MATTHEW 5:3-10
MY FATHER, in his lyrical Irish brogue, ends many conversations with a gracious, “God bless.” I sometimes finish a letter or an e-mail with one simple, all encompassing, religious yet inoffensive word, “blessings.” Many people, Christians and non-Christians alike, invoke God’s blessing after someone sneezes—“God bless you.” Moreover, politicians often close important political speeches with the benediction, “God bless you. God bless the United States of America.”
But what does it mean to be blessed? What does it mean to be blessed by God? Does it mean good health—I hope that sneeze, by divine intervention, doesn’t turn into something worse? Does it mean much wealth—I hope God prospers you and this country economically, bringing security and comfort? It can mean those things. Health and wealth can be great blessings from God. The Wisdom Literature of the Bible, especially Proverbs, speaks of such blessings. The Prophets also add their voices, as they predicted that when God’s kingdom finally arrived there would be a reign of peace and plenty (see Isaiah 65:16-25; Haggai 2:6-9). What is Jesus doing in 4:17-25, right before the Sermon on the Mount? He is “proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom,” and he is “healing every disease and every affliction among the people” (4:23). Jesus is teaching about God’s kingdom and showing via healing that it was at hand.
If you lived back then, heard this message, and saw such healings (or were healed), wouldn’t you do what the crowd did in 4:25? You would crowd around Jesus, wondering, What’s he going to do next? What’s he going to say next?
Well, what does he say? He talks about blessing. But he doesn’t say what they likely thought he would say. Instead he says what seems like one contradiction after another.
Blessed are the poor in spirit.
Blessed are those who mourn.
Blessed are the meek.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
Blessed are those who are persecuted.
According to Jesus, who is “blessed”? Is it the courageous, the wise, the temperate, or the just? No. How about the agreeable, the funny, the intelligent, the attractive, the sensitive, and the fit? No. According to Jesus, the one who is poor, sad, lowly, hungry, and mistreated is blessed.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the strange world and wisdom of Jesus. Welcome to Jesus’ narrow-gate theology, teaching that separates the “crowds” who want health and wealth in the here and now and the “disciples” who are willing to deny themselves, pick up their crosses, and follow Jesus (cp. 5:1). Welcome not to “the few, the proud, the Marines,” but “the few, the humble, the followers of Jesus.” Welcome to what it means to be a “blessed” disciple of Jesus Christ.
A Broken Blessedness
In the last chapter we asked, what’s the Sermon on the Mount all about? Our answer was, Jesus! It’s about Jesus, his authority, and why we should submit to him. In this chapter we ask, what are the Beatitudes all about? Our answer is threefold, the first of which is: the Beatitudes are about a broken blessedness.
In 1888 Friedrich Nietzsche wrote a very anti-Christian book quite creatively titled The Anti-Christ.
In it he asks and answers questions such as this:
Question: “What is more harmful than any vice?”
Answer: “Active sympathy for the ill-constituted and weak—Christianity.”
Nietzsche defined good as “all that heightens the feeling of power, the will to power, power itself in man,” and he defined bad as “all that proceeds from weakness.” As wrong as this philosopher was about what constitutes good and bad, he was right about the unique feature of Jesus Christ and his teachings. What the first four beatitudes have in common is that they all point out our spiritual weakness.
Jesus teaches that you know that God’s blessing is upon you if you are poor in spirit,” that is, if you acknowledge your “spiritual bankruptcy,” as DA Carson summarizes. Put differently, you are poor in spirit if you know there is nothing in you—not family ties, respect in the community, occupation, or so-called “good” works or personal “holiness”—that is valuable enough to commend you to God. Put illustratively, you are blessed when you see you’re just a beggar coming to the door of the kingdom without anything to give to get you in, and so you are pounding on the door, appealing to the King, “O Lord, let me in; O Lord, give me what is needed for entrance—your grace and mercy.”
Tied to poverty of spirit, Jesus next announces the emotional counterpart to that first beatitude—“Blessed are those who mourn” (5:4a). Here Jesus does not mean merely mourning over the losses of this life (e.g., a job or a spouse), but also mourning over your own sins, the sins of others, and the sins that pervade our world. We are to grieve over various injustices, but also indifference to the gospel (cp. Psalm 119:36; Romans 9:1-3; 2 Corinthians 12:21 ).
Jesus teaches that you know you are blessed if you are “poor in spirit,” if you “mourn” over sin, and if you are “meek,” a disposition that naturally follows the first two. For if you understand and feel your need for God, you will not be bold, brash, and self-assertive. You wouldn’t be a macho man but a meek man, which is not someone who says, “Walk all over me,” but rather “Let me walk a mile or two for you.” Meekness describes someone who is gentle, humble, unassuming, and willing to serve.
