Tag Archives: Beatitudes

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE BLESSED?

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While not original with Chick-fil-A, their network of restaurants made the phrase “Have a Blessed Day” a common expression. When we first moved to Amarillo a few years ago I was surprised that almost everywhere I went to shop or be served employees told me “Have a Blessed Day.”

What does it mean to be blessed or to “Have a Blessed Day?” I’m reminded of a song we sang in grade school that declared what “Happiness is.” The refrain of the song reminded us that happiness is “different things to different people.” My sense is that today “being blessed” and “having a blessed day” means different things to different people.

The Bible uses the word blessed many times in both the New and the Old Testaments. And when the Bible uses this word the writer or speaker is declaring that those who have and practice certain characteristics are blessed. Blessed suggests God’s favor, approval, pat on the back, or congratulations. We call these descriptions of those who are blessed beatitudes.

One of the best known uses in the Old Testament is Psalm 1:1 and 2, “Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, 2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.” To get the full explanation look up Psalm 1 and review verses 3-6.

Probably surprising to some readers, the last book of the Bible – the book of Revelation – has seven declarations about those who are blessed. One of my favorites is Revelation 14:13, Then I heard a voice from heaven say, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.”

The best known beatitudes in the Bible are the eight pronouncements Jesus made in Matthew 5:3-10 in the opening verses of the Sermon on the Mount. He underscores eight qualities or attitudes of people who are blessed. And after each pronouncement Jesus specifies the special blessing that goes with the quality or attitude.

My sense is that the first of Jesus’ beatitudes is the most misunderstood, and at the same time the most important. In Matthew 5:3 Jesus declares, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (NIV).

The quality “poor in spirit” means more than simply being poor. One misunderstanding of the phrase is to shorten it to say “poor-spirited.” But to be poor in spirit does not mean a person has no value, or that he or she is unimportant or insignificant. It isn’t to be like Eeyore who is pessimistic, gloomy, depressed, and no fun.

A couple of different translations of the quality helps us better understand what it means to be “poor in spirit.” The Good News Translation renders the first beatitude “Happy are those who know they are spiritually poor; the Kingdom of heaven belongs to them!” The New Century Version reads “They are blessed who realize their spiritual poverty, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to them.”

To be “poor in spirit” is to be aware that on our own we are not worthy of God’s love.  It is to acknowledge our spiritual poverty and therefore humbly depend on God’s mercy and grace. I hope it is obvious why I suggest this first beatitude is so important.

The specific blessing (in addition to the general blessing) of being “poor in spirit” is to be a member of the kingdom of heaven. Christians acknowledge their need for God’s gift of salvation through Jesus. The kingdom belongs to us because we belong to the kingdom.

Have a blessed day!

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THE OTHER BEATITUDES

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Most people with some knowledge of the Bible are familiar with what are called The Beatitudes. The Beatitudes are the opening statements of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 in which he lists some of the qualities and attitudes he wants his followers to cultivate and exhibit. They are called beatitudes because Jesus affirms that those who have such qualities are “blessed.”

But what does it mean to be “blessed?” In his book about the beatitudes, Max Lucado suggests it means that from heaven God applauds those with these attitudes and actions. I like to think of this usage of “blessed” as God’s favor on and congratulations to such people.

While they are the best known, Jesus’ beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount are not the only promises of being “blessed” in the Bible. What I was reminded of last week, and find especially interesting, is that there are seven beatitudes in the book of Revelation in which people are promised they are “blessed.”

There is a lot in the book of Revelation I don’t understand, and I certainly don’t understand as much as I would like about the beatitudes in the book. But I am challenged, encouraged, and affirmed by them.

You may want to go to your own Bible and read them in context, but here are the verses:

Revelation 1:3, “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it.”

Revelation 14:13, “Then I heard a voice from heaven say, ‘Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on’.”

Revelation 16:15, “Look, I come like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake and remains clothed, so as not to go naked and be shamefully exposed.”

Revelation 19:9. “Then the angel said to me, ‘Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!’ And he added, ‘These are the true words of God’.”

Revelation 20:6, “Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.”

Revelation 22:7, “Look, I am coming soon! Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy written in this scroll.”

Revelation 22:14, “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city.”

Revelation’s beatitudes are not easy to understand, but they are statements of God’s favor on certain people. If you’re like me, you too want to be one of those people. I encourage you to reflect on these verses as well as go back and read and reflect on Jesus’ beatitudes in Matthew 5:3-12.

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ARE YOU SURE THEY ARE BLESSED?

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I am currently teaching a Bible study in which we are considering Jesus’ teaching in the beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-10). In these verses Jesus pronounces blessed those who have and live out eight qualities and aspects of life.

At first reading, at least four of the characterizations Jesus affirms do not strike us as describing someone who is blessed. On the surface, not many of us would associate “the poor in spirit,” “those who mourn,” “the meek,” and “those who are persecuted because of righteousness” as blessed people.

