Blessed are you

Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them, saying: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you" (Matthew 5:1-12).

A beatitude is the announcing of a blessing. The phrase "blessed are those" is a beatitude. Beatitudes are found many places in the Bible, but more are found together here on the lips of Jesus than anywhere else in Scripture. That is why this collection of blessings is called the Beatitudes.

Over the years, many people have understood the Beatitudes as a rulebook for life. According to them, Jesus used the Beatitudes to teach His disciples how Christians should live. Such people say that these should be our attitude—our 'be-attitudes'. But there is more to the Beatitudes than just rules for living. The Beatitudes not only describe what a Christian does, they also describe who a Christian is. Understood properly, the Beatitudes show every disciple of Christ what a Christian life looks like.

The first four Beatitudes are about our relationship with God. The first Beatitude sets up all the rest: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." The poor in spirit are those people who know what God expects from them--and tremble in fear. The poor in spirit know that God says in Leviticus 11:45, "be holy, because I am holy." To be holy is to be absolutely perfect. To be holy is to live life from cradle to grave without one single selfish thought or one single cross word. To be holy is to live life in complete service to God, using every opportunity to study His Word, sing His praises, and tell others about His love. To be holy is to be without sin. Those who are poor in spirit are those who know all this, and are honest with themselves—they are not holy. They know that Saint Paul included them when he wrote, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Knowing this, they tremble; they tremble because God will not accept unholy things into heaven. Unholy things rightfully belong in hell.

But Jesus pronounces a blessing on those who are poor in spirit. Those who have nothing, no way to please God or earn a place in heaven, those people have been given faith in Jesus. They have been given faith that their sins are forgiven because of Jesus’ death in our place for our sins. They believe that Jesus rose from the dead so that He can bring His followers into heaven. The poor in spirit don’t reject these blessings—they are grateful for them! The poor in spirit know that they need God--and this pleases God, who said in Isaiah 66:2, "This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word." The person who knows that he needs Jesus is blessed because Jesus gives him membership in the Kingdom of Heaven. Who are the poor in spirit? You and me. And because we know that we need God to find peace on earth and joy in heaven, we ask Jesus to forgive us our unholiness, knowing that He will. We are members of the Kingdom of Heaven—we are blessed.

Jesus next says, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." To understand this properly, we must remember what causes mourning. All mourning is caused by sin. Sin brought sickness and decay and death into the world. Jesus announces blessing for those who mourn. God is pleased when we see sin for what it is—the bringer of death and destruction. God doesn’t want us to enjoy our sins or the sins of others; He wants us to hate those sins as He hates them. The psalmist wrote, "Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed" (Psalm 119:136). David said, "Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge" (Psalm 51:4). When we mourn our sin and the sin that burdens our friends and neighbors, we are blessed. We are blessed with God’s promise that sin will be ended once and for all on the Last Day, when "God will wipe away every tear from [His servants’] eyes" (Revelation 7:17). Jesus blesses us with the hope of a sinless world to come, so that we can endure the sins of this one while we live. He also blesses us with His offer of help in Matthew chapter 11: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Truly, those who mourn sin receive blessings from God.

"Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth." Meekness is not found in the proud. People who are proud believe that they don’t need anyone’s help. Prideful people don’t want to receive advice on life, they want to give it. Prideful people don’t want to follow, they want to lead. It is the meek who are humble. It is the meek who know that they are so corrupted by sin that they have no business trying to tell others how they should live. It is the meek who know that sin makes their every decision suspect, and so they ask God to lead them through their lives. The meek trust in God for everything, and Jesus promises them a blessing: "they will inherit the earth." In Isaiah 66:22, God speaks of a new, eternal earth that will replace this sinful dying one: "the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me," declares the LORD. This is the world the meek will inherit, as we read in Psalm 37: "For evil men will be cut off, but those who hope in the LORD will inherit the land. A little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look for them, they will not be found. But the meek will inherit the land and enjoy great peace." Those with pride do not want to submit to God and follow Him; we, who meekly trust and follow Jesus, will not be sharing everlasting life with those who reject our God.