How blessed it is to be poor in spirit, to mourn, to be meek, and fourthly to “hunger and thirst for righteousness,” a righteousness that comes through faith alone in Christ alone (justification) through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives (sanctification), knowing you are unholy.
So how “blessed” are you? I can tell how truly blessed you are based on your attitude toward yourself. Do you believe what Jesus teaches here or have you believed the most prevailing lie of our times—express yourself, believe in yourself, realize the powers that are innate in yourself, be self-confident, self-reliant, self-assured? Be like God. Reach out, take, and eat the fruit of that forbidden tree!
Jesus once told a parable that I think perfectly visualizes these first four beatitudes.
Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: “God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.” But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (Luke 18:10-13)
What is the moral of that story? Why did Jesus tell it? Luke says that he told it because there were some “who trusted in themselves that they were righteous” (Luke 18:9a). The point of that parable is the same point as in these first four beatitudes: no one gets into the kingdom of heaven unless one recognizes his need for God. No one squeezes through the eye of the needle unless she gives up all the baggage that fattens and weighs down her soul—whether it’s possessions or pride, self-love or self-righteousness.
A Future Blessedness
Second, the Beatitudes are about a future blessedness.
Notice the structure here. There are eight beatitudes. Some claim there are only seven, since seven is the perfect number. Others claim there are nine because verse 11 also starts with another “blessed.” I think verses 11,12 are both a continuation of the last beatitude and the start of a new section. I say this because Jesus changes his grammar. In verses 3-10 he says, “Blessed are those,” but in verse 11 he says, “Blessed are you.” This grammatical shift supports viewing these eight beatitudes as a unit, followed by a series of teachings in the second-person plural.
In addition, the first and the eighth beatitudes (and only these) end the same way: “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (vv. 3, 10). Now, despite what a former President said about this word’s complexities, “is” means “is.” Whoever is poor in spirit and whoever is persecuted for righteousness’ sake is (right now) part of the kingdom of heaven.
So there is this “is-ness” to the Beatitudes. We are presently part of the kingdom.” However, the stress falls on the future, which is made clear in the second halves of verses 4-9. Notice the repetition of “they shall”—they shall be comforted, they shall inherit, they shall be satisfied, they shall see God, they shall be called sons of God. For believers parts of these promises are true in the here and now. We have some grasp that we are sons and daughters of God, some comfort over the forgiveness of our sins, some sense of satisfaction that comes from living holy lives, and some vision of God. But we have not yet inherited the earth or actually seen God or, as verse 12 puts it, experienced our reward “in heaven” (not a heavenly reward, but a reward “in heaven”). So there is an already/not yet component to the Beatitudes, but the emphasis falls on the not yet. It falls on the future. Such an emphasis, I think, is a real challenge to us.
Have you ever heard the term delayed gratification? I’m sure most of us have. Yet I cannot think of a concept more foreign to our culture and, sadly, more and more foreign to the Ecclesia. “I want it now!” That is how most people talk and think.
“I don’t want to work for my retirement; I’ll take a huge pension now.” Okay, you have it. “I only make $3,000 a year, but I want a half a million dollar house now.” Okay, you have it. “I hate eating healthy food. I just want to eat jellybeans all day.” Okay, you have it. “I want complete sexual freedom to be with whomever, whenever, however; no strings attached, no marriage bed.” Okay, you have it.
Do I exaggerate?—only slightly.
Henry David Thoreau, the famous transcendentalist, best known for his works Walden and Civil Disobedience, supposedly had the following discussion with his aunt on his deathbed.
Aunt: Have you made your peace with your God?
Thoreau: I never quarreled with my God.
Aunt: But aren 't you concerned about the next world?
Thoreau: One world at a time.
One world at a time; I want it now—those are our slogans, aren’t they? They’d win a political campaign, attract a following, and even grow a church. Do you want the perfect marriage, perfect kids, perfect health, perfect spirituality, all right now ? Come to our church. We guarantee immediate satisfaction or your money back.
