Thought for Today
Genesis 1:22 God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth."
Deuteronomy 28:3 Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field.
Matthew 5:4 "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
John 13:17 If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.
Sunday, during worship, our congregation will read Matthew 5:1-12, the passage we refer to as the Beatitudes. As Protestants, we only understand the word beatitude in terms of this one passage in Matthew. Essentially, the word indicates a state of being blessed. The word blessed appears between 29-308 times in the Bible, depending on translation. Most often, it is a translation of the Greek μακάριος which means “transcendent happiness or religious joy.” (Friberg, Analytical Greek Lexicon)
Think for a minute, what do you think it means to be blessed? We are sometimes told to “Count your blessings.” Have you ever, literally, counted your blessings? Have you made a written or mental list? What’s on your list?
If I think of the Beatitudes in the Bible, I’m pretty sure I do not want to be in the state of mind or body Jesus lists there as warranting being blessed. Take out your Bible, read Matthew 5:1-12. Do you want to be “poor in spirit . . . mourning . . . meek . . . hungering and thirsting” for anything? Our society does not much value being merciful or pure in heart. Our world is not suffering from an overabundance of peacemakers. Who would ever want to be persecuted for righteousness or reviled for your faith?
Jesus’ list there in Matthew would certainly not engender in any of us an attitude where we would “Rejoice and be glad.” And, if you’ve ever made that mental or written list of your own blessings, are any of those things on Jesus’ list on your list?
So, what’s going on? As a Christian, I’m sure Jesus was not wrong or mistaken. Maybe, just maybe, we tend to look at the Beatitudes and the state of being blessed from the wrong perspective.
As a child of God, how would you describe a state of blessedness? Protestants and Roman Catholics do have slightly different perspectives on blessedness. Protestants do not canonize saints. While we do recognize the holiness of individuals and we do acknowledge intercessory prayer, we believe that all believers are ἅγιος (hagios) or holy. That Greek word is translated as holy or as saint. It denotes, “the quality of persons or things that can be brought near or into God’s presence.” (Friberg, Analytical Greek Lexicon)
I believe that when we read the Beatitudes, we need to focus on what Jesus says about blessedness itself. When we are “poor in spirit,” we are reminded that we are heirs to “the kingdom of heaven.” When we “mourn” we are “comforted” by the presence of our Creator God.
Go through Jesus’ list and look at the reward in each instance. The Beatitudes are, in a real sense, merely a rearrangement of many of the other things we find in the Bible. They form a comforting list of the benefits of our faith.
I wonder whether Paul knew Jesus’ words when he told the Ephesians, “Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God--?” It is through our faith in Jesus, the Christ, that we access God’s comfort when we mourn. Our inheritance of the kingdom of heaven is through our faith. The mercy we receive from our Creator God is because we follow the words of God’s Son.
Long before Jesus spoke these words, Moses and the elders of Israel charged the people at Shechem prior to entering the Promised Land with another set of blessings, “Deuteronomy 28:2 all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the LORD your God: 3 Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field . . .”
Moses prefaced his list with “28:1 If you will only obey the LORD your God, by diligently observing all his commandments that I am commanding you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.”
Jesus tells us today, "Luke 10:27 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."
In obedience to God’s commandments, in loving God and each other, we are truly blessed.
Stay safe, live love, trust God,
Pastor Ray