Jesus’ Manifesto for Christians Matthew 5:1-16
Before the last General Election much was made of the various parties manifestos - the outlines of their policies. This article looks at Jesus’ manifesto for Christians as he embarks on his world changing ministry.
The Occasion
Already great crowds were following Jesus. In the previous chapter we read:
“Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed; and he healed them. Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.” Matthew 4:23-25
Jesus went about teaching in the synagogues, ‘proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom’ and healing people with all sorts of diseases. Hordes of people followed him because their minds were being stimulated about eternal issues and their bodies healed. You can imagine the broad range of people in the crowd, Pharisees and tax collectors (publicans), religious and prostitutes, scholars and illiterate. Jesus is relevant to all sorts of people.
Jesus’ reaction is significant. He went up a mountain to teach his disciples.. Doubtless some of the crowd overheard this teaching but it was primarily for the disciples. Whenever Jesus sees crowds of people he sees that they are suffering because they are not being led well. In both the subsequent stories of the feeding of the 5,000 and the 4,000 we read that Jesus was filled with compassion. Yet Jesus’ main strategy was to teach his twelve disciples so they could go out and teach others his message about god’s Kingdom.
The core message is that Jesus is God’s Messiah, God’s chosen eternal king, and that God’s Kingdom consists of those who are committed to following and obeying their King. Jesus promises his people that this is the only road to real, eternal happiness.
Jesus longs to establish God’s Kingdom on earth and he has chosen us, his disciples, to be trained to pass this message on, both by word and by the different way we live. Unfortunately those first disciples took a long time to understand these principles. Even after Jesus’ resurrection they asked,
“Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” Acts 1:6
They had ears and had heard Jesus but they were still deaf to his message. They had heard this manifesto and seen it lived out by Jesus, but they had still not understood. They expected an earthly king - a ruler who would free Israel from the Romans and other oppressors. How often churches, both Roman Catholic, Orthodox and others have made this mistake of focussing on earthly kingdoms.
God’s kingdom is not advanced by the sword, it is primarily about a relationship with Jesus that changes our characters and ambitions into His own. This is what the Christ’s manifesto focusses on. Jesus had nothing to say about world governments and their promises for a better life here.
Being blessed is all about being, not having or knowing something. Being blessed is not a question of what you have but who you are. Jesus left this world without giving us a political programme, indeed he repeatedly corrected mistaken notions about what is great.
In summary, the ultimate purpose of the King is to bring multitudes into his kingdom where everyone has individually submitted to his rule. To achieve this he needed a small group of people, a nucleus, who understood his manifesto for them and were committed to his radically different principles for living.
The Manifesto
In the opening beatitudes, Jesus revealed the truth concerning the essential change seen in members of his Kingdom, which is to do with character. These words must have sounded so strange to a people expecting a worldly kingdom. Some of Jesus’ disciples had first followed John the Baptist and his message had been,
“Repent for the Kingdom of heaven has come near.” Matthew 3:2
Jesus similarly had emphasised that he had come to introduce a different kind of Kingdom, a spiritual one. He summarised his message as:
“The Kingdom of heaven has come near. Repent and believe the good news.” Mark 1:15
In submitting to Jesus, people were making a decision to live according to his manifesto. There is nothing in this manifesto about earthly kingdoms. Earthly kingdoms are to do with race, military power, propaganda and armaments. The weapons of God’s kingdom are people who speak about the truth and who live Godly lives.
Here is Jesus’ manifesto - seen in his person and in his words. There was no fanfare, no pomp, no ceremony, just words supported by different lives.
This manifesto is so clear and simple but how few understand. The evidence that people are in God’s Kingdom is their happiness and contentment, associated with their Christlike character. Jesus was not weak, he was strong and determined. He did not waver in achieving his goal, yet he was full of grace.
Jesus is teaching his disciples and ourselves the fundamentals of kingdom life - the characteristics God tells us howthat he wants his people to follow. Jesus wants a changed way of thinking and therefore a changed way of life in each of us.
