Sadly, we’re again cancelling in person worship this week due to weather. Both parking lots are iced over and in some places with deep drifts. In addition, many roads are experiencing drifting, along with falling branches and trees, And the temperature on Sunday morning is expected to be in the single digits with wind chill being well below zero. Stay safe. Watch or read the sermon, or do both. Join us tomorrow morning at 10 AM on zoom (if you don’t have the link, email me at parkwayrockchurches@gmail.com). Check in on your neighbors. Hopefully, things will be better this week as the temperatures on Tuesday and Wednesday are forecasted to be in the 40s and 50s.
Jeff Garrison
Mayberry & Bluemont Churches
February 8, 2026
Matthew 5:1-12 (7-12)
At the beginning of worship:
Life in the sixteenth century could be brutal. While good things came out of the Reformation, it being led by humans meant somethings were not so good. Catholics fought those within the Lutheran and Reformed Traditions, and we fought back. And those within the Anabaptist tradition, the ancestors to the Mennonite and Amish folks who live around us here in the Blue Ridge, caught it from all sides. Their persecution peaked in the Low Countries, what we know of today as the Netherlands.
One of the martyrs of the Amish and Mennonite tradition is Dirk Willems. He was condemned by a Catholic court (although many Protestants at the time would have agreed with the court’s ruling) and ordered to be burned at the stake for his theological beliefs. Dirk was held in an old palace repurposed as a prison. He escaped, by collecting pieces of cloth and creating a rope from which he climbed down from his cell window and took off across the landscape. One of the guards saw him and gave chase. They ran across a wide frozen pond. Dirk, as a prisoner, had lost weight and made it across the ice. His pursuer wasn’t so lucky. He crashed through the ice and cried out for help.
Dirk turned back and saved the man, only to be recaptured. On May 16, 1569, he was led to the stake. A strong wind blew, which kept the fire away from Dirk’s upper body for the longest time. It’s said neighboring villages heard his screams, as he repeatedly shouted, “O Lord, my God.”
What would you have done? Would you have helped the man or seen it as an opportunity to escape? What would Jesus advise?
Before reading the Scripture:
I am splitting Jesus’ beatitudes into two halves, following the example of Dale Bruner in his commentary on the gospel. The first half of the beatitudes, which we looked at last week, focused on those in need. Here, we see God’s gracious side. With God, grace always comes before expectations. The second half of the beatitudes deal with our response to the needs of the world. For those willing to participate with God, a blessing is also given. Then, this passage ends with the reminder to those loyal to Jesus to expect persecution.
Bruner, who wrote an outstanding two-volume commentary on Matthew, admits his struggles to preach on the second half of the Beatitudes.[1] As Protestants, we emphasize grace. And grace abounds in the first four beatitudes. But in the second set of blessings, we learn we can also be blessed for doing what’s right. Sounds like “works-righteousness.” Is it?
Within our faith, a healthy tension exists between grace and law or works. While grace is necessary for our salvation, we are expected to respond to this grace in gratitude and love. We need both, grace and law. We are saved by grace, but we respond by doing God’s work in the world. Are we merciful, pure in heart, or a peacemaker? What does this even mean? Let’s look at our text for today. Like last week, I will read the entire passage but today will focus on verses 7 through 12 in the sermon.
Read Matthew 5:1-12
The first set of beatitudes begin with three focused on those in need. They’re passive. The next set of beatitudes begin with three beatitudes focused on helping those in need. These are active, calling us forth to participate with God’s plan for the world.[2]Blessed are the merciful, the pure in heart, and the peacemaker. Let’s begin by considering what each means.
Who are the merciful? Matthew, more than any of the other gospels, shows concerned for our moral life. For Matthew, being ethical, being moral, is to be merciful. It involves compassion. Twice in his gospel, Matthew recalls Jesus quoting Hosea, “I want mercy and not sacrifice.”[3] Jesus, himself, while often described as having compassion, more often shows what compassion looks like though actions on behalf of the needy.[4] Compassion sees or understands the needs of others and responds. It’s having empathy on behalf of others.[5]
Forgiveness is another component of this mercy which Jesus repeatedly demonstrates. Later in this sermon, in the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus links our willingness to forgive to our ability to be forgiven. “Forgive us our debts or sins, as we forgive our debtors or those who sin against us.”[6] Later in his gospel, Matthew recalls Jesus’ parable of the unforgiven servant. Here, the one forgiven a huge debt, refuses to forgive a man who owed him a little. The unforgiving servant’s ingratitude and inability to forgive leads to his condemnation.[7]
It’s hard to show mercy to those who have wronged us. However, it’s better than the alternative, letting hate and revenge build up inside of us until we explode.[8]
Next, Jesus blesses the pure in heart. While behavior is important in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus emphasizes internal purity. Sin isn’t just actions. It can also be words and thoughts. Angry words are as harmful as actions. Lust is as bad as adultery.[9] In Jesus time, the rabbis emphasized keeping all kinds of outward signs of faith. You obeyed the Sabbath. You ate the right foods. You avoided being in the company of sinners. But Jesus flips this on its side and insists his follower’s purity not be just on the outside but also on the inside.[10]
We might say something like, “My heart tells me.” However, a pure heart goes beyond our feelings. Within Hebraic through, to speak of the heart includes the “interior life of the person.”[11] In other words, a pure heart refers to our thoughts, actions, and intentions. Seeing God is the blessing received by one who’s life is so structured.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God,” comes next. We hear this beatitude with the background drumming of war around the globe and think it would be nice to have a few more peacemakers who could save Ukrainians from Russian attacks on their hospitals and apartment buildings. Or those who bring peace to South Sudan, Congo, or even between us and Iran, Cuba, Greenland, and Venezuela.
