[Pearls Ep 156: Bringing Sunday into the week.]
Perhaps you’re familiar with the concept of a “lead magnet” (or lost leader). You’ve certainly encountered it – you give them your email address and they give you a pdf that shows how to retire by buying and selling beenie-babies. Or something like that. And once they have your email address they try to sell you their beenie-baby system because, of course, the *free* pdf shows you how wonderful your beenie-baby retirement will be, but it doesn’t exactly explain the pesky details of how you actually pull off the beenie-baby sales bonanza.
And we all experience this at the grocery store, or Chinese buffet in a food court – they give you a tasty little sample so that you’ll open your wallet and buy something.
Lead magnet, lost leader, free sample – they’re all different words for “bait” – and you’re the fish. That’s simply the way the world works.
It may be cynical, but it’s not without good reason. Panera Bread tried to dip their toe into socialism at a few of their stores – inviting people to order whatever they wanted off the menu and pay what they though was fair. You can guess how long that lasted.
You can’t give everything away and expect people to pay – right?
But God doesn’t seem to grasp the concept of giving a little sample to get us hooked. He gives away the best stuff first. We don’t just get the tasty sample – we get the feast right up front.
As Exhibit A, look no further than the beatitudes. The beatitudes show us a progression of perfection. Step #1 is being poor in spirit – not easy, but not hardest thing either. Step #8 is being persecuted. Ouch.
Now look at the payoffs – just achieving Step #1 gets you the Kingdom of Heaven. And what does Step #8 get you? The Kingdom of Heaven.
God needs to go back to Marketing 101. Who in their right mind would continue on to persecution when they get the whole enchilada right out of the gate with a little self-denial? Who would continue on to willingly rejoice in suffering (Romans 5:3)? You’d have to be a fool for the sake of Christ (1 Cor 3:19)!
And that brings us to the crux of what the beatitudes are all about – extravagant generosity. Jesus is extravagant. And the beatitudes invite us to become like Him – extravagant. The more we practice the virtues without holding anything back, we advance in beatitude. The more we endeavor to love God without holding anything back, we advance in beatitude. The more we love neighbor without holding anything back, we advance in beatitude.
A final thought (we go into more detail on the beatitudes in the Pearls video) – God wants us to enter into Heaven as spiritual all-stars. That is really what the “blessings” of the other beatitudes are getting at. Yes, we receive “the kingdom of God” with the first beatitude, but God doesn’t want us to stop there. “Inheriting the land” … “being called peacemakers” … “seeing God” – while those are blessings that we will taste in certain ways in this lifetime, they are especially showing us how our soul will be expanded when we reach heaven. The more we grow in beatitude in this life, the more our soul is expanded – the more we will be able to “take in” of God’s goodness when we arrive at the pearly gates.
It’s not a sales method that would fly on Madison Avenue, but is a perfect fit for the narrow path.
Blessings on your journey with Christ –
Steve and Karen Smith
Interior Life
Postscript: The Beatitudes – Mt 5:1-12
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him. He began to teach them, saying:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.”