The Pure in Heart

The Beatitudes Series Part 5

Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God

By Marc Bastawrous


While serving in Sunday School a few years ago, one of my fellow servants thought of the clever idea to create a “Question Chest” for the kids. Basically, it was a home-made treasure box of sorts, where the kids would leave pieces of paper with questions on them anonymously for the servants to answer in the next lesson. During my week to answer questions, I pulled this out of the chest:

“Why should I believe in God, if I can’t see Him?”

The question broke me. Partly because I felt for my Sunday school kid who was going through a period of doubt, but mostly because I had no answer. I mustered up a half-hearted response, but I purposed in my heart that I wouldn’t let the year go past without offering a solution to this child’s problem.

A few months down the track, I was attending a revival for St Mary’s feast and the topic of the evening was purity, with the theme verse coming from Matthew 5:8 which says:

“Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God.”

You know in those Tom & Jerry cartoons when Tom gets a great idea for catching Jerry and a lightbulb hovers above his head. Well, I had one of those “lightbulb” moments. ? The answer has been there all along. If I wish to see God, I must be pure in heart. One of the most precious promises in the Bible and it’s been right under our noses this whole time. I couldn’t wait to tell my Sunday school kid, but before I did, I had to dig a little deeper.

In Exodus 33:11, it says this of the Prophet Moses:

“So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.”

Why was Moses of all people allowed to see God? It’s simple. Because while Moses, was spending time in the presence of God, waiting to receive instruction, what were the Israelites doing at the bottom of the mountain? Worshipping idols, corrupting themselves.

Which is why King David said in psalm 24:

Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord?
Or who may stand in His holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol,
Nor sworn deceitfully.
He shall receive blessing from the Lord,
And righteousness from the God of his salvation.

The one who is pure in heart, can stand in the Presence of God and see His face. There is no other condition.

God emphasised this condition in Exodus 25 and 34 as well – which we sing about in our midnight praises. In these 2 chapters, Moses describes Gods instructions for the construction of the tabernacle and in them He says that they had to make things out of pure gold, in fact, the word pure in just one of these chapters is repeated 11 times.

It makes you wonder, why does God care about it so much? I can’t imagine God to care about whether the gold is made out of 10 carets or 24 carets and He doesn’t really. What He is trying to say is that His presence is only available in a place of purity. Purity is a necessary component to accessing God.

One of the most taken-out-of-context verses comes from James 4:8. It reads:

“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you…”

But the part we often forget is the remainder of that verse which reads:

“…Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

Before we can even contemplate drawing near to God, our hearts must first be pure. Which is why the final thing the priest prays in the Fraction right before communion is:

“Purify our souls, bodies and spirits. Purify our hearts, eyes, minds, thoughts, understanding and intentions. So that with a pure heart and an unashamed face we may dare with boldness to say unto You…”

So there! I finally had my answer. You can see God – but before you can even think about coming near Him, you had to be pure in heart. And just as I was about to offer this answer to my Sunday school class, I ran into another problem.

I discovered that in the Old Testament, seeing God was a problematic idea, to say the least. It was in fact considered to be life-threatening.

While on Mount Sinai, the Lord says to Moses:

You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live. (Ex 33:20)

Therefore, what God chose to do, was He appeared to people in the Old Testament in very filtered ways: in a fire, a cloud and even a whirlwind in the book of Job.

So then, what does Jesus mean when He says: “they shall see God”?

The word “see” here doesn’t actually mean to see with your eyes, but rather, loosely translated, it means, “to possess”.

Consequently, when Christ says:

Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God

What He really means to say is:

Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall possess God

It means that if I am pure, then I can possess God, He belongs to me. It’s a ridiculous thing to imagine but God is telling us that it’s possible. That if my heart is pure, then He will be my possession, God will belong to me and I to Him. How beautiful?

What God is describing here is the ideal relationship between a Bridegroom and his Bride. That they belong to each other. St Paul speaks of this relationship in 1 Cor 7:4 where he says,

The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise, the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.

This is the relationship God wants to have with me, this intimacy, this closeness. That He would allow Himself to belong to me. And do you know just how much God wants to belong to me?

In Isaiah 49:16 we read,

See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands

What does He mean by using this picture of “inscribing” me in the palm of His hands? Well, in that time, people would own slaves. In order to ensure that others knew who these slaves belonged to, the masters would engrave their names on the hands of these slaves. What God therefore is essentially saying is, “I will be your Servant, and I will belong to you.”

A sentiment echoed in the Christological Hymn found in Philippians 2 that says:

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. (Ph 2:5-7)

If all this wasn’t clear enough already, God makes sure the message is loud and clear in the book of Ezekiel. When talking about those who belong to His people, He says:

It shall be, in regard to their inheritance, that I am their inheritance. You shall give them no possession in Israel, for I am their possession. (Ez 44:28)

God is telling me, that He is my possession. How precious is it that He makes Himself my possession, my belonging?

