Read: Matthew 5:1-12
I loved the meditation in Our Daily Bread for Monday, October 26, 2009. Joe Stowell writes:
As I walked into church one Sunday morning, a little boy looked at me and said to his mother, “Mom, is that Jesus?” Needless to say, I was curious to hear her response. “No,” she said, “that’s our pastor.”
I knew she would say no, of course, but I still wished she could have added something like, “No, that’s our pastor, but he reminds us a lot of Jesus.”
Wouldn’t we all like to have someone say that we reminded them of Jesus? How would you feel if someone walked up to you and said, “I See Jesus in you?” Well, one way that others may begin to see Jesus in us is if we begin to see Jesus in others.
Being like Jesus is the purpose of life for those of us who are called to follow him. In fact, as John Stott says: “It is the all-consuming goal of our past, our present, and our future,” because humans are created in God’s image and likeness. That means that there is something that looks like God in each of us. For instance, God loves, and we are intended to love.
God forgives, and tells us to do the same.
What Jesus teaches is what God originally and truly intended us to be. If you want to know more about what you’re really supposed to look like, how you’re supposed to behave, then look at Jesus. Like him, we are intended to express the character of God in this world.
Now here’s a critical point to understand: Jesus is what he teaches. Therefore, when he teaches the beatitudes, these “blessed are” verses from Matthew’s Gospel, it is not just establishing an ideal for us. It is an expression of what he is as well, and essay about how he conducts his life. Therefore, to see evidence of the beatitudes in others is to see Jesus in them.
Each beatitude that Jesus gives us helps us to focus on some dimension of the image of God, revealed in and through Christ. They are a program of holiness for us to follow.
Now we need to be clear about one thing. When it comes right down to it, saint-making is God’s doing, not our own accomplishment. Holiness comes by the grace of God, through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. But Jesus is also clearly laying out a plan for us here.
Being like Jesus is not so much about keeping the rules as it is about knowing his forgiveness. But once we know that forgiveness, being like Jesus is also about committing acts of grace and mercy on a consistent basis, because that’s the way he lived.
There is, in the end, a content to holiness. There is some hard work involved. Sainthood is, in that regard, a daily grind, although aided by God, to be sure. With God’s assistance, however, saints live in hope and not in despair; they forgive, rather than judge others; they love instead of hate; lift up, not tear down.
Saints value all people, and at the same time, they have a pure heart, fully surrendered to the will of God. That’s just like Jesus, too. Therefore, saints live in such a way that others see Jesus in them, the Jesus who blessed people through his deeds and his words.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”
Those who are pure in heart cannot help but see God in others, and in all situations.
The pure in heart see God at work where others cannot, because they expect to, and because they are open to receive Christ into their lives. Let us always strive to be like them, to not only see God in Jesus, but to see Jesus in one another.