The Beatitudes

Hey everyone!

I'm back! I just completed a week of solitude, and wow, I have a lot to share about that. But you will have to wait to hear about that. I'm still processing through it, and I'm really tired right now. But I wanted to share some stuff that I just wrote up. I'm doing an online Bible Study with some of the guys in Epic Movement. We are talking about the beatitudes. I started working on it, but I got really tired so haven't gotten completely through it. I will try to finish it, but I wanted to share what I had so far....

Matthew chapters 5-7 encompass Jesus’ entire Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5:1-12 are the known as the Beatitudes. One definition of beatitudes according to my Bible is “declarations of blessedness.” Basically, Jesus goes up to a mountain and teaches his disciples. According to a commentary I was reading, it said that it was custom for Rabbis to sit down while they taught. So in saying that Jesus went up the mountain and sat down, verse 1 indicates that Jesus was going to teach. Jesus was teaching his disciples which as Josh attributed to, didn’t necessarily mean only his twelve disciples. Disciples probably broadly meant the people who were following Him and perhaps even the crowd that had gathered. Overall the theme of this passage is that Jesus is showing his disciples what it means to be a true follower of Christ by listing specific qualities that a true disciple should possess.

I think that to the original audience, the Beatitudes were focused towards those who claimed to be followers of God and even to those who were interested in finding out how to become a disciple, or follower of Christ. In a modern context, the Beatitudes speaks directly to all those who profess to be Christians, or followers of Christ. The Beatitudes represents the qualities and way of life that true follower of Christ should possess. In one commentary I read, it states, “This message [the beatitudes] doesn’t tell one how to be saved. It explains the quality of life of the life changed by the saving grace of God.” So basically, the Beatitudes are not a formula of works for what a person must do to be saved and a have a relationship with Christ, they merely demonstrate the radical life that a true believer should have which are only possible through the grace of God. This is significant because Jesus is basically showing that all the qualities that he lists are impossible for any human on his own will to accomplish.

So in other words, on one’s own strength, one will never be able to be completely humble, righteous, meek, merciful, pure in heart, a peacemaker, etc. - more on what all these means in a little bit. But, Christ was showing the radical lives that all followers of Christ would have looked like in the past, should look like now, and need to look like in the future. Jesus is showing us that as followers of God and through God’s grace, we can have the quality and character of Christ.

God says Blessed at the beginning of each verse to indicate “happiness” on the part of the believer. But Blessed means much more than just happy – happy refers to an emotion based on an outward action. You do something, and thus you feel happy. But the “happiness” here refers to a spiritual happiness – a level of satisfaction that only comes when we learn to find satisfaction in Christ alone. I think I used to read the Beatitudes and think, “okay, so I will be happy and blessed if I do these things.” And I think that this thought process is valid, but I think that it goes even deeper than that. Christ is showing us that a truly devoted follower of Christ has completely surrendered his will to God. Because if you think about it, if we are merely striving to be humble or merciful so that we would get rewarded with happiness– wouldn’t we be missing the point? The point is not that we are working or doing some kind of action to receive blessing – if we were to work to receive blessing that would negate the whole idea of God’s grace in saving us from our sins.

I think more significantly, Christ is telling us you will be truly satisfied when you possess these qualities, and the only way that you can possess these qualities is being a true follower of Christ, and the only way you can be a true follower of Christ is by surrendering your will completely to God. What does surrendering your will completely to God look like? I think that it means we have come to a point where we completely are satisfied with having God and God alone. When we daily come to a point in our lives that we seek intimacy with God, we will possess these qualities. We don’t strive by our human actions to have these qualities in and of themselves; we strive to delight in God while at the same desiring to have His qualities. In doing so, we will begin to exhibit these characteristics.