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." We get hungry and thirsty many times every day. We can ignore our hunger and thirst when we think we are too busy to eat or get a drink, but if we ignore our body’s needs for too long our body begins to die. It is the same with spiritual nourishment. David said, "O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you in a dry and weary land where there is no water" (Psalm 63:1). Our souls hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness many times every day. When we are faced with any kind of decision, our souls need God’s wisdom and courage to do that which pleases God. If we ignore our hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness, the sin in us grows bolder and we begin to choose sins’ way instead of God’s way with ever-increasing frequency. Without the nourishment of hearing and studying God’s Word on a regular basis, our souls weaken and can eventually lose the spark of life that only Jesus can provide. That is why Jesus blesses those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. God fills those who want Jesus to live in their hearts and work through their hands. God gives us the desire and strength to do things that please Him. He gives us these blessings through the reading of the Scriptures, through sermons, through Bible study, and through Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. When we ask God to nourish our souls, He blesses us with more opportunities to grow than we can ever take full advantage of.

At this point in the Beatitudes, Jesus now begins to address our relationships with our fellow man. These Beatitudes are not Law commands that we must carry out to get into heaven; these Beatitudes show us how we can relate to each other when God is in control of our lives. Jesus says, "Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy." This recalls to our minds the Lord’s Prayer where Jesus instructs us to pray, "and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us" (Matthew 6:12). God does put a condition on the mercy He will show to us on Judgment Day—we must be willing to forgive others, to show mercy to them. Further on in Matthew Jesus says plainly, "For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins." We must remember that, left on our own, this would be impossible. But when Jesus lives in our hearts we can forgive other people for their sins against us. When we are poor in spirit, we are meek, because we know that the only good in us is Jesus. We know that without Jesus, we are no better than any other sinner. Rather than hate another sinner and hold a grudge, Jesus helps us to say, "there but for the grace of God go I."

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God." By nature, our hearts are not pure. Jesus says, "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man unclean" (Matthew 15:19-20). The unclean heart is the source of every sin we commit against God and one another. There is nothing that we can do to change the nature of our hearts. But when we realize that we are poor in spirit and begin to hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness, Jesus comes to live in our hearts. As long as He lives in us through faith, Jesus is constantly forgiving our sins and purifying our hearts, a process that will continue until the day that we die and are finally freed from the cancer of sin that infects our flesh. And because Jesus lives in us forgiving our sins, God the Father regards our hearts as pure and holy. When we die with Jesus in our hearts, God will allow us to see Him face to face, and He will be smiling at us in welcome. What a tremendous blessing!

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God." When God created the world, every living thing was united with God and each other in peace. When sin entered the world, it brought division and conflict—sin brought division and conflict between God and man, and between every man and his neighbor. Jesus, the Son of God, died for all sins on the cross for the purpose of restoring peace: most importantly, peace between man and God, a peace that only comes when the source of conflict—sin—is erased. In this Beatitude, Jesus pronounces a special blessing on those who carry on His work among men by preaching and teaching about God’s plan of salvation for all mankind. Any peace effort undertaken by diplomats is doomed to failure, unless that peace effort includes the forgiveness of sins that only Jesus brings. Without the cross of Jesus, no peace effort addresses the true cause of the conflict—human sin. We are peacemakers whenever Jesus speaks His words of forgiveness and love through our lips, and we then are called sons of God, brothers with Jesus, in whom all true peace is found.

The Beatitudes end on a somewhat jarring note: "Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." The reality of persecution should not surprise us. Many people like to hold grudges and will not be satisfied without gaining revenge for being wronged. Such unforgiving types resent a Christian’s message of peace and reconciliation through Jesus. But we should also remember that Satan opposes Jesus’ saving work at every turn. If non-Christians begin to tease you, make fun of you, or accuse you of being judgmental of them when all you were doing was meekly offering God’s saving message, consider this: Satan is trying to shut you up. When you are persecuted just for being a Christian, it is proof that you are on Jesus’ side, because Satan is opposing Jesus’ work in your life. For this reason, Jesus tells us to rejoice and be glad, because you are certainly of citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven, just as were every persecuted prophet and apostle of the Bible. God is pleased when we remain loyal to Him in the face of Satan’s attacks, and Jesus assures us, "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand" (John 10:27-28).

The Beatitudes are not about how we lead our lives; they are about how our lives can look when Christ is our Savior and our leader. Jesus says, "blessed are you"—and, as Jesus’ modern-day disciple, you truly are blessed.