[Sunday 3.5.2023 | message recap]

What do you think consists of a blessed life? Maybe it’s a certain picture of comfort, the fulfillment of a dream you’re striving for right now, or a standard of social life and activity. But what Jesus calls a blessed life is quite different from what we’d expect: the poor in spirit, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness… those who are persecuted??

Before we get into it, though, let’s get one thing straight: this blessed life Jesus speaks about in his Sermon on the Mount means the good life; one of flourishing and thriving.

And as the architect of this confusing maze we know as life, what Jesus says about having a thriving and flourishing life is what we need to pay attention to. Because let’s face it, we all need help when it comes to figuring out life — even the most put together of us.

The Beatitudes are countercultural

There’s worldly wisdom that counters each beatitude. For example, an opposite for “blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God” would be “blessed are those who are rich so they don’t need to worry about anything.” Yet in these beatitudes is the recipe for a flourishing and thriving life.

The progression

Turns out, the beatitudes aren’t just a random, arbitrary list of rules we need to abide by! There’s actually a progression to this list. It goes like this:

It’s only when we recognize the brokenness in ourselves (poor in spirit v3), which then naturally leads to the heartbreaking realization that actually other people, and therefore all of humanity, is broken (mourning v4). So then we see it’s beneficial to not seek after our own desires but be tamed by the one who ought to tame us as our creator, God (meekness v3). And as we do so, our hunger and thirst for righteousness (i.e., to be in right relationship with God v6) will increase. As we know God more, we realize what a mercy it is to be in relationship with God, so if we have received such a mercy, how could we not be merciful to others (v7)? Though we see that our hearts are split, desiring many things, what little step we can do now, we can trust that over time God will give us a new, pure heart (v8). So then with all of this internal change, we can go out and be peacemakers and Christ ambassadors where we should expect to be persecuted (v 9-11) as these beatitudes are so counterintuitive and countercultural.

And it’s these words that encapsulate a good, flourishing, and thriving life.

The exhortation

One thing to remember is that this life of flourishing does not begin with a pure or virtuous person. In fact, as Christians, we an go back to the first beatitude over and over again until one day when we are in heaven where there is no mo mourning. We can indeed rejoice and be glad that are reward is great in heaven (v12)!

Blessed indeed.