For they
too placed a high degree of emphasis on appearance and making an outward show
and Jesus’ constant call was for these people to recognise their faults and for
the ordinary people not to follow them.
To what extent is the church today
also too concerned by the outward appearance? Being seen by the world to do
things in a professional manner has become a high value for many: we have to
have the best graphics on PowerPoint; the best sounding band; the trendiest
clothes; a packed out programme of weekly events. Because, as we all know, if
we look good then we’ll be appealing to the world.
Making time to focus on the internal
and on the state of our heart is, of course, a very difficult thing to do. It’s
not long before we’re confronted by issues that we’d far rather ignore. But in
the upside-down values of the Kingdom tackling those issues has a far higher
reward than being appealing to the world – Jesus says we’ll see God.
What are you going for?
