With this beatitude I want to move in reverse and begin at the end by exploring what Jesus might have meant when he promised that the pure in heart will see God. And I want to invite you to just sit and ponder those simple four words before we go any further.

They. Will. See. God.

On the surface this might seem pretty simple and straightforward but when you really think about it you realise that you are swimming in some very deep waters. It is amazing how easy it is to glide over words and truths like this without a second glance and completely miss the utter magnitude of what has just been said.

They. Will. See. God

Let me ask you, has your heart ached for a deeper connection and glimpse of God? Have you ever imagined what might await us on the other side of death or what we might experience when Christ returns? Have you ever contemplated what Jesus might mean when he promises that the pure in heart will see God? Whatever it means it is all deeply mysterious and part of the reason for this mystery is that there is a tension within Scripture when it comes to seeing God.

On the one hand are a number of texts that seem to imply that it is impossible to actually look upon God…

• John says that God is spirit (John 4:24)
• Other texts explicitly say that God is invisible (Col 1:15; 1 Tim 1:17; Heb 11:27)
• And an impotant verse adds that God ‘dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see’ (1 Tim. 6:16).

All these texts seems to suggest that because of the utter holiness and transcendence of God, who is invisible spirit, we have never, and will never, be able to see Him. On the other hand, there are a number of other texts there it does seem to suggest that some kind of sight of God is possible. For example:

• The Psalms say that ‘the upright shall behold his face’ (Psalm 11:7, 17:15)
• Moses was said to have seen God and spoken to him face to face (Exod. 24:9-11, 33:11)
• Isaiah said that he saw the Lord (Isaiah 6:1)
• Daniel claimed a vision of the Ancient of Days (Dan. 7:9)
• Paul in a famous passage says, ‘now (in the present) we see in a mirror dimly, but then (in the age to come) we will see face to face’ (1 Cor. 13:12).

So, in these passages it appears that there it is possible to actually see something of God, even if it is not a direct vision. So, what do we make of this and how does it impact how we understand the beatitude?

Well, In order to do justice to this tension we would have to spend time figuring out things what in these texts might be literal and what might be metaphorical, what is for now and what is later etc. But for now I just want to highlight the tension and recognise that it provided grounds for Christians to interpret the promise to see God in a number of different ways.

For example, some people think that God has some kind of body and can therefore be seen with the physical eyes. But this doesn’t really make sense if God is spirit and invisible. Some believe that the promise is not that we will see God the Father but that we will see God the Son, i.e. Jesus and could refer to his second coming. But this feels a bit strange given that it is Jesus who is speaking. Others thought it meant being able to see God through the things he has made like creation and humanity, but this feels like a bit of a cop out when it comes to the promise to see God

Some have suggested that seeing God would mean seeing the glory that surrounds God rather than seeing God directly. Others thought that ‘sight’ was a metaphor for spiritual insight so that seeing God would mean something along the lines of perceiving and knowing God more fully. And lastly some think ‘see’ here refers to ‘experience’ and is about the fullness of our experience of God in the age to come.

So, which is it? Well, whilst I definitely believe that in the afterlife or in the age to come that we will see and experience the glory of God and enter into a deeper relationship with Him than we could have ever dared to believe was possible, I also believe that there is an element of this promise that is for the everyday here-and-now of life. But what exactly about this promise might be relevant for us now today?

HEART OF THE PROBLEM

To help answer this we have to first figure out what Jesus might have meant when he referred to ‘the heart’ as we cannot simply assume that he meant the same thing by it as we might. For us, the heart is primarily the place of our emotions, we speak of having a ‘broken heart’ when we are upset, we suffer from ‘heartache’ when we suffer emotional pain, and we say we love someone or something ‘with all of our heart’. But in the first century the heart wasn’t just about emotions, it also represented the totality of our inner being, the seat of all our thoughts, our motivations, our decision making, and our will. One scholar says the heart represents ‘the real or true self, the psyche at its deepest level’.

But there is something else about the heart that is absolutely crucial for understanding this beatitude and that is the link between the condition of our hearts and our capacity for spiritual insight and truth. The heart in scripture is an organ of perception and sight, a place where truth can be received or dismissed. This is why Paul, in his letter to the church in Ephesus prays that the eyes of their hearts might be enlightened in order that they might know the truth.

