The Beatitudes

When we were living and working in inner city Liverpool (Toxteth, during the riots of the early 80s), our GP was a committed Marxist, who had plastered over his surgery walls pictures of significant revolutionaries. I expressed my surprise once that Jesus Christ was there, alongside Che Guevara and Lenin and Trotsky.  He waxed eloquent about how radical and politically astute the Sermon on the Mount was - but added how tragic that no Christian understood it properly! 

Many have thought that the Sermon on the Mount is to be applied to ALL people, irrespective of their faith. But this is clearly mistaken: look at how it starts, “His disciples gathered round him, and he began to teach them…” (5:1,2) and look how it ends with the account of the wise and foolish man, whose life came crashing down, or not, depending on whether he had obeyed the words of Christ. No, the Sermon is for Christ’s followers - how could it be otherwise? None of us can love our enemy and turn the other cheek (a backhander, literally), unless there is Another who lives in us by his Spirit, who has all the virtues of the godly life. He alone gives us the power and resources to live like Christ. The Sermon is addressed to those already in relationship with Christ.

Some more words of introduction. You will remember the much loved verses from Psalm 121, “I look to the mountains, where will my help come from? My help will come from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” (1,2) We forget that the mountains were the place where the bandits dwelled, those outcast from society, the brigands, the robbers and muggers. So the Psalmist in travelling to Jerusalem has to pass through the mountain region - there is danger on every hand - he is looking up at the mountains, imagining all kinds of threat. Where will he find help? Certainly not from there. God, his Creator, will come to his aid. Very well then, here is Jesus the Son of God, and he deliberately goes up the mountain, to the place of outcasts, to the place of danger and threat, and he speaks of a new way of living, a new lifestyle. Here is the Prophet like unto Moses who speaks from God the very words of God. Jesus is taking back territory, as it were, and he is announcing a new revolution, one in which those who follow him will be as different from the culturally norm as if they were like outcasts (good bandits, if you like). Radically different. We can forget through over-familiarity just how counter cultural and surprisingly challenging of the status quo this Sermon is.

We need to examine the word “blessed” or “happy” (as the GNB has it) - from which the word “Beatitudes” is derived. Those of a certain age may remember Archbishop Makarios of Cyprus - a stern looking shovel of a man, whose face belied his name: for ‘makarios’ means ‘happy’ - and a more miserable looking man would be hard to find. Cyprus in ages past was known as ‘the happy isle’, (‘ha makaria’ in Greek) because it was believed that its climate, its food, its scenery, its fauna and flora, its fertility, its joy,  its people were ideal representations of what it is to be happy - it couldn’t be improved on.

The trouble with translating ‘makarios’ as ‘happy’ (as accurate as that is) is that our word ‘happiness’ depends on circumstances. (Indeed, Americans have a word, ‘happenstance’ - which makes the point exactly.) Happiness is contingent on other factors - whether we are well or poorly, whether the sun shines or not, whether we have bills to pay and money wherewithal to do so, - happiness is full of ‘perhapses’. But that’s not the force of what Jesus meant. 

In the Aramaic that Jesus spoke there is no verb. He is using a favourite Aramaic (and Hebrew) expression: something like, “oh the bliss of, oh the joy of…!”  You see, the Beatitudes are NOT pious wishes of what might be; but rather descriptions of what is. The blessedness of the Christ follower is not postponed to some future date - no, it is real now, it is enjoyed now. Jesus is saying of his disciples, ‘oh, the joyous advantage that you have! oh, the sheer glorious bliss, the God-enriching, God-blessing, God-enabling, God-possessing, God-filling qualities of those who follow me!’ The world has its joys, sure - but they can equally and quickly be taken away. Not so the blessedness of the Christ-followers: theirs is a permanent bliss that nothing in the world, neither life nor death, can rob them of. The Beatitudes are triumphant shouts of how God describes his followers.

A vital point now to grasp. The Beatitudes are declarations of God’s grace, and are not to be regarded as REWARDS for being poor in spirit, mournful, hungry, meek etc. So many translations and interpretations want there to be a link between the blessing and the reward - do one and you will get the other. But there is something before that: God blesses because he blesses, and all that we have to commend ourselves is our need of blessing.

There are 8:  verses 11 and 12 are more properly commentary on the last Beatitude of verse 10. They divide neatly into two groups of four: 1) verses 3-6; and 2) verses 7-10. The first grouping deals with our relationship with God primarily; and the second our relationship with our fellow human beings. There is a pattern of each building on the one that has gone before. And as such, it is like a blueprint of renewal - and there have been lovely moves of the Spirit recorded for us in Church history which all started from a profound and involved meditation on these 8 qualities. May the Lord of all grace lead us into a deeper experience of his life and love for us as we study them!

