Having a Healthy Heart

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Kyle Bennett. July 12, 2026. Matthew 5:1-12.

Summary

I was never great at basketball, but I was a hustler, and I prided myself on my dribbling. There was one basic thing I could never do: keep my head up. All I could see was the ground in front of me. My coach yelled, get your head up, but I never could. The Christian life is similar. Some of us can do fancy tricks, but some do not have real heart, and some only see what is right in front of us because our heads are down. We do not see the goal, and we suffer for it.

In Matthew 5:1-12 our Lord states what it looks like for his disciples to be blessed, happy and healthy: heads up and hearts fixed on the kingdom of heaven. In the Bible the heart captures all the movements of emotion, passion, and desire. Notice that Jesus saw the crowd and went away from it; he was not fond of crowds. He does not say happiness comes from merely getting your head right, as the Stoics might. One has to desire the right things and see from the right perspective, the kingdom of heaven, even if that means bearing the cross.

One way to hear the Beatitudes is this: blessed are the unhealthy by the world’s standards. The world believes it knows where happiness and health are found, but it does not account for the kingdom of heaven. It only sees the ground. Jesus is saying that in a world that prizes strength and power, you have to need things from God. In a world that loathes vulnerability, you have to be willing to suffer loss. In a world of arrogance and presumption, you have to get off your high horse and worship the one who rode on a donkey. In a world where the ends always justify the means, you have to want true justice, true righteousness. In a world obsessed with retribution, you have to want to forgive. In a world of wealth accumulation and usury, sometimes you have to throw out the ledger. In a world of tribalism and demonizing the other, you have to build bridges. In a world that avoids shame at all costs, you have to do the right thing without fear of the consequences. And in a world that worships fame, you should not cower from enduring false accusations. The world has it all wrong, the way it thinks and what it wants. To be blessed by the Lord is better than being well in the world.

Holy Week, the week of passion (and passion means suffering), begins with a crowd and ends with a corpse. We celebrate the suffering servant: deserted by friends who slept while he wept, falsely accused, beaten, crowned with thorns, crucified at Golgotha. A healthy heart is one willing to suffer. In our day the crowd, backed by a culture of therapeutics, says suffering is the one thing to avoid, and that culture has infiltrated the church. We have forgotten Peter’s words: “do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you” but “rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings” (1 Peter 4:12-13). Happiness and health are not found in thinking the right thoughts or circumventing calamity, but in following Jesus to the cross.

We disrupt our own heads and hearts in two ways: prizing the approval of others, and relying on our own capabilities. We are addicted to the crowd; it is nice to be noticed, and if we are honest we would like more of it. And deep down we envy the world, don’t we? We are intoxicated by their prosperity. We are captivated by the freedom in which they can be hedonists and indulge themselves in pleasures. Secretly, don’t we wish we could do that too? Their lives of indulgence seem easy and smooth, while we are over here denying ourselves, living simply, making sacrifices. How much do we groan over our troubles because we secretly want to live a worldly lifestyle? Jesus stayed away from the crowds because the world does not have its head on straight: “because you are not of the world, the world hates you” (John 15:19). Like Christ, we have to step away from the crowd and enter the congregation that looks to the kingdom. The second is vain confidence, as if we could control our thoughts and emotions and beget our own peace of mind. That is not living in Christ. Christ was raised by the Father in the power of the Spirit; he relied on them, and as members of his body we must rely on him.

Four basic practices keep our heads on straight and our hearts in the right place. Read your Bible: be immersed in the stories of suffering, sacrifice, and promise so they shape your imagination; think of Abraham, David, Jeremiah, and Paul. Pray for strength: courage to face your daily dealings, patience to endure them, assurance that bad things will turn out for good. Meditate on God’s providence: he has sustained you to this point and comforted you in suffering before. And engage in fellowship: we become healthy when we stop worrying about our own suffering and lay down our lives for our friends. Weep with those who weep, rejoice with those who rejoice, encourage them, edify them, as we follow in the footsteps of our suffering servant.

Key texts: Matthew 5:1-12; 1 Peter 4:12-13; John 15:19

For reflection

• Where is my head down, so that I see only the ground in front of me and not the kingdom of heaven?
• Which has a stronger grip on me right now, the approval of the crowd or confidence in my own capabilities?
• Which of the four practices (Bible reading, prayer, meditating on providence, fellowship) do I most need to take up this week?