The Beatitudes
Beatitudes for paper Rev. Terry Goerz, Redeemer Lutheran Church
Jesus’ teaching on the beatitudes begins with a word. Blessed. In Greek, makarios. That’s not quite “happy.” It’s not a feeling. Blessed. It’s a condition, an umbrella under which you live out your existence. Blessed. Nine times it gets repeated, and each time turned a little bit like a diamond, displaying each of its facets.
The first four are inward. They point to the disciple and his condition before God. Blessed are the poor in spirit, the mourning, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. This is not what you might expect, and certainly not the impression you would get by tuning in to popular Christianity and the prosperity preachers you see on TV or read in books. Their message is quite the opposite. Blessed are the rich in spirit. Blessed are the glad and happy. Blessed are the strong and powerful. Blessed are those whose cups runneth over with righteousness.
Blessed are the poor in spirit. That’s right. Not the poor, as in financially lacking. Poor in spirit. The spiritually impoverished, the spiritually bankrupt. Blessed are those who have nothing to offer God but their sin, the messed up lives, their broken hearts, their dysfunctional families.
Blessed are those who mourn. Did Jesus just say mourn? To mourn suggests someone died. Blessed are those who experience the pangs of death? That’s right. Those who mourn. Those who grieve. Those who weep over the ravages of Sin in their lives and the lives of others.
Blessed are the meek. Yes, the meek. Not the strong and mighty, but the meek and lowly. The losers, the little ones, the door mats of the world. Blessed are you. The earth is yours. It’s so counterintuitive. It cuts against the grain of our thinking, the way we run our lives. We want to be strong, to be in charge, to be in control. The meek? What war have the meek ever won?
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Not simply hunger and thirst. That can be taken care of by a square meal and something to drink. You can supply that. But you can’t supply righteousness. You can’t make yourself holy. Oh, you can do righteous things, works of righteousness, but you can’t conjure up true righteousness. True righteousness is a gift from God!
The next four beatitudes turn the disciple to the neighbor. Blessed are the merciful, the undeservedly kind, those who love the loveless, who lay down their lives for others. The mercy they show is also the mercy they receive, not as a reward, but in the way of the Lord’s Prayer and forgiveness when we pray “forgive us in the same way we forgive those who sin against us.”
Blessed are the pure in heart, those who are innocent of the evils of this world. “Ignorance is bliss,” we say. In this sense it’s true. To be ignorant of evil is to be blessed, and yet how can anyone walk in this world and be ignorant of evil?
Blessed are the peacemakers, literally the peace doers. Those who do peace, who bring “shalom” to others. They shall be called “sons of God” for they are reflections of the Son of God, the Prince of Peace, the One who brought peace by His wounds.
The last two speak of being persecuted. Blessed are you when others revile you, persecute you, slander you because you bear the name Christian. Blessed are those Christians in the Middle East whose worship services are interrupted with bombs and gunfire at the hands of Muslims. Blessed are those Christians in communist lands who are driven deep underground. Blessed are those who are mocked and ridiculed by the “wise” of this world. Blessed are you when people laugh at you for believing in Christ, when people exclude you for being a Christian, when people mock you for speaking the name of Jesus. Don’t be sad, be glad! Rejoice! You are walking in prophetic sandals.
The beatitudes are first and foremost about Jesus. He is the Blessed One from whom all blessings flow. He is the One who became poor in spirit, though He was rich. He is the One who mourned over our Sin, the man of suffering, acquainted with sorrow. He is the meek One, who turned the other cheek, who gave His back to the whips of this world, who went as a Lamb to the slaughter. He hungered and thirsted for our righteousness, and in His hunger and thirst we are filled.
He is the Merciful One, whose mercy knows no bounds. He is the pure-hearted One, innocent of Adam’s sin, whose heart overflowed with nothing but love. He is the peace maker, the One who purchased our peace by dying on a cross that we might have shalom, peace that surpasses our comprehension, peace that that world cannot give. He is the persecuted One, who absorbed this world’s hatred and buried it in His death. Jesus is and does all these things. He is the Blessed One. And you, baptized into Him, are blessed through him!
Blessings