by Don Hatfield
A New Walk On An Old Path
The Sermon on the Mount
By Don Hatfield
I meet him by accident while walking along a dusty road on my way to Jerusalem to see the city where they had crucified my Lord. I had climbed up the hill to a place called Tagbha (some called this the place of solitude) overlooking the Sea of Galilee and he was sitting there looking out on the blue waters. I stopped and said hello and we began to exchange a few pleasantries about the weather and the scenery. I told him my name was Isaac and that I was a believer in the Way of Jesus the risen Savior. I was hoping to share my faith with him when he said the strangest thing, “It was here.” I asked him, “What was here. Did something happen here?” He turned his face up towards mine and said, “It was here that He gave the instructions for the new way and my new walk. It was here that He spoke to us the disciples and to the multitudes who were so hungry to hear Him.” He then said would you like to hear what your Savior said to them?” I stood looking at him as the realization began to set in that this man had been with Jesus. He let me stand there in my astonishment for a minute and then smiled and said my name is James. He then patted the soft grass beside him and said sit down and I will tell you what He said that day.
I sat down beside the man named James. His hair was gray, his face wrinkled showing signs of wear that seemed to be way beyond his age. There were scars on his arms and legs where he had been beaten with the whips of hatred. But his eyes glowed with a light that shined straight from heaven and his voice sang with the praises of his Savior. He then began a discourse that changed my life and the way that I lived it. I will do my best to tell it to you as James told it to me. This is the way that he began.
James said that it was a beautiful day as they came to the top of the hill and as they looked down the hillside it was covered with people waiting for Jesus to come and speak with them. It was the perfect spot for the Sea of Galilee was behind the people making it easy for them to hear Him. James said that Jesus sat down just about where we were sitting. Just the thought of that sent holy chills down my arms to think that I could be sitting right in the very same spot that Jesus sat. I realized that James knew how I felt because he put his arm around my shoulder and gave me a brotherly hug. James began again and said, “Jesus called us all around Him and when we sat down the whole multitude of people also sat down.” When he told me this a soft warm breeze began to blow over my shoulders out towards the blue waters of the Sea of Galilee. James spoke softly and said, “It was the same on that day. The people became so quiet that you could have heard a piece of straw fall and hit the ground.” James said that Jesus then began to speak and the first words that came from Him were the following, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” He looked at me and said, “Isaac, may I explain to you what Jesus meant when He said these things to us as we all sat there. May I give you a little more understanding of those heavenly words that He spoke to us on that day?” I shook my head again for it was at that moment that I knew my life and the way that I lived it would never again be the same.
He then began by saying, “That word blessed can also mean happy. So you might think what a strange way to start speaking to people by telling them that the poor are blessed. Isaac, when Jesus said that He meant that you by believing in Him may not have any wealth of learning and you may not be cultured as the world believes culture to be. But when you are poor in spirit you are fitted to learn of Christ and to lay hold of His heavenly treasures. Because of that you can lay hold of His royal power and His royal dignity that will be bestowed upon believers in His royal Kingdom. This royalty will be given you in the heavens where God dwells and Jesus is seated on His royal throne.” At this I could not help but said to James, “Oh, let me be the poorest of beggars in this world that I might be the richest of royalty in His Kingdom.” James said, “That is a prayer that your Father will continually answer if you will always remember that your wisdom and learning is always dependent on His teaching and guidance.”
I then said to James please tell me more of that day. James then spoke these words of Jesus, “Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted. Isaac, again He used that word blessed or happy and again He used it in a strange context. He said happy or blessed are those that mourn. What does mourning mean to you Isaac?” I said I guess it means to lament or wail over something that has happened.” James then said, “As a believer with a spot reserved for you in Heaven why you would possibly be mourning?” I sat there for a moment and then a picture of my mother and father came into my mind. I could imagine myself going to heaven and a large book being opened with names in alphabetical order written down. I was thrilled as I read my name but as I scanned down the page for my mother and father their names were not to be found. Tears began to fill my eyes as I looked at James and he knew what I was feeling and thinking. James said, “Isaac we will need much comforting. We will need much consoling. We will need our Father to wrap His arms around us and hold us. He will, Isaac, He will and our tears will be forever dried as we walk with Him in eternity. Pain will be replaced with joy, sorrow with laughter, mourning with comfort.” I said to James, “What about now?” James looked and me and said, “Do you not know that the comforter is with you now?” Have you not learned that He abides with and in you now? It was then that I knew that was one of the reason Jesus had to die and rise again. Yes, I knew that He had to die for our sins. But because He came in the likeness of us He could not be everywhere at once. In dying and rising again He came back to join us in our spirit’s. Glory to God, He lives in me and gives me comfort now. Again I said to James, “Oh may I mourn for souls to know Him while He comforts my mourning with His presence.” James and I both just looked to the throne of Heaven and praised Him for a few minutes.
We were brought back down to earth by a herd of sheep singing there song down below on the hillside. We watched as the shepherd drove them along and they meekly followed his bidding. James smiled and said those sheep bring us to what Jesus said next. “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.” I said to James explain this meekness to me for when you use that word it makes me think of being cowardly. Yet I know that my Savior was anything but that.” James said, “Isaac many will think the same thing but that is not what He meant at all. For as you said our Savior was the bravest of the brave. Let me explain it to you in these words. To be meek is to have that disposition in our spirits in which we accept His dealings with us as for our good. Instead of disputing or resisting His dealings we come to trust Him as the sheep do their shepherd knowing that wherever He is leading it will result in rest and peace for us. The shepherd is always leading his sheep to the green pastures by the still waters. If we following the shepherd of our souls we too shall inherit it even while still here on earth. We will be partakers of our place here on the earth. Though we are strangers here we will come to occupy our promised land here on this earth. The promise land of peace and rest in our souls. Yes, even a place of peace here on earth, a land of peace with boundaries fixed by the Holy Spirit and as we learn not to cross them we will become more and more content with the fields that He gives us to graze in.” James stopped and asked, “Isaac would you be one of the meek ones?” I said, “Yes I do want to be one of the meek sheep.”
James smiled a gentle smile and then said, “Then you are going to get hungry for the way to the green pastures is through the desert.” I know that I looked puzzled and I asked, “What do you mean?” James then told me what Jesus said next, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled.” James looked and me and said,
“Isaac, it is amazing how we fool ourselves after we come to know the Savior. We seem to think that the journey is now ended when it has only just begun. In our foolish souls we often think that we know much about Him when we do not know Him at all. The proof of that is the fact that we do not seek to know Him. When He stood here on this hill on that sunny day and said those words He was telling us what we must do to know Him. To be blessed we must get hungry. You must seek with an eager desire to know Him. This hunger must be the first thing in your life. Isaac, to be filled or to be satisfied with righteousness we must be hungry to have it. We must also thirst. To be thirsty for righteousness is to be painfully aware of our need of the things by which the soul is refreshed, supported and strengthen. Are you hungry and thirsty for righteousness Isaac? If you are then I will tell you what righteousness is?” I looked out on that Sea shimmering in distance. My spirit was filling to the brim as James talked of Jesus and my soul was saying, Yes, Yes, I must be