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 receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God.
Matthew 5: 3-9
I invite you to today reflect on Jesus’ beatitudes, these beautiful verses found in the fifth chapter of Matthew’s gospel, and see if you can find anything in them that affirms the way this world teaches us to think about living in community with others; whether the “other” is your next-door neighbor, an unborn child, a teenager with undocumented parents, or a family fleeing violence in Syria.
The beatitudes are a radical way of thinking about how God lives in relationship with us. They challenge everything that we believe about how we live as disciples in a world that demands that we oppose those who are different from us economically, culturally, and militarily.
When Jesus sat down on a hillside to speak with his disciples, he turned their expectations on their head. We may well presume that they wanted Jesus to affirm the very same things that we perhaps wish that he would affirm in us today. We so badly want Jesus to say, “Blessed are the powerful. Blessed are the comfortable. Blessed are the bold. Blessed are those who settle scores. Blessed are those on the inside. Blessed are those who share our beliefs.”
God stepped into the brokenness of this world in order to love us, not to affirm our privilege as a people set apart. And so Jesus taught his disciples, as he teaches us today, to recognize blessedness in others. Before we can begin our journey to the cross and the empty tomb, Jesus invites us to see that God declares as blessed those who have been kicked to the curb, those who are broken by their circumstances, those who seek righteousness, and those who are persecuted for opposing injustice.
God’s kingdom is present all around us, in prison cells, in homeless shelters, in alleyways, in refugee camps, and right here in Cook County. Jesus invites us into this kingdom to live by recognizing that God’s blessings are most abundant in the situations and the people where we least expect to find them.
Being blessed isn’t an accomplishment that we seek to achieve. In its truest sense, the word blessed means to be honored. Jesus lived in a culture where everything was seen in the context of honor and shame. And so, we can understand what he is saying here as honored are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, and the meek.
Jesus proclaims that blessing happens when we witness the presence of God in our midst. And because God chooses to enter into this world at its most broken places, we are called to follow into these places of brokenness no matter where it leads us so that we might enter into the presence of The Christ.
The beatitudes are an invitation to see others as God sees them, rather than only seeing them through the lens of how this world values them. The fifth chapter of Matthew is an invitation for us to think outside of the box, and to color outside of the lines, in order to live as disciples worthy of the sacrifice made for us at the cross.
There is someone out there who knows that they are blessed by God because of you! Perhaps it’s a co-worker struggling with a dependency issue, or a neighbor who is homebound because of a disability, or a family member despondent over the breakup of a relationship. Your kind words, encouragement, service, and prayers have brought God’s blessings into the lives of those around you.
One of the true wonders of living together as people of faith is that we have absolutely no idea what God plans to do with us, or what God plans do through us, in order to bless the lives of others. Each one of us has a story to tell, and within that narrative are our own chapters of disappointment, loss, separation, and grief; those broken places where we have been declared to be blessed … honored. We are reminded that God doesn’t just work through us despite these things; God steps into our lives and works through us to bless others because of these things.
God doesn’t just love us in our brokenness, God works through our brokenness to bring life and renewal and joy to others just as God worked through Christ’s suffering at the hands of this world. This is true of all of us. God works through our life-changing experiences and then promises to use us to change this world in ways that no one else can.
Each month a member of the Cook County Ministerium will offer Spiritual Reflections. This month’s contributor is Tom Murray of the Lutsen Lutheran Church and Baptism River Community Church of Finland.
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