[Intro]

(FAS) – The Watergate Scandal

It was a regular quite night on June 17, 1972 when Frank Wills punched in for his shift. Frank had been a security guard for quite some time and while he was very good and very thorough at his job, his career had been pretty uneventful until tonight. While doing his rounds, he found that many of the doors that lead from the parking garage into the office complex had tape placed over their latches preventing them from locking. He didn’t think much of it and removed the tape. When he returned later that night and found the tape had been replaced, he became suspicious. He called the police who started a sweep of the building. At this point, the spotter who was positioned at a building across the street should have radioed in to his accomplices to alert them to the police who were quickly closing in on their position, except he was distracted by a movie that was playing on TV. The police quickly apprehended the five burglars, but something wasn’t right. They didn’t seem interested in stealing anything and were found carrying film, cameras, and other recording equipment along with almost $2,300 in cash with sequential serial numbers. Upon examining the burglar’s address books, they found the contact info of Howard Hunt, a man involved in secret activities at the White House. At the same time, the White House began to distance themselves from the investigation and downplay the suspicious activity surrounding the burglary. Things continued to progress as the story unraveled. What happened next seemed to be straight from a Hollywood movie. There was the kidnapping of a predominant Republican party leader’s wife, a money trail, and some very determined reporters. As everything started to fall apart, it seemed that the unthinkable had happened. The White House and the Nixon administration was involved in a cover-up of the truth of what happened that night at the Democratic National Convention headquarters at the Watergate building. His involvement and cover-up of the investigation lead to the conviction and resignation of Richard Nixon.

It’s fair to say that the Watergate scandal was the largest political scandal in history. Think about it. Any time there’s any sort of scandal it’s now called “whatever”-gate, right? Apple had bend-gate over their phones bending. There’s doughnut -gate after Ariana Grande was filmed licking a doughnut, Doritogate, Elsagate, and for many of us my age Nipplegate occurred at Superbowl 37 between Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake. Watergate has even been immortalized in multiple books, tv shows, movies, and even board games. It goes to show that people love a good scandal. Not only today, but also way back in the times written about in scripture. In fact, that’s one of the reasons why Jesus is always seen with such a large crowd around him most of the time. The things that he taught and what he did were absolutely scandalous! What made them scandalous is also what made them so powerful and life changing. That’s what this series is about, the scandalous teachings of Jesus and why they’re still scandalous and relevant today.

(Linking Statement)

We’re going to look at one of the most scandalous teachings of Jesus, the beatitudes, and the scandal surrounding them in two parts.

[Body]

(Proof 1) – Cheaters Often Prosper

(Explanation)

This story starts off in the Book of Matthew, although it’s also found in Luke. Jesus has gathered a large crowd around him, so he goes up a mountain and sits down and he beings teaching. This is the beginning of what is called the sermon on the mount. It’s a hugely important teaching, in fact one of the most important teachings of Jesus that’s recorded in the Bible. We’re not going to be going over the entire thing, because it’s really long. Instead, we’re interested in the very first part of the sermon called the beatitudes. Beatitude is a Latin word that means blessing, and it becomes pretty apparent why these are called “the blessings” once you start reading. Let’s take a look at it real quick.

​Matthew 5:3–9 CSB

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the humble, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.

These ideas have become the foundation of a lot of the other writings of the apostles in the rest of the New Testament. It might not be completely obvious to us now, but at the time these statements would have been absolutely scandalous. You have to remember that Jesus lived in a time when the common understanding of the world is that the strong prevail. There really isn’t much mercy for the weak. If you’re too weak and someone takes advantage of you, then that’s your fault. It was a pretty cut throat. That’s not too far from our society, though. We’re not too far from a cutthroat sort of world, either. You have to have ambition. That might mean throwing someone under the bus. You may have to bend or break some of the rules to get ahead. It’s still, for the most part, the strong survive and make it big. Jesus even knew this would happen because he ends this little into with this in Mat 5:11-12

​Matthew 5:10–12 CSB

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. “You are blessed when they insult you and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of me. Be glad and rejoice, because your reward is great in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

He doesn’t just throw that in there for no reason. It goes right along with what he just taught. If you want to struggle and have a difficult time in life, then following the things that Jesus just taught up there is a good way to make it happen. Why are you wasting time mourning and feeling, if you want to be a man you got to bottle that stuff up. You gotta put yourself first, not be humble and think of others over yourself. You want justice, well then you have to be ok with breaking a few rules, too. Mercy is for the weak, you only succeed by not letting others get away. You have to learn to compromise your morals a little because you’ll never make it anywhere if you’re concerned with the purity of your heart. I’m not here to make friends, because being a peacemaker is overrated.

(Illustration)

It works a lot like this.

