I suspect you won’t need convincing that – with few exceptions – anything that is pure is highly desirable.  The exception being, things like ‘pure evil’.  ‘Pure' means that something is unadulterated.  With regard to food it means nothing has been added to interfere with the quality of the product.  So you can buy pure honey and pure natural pot-set yoghurt – just two of the hundreds of products on supermarket shelves that have the word ‘pure’ on their labels.

But ‘pure’ is not limited to groceries.  We stand on a mountain-top’, away from city smog and fumes and we delight in the pure air we breathe.  Jesus even applied the concept of purity to people: He spoke about people with pure hearts.  “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.”

If you’ve been following my series of reflections on what we call The Beatitudes you’ll have realised that all of those things in human nature on which Jesus pronounced a blessing are in short supply among us.  Blessed are the poor in spirit...?  Sure, but there’s an awful lot of pride and arrogance among us humans.  Hungering and thirsting for righteousness...?  Okay, but why is there so much unrighteousness in the daily news?  Or: being merciful...?  Yes, but cruelty is so often inflicted by merciless people.  Someone suggested that if we turn The Beatitudes back to front we get a fair description of humanity – well, humanity as it is by nature... apart from the grace of God.

That seems to apply also to the sixth Beatitude as Jesus pronounces a special blessing on the pure in heart.  He’s not speaking about anything we find naturally in us human beings.  An example...?  Well, let me just own up that I’m rather glad you can’t read my thoughts moment by moment – because there would have been times when instead of seeing purity there, you would have seen garbage of which I wasn’t proud.  I read a book recently on how pastors should deal with criticism.  The author suggested that we should begin by rejoicing because if people knew the truth about us they would see that we’re really a lot worse than they think we are.

I’ve sometimes wondered whether Jesus had the Pharisees in mind when He pronounced this beatitude.  The Pharisees were a Jewish religious sect, preoccupied with the idea of purity.  They took it to ridiculous extremes.  A simple walk through the market-place... and you’d be obliged to wash your hands.  That was to make absolutely sure nothing unclean happened to cling to them.  A fanatical religious and ceremonial purity to wash away the world’s contamination!  So they invented a host of ritual and ceremonial cleansings.  Once when Jesus' disciples dared to eat without first washing the Pharisees were horrified.  Didn't Jesus care about purity?  Blessed are the pure...?  Okay, but how can you be pure without scrubbing and washing?  Jesus called out their hypocrisy with their concern about mere outward purity.  He called them: whitewashed tombs full of dead men’s bones.

But isn’t that our modern society... immensely concerned about outward purity and cleanliness?  We’ve got whole industries geared just to those concerns.  Soaps... that guarantee to leave your skin cleaner. smoother and softer.  Cosmetics... that promise you you’ll look 20 years younger.  And then there’s sport and gym to keep that body finally honed... and when things do begin to sag... hey, there’s always plastic surgery: nips and tucks to make sure not a wrinkle gives away our true age.  But what are things like on the inside?  Just look at the news reports.  The top-notch sport star, the idol whom thousands worship... but he got drunk and he’s now facing charges of sexual abuse.  If we’re honest we’ll all admit we’re thankful that others can’t see into the inner recesses of our minds.

So where does that leave this Beatitude?  Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God.  It sure looks like no one is going to see the Lord.  But if we think that then we should read Psalm 51.  King David’s heart was not exactly pure.  It had been filled with a lust that led to adultery and murder.  But David’s prayer was: “Create in me a clean heart oh God and renew a right spirit within me.”  The point is that we need God to change us – from the inside out.  Come to Jesus for forgiveness and renewal – the pure heart is a gift of His love.

John Westendorp