Let us then conclude by understanding once and for all what it means to have a pure heart so that I can share in this intimate relationship with God. Simply put, to have a pure heart is to devote myself to Him. To dedicate every facet of my being to Him. My soul, body and spirit. And when I do that, only then will I see Him, only then will my name be “inscribed” in His hands as a symbol that He will forever belong to me.

In fact, the word “inscribed” that God uses in Isaiah is even more powerful in that, it means literally, “to engrave with nails”. He belongs to me, when He gives me His body on the Cross. To be pure in heart is to give Him mine in the same way.

Drowning in Mercy

Drowning in Mercy

Adapted from a sermon by Johnny Sharkawi


Would it be accurate to say that God’s mercy is available to us?

To anyone in the church, the answer would be, yes. The Bible presents us with a different answer. A more accurate answer is that God dumps His mercy on our heads.

A common prayer that Fr Elijah would pray was, “Thank You God for pouring Your mercy and blessings upon us.” I would hear this prayer time and time again. The attitude that God is pouring mercy without falter is the more accurate description.

What is strange is that in the Bible, God pours mercy even on those that do not ask for it. On the Cross, there were none that asked for His mercy. The reality was that they were opposing Him. The first time He opened His mouth on the Cross was to pour mercy upon them. He said, “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34). Even to those that did not ask nor want His mercy, the Lord still with the largest bucket possible, dumped His mercy upon them.

Till today, He continues to poor blessings on those that do not ask. In Matthew 5:45, we read, “for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” His mercy is poured on the evil, just as the sun rises on all people. There is no distinction made between His children, all receive mercy. It would be weak for us to say that His mercy is merely available to us. God does not reluctantly give mercy if we beg. He is not that kind of Lord.

Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool.” – Isaiah 1:18.

He says, ‘come,’ as if the Lord is grabbing us by the arm and pulling us. He wants to reason with us that even though we are sinful, He wants to make us white like snow. This is not a Lord reluctantly giving away mercy but a Lord that is looking for every opportunity to give away His mercy.

Another example of His pleasure in mercy is in Micah 7:18-19; “Who is a God like You, Pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in mercy. He will again have compassion on us, And will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins Into the depths of the sea.”

The Lord’s delight is in mercy. If you think of the way you delight in your favourite meal, you do not leave in remnants behind. You lick the plate clean, and you get every last drop off your fingers, too. You do this in delight. This is the Lord’s approach to mercy. The Lord’s delight is in mercy so that His forgiveness is never short of 100%. He licks His fingers until there is no mercy left to give, this is His greatest delight.

More than this, “I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; And I will not remember your sins.” – Isaiah 43:25.

He tells us that He forgives us not for our sake, but His. Even if we do not want our sins forgiven, He can’t help but forgive. This is the extent of His mercy, He wants it more than we do. He does not desire the death for a single sinner but that all should return and live (Ezekiel 18:23).

If we were to ask the Lord what he really wanted from us, I think He would respond in the same way He responded in Ezekiel 36: 25-26, “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 

Why does the Lord want us to be clean? Because it is a pre-requisite to seeing God. If we are to see God, we must first be clean. In Hebrews 12:14, it says, “Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.”

We will not see the Lord without holiness. The objective is not to be clean in our own eyes, or to be clean in the eyes of other people, but am I clean in God’s eyes? Without true holiness that only the Lord sees, we will not be able to see Him.

The Lord pours His mercy, He dumps His mercy on us all now so that now is the time to pursue holiness so we may see the Lord. There will come a time that the door will be shut and it will not be opened again. We must pursue holiness now while His mercy is being poured upon us.

Many of us will ask is confession a struggle? The answer is yes. Even HH Pope Kyrillos VI would agree, he said, “do not keep your thoughts hidden but struggle to purify your thoughts through confession.” It is a struggle; It is not easy. If we take on the heart of Jesus who said, “I am gentle and lowly in heart,” (Matthew 11:29) then confession will be easier. A major reason why we find confession is a struggle is because we want to look good. I want Abouna to think well of me. The truth is, it is my pride that stops me from confessing my sins.

On Covenant Thursday, the Lord breaks Himself for us. He took His Body (that is the Eucharist), and He broke Himself for our sake. Confession is me breaking myself, for my own sake.

“Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left.” – Matthew 24:40. Confessions is the difference between the one taken and the one left behind. We do this for ourself. We do not have confession so that we can tell others that we have had confession and we are now clean, but we do it so that we may be clean in God’s eyes. We do it so that we are not the ones left behind of Judgement day. The door is open now while we have life in us.

Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the Lord, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon” – Isaiah 55:6-7.

The Lord is ready to pour His mercy and He waits for us. The Lord is so simple, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Matthew 3:2). Sometimes, we translate this wrongly, because we are complicated while the Lord is simple. We interpret this as dwell on your sin, for the Kingdom is at hand. Think a lot about your sin. Feel really bad about your sin. Let this manifest into depression about your sin. Hide your sin. This is complex and it is not the Bible. If we are weighed down by our sin then we have missed the whole point of the week.

The Lord shed His blood to make us clean. We do not need to carry our sin. He came that we may have life and live it more abundantly (John 10:10).

? Full Sermon ?