1: “Happy are those who know they are spiritually poor; the Kingdom of heaven belongs to them.” (RSV: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”)

Here is God’s declaration  - and right from the beginning, it’s not what you might expect. Jesus exclaims, ‘oh the bliss of those who know themselves to be spiritually bankrupt! oh the bliss of those who are spiritually useless, spiritually rubbish!’ WHAT?!?! 

He uses a strong word to describe poverty of spirit. There are two Greek words used to describe poverty The one means that you have nothing superfluous; you work with your own hands to supply your living, and at the end of the month you have survived, but there’s nothing to put by. The second word (‘ptochos’) is worse: it means you are absolutely derelict and destitute; you have nothing at all, absolutely zero to live on, no resources at all. The poverty you know has brought you to a place of utter devastation, and there you are cowering and defeated, your face to the dust and grime, completely helpless. And that’s the word that Jesus uses here. 

‘Blessed are the spiritual zeroes, the spiritually bankrupt and deficient, blessed are the spiritual beggars who have nothing - no religion, no prayer life worth commending, no piety, nothing to commend them.’

You see, all of us lack wisdom, all of us lack spiritual discernment, none of us is good, none of us is strong. Jesus reserves judgement for those who don’t see this: “you say, ‘I am rich and well off, I have all I need’. But you do not know how miserable and pitiful you are! You are poor, naked and blind.” (Revelation 3:17)

Do you sense your own unworthiness? Do you sense you are disqualified from the kingdom? If you do - ah you are blessed indeed, for you can only throw yourselves into God’s hands - and when in this utter state of hopelessness and helplessness God’s kingdom, God’s right to rule over all sin, sickness, demons, death, disaster, and disunity draws near, and you find yourself in the realm of God’s life-giving blessing. 

2. “Happy are those who mourn; God will comfort them.” (RSV: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”)

Again, Jesus uses a strong word for ‘mourn’. There are many ways of mourning: you can be restrained and quiet; tears can silently flow down your cheeks; you can feel numb. Here, the word means, ‘an utter anguish of the soul’. It is the kind of grief that grabs you and grips you and won’t let go. It’s a grief that all can see - tears are unconstrained, your heart is held in the vice of tormenting distress - you have lost the light of your life. Blessed are those who are shattered over their sins.

So what are the blessed mourning over?

1. Surely first their sins. They see with eyes opened as if for the first time, how wretched their sins have made them. Their consciences accuse them. They have come to see the truth of God’s word: “There is no one who is righteous, no one who is wise or who worships God. All have turned away from God; they have all gone wrong; no one does what is right, not even one.” (Romans 3:10-12) Suddenly the blessed see that BUT FOR GOD’S GRACE, BUT FOR HIS SAVING INTERVENTION, they are strangers to God’s promises, having no share in what he wants. And with renewed force, the blessed remember that the first words of Jesus were “REPENT and BELIEVE” (Mark 1:14 & 15). And the blessed mourn over what sin does to the spotless Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He /she looks at the cross - “the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me” - and feels the pain of his/her sins that pinned the Christ down. Cranmer has it best in his 1662 Holy Communion service: “We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sin and wickedness.” Was Paul wrong to say, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24) And as Hebrews 9:22 says, “sins are forgiven only if blood is poured out.”

2. Then surely the sins of others. Paul was provoked in his spirit when he saw all the false gods that were being worshipped in Athens; Lot hated the immorality of those he lived amongst. Righteousness exalts a nation but sin is a disgrace. We mourn over the sins of others not because we are superior (the first beatitude puts paid to that!), not because we are judgemental, not because we have a prurient interest in the misery of others, but because we see folk as trapped, as held captive, ‘fast bound in sin and nature’s night’ - and we know that there is no eternal hope for them, except in the great good news of the saving grace of God in Christ. As Psalm 119:136 says, “My eyes shed streams of tears because men do not keep thy law.”

3. And we mourn over the suffering of others: the lost, the least, the last, the little and the dead; the unloved, who know nothing of God’s everlasting love; the sick, the afflicted, the dying and the desperate; the homeless and the forgotten; the abused and the aborted; the victims of war and famine and refugees - the list is endless.

But to such, God brings comfort: first the comfort of knowing our sins forgiven - “ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven/who like me his praise should sing?” The sheer brilliance of being made accepted in the Beloved; the joyous assurance of knowing that we have eternal life NOW in Jesus Christ, and that nothing can separate us from his love, not even death. “Loved by everlasting love led by grace that love to know.”

And then there’s the strong comfort that to our wounds only God’s wounds can speak - that Jesus, whose name is Emmanuel (God with us, God alongside us, God in us, quick to rescue and save and heal), is afflicted with all our afflictions, that he is not remote or distant from any one of us going through it. Here is peace like none other. Here is comfort indeed. The Comforter is the Holy Spirit whom Jesus sends, and in his reassuring presence we are consoled.

