Understanding the Significance of Matthew 5:8 and the Beatitudes
- chelseavincent7
- Jul 16
- 8 min read
Week 6, Day 1
In Need of a Heart
“Blessed are pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
Matthew 5:8
In L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz, we are introduced to the Tin Woodman, a man in need of a heart. He’d lost his heart, along with all his other body parts, through the enchantment of the wicked witch of the East, each part except the heart having been replaced tin. As he tells his story to Dorothy and the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman says,
“I kept an oil-can in my cottage and took care to oil myself whenever I needed it. However, there came a day when I forgot to do this, and, being caught in a rainstorm, before I thought of the danger my joints had rusted and I was left to stand in the woods until you came to help me. It was a terrible thing to undergo, but during the year I stood there I had time to think that the greatest loss I had known was the loss of my heart. While I was in love I was the happiest man on earth; but no one can love who has not heart.”
The long story of God’s people is one of such realization, of coming to understand the greatest loss caused by sin, namely of a heart that is able to love God. Sin has caused us all to be born spiritually dead. We are unfeeling. We are stone-hearted. We do not naturally seek and serve God. We are naturally in need of a new heart.
The prophet Ezekiel longed for the day when God would take away our hearts of stone and give us hearts of flesh. The church father Augustine of Hippo directed praise to God, writing, “Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee.” The theologian Thomas Aquinas prayed, “Grant me, O Lord my God…a heart to seek you…” Long before any of these expressions of need, David, a king humbled by his grievous sin, cried out, “Create in me a clean heart, O God.”
From least to greatest, if we are to see God, we must have a pure heart.
And if we are to have a pure heart, God must give it to us.
Father, give me a new heart. Let it beat with the life of the Holy Spirit. Let it prompt and pursue faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let it lead me to see you and serve you forever.
Week 6, Day 2
Christlikeness
“Blessed are pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
Matthew 5:8
Christlikeness is the proof we belong to God now and will see God one day. John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, encourages us to remember this, writing, “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”
This promise that those who are God’s children will see God is why the Beatitudes are so important.. They help us to know what it looks like to be God’s child now even when we are yet to be fully like him, what it means to be pure in heart even when we have not yet seen him. The Beatitudes paint a portrait of Christlikeness, teaching us not only what we ought to do, but showing us what we must be. In them, Jesus is saying, “You must be like me and this is what I am like.”
As we are conformed further and further to the image of Christ, our witness of God in the world grows stronger. We become less concerned with earthly things and more concerned with heavenly ones. Yet the desire to be like Jesus is not enough. We need God’s grace to work in us and through us by faith. We need the Father in the power of the Spirit to make us like the Son. A primary way for us to access such grace is through prayer.
In the collection of Puritan prayers known as The Valley of Vision, there is a prayer titled, “Christlikeness.” Part of this prayer flows right out of the Beatitudes and gives us the language we need to ask the Father to make us pure in heart that we may be like Jesus. Make it your prayer today:
“Send me forth to have compassion on the ignorant and miserable. Help me to walk as Jesus walked, my only Saviour and perfect model, his mind my inward guest, his meekness my covering garb. Let my happy place be amongst the poor in spirit, my delight the gentle ranks of the meek. Let me always esteem others better than myself and find in true humility an heirdom to two worlds.”
Week 6, Day 3
What No Man Has Ever Done Before
“Blessed are pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
Matthew 5:8
There was a day when Moses the man of God asked God to reveal himself, to show his glory. Moses was not merely curious about the awesomeness of God’s person. Rather, he recognized that if the good and glorious God did not go with him and the nation of Israel on their journey to Canaan they would not be able to fulfill their purpose of being distinct from the other nations of earth.
God responded with a promise that he would cause his goodness to pass before Moses. Moses was going to encounter the majesty of God. There was only one catch: God would have to shield Moses in the cleft (break) of the rock (mountainside) because if Moses were to see the face of God he would die, overtaken by the glory of the only God. Even as God hid Moses in the cleft of the rock, Moses was close enough to God’s presence that his face reflected the shining brilliance of God’s glory, so much so that after that experience Moses had to wear a veil over his face when interacting with others.
