Beatitudes and More

The Beatitudes are the verses of the sermon on the mount in Matthew 5 from vs. 3-12. Jesus mentions a type of person who is blessed (not necessarily happy but filled with the joy of Christ) and then talks about the promise that God has for such a person. Blessed are the poor in Spirit, blessed are those who mourn, blessed are the meek, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, blessed are the merciful, blessed are the pure in heart, blessed are the peacemakers and blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness (who are insulted or lied to.)

The poor in spirit are blessed. What does that even mean, “The poor in spirit.” I find poor in spirit to mean humility; and selflessness. The world would tell you that you have to look out for yourself in order to get anywhere in life. Jesus says that if you are poor in spirit, the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to you! Blessed are those who mourn, because they will be comforted. The world would tell us to suck it up, life is hard, deal with it, but Jesus is saying here that it is ok to mourn, because your Heavenly Father cares and will comfort you. Blessed are the meek (the gentle and soft-spoken), but the world says that the aggressive and powerful are blessed. The meek person will inherit the earth. Those who hunger and thirst for what is right will be blessed according to Jesus, whereas the world will tell you to do whatever it takes to get ahead. Jesus says the righteous will be filled and won’t remain empty and hollow. The pure are also blessed, as well as the peacemakers and the merciful and even those who endure persecution because of their faith in God. The promise to those blessed people: seeing God, being part of God’s family and receiving a reward in heaven. Jesus sees things in a way that seems backwards to the people in society.

They are used to having to be aggressive, even nasty to succeed in life. But Jesus comes

on the scene and speaks with authority about being humble, and being merciful, and peaceful, and pure, and taking persecution as a badge of honor. That wasn’t what they were used to hearing! It was refreshing, it was confusing, but it was good.

Jesus goes on through the rest of chapter 5 to talk about God’s stance on some more specific issues of the day such as the law, anger, divorce, promises, and revenge. In all of His teachings the overwhelming tone is love, peace, grace and mercy. Is it even possible to live in this world and be loving and peaceful and gracious to everyone we meet? Some days it doesn’t seem possible but Jesus shows us that it is. Not only did He teach about it; He lived it out. The words that we speak, need to be filled with love; our thoughts and actions need to be pure; we need to desire to do what is right and point others to the Truth with our actions and with our deeds not just our words.