3. “Happy are those who are humble; they will receive what God has promised.” (RSV: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”)

I suppose nowhere in the Beatitudes is the contrast greater with what Jesus calls blessed and what the world regards highly than this attitude of ‘meekness’. To the world, ‘meekness’ is to be weak; it is to be subservient, ineffective; it is to be inadequate. The world says, ‘go on, just do it, get ahead, put yourself first, be proud, get out there and win - don’t be so pathetic - it’s a dog eat dog world out there, and survival is to the fittest!’ To be humble is to be like Uriah Heep in David Copperfield, for ever wringing your hands in fake sincerity and oily fake support.

The word Jesus uses means ‘gentle, humble, courteous, and considerate.’ Surely the meekness that Jesus is talking about follows on quite logically from the previous two beatitudes - being meek towards others begins with a proper humility towards oneself - being spiritually destitute and broken about one’s sins. Meekness is essentially a true attitude to oneself, in which one agrees with God. The man/woman who is meek is the one who is truly amazed that God and others can think of them as well as they do and treat them as well as they do. Here is humility: not to believe your own self-publicity, nor the praise of others. If we all lived before an audience of One, trusting him to vindicate or clear us in his way, and allowing him to correct us, we can relax.

To be blessed in this way is to know your own ignorance, your own weakness and your own need. You see, you can’t lead others, until you can lead yourself. A meek person does not seek his/her own rights; does not become offended and and hurt when wronged; doesn’t defend him/herself; doesn’t take revenge; and doesn’t seek own will.

The meek are blessed with the earth - as Psalm 37:11 says, “The meek shall possess the land and delight themselves in abundant prosperity.” Paul said it beautifully in 2 Corinthians 6:10, “although saddened, we are always glad; we seem poor, but we make many people rich; we seem to have nothing, yet we really possess everything.” And in 1 Corinthians 3:22,23, the same idea is expressed: “this world, life and death, the present and the future - all these are yours, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.”

4. “Happy are those whose greatest desire is to do what God requires; God will satisfy them fully!” (RSV: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”)

Not surprising to hear, Jesus continues the theme of the most intense interpretation of the words used. Here is no hunger which can be satisfied with a chocolate bar, or a thirst that can be quenched with a glass of cool water. Jesus is talking about a hunger - the depths of which indicate that the sufferer is starving. Jesus is talking about a thirst - the depths of which indicate that the sufferer will die unless he drinks. How much do I want righteousness? Do I want it as much as a starving man needs food, or as much as a man dying of thirst wants drink? That dry itch at the back of the throat is the beginning of a problem, which if not sorted will inevitably lead to death; so with the gnawing ache in the pit of the stomach. Have you, have I ever been that desperate for spiritual life and God’s presence? If not, then surely here is one reason why we don’t enjoy the Spirit filling us as much as he wants.

The Bible speaks of righteousness (doing what God requires as the GNB has it) in three ways:

1. Legal righteousness or JUSTIFICATION, meaning being in right relationship with God

2. Moral righteousness or INWARD CONFORMITY to the character of God

3. Social righteousness or SOCIAL JUSTICE and INTEGRITY.

These are what we are to hunger after: being in the right with God, being made like him in our character, and being so like him we want to see his just and gentle rule established in the world, in our local communities, in all with whom we live.  You see, pursue these, refuse to be put off in your pursuit of them, never have your enthusiasm for these curbed, offer all that you have and all that you are, wager everything on this one glorious fact: one day the whole earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the Atlantic is wet! As Martin Luther said, (typically), “If you cannot make the world completely pious, then do what you can.”

There is no greater secret to growth and progress in the Christian life than this hunger and thirst for more. Just as a sick child who has no appetite indicates the presence of an illness, so a Church, so a Christian who does not desire MORE of God, MORE of his Spirit, MORE revelation from God’s Word, MORE enjoyment of God’s near and dear presence is sick.  Is your appetite after the things of God jaded?

Oh the bliss of those who pursue God with all their hearts, minds, souls and wills - they shall be filled.

Yet, to be truthful, our spiritual hunger is never fully satisfied until we see our Lord and Saviour face to face and become like him. Even then, I have a feeling that he will increase our capacity for knowing him, and we shall never come to an end of the Fascination, and there will be no dulling of the Delight, in the Mercy, made for Mercy, Always Under the Mercy.

Conclusion

I hope you see there is a progression in each of these first four beatitudes: you begin, acknowledging your total dependency on God, realising you have nothing to bring to his table; then, that causes you much sorrow over your own heart and its deceptions and you grieve over the sins and pains of others; you now see that your spiritual poverty and brokenness leaves you nowhere but in the dust (of the earth, humus, humble) and you want to be gentle to all who struggle for you are of their number; and in a glorious realisation you see there is no point in confessing your sin and weakness if you just leave it at that - no, you want more - more conformity to what God wants in all its rich and wide application, and so you cry out to God to satisfy your longings after him.