Downloadable Reflection Guide

Beatitudes

As noted last week, in context the  Beatitudes offer a description of what we can expect to find in some followers of Christ and how they will be blessed. This is also the conceptual foundation for the whole of what is to come in this sermon. Jesus is offering hope in these verses to people who otherwise might not consider themselves fortunate enough to have much hope. 

Jesus starts right from the beginning with an unlikely choice that is often overlooked. The poor in spirit are those for whom a strong spiritual life seems always out of reach. Confronted with their own sinfulness, the poor in spirit perceive their own lack of worthiness before a Holy God. We much more readily understand the rest of those Jesus lists as blessed. Those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, the persecuted, and those who are reviled, we can readily bring to time. We may even see ourselves in some aspects of this list, though again we ought not overly concern ourselves with whether we do or do not.

Jesus wraps up this initial section in v. 12 exclaiming that we ought to “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” This is our hope. When from a worldly perspective we are viewed, or even when we view ourselves, as deficient or in some way disadvantaged for who we are in Christ, we can and should have hope. When we struggle spiritually, we can have hope knowing that we are still engaged in the struggle.  When we mourn, we can have hope in the restoration of the resurrection. When we are meek and it seems that we cannot get ahead, we can have hope that our inheritance in Christ will be more than enough. If righteousness is our desire, we can have hope that righteousness is coming. If we are merciful to others in Christ’s name, Christ will return that mercy to us. If we are pure in heart, we have hope knowing that we will see the face of God, the source of that purity. If we are peacemakers, we are God’s children. When we are persecuted, we can have hope in the coming kingdom of heaven. Finally, when we are reviled for our allegiance to Christ, our hope is found in the reward of heaven as seen in all those who have faithfully gone before us.

Thoughts for Reflection

What hope do you find in the Beatitudes?