We're gonna talk about the next couple of these Beatitudes that Jesus is listing at the beginning of his Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 5, his first big public speech according to Matthew. He's been out and about teaching and healing and doing stuff, so he's got a big following by this point. And he sits down his disciples in Matthew chapter 5 and starts to teach them on this hill or this high place or whatever near the Sea of Galilee, and apparently a whole bunch of other people are listening in as well. But this teaching is for people who are already following him. Now, admittedly, nobody's been following him for that long because he hasn't been doing this for that long. So everyone who's hearing this is still kind of on the front end of what's the point, Jesus? There are a whole bunch of other messiahs or messianic claimants who have come and gone. You know, they wanted dumb stuff, the money or women or power or whatever. And whenever they finally get around to making their big ask or their big play for that thing that they were manipulating and angling for all along, everybody clears out, or they just get, you know, murdered by the government or something so that they'll go away. Whatever the case, they all fall off, but they all eventually want something. So Jesus now has his chance to finally start to turn over his cards for these people who've been following him around, who are pretty convinced there's something supernatural going on here. And as he does so, he leads not with asking for stuff, but instead by redefining everything, redefining value and that which is desirable and good and worth pursuing with a person's life. And so he lists off this batch of stuff. It's called the Beatitudes, but it doesn't ever say the word beatitudes anywhere in here. It goes like this Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they'll be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they'll inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they're going to be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Here's the two new ones for today. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they'll be called sons of God. Of all the Beatitudes, I think eight is the least shocking. And I'm tempted to go and make some kind of case for like, well, pure in heart isn't what the world is about. And here Jesus is saying something that's completely different and backwards because nobody likes purity or pureness of heart. But the reality is that at the very least, people view purity of heart as being quaint. I'm watching this Stephen King show on HBO right now called The Outsider, and I don't recommend it to everybody because it's kind of scary, but it's really clever, raises some really interesting questions about belief and truth and reality, stuff that I kind of like wrestling with. And there's a character in there. He's played by the guy who played Seth Grayson in uh House of Cards, and he's got a crush on this lady, and he's a goober, and so he goes up to her and he has some line, and I've only seen it once, so I'm gonna butcher it. But he says something like, You can trust me, Holly, because I, though imperfect, am pure of heart. And she kind of laughs at him and rolls her eyes, but he meant it. And I think that's kind of the zeitgeist, the spirit of this age toward any claims of purity of heart. We're a little bit skeptical, but I mean, we wouldn't begrud somebody for trying to be pure of heart. So what does pure of heart mean? Well, I think in the context I'm talking about it here, it means like good, right? Well behaved, and don't have nefarious motives. Like, I think what he was trying to say is, I will treat you in a gentlemanly fashion, and you don't have to worry about my creepy advances. I care for you for the right reasons. And that sounds nice, but pure. Why do we associate that with just not wanting things that are for physical pleasure? I guess that's just the way we've used the term for a long time. But pure just really means unadulterated. It means uncomplicated, unmingled, uh you only want one thing. Is it Kierkegaard, the old Danish existential philosopher and Christian who said purity of heart is to love one thing? I feel like I'm butchering quotes left and right today. It was something like that. Singleness of heart is to love one thing? Maybe that's what he said. But the concept of of pure in heart being not badly behaved and having good motives is one thing. But the concept of pure of heart meaning singleness, now that is quite another. I don't mean singleness like you're not dating anybody or anything. I mean singleness like you have one thing that you are in the game for. You're on a mission for a thing. Like I was earlier today when I had three Cokes with my steak dinner out with my wife and my friend, and then I don't know, for whatever reason, that kind of gets through you pretty quick, and then we started driving. I was like, we must find somewhere to stop. I have only one thing on my mind, and it is relieving the pressure I'm feeling right now. Well, what about people who live their entire lives like that, but for something that's a a little more good and noble than I just need to pee? Like imagine that level of intensity, but one that is entirely centered around embracing the values of this kingdom and the king who's behind them. I think it's that notion of singleness of heart, singleness of focus that Jesus is talking about here, and not like prudish good behavior, though prudish good behavior could be an outgrowth of that singleness of heart. So maybe I'm talking myself into believing that this is actually very countercultural. Because while singleness of heart might happen for pursuing our own pleasure or our own stuff, I mean, certainly the true hedonist has singleness of heart. I want to feel as good as possible as often as possible for as long as possible. I mean, that's singleness. But in the context here, this purity of heart, this unadulterated motive would seem to be the kingdom of God. It's a singleness for something that is otherworldly. It's a singleness that by default means rejectionism of world values because those things are antithetical to the values of the kingdom. So, in a way, verse 8 here kind of parallels two beatitudes ago when Jesus said, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. In fact, they look a lot alike. That makes me think we're going to need to take a little time down the road here in a few episodes and actually think about the structure here and whether there might be any meaning in the order and the little nuances in the phraseology of each of these beatitudes. But on this pass, we're just getting in the big picture stuff. I think what we're talking about here is not prudishness or just a desire to behave well. There can be lots of motives for that. What we're talking about here is something that goes beyond a desire to behave in ways that someone else might think is good. It goes all the way to the level of saying there is one thing that is the truest and the realest, and I would set everything else aside to put my eyes on that one thing and chase it with everything I've got. And well, the second half of the Beatitude says there's something very blessed about that because that person shall see God. I really want that. Even when I was a reluctant atheist, even when my faith is just garbage in the crapper, i you know, at this point in my life, there's still one thing that I always wish was true. I've never wished there was no God. Whether I'm talking about myself in the majority of life where I've been a person of faith, or those few moments where I probably honestly haven't been, my longing has been the same. To meet whoever is behind all of this stuff, to meet whoever authored all of the beautiful stuff that's here, because yeah, I mean stuff's a mess and it's weird, but it's bittersweet, not just bitter. There's sweet in it. There there's transcendent stuff about life and relationships and order and abstraction and reason and the physical world, and I would love to have all of the debate settled. I would love to be around that character and all of that character's attributes and experience that. And so the promise, the suggestion that this degree of singleness is somehow equated with getting to meet that founding character of all of existence, a character that functions on a different plane with no boundaries and yet would have some kind of interest in meeting me. Dang! Count me in. I said we were gonna talk about the peacemaker thing, but we didn't get to it. So as always, time is up quicker than I wanted it to be. So we'll hit up the peacemakers part of the Beatitudes next time around, which I think is a little more obvious in terms of how it runs contrary to the values of the World Kingdom. We'll break that down tomorrow. Hey, thanks again to everybody who just jumped in to support over at patreon.com slash the tmbh podcast. I saw that. That means a lot. Thank you, a ton. And thanks to everybody who doesn't support as well. I really like what we get to do here, and even though I don't know most of you, if you're up for a conversation like this, I like you. Thank you. This is really fun. I look forward to it every day. All right, I'm Matt. This is the Ten Minute Bible Hour Podcast. Let's do it again tomorrow.