While such peace is to be desired, we must understand two things. In Jesus day, the “peacemaker” was the emperor, who by brutal force brought peace to the entire Roman world. But is that really peace when you crucify anyone who threatens your peace? Can we have peace without justice?
Secondly, peace in a Hebriac sense goes beyond the absence of conflict. Peace implied wholeness. One commentator suggests this verse might be translated as “Blessed are the wholemakers.”[12]
Matthew concern for relationships between people shows up later in this sermon. Jesus orders those angry with another to reconcile even before they make an offering to God. Then, in the 18thChapter, Matthew records another set of Jesus’ teachings about how we should attempt reconciliation. Jesus encourages us not to blow up conflicts but to attempt to settle them quietly, one-on-one. Only if that doesn’t work, should you involve others.[13]
Jesus doesn’t expect us to settle all the world’s conflicts. While some may be called to such work, all of us can do our part to create a peaceful oasis around us. We should all strive to reduce conflict and to create an atmosphere where everyone can flourish. This is especially needed in our own nation. We’re walking on a slippery path. As we saw with the fifth beatitude, we’re called to help those in need (Blessed are the merciful). Yet, here, in the seventh beatitude, we’re also called to bring peace. I suggest this includes bridging the gap between those who support and oppose the current Administration. It’s tough work because neither side trusts the other. But that’s where peacemakers come into play. If we attempt to faithfully walk this narrow path, we’re promised a special relationship to God as we’re adopted into his family.
After the three helper beatitudes, Jesus reminds us of that old saying, “No good deed goes unpunished.” His last two beatitudes are for those who experience persecution. We should carefully note, the reason for the persecution isn’t about us, but about our striving to do what is right and to remain faithful to Jesus Christ. “When you’re ill-treated because of me, you’re in good company,” Jesus says, “for the same thing happened to the prophets.”
The beatitudes end on a note reminding us to expect persecution. Staying faithful to Jesus and his teachings can come at great cost. We may be disliked, disowned, or suffer fiscal or physical attacks. But if we remain true to our Savior and strive to help those in need, we’re reminded in these blessings that God will remain with us in this life and in the life to come, we’ll discover our rewarded in heaven.
Strive to do good. Stand up for the underdog. Reach out for those who fall. Provide aide for those can’t help themselves. Look out for the marginalized and persecuted. Yes, by doing such good deeds, we may find ourselves persecuted or killed, as we recently seen in Minneapolis. But that’s the price we pay to live with a clean conscience. Remember Dirk Willems. He had a choice. He could flee and live. Or he could help another in need and, as Jesus will discuss later in this sermon, love his enemy.[14]
We’re called to follow Christ and to base our lives on his life. Jesus helped those in need and he ended up crucified. Perhaps his last two beatitudes foreshadow what was ahead for him and some of his followers. But remember, it’s better to strive to do what is right in Jesus’ name than to ignore those in need around us. Amen.
[1] Frederick Dale Bruner, The Christbook: Matthew 1-12 (1990, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2004), 179. For discussion on Protestant and Catholic interprets of the two halves of the beatitudes, see pages 183-187.
[2] Bruner, 173, labels these two sets of beatitudes as “passive” and “active.”
[3] Bruner, 173. See Hosea 6:6.
[4] Kenneth E. Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2008), 82.
[5] See Andrew Purves, The Search for Compassion: Spirituality and Ministry (WJKP, 1989).
[6] Matthew 6:12.
[7] Matthew 18:23-35.
[8] Bailey, 82.
[9] Matthew 5:21-22 and 27-30.
[10] Bruner, 15
[11] Bailey, 84.
[12] Bailey, 172. For more on Pax Romana, see Douglas R. A. Hare, Matthew: Interpretation, A Commentary for Teaching and Preaching (Louisville, KY: JKP, 1993), 42.
[13] Matthew 5:23-24, 18:15-18.
[14] Matthew 5:43-48.
Wow, sounds cold there. It’s 70F here all week. As much as I hate the hot Summers here, I really enjoy most of the Winter’s here because they are so mild.
When I lived in Cedar City, UT (170 miles up I-15), we always took trips to Vegas in the winter to warm up! I loved hiking around the Black Canyon (south of the dam) or at Red Rocks.
This is a tough message. It’s easy to say we know the right thing to do and sometimes it’s easy to actually do. But other times it can be a real challenge.
I think a lot of the Sermon on the Mount is tough for us to hear and even tougher to abide.
A great sermon 😁
Thanks, Francine. Hopefully, next week, we’ll be able to worship in person!