We’re all called to holiness. Jesus taught us how to do it, so that we could receive the full love of God and share this love with others. And then He gave us His Holy Spirit to help us live it out.
All of Christ's teachings are summed up in the Sermon on the Mount. The Beatitudes are a key text of Christian faith and life. There’s a “secret” to understanding the Beatitudes that I was taught through a conversation with someone I respect and admire. This isn’t some exaggerated or unreal moral lecture that seems completely impractical. We need grace, but we need not depend totally on grace. We have a part to play in this, too. We have free will. It’s all in how you look at it. This isn’t a contrast between moralism and the theory of pure grace. Christ is the means that unites these two. It is only discovering Christ in the text that it opens the beatitudes up for us to become a beacon of hope for the human race. If we get to the bottom of the Beatitudes, the secret subject, Jesus, appears everywhere. It is He, who is the example of what it means to be poor in spirit; it is He who mourns, who is meek, who hungers and thirsts for righteousness, who is merciful. It is He who is pure in heart; He is the peacemaker; He is persecuted for righteousness’ sake.
As He was giving His sermon on the mount, I wonder if Jesus was thinking all along, “I’m talking about myself. I’m an example. Follow me. I am the way the truth and the life. If the world rejects me, they will also reject you, my disciples. Your eyes will open when you realize that I’m referring to myself. When I say these words, and if you look at my examples, you’ll understand. The secret is in your perception. The secret is Me, Jesus.”
The Beatitudes are the basic outline or stepping-stones for having a more love-filled life. The first four deal with our relationship with God; the last four deal with our relationships with others.
We’re "poor in spirit" when we depend on God (the kingdom of heaven) instead of material security (the world's kingdom). We're enriched by His faithfulness, mercy, and love.
We "mourn" or feel sorrowful when we realize that we've fallen short of the glory of God by relying on the world's ways instead of God's ways. He comforts us and supports us in our efforts to detach from the world and become more like Him.
We’re "meek" or "lowly" when we submit to the Father's will. Inheriting the land means that we’re God's children and belong to His kingdom with all of its benefits.
We "hunger and thirst for righteousness" when we desire to live morally or to put an end to the injustices we witness. This hunger will be satisfied because God helps us achieve righteousness.
The second half of the Beatitudes is a list of fruits that are produced by the spiritual growth that we gain in the first half.
When we're poor in spirit and place our trust in God's mercy, we gain the spiritual maturity to be merciful to others, which results in the blessing of receiving even more of God's mercy.
Our sins hurt others, and when we mourn the damage we've done, we desire to be "pure" or "clean" in our hearts, which leads us to greater holiness, and then we see God working through us to help others.
By being meek we become peacemakers, because as we submit ourselves to the Father's will, we handle conflicts the way Jesus did, asserting boundaries against the sins of others without being unforgiving or retaliatory.
We’re like Christ when we live as He lived, and for this reason others persecute us. They don't want to learn from our example of holiness, so they insult us and try to stop us. This is a tremendous blessing, because it lets us know that we are indeed living the Beatitudes.
May our journey of faith be a successful climb through all of the beatitudes!
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