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The Beatitudes Matthew 5 They are called beatitudes because each sentence starts with ‘Blessed’. This section is one of the most important sections in the whole Bible because in a sense: -it summarises the whole of Jesus’ teaching. -It is the core or essence of Jesus’ message, -his manifesto or doctrine if you like. -These 8 statements are kind of like the New Testament’s answer to the 10 commandments in the Old Testament. One small detail that indicates that the Beatitudes are very important and carry a great deal of weight and authority is the fact that Jesus sat down before he spoke these words. In the Hebrew tradition rabbi’s always sat before they delivered an important teaching. This is a little different from our tradition where people tend to stand to say something important but we can still see evidence of it in the fact that we talk about a Professorial Chair and of course the pope sits in his cathedra chair when he is speaking what he believes God is telling him to say to the people. Now it is interesting that Jesus says “Blessed” at the start of each statement. Actually the correct translation into English from Hebrew is difficult to find but William Barclay suggests that it probably goes something like “Oh the Blessedness of the one who is……” We have been exploring today what it means to be a saint, to be chosen by God, to be set apart, to be made holy, to be anointed for the vocation of following Jesus. Here in this passage, we see what the life of a saint looks like. We see the kind of life that has God’s seal of approval. In England, some products, foods, tea, chocolates, silver ware etc have the queen’s seal of approval. This is done on the basis of the quality of the product, its reliability, the superior standards by which it is produced. In a sense Jesus is offering his seal of approval on those who live lives that are described in the Beatitudes. The word blessed is an interesting one because it has such a broad range of meanings which include: -Truly Happy; -made holy, sanctified, -approved by God, -set apart; -enriched. Most importantly it means the joy that we find when we live lives as God wants us to live in accordance with his will and lives that are close to his nature. This joy in the Lord or blessedness is a permanent kind of joy that is able to ride over the top, through and under all earthly circumstances. This joy which we find in the beatitudes speaks through our pain, sorrow, loss, powerlessness, grief and even death to a joy and meaning which is secure in the love of Jesus. It’s a heavenly joy not an earthly one. Worldly joy is easily destroyed by failure, disappointment, ill health and death even a change in the weather! Not so the blessed joy that Jesus promises those who live by the values that he teaches. These are to be
So it is that the Beatitudes describe the high standard of living that Jesus expects from his followers and It describes the reward that we receive from living this kind of life which is blessedness, ie living with a joy that passes earthly understanding because it assures us that we are living our lives to our full potential as worthy citizens of the kingdom of heaven not only after we die but now already on this earth. |
