Holy Boldness

He sat down, His disciples came to Him. And opening His mouth He began to teach them saying…” (Matt. 5: 1) Even the setting of Jesus’ message, “He went up on the mountain… His disciples came to Him….” , is a meta phor of coming to a higher realm of understanding in order to compre hend what Jesus was actually saying and teaching. Jesus was establishing a new community with a new understanding of who God was and what He was about. We must go up to Him and sit at His feet and listen. G. K. Chesterton once rightly observed, “ The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.” 10 Understanding the meaning of Jesus’ words involves becom ing teachable, engaging one’s heart, listening intently, and then taking simple steps of obedience in a practical, personal way. This is the way into understanding. Jesus began His famous message with eight statements, The Heavenly Octave , as F. W. Boreham described it, known as the beatitudes, describing the inward disposition of those who are “blessed”. “ The beati tudes are the soul of the sermon on the mount, ” 11 wrote A. M. Hunter. They describe the internal state of the person who is blessed, cheerful, content, satisfied. Eight times Jesus decrees a benediction on a certain type of individual. These statements create the platform for understanding everything else Jesus says. It is actually impossible to entertain the possi bility of fulfilling the moral expectations spoken of in the Sermon on the Mount without the right disposition to start with. Paul declared that the righteousness of God is revealed to faith. (Romans 1:16) A person who does not believe in God’s intention to execute justice on the earth will be defiled by hopelessness.. But all who believe God’s word, will be blessed to see the goodness of God. This faith posture is the platform for blessedness. “Blessed” means “ah the happiness of…” 12 and is the attitude of one who lives in communion with God. The beatitudes describe a 10 Chesterton, G. K. What’s Wrong with the World. London 11 Hunter, Archibald M. (1953) A Pattern for Life: An Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount , The Westminster Press, p. 29 12 Ibid. p. 30 The Beatitudes

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