Welcome to this first post in our new series on ‘The Beatitudes’. Over the course of the next few months we will be taking our time to walk slowly through some of the most famous, most simple, but most profound of Jesus’ teachings.

Perhaps one the first things to note is that the word ‘beatitude’ comes from the opening and repeated words of Jesus’ most famous sermon ever – the sermon on the mount. It is this sermon that includes things like the call to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth, to turn the other cheek, to love our enemies, to pray the Lord’s prayer, walk the narrow road and many other well known sayings. Over the course of the last two thousand years, more has probably been written about this sermon than any other passage of Scripture. Have a listen to what some have said about this sermon.

• One person called it ‘undoubtedly the most well-known, celebrated and provocative speech in human history.’¹
• Athesist Richard Dawkins, who recently described himself as a ‘cultural christian’, said that Jesus ‘was surely one of the great ethical innovators of history’ and that ‘the sermon on the Mount is way ahead of its time’.²
• Someone else said that though it is ‘probably the best known part of the teaching of Jesus [it it also] arguably the least understood, and certainly the least obeyed’.³

The best known, least understood, and certainly least obeyed!

What is he doing?

The actual words of Jesus in the Beatitudes are some of the most well-known of all his teachings and many of us are familiar with phrases like…

• Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven
• Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted
• Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth

But how many of us have paused long enough to really think about what these words mean and what Jesus is doing when he utters them? They might seem straightforward but are they really? Is Jesus pronouncing blessings on certain groups of virtuous people in the present (i.e. blessed are the poor in spirit) or s he promising that the certain struggles in the present will one day be reversed and overcome (blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted)?

In this blog I want to suggest that there is one key thing that Jesus is not doing and then two things that he is doing. The thing that I want to suggest that Jesus is not doing here is that he is not pronouncing blessings on people and the two things I think he is doing is making observations and declarations about who is positioned to flourish in light of God’s in-breaking kingdom and inviting others to become more like those particular people groups. So let’s break each of those things down a little bit further.

Firstly, I don’t think that Jesus is pronouncing blessing on people. This is a bit confusing because most of the English translations begin each statement with the words ‘blessed are’. The Greek word that is being translated here as ‘blessed’ is ‘makarios’, which is a tricky word to translate into English with some translations going with ‘happy’, ‘congratulations to’, or ‘blissful are’ to try and capture its essence. But at its heart it is a word that is used to describe what we might call ‘the good life’ and particularly those people who are positioned to experience this type of life, which is why some scholars opt for ‘flourishing are’ instead of ‘blessed are’. Many people in Jesus’ day, as well as our own, were asking the question of how to live in order really flourish and experience the good life. The Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes in particular are Jesus’ answer to this question. Through these words he is saying, ‘if you want to live so as to really flourish in the kingdom of God, listen to what I am saying’.

This leads to my second point, that Jesus is observing and making declarations about particular people whose station in life means that they are ready to really thrive in his kingdom. Notice who he mentions…

• The poor in spirit
• Those who mourn
• The meek
• Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness
• The merciful
• The pure in heart
• The peacemakers
• The persecuted

Notice that these groups are exactly NOT the type of people that most societies would refer to as ‘blessed’ or as those best positioned to lead the good life. In fact, it is the opposite – these are the people that most societies would judge as being far removed from the good life and from human flourishing. In some situations these would be considered those who are accursed rather than blessed. So, what is going on here? On the surface this makes no sense whatsoever and so we have to dive a little deeper to figure it out.

Then thirdly, by declaring these particular people are positioned for blessing and flourishing in the kingdom of God, Jesus is also inviting us and others to become more like them. Those who heard his teaching might wonder to themselves, ‘if these are the people who are going to thrive in God’s kingdom, am I included? Am I poor in spirit? Am I mourning? Am I pure in heart? Etc. Remember, these words are primarily directed towards his disciples and so Jesus is inviting them to view the world and to live in the world in a particular way that will position them to really thrive in light of God’s in-breaking kingdom. The opposite is true too. For those who might stand opposed to Jesus and his message about the kingdom, these stand as a warning as well as an invitation, will they get on board with this agenda and find themselves blessed or will they resist and find themselves cast out?

So, what is Jesus doing in the beatitudes? I am suggesting the following three things:

1. He is not speaking blessing over people
2. He is making declarations about who is best positioned to flourish in the kingdom of God
3. He is inviting others to become like these people in order that they too might experience the good life of the kingdom.

The Beatitudes and the Kingdom

It might be helpful at this point to also note how the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount relate to Jesus’ main message about the arrival of the long-awaited kingdom of God. Notice, that that just before Jesus gives the sermon on the mount, Matthew tells us that Jesus begins his public ministry with the call to the people to repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near (4:17). The kingdom of heaven, i.e the rule and reign of God, had finally arrived through Jesus and he was now explaining and teaching the people what this meant. To repent meant to realign oneself with the kingdom, to turn away from sin and towards God, and this meant things like turning the other cheek, being non-judgemental, loving your enemies, extending radical forgiveness, and submitting to Jesus as Lord. The sermon on the mount is, according to one scholar, ‘the beginners guide to the kingdom of heaven’.⁴

So, you can’t just take words like ‘blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted’, stick them on social media with a nice background and expected them to make any sense. In fact, Christianity makes for a disastrous life philosophy if it is not embedded within the story of the kingdom. To call the poor in spirit, those who mourn, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the meek, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and the persecuted blessed without the good news of the kingdom would be a cruel mockery. But, if the kingdom really has arrived, then everything we think we know needs to be re-evaluated and I have become convinced that one of the central things that Jesus is trying to do through the Beatitudes, is to teach his followers how to truly see, value, and act in the world. He is disrupting our status-quo and challenging us to question the nature of the world that we inhabit.

‘On first reading [the Sermon on the Mount] you feel that it turns everything upside down, but the second time you read it you discover that it turns everything right side up. The first time you read it you feel that it is impossible; the second time, you feel that nothing else is possible’.

G.K Chesterton

When you engage with Jesus you realise you are dealing with someone who sees things differently, who values things differently, who is playing by a completely different set of rules, and is constantly challenging people to perceive the world around them in a completely different manner. Jesus breaks into our comfortable worldviews and completely rearranges everything. To really spend time listening to what he says is to enter into a profoundly disorientating, sometimes disturbing, but beautiful reality. But, it is also to begin the journey of aligning ourselves with the true nature of reality, of moving from ignorance and deception toward the truth.

So, let me invite you on that journey, to take some time over the next few months to really lean into this value-altering, perspective shifting, and paradigm shattering world of the Beatitudes that you might find yourself among the blessed.

1. Du Toit, Revisiting, 60. ↩︎
2. Dawkins, God, 250 as cited in Dodson, Good, Chp 1. ↩︎
3. Stott, Message, 15. ↩︎
4. Levine, Sermon, xii. ↩︎