So in essence, what I think I’m trying to say is that we don’t necessarily work on our own human endeavors to attempt to possess the qualities that Christ lists in the Beatitudes. Instead, when our sole purpose is to be a true follower of Christ, our primary desire will be to delight in God. When we delight in God and seek Him first, we will begin to look more like the character of Christ. When we have the the character of Christ as exhibited by the beatitudes, then we will be fully satisfied. We will not be fully satisfied because we have one of the traits; we will be satisfied because we delight in God and in turn he has blessed us with His character. I think Psalms 37:4 sums it up pretty nicely, “Delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Everything that is fresh, new, and from God is birthed out of intimacy or delighting in Him. When we first set our hearts on the delighting in Christ – being a lover of Christ and being His follower - then we will have the kind of blessed life that Christ explains through the beatitudes.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t attempt to be humble or peaceable or any of those things. I think that it is important to strive and ask God to make us in the mold of His qualities. But I think that when we both delight in God and seek His character, we will be blessed, or satisfied. In the end, seeking the qualities of the beatitudes should be a subset of delighting in God. If we truly love God, we will want to be more like Him. And when we are more like him, then we will experience the abundance of blessings Christ describing through the Beatitudes.

So all that to get to the question of what do all of these beatitudes mean. I think I tried to lay an overall understanding I had of the beatitudes, but now I will look at them specifically to see what they are saying. I think there is more to the beatitudes than everything I mentioned above (which I will try to get into explaining some in this next section), but those are just the overall impressions I get that Christ is instructing us in general about our Christ walk.

Well, the first one, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” I read this and I really saw it in two ways. I think that first Jesus is saying that a follower of Christ will be humble, or poor in spirit, and he/she will, in turn, have satisfaction or blessing by being given, not awarded or earned, the kingdom of heaven. I think Christ is really showing the importance of humility and how God really looks favorably on those who surrender their will and whole heartedly seek God. Isaiah 66:2 says, “But this is one to whom I will look; he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.” I think God is showing us that a key quality of every believer is humility. One must understand that we don’t deserve anything from God and that nothing we do can earn our salvation. We are broken and depraved people, but God extended His grace to us; therefore, because of this, we must be humble and contrite in recognizing the power of God in our lives and our own weakness.

On another level, I think Christ is showing the compassion that He has and what all believers should have towards the poor, or the afflicted and oppressed. In Isaiah 61:1, the prophet Isaiah states, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring the good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives…” Jesus actually quotes this passage in one of his first official appearances in the synagogue upon beginning His formal ministry, which you can find in Luke 4:18-19. Jesus was basically fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy by letting the people know that He was here to bring the message to the poor, the brokenhearted, the captives. Likewise, through this beatitude, I think Christ is showing us the compassion and love that we as Christians must exemplify in loving the poor and oppressed of our society. Loving the poor and having a heart for the oppressed is ultimately an indicator of humility. Christ had great power and strength, but He left his home in heaven to minister to and eventually die for the poor, the broken, the outcasts of society. As Christians, we were all poor, broken, and outcasts at one point, but God’s grace saved us; therefore, with humility and compassion, Christ is showing us we must likewise show love and compassion to the poor and the oppressed.

So for the next beatitude, “Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.” Mourning here refers to those who mourn on behalf of their sins and the sins of others. As Christians, we must be people who confess and bring our sins to God on an individual basis and on a corporate basis. Time after time, we see in the Bible examples of people crying out to God in repentance of their sin, and in turn, God holds back his wrath and judgment. Likewise, as followers of Christ, we must cry out and sincerely be repentant of our sins. We must also be a people who cry out to God on behalf of the sins of our generation. 2 Chronicles 7:14 says, “If my people who are called by my name, humble themselves, pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then I will hear from heaven forgive their sins and heal their land.” God is telling his people that even though they turn their backs on Him, He will forgive the people and bring them comfort from His wrath and judgment if they cry out to God on behalf of their sins as an individual and as a people.