The way God thinks is radically different to our natural selves. 700 years before Jesus the prophet Isaiah had reminded us of this:
“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.” Isaiah 55:6-8
Isaiah went on to say how this new way of thinking would come about:
“So is my word that goes out from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire.” Isaiah 55:11
Jesus, his apostles and the Old Testament prophets all tell us that God has informed us of everything we need to know in his word, the Bible.
Let us examine the words of the beatitudes to learn the general principles. The first word in Greek is makarios, variously translated ‘blessed’ or ‘happy’. It is a deep word meaning perfect peace, joy,, perfect rest. Jesus will wipe away all our tears.
Jesus in his life faced much distress, his friend Lazarus died, in the Garden of Gethsemane as he waited for his arrest and crucifixion. Yet he knew he was blessed by his heavenly Father. He was filled with infinite compassion for those in the crowd who knew nothing about the vital importance of being in His kingdom.
Jesus is telling us, his people, that happiness, deep joy, does not depend on what we possess but on what we are:
Blessed are the poor in spirit.
Blessed are the meek
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness
Blessed are the merciful
Blessed are the pure in heart
Blessed are the peacemakers.
There is not a single word about achievements, understanding or possessions - it is what we are that results in our experiencing eternal joy.
The description starts by saying that happiness is available to those who are poor in spirit, those who are spiritually poor, who see their needs in spiritual terms. These characteristics create the conditions which will result in great happiness in God’s Kingdom.
Why is the Christian who is ‘poor in spirit’ happy? Surely, at root, it is because he knows he is a member of God’s kingdom and is therefore eternally secure. What a privilege! Jesus is reminding us that happiness starts not with circumstances but inwardly with a trusting, obedient heart.
Negative features
Four of the first seven beatitudes are passive, to be poor in spirit, mourners, meek, hungry and thirsty.
To be ‘poor in spirit’ means to be truly subject to the king and therefore willing to be governed. There’s is the Kingdom.
The ‘mourners’ have learned that their own worthiness cannot achieve the goals God requires. They know they are sinners and, because of this, they will be comforted. Jesus used this word ‘comforter’ for the work of the Holy Spirit who is given to all who turn to Christ.
The ‘meek’ are obedient to the rule of the king - they are submissive to him and live under his authority. Jesus is an example of robust, strong meekness. He said,
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Matthew 11:28-29
Those who are meek, who submit to Christ, will inherit the earth, the future world.
Those who ‘hunger and thirst for righteousness’ are discontented with anything other than God. This is not narrow and negative, it is a passion for establishing God’s kingdom now. To be filled is to be satisfied.
Positive features
The next three features are positive and outgoing, merciful, pure or undivided in heart and peacemakers.
The ‘merciful’ are kind to the needy and suffering.
The ‘pure in heart’ are undivided, loyal and devoted to Christ.
The ‘peacemakers’ help others find peace with God as well as with other people.
These characteristics are to be seen in those committed to living the King’s way, which is so different to the way of the world. It is not easy to live this way but we have been given the Holy Spirit to make this possible. People who speak about how to find the ‘peace of God’ will be opposed, but still Christians ‘cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard’.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness- for theirs is the kingdom.”
This completes the circle. Have you noticed the sequence in these features? The Christian life begins with a poverty of spirit. We then turn to Christ to be forgiven and to be blessed. We are then in God’s kingdom. Mourning follows, our persistent sin hurts us. Meekness then follows , we are now obedient to God’s wishes. From this comes the passion to serve. This is actually the message of the whole Bible, God restores or saves us so that we can serve him. Jeremiah taught this:
“If you repent, I will restore you that you may serve me.” Jeremiah 15:19
Our responsibility is to repent and keep repenting, then God changes us and restores us, but his purpose is always to make us into effective servants for him. This is the manifesto of Jesus for all of us, his people. Christians have a direct relationship with God through Christ. The level we permit these characteristics to dwell in us will be proportional to the joy and happiness we experience. This decision is up to us.
