15. Blessed are the…

If a high-powered CEO was looking to put together a dream team to run a multibillion dollar corporation, would the Beatitudes be a good starting place for a job description? Would people who are poor in spirit, mourners, meek, hungry and thirsty for righteousness, merciful, pure hearted, peacemakers, persecuted, insulted and reviled be a good fit for that type of job? (If you’re newer to the Bible, The Beatitudes are found in the first section of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:1-12.) What do you think? It seems more likely that Jesus’ list describes the exact opposite of the attributes a highly successful corporation would be looking for. Maybe the list would look a little more like this: looking for people who are wealthy and successful, powerful, self-sufficient, competitive, cunning, ambitious, victorious, highly praised and adored.

At first glance, Jesus’ list seems kind of pathetic, doesn’t it? He’s describing the outcasts, the people at the back of the line, the kind of people who most of us spend our lives trying not to be. But, at the same time, He’s telling His disciples that if you want to find His Kingdom, that’s exactly where you’ll find it. You’ll find it where you least expect it.

The Kingdom of Heaven belongs to the poor in spirit—the people who are humble and know their need for God. The people who mourn, those who grieve over the heartbreaking reality of this broken world, will be comforted by the God who grieves with them. The land, the Promised Land of Israel, belongs to the meek. It doesn’t belong to the arrogant or the aggressive. It belongs to those who patiently wait for the Lord to fight for them, not those who take it by force. And those who long for righteousness like food and water? They will be filled, because God Himself will cover them with His righteousness.

The merciful may not be shown mercy by their fellow humans, but they will know the unending mercy of their Father. The pure in heart, the people who have no hidden agendas or ulterior motives and who live open and transparent lives before God and men, they will have eyes to see God clearly. Their vision won’t be clouded by a corrupted heart or impure motives. At a time when the Pharisees were obsessed with external purity rituals like hand washing, Jesus made it clear that His concern was with pure hearts much more than the religious rituals that called for external cleanliness. And the peacemakers? When He talks about peacemakers, Jesus is talking about the people who cultivate wholeness in all relationships, from the individual to the national level, within families and within communities. This is a true reflection of the heart of God, these are His children.

And finally, for those who are persecuted when they take a stand for righteousness and when they stand as ambassadors of the kingdom of heaven here in this broken world, Jesus promises that their reward will be great. His kingdom is theirs and He, Himself will be their reward. By some great mystery, when we suffer for Jesus, He is nearer to us than ever.

We have to be careful not to read the Beatitudes as a list of required behaviors and promised rewards. Jesus wasn’t telling His disciples, “if you do this, I’ll give you that.” He also wasn’t telling them that they needed to do more or try harder. Rather, the Beatitudes are a beautiful invitation to leave behind the pattern of a a broken world and step into a healing relationship with our Maker. Jesus is painting a picture of what our lives look like when we stop striving in our own strength and begin to simply abide in Him. In the Beatitudes Jesus is telling us that we’re blessed when we accept our status as adopted children and acknowledge our full need and dependence on Him alone. We’re blessed when we give up all our attempts to do it on our own and surrender to the work of His regenerative love in our lives.

When we acknowledge our need for the healing hand of the living God, when we allow ourselves to mourn over the unmaking of creation at the hands of sin, to hunger and thirst for wholeness rather than turn to what only temporarily satisfies, when we rest in His presence and allow Him to fight our battles for us, we are challenging the lies of the enemy of our souls. Instead of joining in with the world systems and fighting our way to the front of the line, Jesus invites us to rethink everything we’ve inherited and join Him as He tends to those at the back of the line. The Beatitudes are an invitation to a relationship, an invitation to draw near to Jesus and nearer to each other. When we do this, we are claiming that we are citizens of another kingdom, we are living our lives under an entirely different set of rules. And, the best part is, we are invited to join Jesus as He is at work making all things new on earth as in Heaven.