Writings: Seeing God

By: Dr. Gregory S. Neal

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” (Matthew 5:8)

Among the most famous teachings of Jesus, the Sermon on the Mount contains a collection of powerful affirmations which typify, describe, and outline for us the characteristics of the People of God. So often we define Christians by what we believe. We often act as if the Christian Faith is a collection of concepts or ideas, doctrines to which we assent, things that we believe, concepts or ideas that we hold dear. This view of Christianity comes largely from the Protestant Reformation and its stress upon the study of Scripture and the centrality of faith in salvation. We see this articulated in our Doctrinal Standards and in the historic affirmations of faith that we frequently profess in worship, like The Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds. Repeatedly we proclaim: “I believe … I believe … I believe.” When we ask someone to affirm that they are a Christian, particularly in the Western Protestant evangelical world, the response is often something like: “I believe in Jesus Christ as my Lord and my Savior.” Indeed, belief has become so important for how we define Christians that the term “Believer” has even become a synonym for “Christian.”

While beliefs and Doctrines are very important to our faith, it’s interesting to note the difference in how Jesus outlined the characteristics of a Child of God. It’s not a list of beliefs about God, or about Jesus, or about salvation. We don’t have to pass some kind of entrance exam in order to be “saved.” Rather, in the powerful words of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus painted a picture of the Children of God, beginning with the characteristics that make them blessed. Christens are supposed to be poor in spirit yet inheritors of heaven, mourning yet comforted, meek yet inheritors of the earth, seekers and receivers of righteousness, merciful towards others and receiving of mercy, pure in heart and seeing God, peacemakers who are persecuted yet still blessed. Those are supposed to be some of our most notable characteristics.

I like to volunteer as a Protestant Chaplain on the Holland America Line; not only do I get to do some cruising for free in exchange for preaching sermons and presiding at Holy Communion, it also gives me the opportunity to meet people from all over the world, people from different backgrounds and with different – sometimes very different – religious identities and experiences. On one cruise, many years ago, I was chatting with a Muslim crew member from Indonesia. While widely traveled and very well educated, he had heard only a very rudimentary, and often wrong, description of what a Christian was and believed. And, so, being a very curious fellow, he began asking me lots of questions about my understanding of the Christian Faith. During our many conversations I remember reciting to him the “Blesseds” section of The Sermon on the Mount, and he seemed very surprised. He claimed that he had never before heard such a description being applied to Christians. He’d served a lot of Christians aboard cruise ships, he’d known a lot of Christians in many various capacities over many years, he’d learned a lot about Christians from Christians and from non-Christians, and yet he’d never heard such a description, nor seen these characteristics in our behavior. Ouch.

Why? Perhaps it’s because we’re horrible at living as Jesus called us to live and as Jesus described the blessed … and that’s terribly sad. It means we’re failing as the Children of God. We’re failing to live how Jesus wants us to live. And, yet, one of the things that so frequently illustrates the lives of those whom we think of as being a part of the “Communion of the Saints” are exactly these qualities. So, yes, we do live them … sometimes.

How can we, who are still abiding in this world, live these characteristics more faithfully? I find myself coming back to the phrase:

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” (Matthew 5:8)

What does it mean to be “pure in heart” and what does it mean to “see God?” Keep in mind that the term “heart” isn’t referencing the organ in your chest that pumps blood around your body. In the ancient world the heart was the seat of the mind, the soul, the very core and identity of who you are. Metaphorically, we understand the heart as the seat of our emotions; in the ancient world, that was a foot lower in their guts. We think with our heads and feel with our hearts; they thought with their hearts and felt with their guts. So, being “pure in heart” is speaking not so much about our emotions as it is our thinking; and, more importantly, our spiritual and personal identities. The “you” that is “you.”

“Pure” translates a word that means “clean or free from confusing, mixing, filthy matter,” “ritually undefiled,” “spiritually undisturbed” or “lacking in disturbance.” Think of a pool of clean, clear water, undisturbed by things floating in it nor even having any waves or ripples on its surface. Such a pool of water becomes almost invisible when left in such a pristine condition. That’s the kind of purity being spoken of here. When we are free – totally free – from the things that disturb and murky-up our lives, that distract and get between us and God, or between us and each other, then, and only then, can we truly see God.

What does it mean to “see God?” The word translated here means to physically see with one’s eyes; idiomatically, it also means to perceive or to understand. We often use the word “see” to mean the same thing. When asked if I “get” or “understand something” I’ll often say: “I see.” That’s even more the meaning here: to truly see, to comprehend, to understand, to encounter and recognize God. The pure in heart, those without any disturbance of mind or spirit, those without any hint of distraction or ripple of diversion, will see God.

That’s who the saints are. The saints are those who, without any disturbance from this life, see God. That’s who these dear people are who have gone on to glory everlasting ahead of us, and who we remember on All Saints Sunday. They are the blessed, the pure in heart, who see God.

“But they weren’t always that way, Greg!” True … and neither are we. But they are now, and we have to start somewhere because someday, really soon, we too will be found on a similar list as part of the Communion of the Saints, active among those who “see God.” There’s no better time like the present to start seeing God. At least, that’s how I see it.

© 2020, Dr. Gregory S. Neal
All Rights Reserved