The purpose of being a Christian
Having given his manifesto to us his followers, Jesus goes on to explain why he has chosen us. We have each been chosen to be:
Salt of the earth
Light of the world
Remember he said:
“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. John 15:16
Jesus does not just say ‘Come unto me’, he then says, ‘Now go out in my name and produce fruit’. Jesus wants us to influence other people and our societies for him. We do this best as a team. He doesn’t want us to live solitary Christian lives, he wants us to be an effective team. A strong scrum in rugby will be very effective in winning a match. We follow our Lord’s counter-cultural lead to be the means of passing on this blessing to others,, we can make the multitudes of people Jesus loves eternally happy.
Salt
Salt was needed wherever there was corruption or a risk of rot setting in. Like John the Baptist, Christians should stand up against evil, laziness and other wrongdoing both in ourselves and in those around us.
“You are the salt of the earth.”
We do not dispense this, no, the salt is in our new characters. In a similar way our influence over our children comes really through what we are, not through what we say. God wants his people to be in society checking all that corrupts it.
Light
Jesus wants his people to shine in the world both by what we are and what we say. One of the most damnable heresies of any age is to think that a man may be pure in public life and make the wisest and best decisions there and yet be impure in their private life. What we are determines our influence in the world. Never think that an angry, grumpy person will have little influence for good.
We are here to give light to others, to show them the way to live so that they will want to be saved and become followers of Jesus.
Life is not easy in Israel at present. Meron is an orthodox Jewish man who runs a training programme for Haredi men, a strict branch of Orthodox Judaism, to help them enter the job market. He ordered, out of the blue, ten NewTestaments to give to his students. He told the Christian who delivered them that he had been moved by the outpouring of support Christians have shown for those in Israel, The Christian gave his testimony how, as a Jew he had turned to Christ. The man listened and asked some questions, then he said,
“We believe in 90 per cent the same things..
Then he added,
“I would rather a Jewish person believe in Jesus than be secular.”
A week later Meron phoned his new Christian friend to say that he had read Matthew, Mark and Luke. He said he ‘loves' Jesus and thinks his teaching is relevant to Jews today.. He shared the New Testaments with his students, but some of them became angry and yelled at him. That however did not stop him handing the New Testaments out, because he believed they needed to read it!
As people see how we live and that this is because of Jesus, they will be drawn to him. We must be bright lights, obvious lights, for Jesus; too many hide their lights and don’t share with others the good news about Jesus. It is a tragedy to hear someone we have known for some time say to us,
“I never knew you were a Christian.”
We are all to be lights for Jesus, we are to stand up for him amongst those we meet. This section finishes,
“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:14-16
As they see what we do, they are not to praise us but our heavenly Father. They can only praise God if we have let it be known that we are devoted to him.
Jesus said to the people,
““I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12
Yet here Jesus says to his followers
“You are the light of the world.” Matthew 5:14
Just as the moon has no light in itself but simply reflects the light of the sun, so Christians are to reflect the glory of God to people around. The moon shines in the darkness and so should we also shine into a dark world. It is interesting that right at the beginning of the Bible we read,
“God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night.” Genesis 1:16
The moon only reflects the sun’s brightness, it has no light in itself.
One Christian reading this article expressed a deep concern saying,
“But this is not my gift.”
The response came back,
“Have you not been given the Holy Spirit so that you are enabled to live as Jesus did and as he wants his followers to live?”
Christianity is not a form of escapism, it is a source of strength and empowerment for the service of God. It is not the outward pressures that weaken people and disrupt personalities, but inner conflicts. To be resolutely committed to living as our creator wants is indeed a great source of inner strength and security. We become ‘as bold as a lion’ (Proverbs 28:1).
Let me finish with a question to ponder on,
“How should we balance this emphasis on the submissive character Christ’s people should strive for and the Great Commission to go into all the world and make disciples,’, to be the driving force as ‘the light of the world?’
B V Palmer.
October 2024