(Object lesson here)

(Application)

You’ve probably heard the saying that cheaters never prosper. The scandalous teaching that Jesus is delivering here is that that is a lie. Cheaters often prosper. Think about the most successful people in our world. Think about Jeff Bezos, or Bill Gates. Think they get to where they are by always playing by the rules? There’s a litany of companies that make millions of dollars a day that do so by exploiting others and the system. It’s not just left to the realm of business. Lance Armstrong was thought to be the best cyclist in the world until he was caught doping. He was so close to getting away with it, too. Imagine all the other athletes who were caught cheating. There’s certainly more out there who are wildly successful and are cheaters too, they just haven’t been caught. In reality, that’s just kinda how the world works. It’s expected that if you want to be successful then you can’t be good. Jesus is fully aware that living the way he asks is totally counter to how the world works. That’s why he ends this small section that you’re blessed if you are persecuted for his sake, because he knows you will be. If you live in this way then you will fall behind, you will face trouble. You will be living counter to how the world works and if you do it you shouldn’t expect to be successful, at least not how the world defines successful.

(Proof 2) – God’s Kingdom is Upside Down

(Explanation)

That’s really the trick to all of this, though. If you want be successful like the world thinks success is, you want to have the money, the power, the fame. You want to be popular and you want to be powerful, then the lifestyle that Jesus is describing here is the exact opposite way to live. This type of living does not lead to that. Now it’s not all horrible. It’s not like you’ll be a lonely loser with no friends if you live this way, but you probably won’t end up living in that mansion and having connections that can get you places. Instead, you’ll have to live a difficult life. Carrying those sand bags was hard, right? In the same way living the life that Jesus describes here is hard. It is a burden to me humble and possibly let someone else have the lime light when you know you deserve it. It’s difficult to go against what’s popular because you care about justice and what’s right. It’s not easy to be merciful especially to people who consider you their enemy and want to hurt you. It’s hard to remain faithful to God in the middle of a world that wants you to compromise on what you believe. It is a burden, but Jesus says we don’t carry that burden for no reason. So far we’ve been focusing on the first part of the blessings here, but they are blessings. Jesus is saying that there is a reason that you carry these burdens. There is a reason that when you want to give up these things and compromise you shouldn’t. There’s a reason to remain faithful.

(Illustration)

(Building the kingdom illustration)

(Application)

The greatest calling in our lives is the calling to build the kingdom of heaven. Notice that the kingdom of heaven is not built by the rich, popular, and powerful. God doesn’t need to use those things to build his kingdom. Instead, he uses what Jesus is talking about here. The meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, those who mourn, those who are pure of heart, those who are merciful, and those who are peacemakers. These are the people who build the kingdom. What good is it to obtain all the wealth of the world, to gain more friends and fame than you know what to do with, to have what seems like unlimited power here if you can’t use it to build God’s kingdom? The world might think it’s the most valuable way to live, but it’s essentially worthless to God. Instead, God’s kingdom is upside down. That’s the big scandal of the beatitudes. God’s kingdom is upside down. You would think that if you were building up this kingdom then you’d want the rich and powerful and the popular on your side because they would be able to get it done, but no. God rejects that sort of living. Instead, he wants the broken hearted, the ones who crave justice, those who mourn, those who are pure of heart, the humble, it’s these people who often end up at the bottom of society, that God wants to use to build his kingdom. Not only that, but they might be at the bottom of our world, but in the Kingdom of God, they’re the ones at the top and the powerful who exploited them are the ones on the bottom. That is the scandal presented here.

[Outro]

(Central Theme) – Live Upside Down

(Application)

So it seems that the obvious thing that Jesus is telling us to do here is to live upside down. If God’s kingdom is upside down, then you need to live upside down too. That means when you are poor in spirit, that you have nothing left in this world but you haven’t abandoned God, you actually have everything. The kingdom of heaven is yours. When you go through life’s troubles and hardships and you want to mourn for yourself or for others and the world tells you to bottle those feelings up. You’re soft and weak and mourning over the problems of the poor and needy isn’t going to get you anywhere, if you instead hold on to those feelings then God will comfort you. When the world tells you that you have to look out for yourself first, that being humble and serving others is going to get you no where, when others take advantage of you and you want to give it up, maybe you should look out for yourself, but you shouldn’t give up. Because the world that you have been giving away to others will be yours in the kingdom of heaven. When the world tells you to just give up on justice that the world is too broken and that you’re wasting your time you know you shouldn’t because in God’s kingdom that you’re building there is ultimate justice and you will be fulfilled. When the world tells you you go too easy on others and that you’re not going to make it far if you continually forgive others and show them mercy, you know that it’s worth it because by showing mercy to other God shows mercy to you. When the world tells you to compromise and that trying to always stay true to your morals isn’t as profitable as giving them up, that it’s simply not worth it, you know it’s a lie because it’s because of your great faith and your pure heart that you will see God. When people get upset with you because you’re always trying to bring people together and help people find peace with each other, you don’t give up because you know that being a peacemaker is the work worthy of a son or daughter of God. When all these things mean you will fall behind and others may mistreat you, abuse you, and take advantage of you, when life gets hard because living in this way is hard, you know that it’s all worth it because when we’re persecuted for living this way and for living for Jesus, the kingdom of God is then truly ours. What could be worth more than the kingdom of God? What thing here on earth could be worth the kingdom of God? How much money, power, or friends is the kingdom of God worth? Nothing. Nothing is worth more than the kingdom of God and while you may end up at the bottom of society here on earth, we know that God’s kingdom is upside down and that the lowly, downtrodden, and humble here are at the top of God’s kingdom. Live for that upside down kingdom.