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” This verse is taken from Psalms 37:11 which states, “But the meek will inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace.” According to a Bible dictionary I was looking in meekness “describes a person who humbly submits himself to God and is gentle in dealing with others.” I think the idea of gentleness is something significant. I remember hearing the definition of gentleness being explained as having great power and strength but not using it in wrath or anger. Basically, being gentle, and in the broader picture meekness, is having great power and strength to wipe people out or rebuke them, but restraining that power in order to show love, humility, and compassion. Moses and Jesus are very good examples of what being meek looks like. In Numbers 12:3, it states, “Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were o the face of the earth.” In the context of this passage, Moses’ brother Aaron and sister Miriam were nit-picking at Moses’ life and questioning his authority as a prophet. God responds to Aaron and Miriam by basically telling them that God usually speaks to prophets through visions and dreams, but God spoke to Moses “mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles (Numbers 12:8).” So in saying that Moses was meek, the passage is showing that Moses had great power and favor from God. Yet he did not abuse that power by lashing out back at his brothers or sisters or tormenting the people for their stubbornness. Throughout His leading of the Israelites, Moses showed himself to be gentle and loving by interceding to God on behalf of the Israelites so that God would not destroy them for their stubbornness and cold-hearts.

Similarly, in Matthew 11:29-30, Jesus says, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Here, Jesus portrays his gentleness, or meekness, in providing to use his strength to compensate for our weakness. Even in our sin and short-coming and hardships, Christ shows Himself to be willing to carry our loads and give us rest even though our actions don’t merit his gentleness. Thus, I think Jesus is saying that believers are those who are meek and gentle in showing compassion and restraining wrath, and in result, they will gain abundance and peace in inheriting the kingdom of God here on earth. Again it comes back to humility – we realize the power and the blessings we have in Christ, but instead of using that knowledge and power to persecute the church like say, Saul who used to kill Christians and torment the church, we offer the strength we have in Christ to those who are in need love and compassion.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” I really like this one because it shows that a true follower of Christ will hunger and thirst for righteousness. I think this is personal righteousness and also a hunger and thirst to see righteousness in our society. I think that Christ is showing that true followers of Christ will show an unwavering desire to personal purity and holiness. Also, they will dream and tirelessly work to seek revival in our society – breaking free from the depravity and brokenness of our society. Thus, Christ is showing that to those who hunger and thirst for Christ, God will bless them through filling them up. They will be filled not with the physical bread or water. But like the Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well in John 4, He will offer everlasting water and bread. Jesus is the bread of life, and He is our everlasting water. So, believers are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, and in return they will be filled by the one who gives and sustenance- Jesus himself – again this shows, that it’s all about intimacy.

When we desire intimacy with Christ and hunger for more of him, we will be rewarded for more of him. Psalm 42:1-2 speaks of this longing for Christ, “As the deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.” Here, David, who was known as a man after God’s own heart, desires even greater intimacy with God. Psalm 42 describes the turmoil that David faced, but even in the midst of that all, he had a fervent desire to hunger and thirst for more of God . No wonder David was considered to have a heart after God’s heart – David tirelessly pursued more of God’s presence whether in times of turmoil of joy (it says that David danced with all his might before the Lord when the ark was returned – he said that he would be even more undignified than this – 2 Samuel 6:22). So, true followers of God are satisfied and filled because they hunger and thirst after hungering and thirsting to know God’s presence and making His presence known.

I’m tired now….so I’ll try to finish up the rest of the beatitudes if I can later. So much good stuff to say. Sorry for being so long. God was just showing me a lot of cool stuff as I read and typed and stuff.

But basically, the application that I see Christ is trying to tell us this: If we are to be called true followers of Christ, we must have the character and qualities of God. These qualities cannot be worked towards or attained by the merit of man. We grow in the character of God only through His grace and His strength. We must not merely strive to have these characteristics, we must first and foremost strive to delight in God and love Him with all our heart, soul, and strength (Deuteronomy 6:5). When we delight in God and learn to love Him whole heartedly, we will naturally grow in the character of God and possess the qualities that Jesus speaks of in the beatitudes. Ultimately, I think Christ is showing us that when we are truly followers of Christ and are sold out for Him, we will truly be happy and satisfied because we realize all we need is God. Through listing the specific qualities and the subsequent promises that are attached to them, Christ is showing us that following Jesus is a radical life of joy and fulfillment – it is living a supernatural, power-filled, and abundant life.