Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is, undoubtedly, the greatest sermon every preached, and it begins with something called the Beatitudes. Generally speaking, it’s a Ways to be blessed—all good stuff, right? Well, sure, we say, of course they are! But I’d invite you read them again. Blessed are the poor in spirit? Those who mourn? The meek? Those who are persecuted? Blessed are the cheesemakers? Doesn’t sound like being blessed to me!
What was Jesus’ purpose in saying such things? Was it just to be a killjoy? Did he want to make sure we were miserable while here on Earth so we would long for heaven? Or was it because he knew what would really make us happy? It’s certainly not what comes to my mind when I think of being blessed or when I pray for others to be blessed. Remember all those childhood prayers we said before bed, the long list of people we wanted God to bless? Our parents, siblings, our grandparents, and so on?
We had no idea what we were saying! It didn’t occur to us that what we were really praying was “Let them be poor in spirit, mourning, meek, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, merciful, pure, peacemakers, and persecuted.” We had no idea what it meant to be blessed. If you’d have asked us back then, wouldn’t we have equated blessedness with happiness? Probably.
So how could such things lead to happiness? It seems like they lead more to the opposite of happiness. But the Beatitudes tell us one thing clearly. We can never be happy when we live lives focused on solely ourselves and what makes us happy. We may be fooled into thinking we’re happy for a while, but eventually it will fold in on us because true happiness—true blessedness—can be found only in a relationship with our Creator and with our “neighbor.” Only the One who made us—the Source of all blessing—knows what will truly make us happy and give us satisfaction in life. We have to get to the end of ourselves and the beginning of God to gain any lasting contentment in life. And that can happen only through divine revelation and transformation through God’s Word and the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. It’s the “pearl of great value,” (Matthew 13:45-46) worth selling everything to gain it. And ultimately, it’s the secret to being truly blessed.