Christian, do you believe in delayed gratification? Do you hold out in faith for the promises of God? Do you join in Paul’s elation for the future, longing for that “crown of righteousness” that is laid up for you, “which the Lord... will award” to you on the Day of Judgment (2 Timothy 4:8)? Can you say with the apostle, in his radical heavenly-mindedness, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21)? Death is gain because only Heaven (as Paul talks about it in Philippians) and the new heaven (as John talks about it in Revelation; cp. 1 John 3:2) offers full comfort and satisfaction and salvation and sonship and inheritance.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth [for theirs is the kingdom of heaven; for they shall inherit the earth],... And I saw the... new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people [for they shall be called sons of God], and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore [for they shall be comforted], for the former things have passed away... No longer will there be anything accursed [for they shall receive mercy], but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him [for they shall be satisfied]. They will see his face [for they shall see God]... (Revelation 21:1a, 2-4; 22:3, 4a)
A Selfless Blessedness
Third, the Beatitudes are about a selfless blessedness. What I mean is this: the Beatitudes do appeal to us because they promise real rewards both now and in the future. However, none of them focus on self. There is no “Blessed are those who look out for number one.” Rather, each beatitude focuses either on God, others, or a combination of both.
The first four beatitudes (vv. 3-6) basically say, “Blessed is the one who thinks little of himself or thinks enough of himself that he knows he shouldn’t think much of himself. Blessed are those who know they are spiritually poor and thus are meek before God and others. Blessed are those who know their sins, mourn over them, and long for a time when they won’t be weighed down by them.”
Those are the first four beatitudes, what one scholar calls “beatitudes of need.” We need God. The last four beatitudes are “beatitudes of action,” actions that are pleasing to God because they are lovingly helpful to others (cp. 7:12).
Self-denial! That is what we find in verses 7-10. Take a fresh look: “blessed are the merciful,” that is, those who forgive others their trespasses as theirs have already been forgiven by God. “Blessed are the pure in heart,” that is, those who aren’t motivated by self-love or man’s approval (cp. 6: 1ff), but those who serve God and others with an undivided heart. “Blessed are the peacemakers,” that is, those who bring reconciliation between this person and that one, or between this nation and that one, or most importantly, between God and man through the gospel of peace. Finally, “blessed are those who are persecuted,” that is, those who are reviled and rejected for preaching true peace and living the way of peace, which is the cross (see Colossians 1:19, Romans 5:1, 10). A selfless blessedness!
I know this is contrary to the way we are wired, but not necessarily to our own experience. Have you ever selflessly helped somebody? Let’s say you saw someone stranded by the side of the road. You stopped and helped. How did you feel? Depressed? No. Upset? No. Blessed? Yes! God has actually designed us to find fulfillment and blessing when and only when we stop living for self—only when we stop hungering and thirsting for wealth, position, status, fame, or whatever else our world thinks matters most.
The Embodiment of the Beatitudes
A broken blessedness, a future blessedness, a selfless blessedness—that’s what the Beatitudes are all about!
Let me end with a simple question with a very obvious answer, but perhaps a question and answer you have never thought about before: can you think of anyone you know who has perfectly embodied these beatitudes? Well, you might say, every Christian I know—to some extent or another embodies these beatitudes. Yes, that’s true. But it’s true only to an extent, which we all know. We all know that only Jesus embodies the Beatitudes perfectly! Right?
Jesus was poor in spirit, though not the same way we are (due to our sin). But he did, daily depend on God the Father for everything. That’s why he prayed. That’s why he did and said nothing that was not in accordance with the Father’s will. That’s why in greatest humility he was crucified. And Jesus mourned, didn’t he? He mourned not over his own sin, for he had none, but over our sin—the sins of the world. He wept over Jerusalem and her rejection of the good news. And wasn’t our Lord the mightiest but also the meekest man, who offered a gentle yoke to all who would call him “Lord”? And didn’t he hunger and thirst for God’s righteous rule to come, which is why, on the one hand, he overturned the tables and, on the other hand, received sinners in table fellowship? And didn’t he show mercy in healing and feeding the multitudes and in forgiving sins? And who was more pure in heart, undivided in his commitment to God’s will? And wasn’t (and isn’t) Jesus the ultimate peacemaker as he brought peace through his own outstretched arms—peace between Jew and Gentile, peace between God and man? And finally, who better embodied the last beatitude? From the moment of his first breath to his last, more than any figure in human history, Jesus was persecuted for righteousness’ sake.
Jesus embodied this broken blessedness!
And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe... and led him away to crucify him. (27:28-31)
Jesus embodied this future blessedness.
Consider him [Jesus] who endured from sinners such hostility against himself... looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross... and is [now] seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:3, 2)
And Jesus embodied this selfless blessedness.
...though he was in the form of God, [he] did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant... And... he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:6-8).
I don’t mean to put down other world religions or people’s faith in other gods, but seriously, who is like Jesus, and what is like Christianity? We serve a Lord who does not ask his followers to follow any road he himself has not traveled, a Lord who selflessly gives all who would believe in him a future, the blessings of the kingdom of heaven.
(R. Kent Hughes. and Douglas Sean O'Donnell., 2013; edited Carl Hinton., 2020)