Blessed are the Pure in Heart

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 

All of the beatitudes are powerful, convicting, and, #realtalk, hard to live out, yet for whatever reason, this one stands out above the rest personally. 

In Exodus, Moses asks Yahweh to see Yahweh’s face immediately after His deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt. And even then, in that moment, God Himself tells Moses he couldn’t handle seeing His full presence. 

I remember when I was a kid, and imagining what God might look like, then hearing a preacher describe it from Old Testament passages. Clearly, if Moses was not making the cut to see God, I knew I wasn’t. I was the grumpiest of grumpy little guys; I seriously disliked my annoying sister, was terribly picky about all kinds of food, and was mean to many of the kids at my school for seemingly no reason. I am not sure if I was what you would call a ‘clinically’ naughty kid, but I sure as Hell was not a ‘clinically’ goody two-shoes either.

So what does it mean for Christ to say, smack dab in the middle of His most iconic bullet point teachings, that the pure in heart shall see God? Will they got smited instantly because they can’t handle it? What is He getting at with this line? 

The Greek word for pure is called katharos. It can also be translated to be clean, blameless, and free of guilt. 

Oh boy, there is not a chance I could be called any of those things. And if we are all honest with ourselves, I am not sure any of us could say this, even in our most holy and most righteous moments.

And I am not just talking about sin. 

Unfortunately, we live in a world of extremes as it relates to sin. In the Christian world, you could make a case sin is mentioned more than any other thing in scripture, maybe even more Jesus Himself. The classic image that comes to mind of the preacher on the soapbox, ranting and raving, on and on and on, speaking out about... what? The atonement? Salvation? Sanctification? You guessed already before I even finished the thought; sin. From a cultural perspective, most folks, Christian or otherwise, know that they are sinful by Christian standards. 

Yet, the secular take on it has the opposite stance; be true to you, whoever you might be. An oversimplification though it may be, what takes precedence is to do what you think is right, so long as it does not hurt others, bare minimum. So whether it be substances, sexual expression, or other forms of personal freedom, the most important thing in life is to follow your own heart, your own insights, your own wisdom. 

What do the two have in common? They both usurp the role of God in our lives as it relates to sin. Where one takes the role of a ruthless task-master, harsh on your own person and harsh on others, the other takes a softer route, being liberal (not the political meaning) with your own person and other persons in favor of ultimate freedom of expression. 

Neither of these deal with the reality of sin, and also, neither of these deal with the reality of God’s grace toward us. 

In the Christian world, we mistakenly believe we must be pure before God can or would be willing to approach us. The voices in our head, some even of old sermons and old songs, remind us if our sheer fallenness and rotten nature. Beaten and torn asunder by the powers and principalities of this world, within the church and outside of it, we become harsh on ourselves in a vain hope that God won’t be harsh on us.

In the secular world, we mistakenly believe we are already pure, without fault, and that there is no true place for God in anyone’s life. The reason why? You are God; you decide what is right for you, what is right for others, with a weak premise where we all agree we must not hurt others. This isn’t love and this sure isn’t grace; it requires nothing of us, develops nothing out of us, accomplishes nothing out of us.

Rather, Jesus insists on the third way. His third way. Put simply, He is the third way. 

When Jesus took on flesh and dwelt among us, something within the personhood of God fundamentally changed for the better. God was, is, and will always be good, and God was, is, and will always be loving. But by taking on skin and bone, Jesus revealed to humanity what being good actually looks like in human form, what being loving actually looks like in human form. 

There is no one righteous, no, not even one. And this could just as easily extend to purity as well. But Jesus changed this.

Now there is one who is righteous. One who is good. One who is loving. One who is pure. 

Being pure in heart means bringing Jesus into all of your person. Your crap, your disappointments, your selfishness, your bigotry, your pride, your cruelty, your sin, and, most of all, your darkness. 

Jesus is not afraid of your darkness. Your darkness is afraid of Jesus. Do not confuse the two for each other. When we invite Jesus into the worst of who we are, His power is made all the more perfect in our weakness. Where there was despair now comes hope, where there was deceit, now comes truth, where there was hate, now comes love. 

There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. When we are in Christ Jesus, we are pure in heart. Further, it has little to do with being a good ole Christian boy or a good ole Christian girl: it isn’t about refusing to say bad words, listening to exclusively worship music, going to church every single Sunday, agreeing with everything said on the pulpit on Sunday, and/or being an superficially nice religious robot without a backbone or personality. It has to do with surrendering to Christ, and letting Him transform your old self to become your new self. 

This big ugly word we call sin no longer has any hold on us. We may stumble back into it at times, we may falter and slip up into old, broken patterns of darkness and pain, but there is nothing stopping Jesus from entering into the fray to heal you, once more, again and again and again. Seventy times seven, and even further than that.

Only you can stop Him from doing this, and you stop Him by closing your eyes so as to not see God. 

So be pure in heart, open your eyes to what Christ reveals, both the bad yet also the good, and you will see God. 

This is a promise from God Himself, revealed as Jesus. He is not a liar. The Truth is in Him. He is the Truth. 

So let him speak the truth over you. What is the truth? 

In Christ, you are pure in heart. So then, open up your tired eyes and see God. 

He is a good, good Father.