This experience emphasized the distinction between God who dwells in unapproachable light, and man who walks in darkness. God is infinitely holy. Man is completely sinful. We cannot look upon the face of God without being consumed by his holiness. That’s why the evangelist John wrote, “No one has ever seen God…” Indeed, no one has seen God, not yet that is.
There is coming a day when the people of God, by faith in Jesus Christ, will come to dwell in God’s eternal home, to live with God and serve God forever in the new heaven and the new earth. One of the great blessings of that permanent home is the opportunity to see God. In that day, we will no longer see the glow of God’s glory as through a veil, but we will see God face to face. We will do what no man has ever done before: we will see the glory of God and live.
Father, by faith in Jesus Christ, change my heart. Cleanse me from sin and make me pure within. I want to see you.
Week 6, Day 4
Wash Your Hands
“Blessed are pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
Matthew 5:8
Has anyone ever told you to wash your hands before sitting down to a meal? As children, we might question that command at times when we see no obvious signs of dirt. Yet it’s hard to question the need if we consider all the things we touch daily. Doorknobs, stair rails, telephones, trash can lids, pens, mailboxes, keyboards—there are dozens of items we touch each day that are sure to leave our hands covered in germs, needing a good wash before we sit down to eat.
The practice of washing our hands before meals is both good hygiene and good manners. It’s part of our decorum, the order built into how we do things. We don’t go to the table with unwashed hands anymore than we accept a gift without expressing thanks. It’s just not the way things are done.
Decorum reaches past the physical into our spiritual lives. There is an orderliness to our relationship with God, a way that he has designed for us to interact with him. There’s a way to come to God, to enjoy his presence. That way isn’t up for debate. You either come to God in the way he sets forth or you don’t come to him at all.
In the Beatitudes, Jesus is building upon this idea of kingdom decorum that stretches all the way back to King David, who questioned, “Who can ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place?”. David wanted to know who was welcome in God’s presence, at God’s table. It’s a question of order and the answer is precise: “He who has clean hands and a pure heart.”
We cannot dwell in God’s presence — now through the ministry of the Holy Spirit or forever in the heavenly home Christ is preparing for those who love him — without cleansing our hands and our hearts by faith. If we would ascend the hill of the LORD, if we would see God then we must not worship anyone or anything that is false and we must not speak in words that are half-hearted or half-true. Remember that the next time you wash up for dinner.
Father, I want to live in your presence and see you in your glory. Give me clean hands and a pure heart for the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ. Let me live loving you and serving you above all.
Week 6, Day 5
Dishwasher
“Blessed are pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
Matthew 5:8
When my grandparents built their home in 1958, my grandfather’s frugality meant they avoided certain conveniences of the modern electric age—things like central air conditioning, a garbage disposal, and an automatic dishwasher. The absence of an automatic dishwasher meant that at least three times a day my grandmother was to be found wearing yellow rubber gloves which were elbow deep in the sudsy dishwater that filled her porcelain sink, scuffed and scratched from years of use, washing dishes so they’d be ready for the next meal. My grandmother’s diligence in the most mundane of tasks over time became a way of judging character. As her children grew up and brought home prospective spouses, she watched to see if they volunteered to help with the dinner dishes and, if they did, how well they did the job.
In the days just before his crucifixion, Jesus took the opportunity to address the character deficiencies of the scribes and Pharisees, the very people who were supposed to know and exemplify the God-ordered life. In his critique, Jesus used the image of dishwashing to point out how they had gone wrong in their pursuit of God. He told them, “You clean the outside of the cup and plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.” In other words, these religious leaders spent a lot of time focused on the signs of holiness that could be seen by men, while neglecting inward holiness, which only God could see. Jesus told them that God saw through them, he saw what they really were. They were not content with God’s care for them, but always wanted more. They were not focused on honoring God, but sought to please themselves. Jesus was telling them their hearts were not pure, but putrid. They spent their time telling everyone they knew God, but in fact they were far from him.
Father, judge my character. Show me where I do not measure up, where I am not pure in heart. Change me. I do not want to live my life for the applause of men only to miss your acceptance.
