Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matthew 5:8).
The listeners of Jesus understand the significance of ritual purity, but Jesus makes a distinction between what the law requires and the purity of the heart. 1 This is nothing new. God has always been more concerned with our internal thoughts and attitudes than our outward appearance (1 Samuel 16:7). When Moses requests to see God’s glory, he is told, “You cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live”. But God graciously covers him in the cleft of a rock to allow Moses to catch a glimpse of God’s glory as he passes by (Exodus 33:18–23). When Isaiah sees the Lord in a vision and hears the seraphim proclaiming the holiness of the Lord, he confesses that he is unclean. God graciously takes away his guilt and sends him out as a prophet. Jesus’s listeners are familiar with these men of God. Would anyone hearing Jesus say, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God”, dare to think that his words could apply to them? If our hearts aren’t pure, we can’t see God. All soaps are clean, but IvoryⓇ soap is pure because it has no additives, fragrance, or coloring.2 Even if our hearts are clean, all that extra stuff can impede our vision of seeing him.
Jesus has some friends who are sisters named Martha and Mary. Martha welcomes Jesus into her home. While she is busy serving, Mary is content to sit at Jesus’s feet, listening to his every word. The passage doesn’t give details as to what Martha is doing specifically, but hospitality generally involves food. I imagine Martha preparing an overly complicated meal, checking between all her kitchen tasks to refill everyone’s drinks, and getting completely overwhelmed by the fact that she’s doing this all alone. Exasperated, Martha doesn’t ask her sister for help. Instead, she tells Jesus to make Mary help her! Jesus calls Martha by name twice and basically says “No”, saying she is concerned about much, but only one thing is necessary (Luke 10:38–42). This passage isn’t about being clean versus pure, but it does compare good to best. Martha isn’t doing anything wrong, but she adds a lot of extra stuff that isn’t necessary, like clean soap with added fragrance. However, Mary is in a posture of humility with an open heart, like pure soap and nothing more. Let’s not get caught up in preparing a grand feast when a bowl of soup and a piece of bread would give us fewer distractions and more time to learn from Jesus.
- What “extras” impede your vision of God?
- What good things are distracting you from the best thing of pursuing your relationship with Jesus?
Perfect and pure God, purify our hearts. Strip us of any additives or extras that hinder our sight of you! Only you can reach our grimiest places and make us truly pure.
Footnotes
- John D. Barry, et al, Faithlife Study Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016), Mt 5:8.
- Jon Courson, Jon Courson’s Application Commentary (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2003), 26.