You see this dynamic at play in a powerful way in Jesus’ interactions and confrontations with the Pharisees, some of the religious leaders of the day. In Matthew 15 Jesus says that the Pharisees honour God with their lips but that their hearts are far from him, and in Matthew 23 he has some scathing things to say about the disparity between their presentation to others and the inner condition of their hearts. In a series of woes Jesus blasts the Pharisees and says…

• ‘Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may become clean’.
• ‘Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful, but inside they are full of the bones of the dead and of all kinds of filth. So you also on the outside look righteous to others, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness’.

The contrast that Jesus makes between how the Pharisees appeared on the outside and what was really going on in the inside (full of all kinds of fiflth) implies that their hearts are deeply impure, which is the complete opposite of our beatitude. The Pharisees therefore function as a kind of living embodiment of the anti-beatitudes, of exactly what not to do and be. And if the promise for the pure in heart is that they will see God then it would make sense that the impure would be those who cannot see God. And did you pick up how Jesus described the Pharisees in these verses? He called them blind! In fact, Jesus repeats this accusation against them five times in this passage. He says…

• Blind guides twice (23:1624)
• Blind fools (23:17)
• How blind you are (23:19)
• Blind Pharisees (23:26)

Blind! Blind! Blind! Blind! Blind!

The corruption within their hearts had caused a kind of spiritual dullness and blindness to come upon them and so they would not, and could not, see the truth right in front of them. They might have looked all well and good on the outside but they should have known that God doesn’t just look at the outside, he looks at the heart.

Of what good is an open eye, if the heart is blind’? – Ibn Gabirol

So, with all that in mind, lets go back to the beatitude and what it might mean to have a pure heart.

Blessed are the Pure in Heart

So, if the heart is all about our inner-self and if purity is about non-contamination then purity of heart is about our deepest self being whole, integrated, not mixed with ulterior motives and thoughts, a heart that single-minded and devoted to God.

‘Purity of heart is to will one thing’ – Soren Kierkergaard

This, I want to suggest, is what Jesus is inviting his followers into through the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount – a life of wholeness, of deep integration of our inner and outer lives, of integrity, of soundness, and peace. When he later says ‘be perfect therefore as your heavenly Father is perfect’, it can seem like Jesus is holding up an impossible ideal that is always out of reach for us, but it is crucial t note that the word, ‘perfect’ here can also mean something like, ‘whole’, ‘complete’, of ‘fully mature’. And when viewed this way it is no longer an impossible ideal that condemns us but an goal toward which we are called to strive.

Therefore it might be helpful to view this beatitude as a journey we are on towards something rather than something we do or don’t have. Proverbs says ‘who can say I have made my heart clean; I am pure from my sin’? All of our hearts are a mixture of pure and impure motives but this doesn’t mean we are stuck here and cannot move towards greater purity. Change is possible. Growth is possible. A purer heart is possible! This is what we mean when we speak of being conformed to the image of Christ, it is the process from fragmentation to completeness, from mixed-motives to purity, from brokenness to wholeness, from immaturity to maturity etc.

But How?

So, if that is true then how do we do it? How do we grow in purity of heart? Here I want to offer a few things to help us that might seem a bit strange and paradoxical at first but should make sense at the end.

1. The first place to start is in embracing the truth that our hearts have already been washed clean by the blood of Christ and to receive that gift by faith. We cannot earn a pure heart through our efforts but we can partner with God to nurture our hearts toward greater purity.
2. The second step is found in living into and out of this reality of a new heart. To take what is objectively true in Christ and make it subjectively true in our lived experience.
3. The way to do this includes the third element of acknowledging that our hearts, our inner-selves, our motivations, and thoughts, are not always 100% pure. It is healthy to confess that sometimes we are more concerned about how we appear to others rather than on the condition of our hearts.
4. The fourth step builds on this and it is to ask God for help. We can do our bit through prayer, study, worship, confession etc. but true transformation of our hearts is a work of God.
5. And the fifth and final step is a deep engagement with Jesus’ teachings in the sermon on the mount, as it is an absolute masterclass on the journey to becoming pure in heart. If you read it, if you really take it seriously, and seek to live by it you will find your heart beginning to change.