By the way, although some suggest the word “blessed” can be translated “happy”, I think that devalues the idea of being “blessed”. The idea of “blessed” is that God congratulates those who have these qualities and that his favor is on them. Max Lucado writes about the beatitudes with a book entitled The Applause of Heaven suggesting God claps for those with these characteristics.

Out of the four that seem contradictory, the one that seems most paradoxical to me is “Blessed are those who mourn.” If we use the popular translation of blessed some use, the description reads “Happy are the sad.” “Those who mourn” are those who suffer pain and loss, who grieve, and whose hearts are broken. Jesus tells us they are blessed—and we want to ask, “Are you sure they are blessed?”

In preparing to talk about this beatitude, I was struck again as I reread something John Stott wrote in his book about the Sermon on the Mount. Commenting on this second beatitude about those who mourn, he wrote “we need to observe that the Christian life, according to Jesus, is not all joy and laughter.”

The Bible does not tell us that if we worship and love the Lord, have faith in Jesus and follow him we will live problem and pain free lives. As a matter of fact, Jesus said the opposite: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33b). In Romans 12:15 Paul instructs believers to “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.” And in the Old Testament there is a book of five chapters entitled Lamentations!

Most commentators note that when it comes to mourning there are different levels. We mourn our own sins, the sins of those around us, and the condition of the world. But we also grief our personal losses. Dealing with pain, suffering, loss, and grief is a part of life. Is there anyone reading this post who has not suffered a loss? It seems like I have had more occasions to mourn the last 10 months than usual.

Dr. David Gallagher reminds us “God never promised an easy journey, but God did promise to be with us through it all.” A little later he warns us, “A major misunderstanding we sometimes face is that grief is our enemy to be avoided. In reality, grief is a dear friend.”

We may not realize it at the time, but perhaps part of the blessing of mourning is the capacity to hurt and grieve—to know and feel sorrow. And maybe part of the blessing is having God with us in our grief, even though he doesn’t immediately take it away.

Let’s keep wrestling with Jesus’ pronouncement that those who mourn are blessed. I’m confident he’s sure we are—and I’m making progress in understanding it.

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CONGRATULATIONS!

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Most people appreciate it when others congratulate them for something they have done. And some expressions of congratulations mean more to us than others, depending upon who offers it. If it’s a coach, teacher, or someone we look up to who congratulates us we are especially pleased.

How would you like to be congratulated by God? In the opening verses of what we call the Sermon on the Mount Jesus highlights eight character qualities that describe His followers. These are not eight types of His followers, but rather eight qualities that ideally characterize every Christian. They are called the beatitudes as Jesus begins each with the pronouncement that those who have the quality are blessed. One of the best ways to think of this idea of being blessed is as a congratulations from God.

We recently went over the Beatitudes in my classes “Jesus in the Gospels” and I gave the students an assignment to write about their favorite beatitude. I thought if I asked them to do it, I could do it as well. In this post I want to share my two favorite beatitudes. (And it’s okay for me to choose two because I told them if they couldn’t narrow it down to one it was okay to write about more than one.)

My two favorites are the first and sixth: “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” and “Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God.” Out of the eight, these are the two that are most easily and most often misunderstood; and they are my favorites.

To be poor in spirit doesn’t necessarily mean to be financially or materially poor. Nor does it mean to be poor spirited in terms of being no fun, sad, or lacking in energy. To be poor in spirit is to recognize your own spiritual poverty before God and your need for His mercy and grace. To be poor in spirit is to admit that we are not worthy and cannot save ourselves, so we accept God’s gracious offer in Jesus.

To be poor in spirit is to be congratulated by God. Each beatitude not only includes God’s congratulations at the beginning, but also a specific promise at the end. Those who are poor in spirit are not only to be congratulated, they also possess the kingdom of heaven. And the reason the poor in spirit are in the kingdom is because they know their spiritual need and have had it met in Jesus.

Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in Luke 18:9-14 provides a great example of both one who was not poor in spirit and one who was. In the introduction to the parable Luke tells us Jesus directed it to “some who were confident in their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else.” Those two attitudes are certainly not characteristic of those who are poor in spirit. Take a moment and read the parable and the rich in spirit prayer of the Pharisee. And consider praying the poor in spirit prayer of the tax collector: “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

To be pure in heart is not primarily about having a pure mind or body. Nor is it about being totally free of all sin or externally following a set of rules. To be pure in heart is to be honest and sincere. (However, it does not mean you are brutally honest and uncaring.) The pure in heart are not manipulative and do not have hidden motives. There is no pretense and to be pure in heart is the opposite of being hypocritical.

To be pure in heart is to be congratulated by God. And not only that, the specific promise to the pure in heart is that they will see God. That is, of course, a promise to see God in the hereafter; but I think it also means our pure hearts will help see God and His working in this life.

From time to time I hear someone describe someone else with the description “With this person what you see is what you get.” That phrase suggests to me basically what this quality of being pure in heart is.

Hopefully you and I are growing in and exhibiting these two qualities of being poor in spirit and pure in heart. If we are it is not for me to congratulate any of us, but I think we can be encouraged to know that God congratulates us.

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