#008 Losers

Matthew 5:1-16

The Sermon on the Mount is one of the best known passages in the gospel, but not one of the best understood. First, its targets are the disciples who come to Jesus, not the crowd.


Second, it is not a list of things you have to do to be saved or become disciple of Jesus. He's talking about the characteristics of those who, at all times, subject to Jesus.

"Kingdom of Heaven" means a kingdom not of the earth, but heavenly; whose king was here, was rejected and is now in heaven. When Jesus says "blessed are these or those," it is like if he were saying "happy are these or those" who are like this. Like what? Losers like this.

Yeah, because if Jesus, the king of the kingdom of heaven himself, was a loser in this world, how do you expect his followers be?

But then someone comes and says: "Hey, but I thought it was just the opposite, because I saw someone on TV say that if you go to Jesus your problems disappear, you improve your business, pay your debts, solve marital problems, get healed of all diseases, and even buy a brand new car!"

Well, whoever goes to Jesus thinking that way is like someone who gets married out of some interest other than love-- you know, like to marry into money. If you are looking for Jesus to receive something else than the forgiveness of sins and salvation, think better. Or do you think God is naïve and does not see your intentions?

Look who the blessed ones are here: the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those wronged or tired of injustices, the soft-hearted who feel sorry for others, the peacemakers, those persecuted for righteousness or for their faith in Jesus....

Get it? This is the opposite of the beatitudes of the world where the blessed are the self-sufficient, those who laugh, the powerful, those who thrive on injustice, trample on others, promote and pursue war, aggressively go after what they want, and those who obviously want to be far from the one who was the greatest loser in this world: Jesus.

But God is calling losers, not champions, for his kingdom. Prostitutes, thieves, blind, crippled -- what kind of person do you think Jesus came to call? And once saved from their sins because of what Jesus did on the cross, and not by his own works, in what do you think they were made into? In these blessed ones according to God's concept, not men's.

Want to be among them? Want to be blessed forever, not just for a few years? Then place your faith in Jesus -- not in a successful glossy magazine-cover Jesus, but in the crucified one. Then you will know yourself , as in the next 3 minutes you will see the ruin you really are.